In the first draft of the sermon, I have a section based on the Lazarus reading in John 11 (see below), but When I preached it through Sunday morning, however, it seemed like a second sermon so I cut it. If I had started with the Lazarus story, it would have worked for the sermon theme as well. I did focus the Time with Young Disciples on the Lazarus story, so it was heard in worship twice (Scripture reading and Time with Young Disciples). I don't think I'd ever preached on Lazarus until a few years ago, and now I have worked on it for three different sermons.
We had a baptism following the sermon, which provided a sermon illustration all on its own.
I had been out of the pulpit for two weeks, so it was good to be back in worship at St. Andrew and to be back preaching.
“Live in Me” Ezekiel 37; St. Andrew Presbyterian Church; March 22, 2026; 5th Sunday of Lent
37: 1-14: The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 3 He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”
I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”
4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! 5 This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath[a] enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”
7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.
11 Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ 12 Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.’”
Introduction: We have heard and sung our lenten hymn, Take, O Take me as I am,” in different ways through Lent. From handbells playing it today
to singing it together in worship
to hearing the soloists sing it,
to hearing it played so beautifully on the cello last week,
our have been invited to sing and hear the music differently each week.
It seems to me the lyrics work in the same way,
each of us hearing and interpreting the words in various ways.
This week, we focus on “live in me” the final phrase of the hymn.
How do you sing
or hear
or interpret “live in me?”
This morning I invite to reflect on different ways we interpret that phrase and how God meets us in whatever interpretation we have.
Move 1: some thoughts on how we might hear this phrase in different ways.
a. We might be singing it or hearing as a desperate plea.
somehow “live in me, God.”
1. I suspect that’s how the prophet Ezekiel would have sung it.
our text this morning gives us a vivid image from Ezekiel that speaks to the plight of Israel at that moment in its history.
the Israelites have been defeated and shipped off to exile in Babylon.
Jerusalem and the Temple had been destroyed.
For the Israelites deported to live in Babylon, “the future seemed a black hole into which the people were destined to disappear.” http://jointhefeast.blogspot.com/2009/04/may-31-ezekiel-371-14-joshua-t.html
2. Ezekiel and the people are crying out in desperation for God to do something,
to give them a reason to hope,
to usher in a future they cannot see.
“Live in me” as a desperate plea.
maybe you know that song.
b. Or “live in me” understood as a confident call for God to be at work in someone’s life.
1. There are times in life when we feel like we are ready for what God has in store for us.
I bet some of you have had those moments
or those stretches in your lives
when you feel like you are in synch with what God desires of you.
2. I’m not talking about thinking you are God,
or acting as you have all the answers figured out,
but sometimes, sometimes it feels like we can feel God’s guidance and we find confidence in the God who has prepared us for the moment that is before us.
“live in me” sung with confidence.
maybe you know that song
c. Or “Live in me” as more of a question.
a. I love the Reformed, Presbyterian tradition in which we baptize infants and young children.
but it is also really special to baptize adults.
thanks to Calloway and Hannah we get both this morning.
1. As I have mentioned previously, my first adult baptism that was not a youth being baptized as part of the confirmation process took place early in my second call.
that’s right, in six years serving the church in KY, no adult baptisms, except confirmands.
2. but when i arrived in OH, there were several young couples waiting for the new minister to join the church.
two of the couples were twin sisters and their husbands.
the twins had not been part of a church before and were so excited to be baptized and become part of the church.
and with the excitement came a sense of wonder about what it means to be a baptized members of the body of Christ.
b. Sometimes we find it surprising to find that God is indeed going to live in us.
we are full of wonder
and excitement
not sure if the answers,
but excited to be exploring the questions about who God is and how God is at work in our lives and the world.
“live in Me” sung as a question.
maybe you know that song.
Move 2: however we sing “live in me,” we sing it to God who responds.
a. The God who makes the dry bones rattle and come to life.
- As ezekiel looks over the stir, dry, lifeless bones that signify death of life and death of hope, , God asks him
“can these bones live?”
- Ezekiel quickly punts that question back – you're the only one who knows!
But God demands that the story be told,
so Ezekiel begins to prophesy, and the bones begin rattling.
Then the bones come together.
As Ezekiel continue to prophesy, the breath of life comes to the bones.
b. And then God announces that those bones are Israel,
and God will not let them die,
but will give them new life and a future.
1. this is the God to whom we sing “live in me.”
the God who hears the plea “live in me” and responds with hope and a future.
the God who hears the confidence of a disciple and shows the way for the disciple to go into the future bringing new life to others and the world.
the God who hears the question “live in me?” and takes that wonder and amazement and sends us into the new life God has prepared for us.
Conclusion: A few weeks ago, I finished the song by noting that Bell’s design for the hymn was to have it compel worshippers to act.
I’m sure it was an insightful comment that added much to the sermon,
but I didn’t really get it until awhile later.
Early on in the worship planning, we debated how many times to play through or sing through the hymn each week, and we ended up thinking two times was the best choice.
each week, I have heard or sung the song and when it finishes, I feel like maybe we should have sung one more verse so it feels like an ending.
So I tried it out - playing the song three times, but it still felt like it needed to be sung again.
four times - it still finished leaving me thinking I needed to sing it one more time.
then, I realized that was the point.
the hymn never has some sense of being finished because it points us to the God who is not done with us or with the world
the God who can make the dry bones rattle and breath life back into them is still at work in each of us and in the world.
We keep on singing,
and serving,
and following Christ in to the world.
John 11: Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” 40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
