Sunday is the Fifth Sunday in Lent. “Oh, yeah, I forgot we’re in Lent. This Coronavirus pandemic is so all consuming.” Actually, these two seasons, Coronavirus and Lent, have one thing in common, fear of death, but the two are different how they deal with death.
Livestream church Sunday and you’ll hear Scripture readings that fit this COVID-19 season. The Old Testament lesson is a strange prophesy from Ezekiel, the valley of the dry bones. The word of the Lord brought dry bones to life, but the now-alive bones have no hope. “Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are clean cut off.’ If you’re only living in the season of Coronavirus, that’s where you’re at. “Our hope is lost.”
Here’s the Lenten difference for Coronavirus Christians. “Therefore prophesy, and say to them, ‘thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people…. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord’” (Ezekiel 37:11-14).
A strange passage that we trust will be fulfilled for us in Jesus. “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you” (Romans 8:11).
“Martha said to him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die’” (John 11:24-25).
The season of Coronavirus and the season of Lent have much in common. What’s different for us is that Lent says, “No social distancing from Jesus Christ!”
“If death my portion be, / It brings great gain to me;
It speeds my life’s endeavor / To live with Christ forever.
He gives me joy in sorrow, / Come death now or tomorrow.
(Lutheran Service Book, 745, 3)
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