Alive! (a Lectionary reflection by Steve Orr)

The body on the table is completely covered with a large white sheet. Rain pours in through the hole in the roof. Crooked fingers of lightning lance the sky. The doctor's assistant slowly cranks the table up, up, up toward the opening. When he stops, the body is fully exposed to the elements.

Suddenly, a strike!

Massive arcs of electricity pour into the motionless form. The table is cranked down. There's movement under the sheet!

The doctor screams, "It's Alive!"
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The re-animation of dead flesh has been on people's minds ever since people started dying. But the power to do so never really presented itself. When author Mary Shelley suggested in her 1818 novel, FRANKENSTEIN, that electricity was the way to go, she was just reflecting the science of her day. It's unlikely she pictured the above scene from the 1931 film. And it's equally unlikely she ever envisioned what doctors are doing with electricity, today.

But even with the almost casual use of electrical defibrillators to shock people "back to life" ---we're even considering buying some for our church--- there is still a point beyond which people do not return. And that point was certainly long past when Jesus, in this week's Lectionary selection from John 11, finally came to Bethany. Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Not even modern medicine could have brought Lazarus back to life at that point.

But Jesus could ... and did.

Only the power of God can put life back into a dead body. The word for that is "resurrection" (literally, rise again). When Jesus told Martha "I am the resurrection and the life," she understood what He meant. She may have thought it an audacious claim to make, but it was not unclear.

And we understand him, too. Scripture makes clear what Jesus is saying: "I am life. I'm not just some magi who can wield some magic or other appropriated power to reanimate dead flesh. Life happens because of me; it comes from me. People live and move and have their being in me."

The fictional Dr. Frankenstein shouts "It's alive!" (in the movie, at least) because he has used electricity to reanimate the assembled parts of dead people. But our God doesn't need body parts. He can, like in this week's Ezekiel passage, use mere bones!

God declares, "I am life!" He fills us with that life, promising that each of us will one day walk from the grave like Lazarus, individual and whole, loosed from our constraining bonds ...

Alive!

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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Fifth Sunday in Lent (April 2, 2017)
http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/

Ezekiel 37:1-14
Psalm 130
Romans 8:6-11
John 11:1-45

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Life moves pretty fast. Pause for an hour: join us Friday morning for Lectionary Breakfast. We've been meeting in the back room at the Waco "Egg and I" restaurant for some time, now. The fun starts at 8:00 and is supposed to stop at 9:00 ... and sometimes it does.

Food, fun, fellowship, prayer, scripture, and the free flow of ideas. What an hour!

Full of life.

Blessings,
Steve
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More about the movie, Frankenstein, can be found at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021884/

More about the novel, Frankenstein, can be found at: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein

Photo Credit: Odishasuntimes.com