Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost

I'll be reading from Matthew chapter 27, verse 51 through 53.

Matthew 27:51–53

At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.

The earth shook, and the rocks were split.

The tombs were also opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised.

After his resurrection, they came out of the tombs and entered the holy city and appeared to many.

May we hear what the Spirit is saying to the church.

So this morning we continue our October sermon series on the spooky side of Scripture.

Or as my four-year-old grandson might say, the pooky side of Scripture.

He's always like, Halloween, it's too pooky.

Last week we took a look at demons.

This week we're taking a look at zombies in the Bible.

Now there are tons of passages we could find about demons.

In fact, it was hard to like narrow down how do we focus one sermon on demons because there's so many passages in the Bible about demons.

But it's really hard to find many, if any, passages about zombies.

This was a fun sermon to put together, by the way, I've got to admit.

It feels kind of like a zombie story.

So you have like a valley of dry bones.

So imagine a valley and imagine it being filled with dry bones.

Okay, this is like a metaphorical or allegorical story that the ancient Jewish people told.

In Ezekiel's book, the dry bones represented the ancient Jewish people who had felt like all their hope had been lost, all their hopes had been dashed.

They had been decimated by the Egyptians, by the Assyrians, now the Babylonians, a bunch of them were in exile.

Life as they knew it was gone.

All of their best efforts did not ever feel like enough.

They were exhausted, they were fatigued, they felt overcome by forces of evil that were relentless, that did not allow them to rest, that constantly tried to take life from them.

That's what those dry bones represent in this valley.

It's a story told for people who feel like change is not possible or that the future has been lost.

It's not a bad story for us to tell today.

So in this moment, the prophet, the prophet Ezekiel speaks.

And like in this passage, I kind of feel like we need to dim the lights, and I need like a flashlight for like a camp story or something like that.

I wish I could even get into that kind of like mode.

I'll try.

Okay.

The hand of the Lord came upon me.

I don't know if I can do this for the whole section, it's long.

And brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley.

It was full of bones.

God led me all around them.

There were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry.

God said to me, Mortal, can these bones live?

Speak to them and say, I will cause breath to enter them and they shall live.

I will lie sinews on you and will cause flesh to come upon you and cover you with skin and put breath in you and you shall live.

Okay, I made it for about five verses, and then I kind of like lost focus for the next two, and there's still more.

Suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone.

I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them, but there was no breath in them.

Then God said, Say to the breath, Come from the four winds, O Spirit, and breathe upon these slain that they shall live.

And then the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet a vast multitude.

Then say to them, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from your graves, O my people, and I will bring you back to the land of Israel.

And that concludes the little passage about the dry bones living.

There's a song about that, dim bones, dim bones, dim dry bones.

It's about bringing hope to folk who feel like there's not hope.

It's about folk who just feel like they're at they're at their end, they've lost so much.

And the idea is that God will be there for you, and God can help you rise up even whenever you feel like you are exhausted and fatigued and you cannot go on.

When you feel like your best efforts are not enough, God is there for you, will not abandon you or forsake you, will help you rise up.

It's a great story.

Okay, some folks have connected this story to imagery like in Game of Thrones and the Night King, whenever like the bodies are raised back up.

But like that's like a really nefarious kind of telling of the story.

In the book of Ezekiel, you know, the folks aren't right rise, they don't rise up in order to go take life from others.

They rise up in order to be able to give life, restore life.

Uh, in the words of the prophet, to do justice, to love mercy, to walk humbly, to do the kinds of things that God desires.

Very different from the kinds of things that the Night King would desire.

Also very different from zombies, right?

So that's that's not really a zombie passage in the Bible.

You have folks uh the imagery being those who are dead rising up.

But zombies, you know, in movies, stories, modern day times, they want to take life instead of restore life.

So that doesn't really fit as a zombie story.

Okay, there's another story about Lazarus, and this one's in the Gospel of John.

Now, this is an interesting one.

Um I looked at different art over the year over the years that has been created about the story uh about Lazarus, and what I noticed in common, I've never noticed this in ancient iconic artwork before.

Notice a lot of people cover their nose because the stench is so bad.

Um, Lazarus has been in the tomb for four days.

