"He Stinketh" - A Sermon for Lent and Holy Week by Steven Paulson
Sermon Texts: Ezekiel 37 1-14 and John 11:39
Jesus said, “Take ye away the stone.” Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, “Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.” (John 11:39 KJV)
For once I agree there is really not much wrong with you, all things considered, that a little effort and improvement can’t fix. No total corruption. Creation is good. By and large you have good intentions and remarkable creativity. Perhaps you even have what von Balthasar thinks you have--the supernatural feeling for the mystery of Glory. Except for this: you die. Then, suddenly, your prospects for improvement and the supernatural decrease rapidly. In about four days there is no hope.
“But on that day,” four days late, there stood before the tomb of Lazarus the RESURRECTION--the substantive Life, Jesus Christ, who said, “Roll Away the stone.”
But Mary, confessed—she did not deny, but confessed—“He stinketh!” No translation says this more clearly than the King James. There is your only real problem: death is the final enemy, and after four days--you stinketh. At death, pounds of burial spices are overcome. Neither cave nor ground stops the smell. Embalming breaks down. Cremation merely falls from frying pan into fire. Soon it will be said of you: He stinketh!
When you stinketh, nothing of yours matters, but this: What kind of Lord do you have? Ezekiel learned the answer, and his God, the hard way. His Lord not only allows death, but administers it. He is the Lord this particular way announcing: “I am Yahweh”—especially to his own beloved. No wonder they hardly speak the name.
So it was that Ezekiel saw the end of the world: “The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the middle of a valley” --“it was full of bones.” How many were there, you ask?
There were many.
How many?
Very many! And they were dry bones!
How dry, you ask?
They were very dry! They weren’t showing the light of love to anyone, they weren’t deciding for Christ, they weren’t building community, they weren’t obedient to Torah. They could not even manage “He stinketh.” They were bones. There were many. They were dry.
How dry?
Very dry.
And He said to me, “Son of Man can these bones live?” Ah, the Socratic question, a ploy often used by rakish teachers who think that the answer is in you, and they as midwife will nurse it out.
So Ezekiel answered, “O Lord, God, thou knowest,” hoping not to fail the test; not knowing for certain what kind of God he had, and fearing the worst since the valley was very silent and very full of very dry bones.
Then his answer came. Ezekiel got a truly strange call: “Get you up and preach to the bones.” What? What sort of call is this, to do what cannot be done?
But the Lord gave him not only the impossible call, but furnished the exact impossible sermon to preach: “Say, “O dry bones!”
Oh strange congregation! Dry Bones Lutheran! How will they ever take an offering and pay my salary? How will they ever move from maintenance to mission?
But the Lord persisted: I say, “prophesy to the bones, and say to them,” O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.”
Now, they were bones! Not an ear among them, and yet Ezekiel was to say: Bones! Hear!
Well then, hear what word?
Say, “thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live.” Now there is a promise! If God can create new out of dirt by breathing, he can do it out of bones. And so the sermon was set: “You shall live! Get up, bones. I will lay sinews, muscle, skin and put breath in you. And the conclusion of it all was to say, “by this You Shall Know that I am Yahweh!”
By what?
By preaching to dead bones, and the minute they arise from the death, both preacher and bones will know who this Lord is. The minute you arise from death, you will know.
Who is this Lord?
The Resurrection from the Dead, of course. Never you mind the foolish concoction that this is the Old Testament, and in it we don’t believe in resurrection. Though his chosen die, yet shall they live. What knowledge is this?
Well, when their Lord says to dry bones: Live! It happens. Yada means not to know but to be known, and more yet. It is not only to be known, but known as alive, not dead, since this Lord, as the Scripture repeatedly promises, is the Lord of the living, not of the dead.
Therefore, I confess—I do not deny, but confess--my God speaks to dead people and says: get up.
How dead?
Very dead.
How much life?
Endless.
And lest you think this is merely a dream, that the word cannot do such great things, Ezekiel says: “I preached as I had been commanded.” It was foolhardy, but I did it.
Then, suddenly, there was a noise. A rattling! And the bones came together: “bone to its bone.” Not a Zombie, not ecclesia, but you! The foot bone connected to the shin bone, the shin bone connected to the knee bone, the knee bone connected to the thigh bone—all the way up to your head bone. Each bone belonging to its own bone as once you were knit together in the womb. Then, “I looked and there were sinews” Flesh! A little muscle here, a little fat there so you know it is really you. And skin, the greatest organ! But one thing was lacking: no breath!
