Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones, Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones, Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones, Now hear the word of the Lord! How many of you now have that song in your mind? You can thank me later! Today’s readings are about life springing up again from dead and dry bones. Objects that seem to have no life, no soul in them. Something for which there seems no hope, no solution. Long gone. Often this passage is seen as reassurance – see, God can breathe life into dry bones; see, God brought Lazarus back to life. See what God is capable of! Which is all well and good. But while we talk the talk, I’m not sure how far we walk the walk. How do you actually feel in your heart about the future? Are we feeling optimistic? Or are we like the people of Israel: “our bones are dried up, our hope is lost, we are cut off completely..”

The passage is about a whole land, a whole nation, coming back to life.  In the current political and economic climate, some of us are examining our frameworks, our bones, the bones of our families, communities, nation, and finding them to be dry and crumbling away. Others are finding hints of hope, of regrowth and renewal, in the people who are reaching out, who helping, who are giving of themselves. It seems that the outer body is being stripped back and revealing what is really needed, what is necessary – and showing where new life, a new spirit needs to grow. What is your framework? What are your bones like? Do they even still exist, or has the framework of your life crumbled under the current circumstances? Where are the dry bones of your faith, your spirituality? What is lacking in your faith – if you have one?  Are there the remnants of belief there?

The thought of a new life, free from the old one, can be a frightening one for some. It is unpredictable, uncontainable. We are no longer the same person we were. Jesus says to Lazarus, “Unbind him, and let him go.” This he says to us as well. As Christians, we are offered freedom by Christ – freedom from all those things which tie us to our earthly life. Not everything we do in our lives is life-giving, joy-giving, affirming. We have habits which are not good, we do things which are damaging to self and family and friends. We are called to die to these habits and to rise in Christ. What is tying us down? What binds us to old habits? How do we fight back against hopelessness and loss conjured not only by our own actions but by the actions of those around us?

Some of us may be trapped in our own tombs, perhaps by our actions, perhaps by grief, or financial problems, or hatred, or resentment of someone else. Some of us may feel like the people in our first readings – dry bones with no life, no spirit in them. To all us, God proclaims freedom. He tells us to come out of the tomb. He breathes new life into dry bones, puts a new spirit within us. The resurrection is not only for the future, but for now, brining us from death to life. This is happening and has happened and will happen. The question is, what are we to do about it? These are not comfortable words, but they are ones we need to consider. When we see new life arising in our churches, in our faith, in our lives, what do we do about it? Do we stand by and watch and assess and judge? Do we decide how far we are prepared to go, how far we are prepared to relinquish our old ways? Are we calculating the cost to us if we decide to go with God? The fact that things will change, that people will object, that our trajectory may lead us to be scorned? Or are we in the centre, trying to encourage growth, seizing out to signs of the promise, pouring water on to seeds planted, promoting new life, new hope? You may think things are barren – but if God can pour flesh and blood onto dry bones and pour new life into them, how much more can he work with us?

How do we move from professing new life in God to choosing to allow him to transform, to renew and repair our lives? How do we reconcile living a new life in Christ with living in the world? Which way of living wins out? Martha trusted Jesus to bring new life to Lazarus. She laid her trust  her faith, in his hands. Some of us in this story will be Martha. Others will be Lazarus. Others will be the crowd. Whoever we are, God’s call to us is to seize the new life available in him, to return to him and then going back to our lives, transformed, believing, experiencing new life. Is there anything for the flesh to grow on? What are we doing to provide bones?

In the readings from today, God is active. He is there, breathing his Spirit back into the bones. But then Isaiah himself has to speak. ‘Speak to these dry bones and say…’ the bones do not get up by themselves and dance – someone has to speak to them, encourage them, give them the opportunity.  Lazarus cannot seek new life for himself – he is dead, after all. The people around him are those who are called to act, to pray. We ourselves need to pray, to prepare, to help form the bones which life can be breathed into. We need to listen to where God is asking us to move, what he wants us to do. Without God’s involvement, without communicating with him, there can be no life-giving spirit. We need to pray that this time may be a time of forming bones, frameworks, which reflect the love of Christ. That from the current time, foundations can be built, and the breath of the Spirit start to be recognised, as the world is stripped bare of all but essentials.

• Vittoria Hancock