The 5th Sunday in Lent-Year A

The 5th Sunday in Lent—Year A April 6, 2014 “Before I die, I want to…” These are the words that New Orleans artist, Candy Chang, stenciled on the side of an abandoned building near her house, after she had already covered the entire side of the building with chalk-board paint. She drew lines on it, left a bucket of chalk beside it, and then she left it. Before I die, I want to…. Then she came back and checked it, and she was amazed at the responses. It was a public invitation for those in her neighborhood to reflect on their lives in a public space, the beginnings of a conversation. The next day, when she came back to check it, the entire wall was completely filled out. And then it began to spread. Others started creating these walls all around the world—South Korea, Paraguay, Chile, Australia, Israel, South Africa… What started as a public conversation on a block in New Orleans became a public conversation around the whole world. And it all started because Candy lost someone she loved, a woman who had been a mother to her died, and she started thinking about mortality and what really matters, and she invited others into that conversation. Before I die, I want to…..Some of the answers were funny: “Before I die, I want to be tried for piracy.” “Before I die, I want to kiss someone in a piano bar. “Hug a sloth”. “Swim without holding my nose,” “Have my own theme song.” Some were about following dreams. Before I die, I want to “Straddle the international date line,” “Sing for millions,” “Plant a tree.” Some were about finding meaning in life, touching on the issues that encompass all humanity. Before I die, “I want to be completely myself,” “To stare at the stars with the people I love,” “Overcome depression,” “Love my body,” “Stop being afraid.” Candy Chang concludes (her TED talk) by saying, “Life is brief and tender. Preparing for death is one of the most powerful things you can do. Thinking about death clarifies your life.” Today, on this 5th Sunday of Lent, we are invited to think about death. We walk through a valley of bones with Ezekiel. We stand with the people in the town of Bethany as Jesus calls a dead man out of the tomb. We who have spent this Lent turning away from those things that are impediments in our relationship with God and turning back toward God face one last impediment as we prepare to enter Palm Sunday and Holy Week. It is death—our own and those whom we love. The two very different pictures of death and resurrection in our readings for today, can offer us some direction on what to do with this overwhelming topic. In Ezekiel, we see God taking a bunch of dry bones and knitting them together to form a community of living and breathing people. In this way, God is reminding the scattered, dried up people of Israel who are languishing in exile, that God will refresh, restore, and reunite them as a community through the life-giving breath of God. In the gospel reading, I am struck for the first time about how Jesus issues three commands in the raising of Lazarus. “Take away the stone!” “Lazarus, come out!” and “Unbind him, and let him go.” Two of those commands are issued to the gathered community, and in that way, they participate in the raising of Lazarus. Jesus offers Lazarus new life, but it is the gathered community that helps in that by unbinding him. Such is our call, the life-giving work of the church to follow the command of Jesus and to “unbind people” from their fear of death. And one way we can do that is to talk about it. Before I die, I want to spend more quality time with my family. Before I die, I want to be more patient. Before I die, I want to travel to all the places that my husband and I have said we’d like to visit. Before I die, I want to be a grandparent or a surrogate grandparent. Underneath all of these hopes and dreams, you can see the things of which I am longing to be unbound, the things that keep me from the new life of the resurrection that is offered to me in and through community and in and through the breath of God. So now, we’re going to do something a little different. We are going to have this conversation with each other. Turn to someone sitting near you or next to you, and I want each of you to answer the question of what you would write on Candy Chang’s chalk board: “Before I die, I want to….” You don’t have to say this second part out loud, but think about what your answer tells you about what you need to be unbound from. Come back together. Now, I want you to think of a different answer. Before I die, I want to…. Half of you get up and go to the other side of the church and have that conversation with someone different. (The other half of you stay seated.) Now come back together. In the remaining moments of silence, I invite you to offer to God your dreams of what you would like to do before you die. And also offer to God that from which you need to be unbound. May God give us all the courage to live our own life to the fullest, to proclaim the power of Jesus’s resurrection, and to work through the Holy Spirit out in the world, unbinding that which is bound and serving as agents of new life and resurrection. Watch Candy Chang's TED talk here: http://www.ted.com/talks/candy_chang_before_i_die_i_want_to