Then, an even stranger call came to Ezekiel: “Preach to the breath/wind.”
What? Bones were not enough? You want me to preach to the Holy Spirit!
Yes, “say, Thus says the Lord God: Come Holy Spirit.” Not a prayer, but a sermon: “get on down Spirit! Breathe, that they live!
And Ezekiel said, “I did it!” I preached to the Spirit as commanded. And behold! Breath came into them “and they lived.” They stood up, and there were many!
How many?
Very many, a great multitude!
Then the Lord said to me: These bones are the whole house of Israel. They have lost hope; they were put on trial when their accusers were the ones who deserved a trial. But my chosen are dried up. Lost. Hopeless. Cut off from me! Completely. There is only one thing that can help them now: a preacher.
Then, one last sermon for Ezekiel. When you can do no more, Christ goes to work, who loves a fresh grave: “Tell them, I am going to open your graves and bring you up out of the graves,” and restore you to your soil—you who are in exile.
This is what the Lord does for his chosen like Lazarus. He gives The Resurrection, the man Jesus Christ, to those who need it! There Ezekiel’s preaching ends.
But now I have a sermon to preach. If it were not for Paul, who got the strangest call of all--to go to the cut off Gentiles--I would have no good news for you who are not Israel. But Christ cannot be constrained by the law. So I tell you truly: You have died, You stinketh. Your bones are as dry as Israel.
How dry?
Very dry!
Come Holy Spirit! Blow in these dry bones Yahweh is none other than this man Jesus preached by Paul to the Nations. This is your time now. So listen to the The RESURRECTION speaking: Apart from me you stinketh! But I took your death and killed it in mine—the cross. The RESURRECTION is not without the cross. Therefore, Bones, you shall not stinketh, but live.
How much Life?
Very much—abundant. You shall not stinketh, but live by the breath of the Spirit.
There now, you have the distinct odor of Christ. “I have done it,” says the Lord.
Professor Steven Paulson
Luther Seminary Chapel
Lent, 2014
Jesus said, “Take ye away the stone.” Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, “Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.” (John 11:39 KJV)
For once I agree there is really not much wrong with you, all things considered, that a little effort and improvement can’t fix. No total corruption. Creation is good. By and large you have good intentions and remarkable creativity. Perhaps you even have what von Balthasar thinks you have--the supernatural feeling for the mystery of Glory. Except for this: you die. Then, suddenly, your prospects for improvement and the supernatural decrease rapidly. In about four days there is no hope.
“But on that day,” four days late, there stood before the tomb of Lazarus the RESURRECTION--the substantive Life, Jesus Christ, who said, “Roll Away the stone.”
But Mary, confessed—she did not deny, but confessed—“He stinketh!” No translation says this more clearly than the King James. There is your only real problem: death is the final enemy, and after four days--you stinketh. At death, pounds of burial spices are overcome. Neither cave nor ground stops the smell. Embalming breaks down. Cremation merely falls from frying pan into fire. Soon it will be said of you: He stinketh!
When you stinketh, nothing of yours matters, but this: What kind of Lord do you have? Ezekiel learned the answer, and his God, the hard way. His Lord not only allows death, but administers it. He is the Lord this particular way announcing: “I am Yahweh”—especially to his own beloved. No wonder they hardly speak the name.
So it was that Ezekiel saw the end of the world: “The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the middle of a valley” --“it was full of bones.” How many were there, you ask?
There were many.
How many?
Very many! And they were dry bones!
How dry, you ask?
They were very dry! They weren’t showing the light of love to anyone, they weren’t deciding for Christ, they weren’t building community, they weren’t obedient to Torah. They could not even manage “He stinketh.” They were bones. There were many. They were dry.
How dry?
Very dry.
And He said to me, “Son of Man can these bones live?” Ah, the Socratic question, a ploy often used by rakish teachers who think that the answer is in you, and they as midwife will nurse it out.
So Ezekiel answered, “O Lord, God, thou knowest,” hoping not to fail the test; not knowing for certain what kind of God he had, and fearing the worst since the valley was very silent and very full of very dry bones.
