Posted Friday 21 March 2008
An Easter reflection from the Most Rev Dr Idris Jones, Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church:
The prophet Ezekiel experienced many intense visions - one might almost call them night-mares - but the vision of the valley of dry bones resonates strongly with me when reflecting on the Easter Festival.
Here is the prophet confronted with a scene which is in every sense dead, and with no sense of possibility in it. 'Can these bones live?' is a not unreasonable response to the idea that here lies a vision of the future! The resulting conclusion to the vision in which the whole devastated cemetery is filled with living beings is an expression of what can happen when the Spirit of God comes sweeping through.
For Christians the belief that "with God all things are possible" is not merely the stubborn optimism that cannot bear to admit when things are really beyond human endeavour to repair; it is based on the reality that on the first Easter morn Jesus rose from the tomb and the resurrection became rooted into human history, and that what God did on that day is continually experienced in the life of the Church in many ways even if not in quite the same dramatic form.
St Paul in his preaching began, it seems, from that place - "in fact Christ is risen from the dead"; indeed if this is not true he goes on to say, we are most to be pitied as deluded fools. It seems the right place for us to begin, and especially in this Easter season.
There are many parts of the world where a valley of dry bones is what people are experiencing. Maybe the rushing Spirit will come in terms of international aid; or with United Nations peace keeping of some sort; perhaps with the establishment of a government that is less corrupt and which delivers aid where it is most needed. That will be justice and perhaps justice is part of true resurrection.
Our determination to be a part of that begins as Christians, I would suggest, with the fact of the empty tomb. God has given us in Jesus the promise of something beyond death and that is new life in and through Jesus Christ. As we rejoice in this tremendous gift let us pray that it may lead us to commit to working with any allies we can to see that new life in all its fullness is a possibility for all the people of the world and that every human being can experience new life, hope and a triumph over death.