Then his answer came. Ezekiel got a truly strange call: “Get you up and preach to the bones.” What? What sort of call is this, to do what cannot be done?
But the Lord gave him not only the impossible call, but furnished the exact impossible sermon to preach: “Say, “O dry bones!”
Oh strange congregation! Dry Bones Lutheran! How will they ever take an offering and pay my salary? How will they ever move from maintenance to mission?
But the Lord persisted: I say, “prophesy to the bones, and say to them,” O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.”
Now, they were bones! Not an ear among them, and yet Ezekiel was to say: Bones! Hear!
Well then, hear what word?
Say, “thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live.” Now there is a promise! If God can create new out of dirt by breathing, he can do it out of bones. And so the sermon was set: “You shall live! Get up, bones. I will lay sinews, muscle, skin and put breath in you. And the conclusion of it all was to say, “by this You Shall Know that I am Yahweh!”
By what?
By preaching to dead bones, and the minute they arise from the death, both preacher and bones will know who this Lord is. The minute you arise from death, you will know.
Who is this Lord?
The Resurrection from the Dead, of course. Never you mind the foolish concoction that this is the Old Testament, and in it we don’t believe in resurrection. Though his chosen die, yet shall they live. What knowledge is this?
Well, when their Lord says to dry bones: Live! It happens. Yada means not to know but to be known, and more yet. It is not only to be known, but known as alive, not dead, since this Lord, as the Scripture repeatedly promises, is the Lord of the living, not of the dead.
Therefore, I confess—I do not deny, but confess--my God speaks to dead people and says: get up.
How dead?
Very dead.
How much life?
Endless.
And lest you think this is merely a dream, that the word cannot do such great things, Ezekiel says: “I preached as I had been commanded.” It was foolhardy, but I did it.
Then, suddenly, there was a noise. A rattling! And the bones came together: “bone to its bone.” Not a Zombie, not ecclesia, but you! The foot bone connected to the shin bone, the shin bone connected to the knee bone, the knee bone connected to the thigh bone—all the way up to your head bone. Each bone belonging to its own bone as once you were knit together in the womb. Then, “I looked and there were sinews” Flesh! A little muscle here, a little fat there so you know it is really you. And skin, the greatest organ! But one thing was lacking: no breath!
Then, an even stranger call came to Ezekiel: “Preach to the breath/wind.”
What? Bones were not enough? You want me to preach to the Holy Spirit!
Yes, “say, Thus says the Lord God: Come Holy Spirit.” Not a prayer, but a sermon: “get on down Spirit! Breathe, that they live!
And Ezekiel said, “I did it!” I preached to the Spirit as commanded. And behold! Breath came into them “and they lived.” They stood up, and there were many!
How many?
Very many, a great multitude!
Then the Lord said to me: These bones are the whole house of Israel. They have lost hope; they were put on trial when their accusers were the ones who deserved a trial. But my chosen are dried up. Lost. Hopeless. Cut off from me! Completely. There is only one thing that can help them now: a preacher.
Then, one last sermon for Ezekiel. When you can do no more, Christ goes to work, who loves a fresh grave: “Tell them, I am going to open your graves and bring you up out of the graves,” and restore you to your soil—you who are in exile.
This is what the Lord does for his chosen like Lazarus. He gives The Resurrection, the man Jesus Christ, to those who need it! There Ezekiel’s preaching ends.
But now I have a sermon to preach. If it were not for Paul, who got the strangest call of all--to go to the cut off Gentiles--I would have no good news for you who are not Israel. But Christ cannot be constrained by the law. So I tell you truly: You have died, You stinketh. Your bones are as dry as Israel.
How dry?
Very dry!
Come Holy Spirit! Blow in these dry bones Yahweh is none other than this man Jesus preached by Paul to the Nations. This is your time now. So listen to the The RESURRECTION speaking: Apart from me you stinketh! But I took your death and killed it in mine—the cross. The RESURRECTION is not without the cross. Therefore, Bones, you shall not stinketh, but live.
How much Life?
Very much—abundant. You shall not stinketh, but live by the breath of the Spirit.
There now, you have the distinct odor of Christ. “I have done it,” says the Lord.
Professor Steven Paulson
Luther Seminary Chapel
Lent, 2014