It ain't gonna smell good, it ain't gonna be pleasant.

Um, and there are people who who mourn the loss of their beloved Lazarus, and they're mad at Jesus for not being there to help out.

Jesus shows up late, uh, but Lazarus is raised to life.

This is more of a resuscitation than it is a resurrection.

Uh, resuscitation, it's kind of like you're you rise back to your mortal life, but like you're gonna die again.

Whereas, like in resurrection, that's the idea that you know you are able to overcome even the powers of death.

And and Lazarus, too, he doesn't raise up to be like a zombie, you know.

Uh the zombie imagery uh is something that um is is is almost like um not fitting with the biblical world.

Uh the idea of a zombie that that goes around, there's like this virus, um, and the zombie just wants to continue to to uh you know infect as many people as as possible.

Uh you don't see that in the Bible.

Um now we do get a fascinating story in Matthew chapter 27.

Matthew 27 · chapter mention

Uh this gets glossed over a lot.

This passage oftentimes gets read during uh Holy Week, uh Easter, around the time of Jesus' uh death, uh, and then followed by his resurrection.

Uh, we heard this one read earlier this morning.

Okay, so this takes place right after right after Jesus' death on the cross.

Like Jesus breathes his last.

You know, it is finished.

Jesus breathes his last, and there's like this big earthquake of sorts.

Um grounds shake, tombs even break.

And as the text describes, the holy saints came out of the tombs and entered the holy city and appeared to many.

Okay, this is kind of baffling.

Um, I was also pretty fascinated looking at the artwork surrounding this passage.

Um, several artists they showed like saints kind of flying, they almost look like Clark Kent, Superman, you know.

Um, and then in this image on the right, in the next slide, they are seen just kind of like hovering above the ground.

I don't know if you can tell from where you're you're seated, but almost like they're levitating a little bit above the ground.

Um, I guess this is all to give indication that they have been resurrected from the dead.

They aren't just walking around like everyone else, somehow or another, they're flying or levitating.

Now, this text has been baffling for interpreters to understand over the years.

Um it's kind of like there's a movie script, and you can go through and sometimes uh if you uh look at like the internet movie database, uh, it'll show different errors in the script.

This one kind of gets treated as if there's an error in the script, kind of a glaring error in the script.

Uh, the big conundrum that interpreters have faced over the years is that the saints were resurrected before Jesus in this story.

So while Jesus is dead, the saints are resurrected.

But like Jesus is supposed to be the first of all of those who are resurrected, and then the others follow suit.

So, so like how how do interpreters make sense of this?

There are a lot of theories that are out there.

Um you can even like look back-to-back verses in the story itself, and it looks like uh there was a verse that was inserted.

So, so if you read the text and the verses back to back, uh at first the saints rise up out of their tombs, but then the next verse tries to qualify it and be like, oh wait, no, this was after the resurrection.

You know, in other words, like we got a little ahead of ourselves.

Um we we got we got to wait just a bit.

Um but but you have the original story there where the saints rise up right after Jesus dies.

This is even before Holy Saturday.

Now, this is where a bunch of scholars, you like go down a rabbit hole with this kind of stuff.

Uh a lot of them try to remind us that Matthew here is not trying to narrate literal history, he's trying to share a story to make theological points.

Uh he's being imaginative here, he's not necessarily just recalling things, you know, fact for fact historically, uh, like um a good journalist would.

Um so, in other words, like these scholars would say, like, you know, the story about reading the saints breaking out of their tombs and walking around the city, it's not a literal story, it's an imaginative kind of story, and that's why, you know, the plot line seems to get out of order.

And and regardless, it's pretty safe to say that again, like the story in Ezekiel, like Lazarus, uh, these folks who were levitating or flying, you know, or as the story's told, they weren't like zombies going around trying to pass on a zombie virus, trying to make everybody else zombies.

So it was really hard finding stories about zombies in the Bible.

Lots of stories, or quite a few stories, about people making appearances after they died.

But to compare it like one-to-one to zombie stories today, you know, you just can't.

But, as I said, this was one of the most interesting sermons to put together.

There's an absolutely fascinating take on all of this by the Irish theologian Peter Rollins.

And I wish I could share some of this in his Irish accent because it's so much fun to listen to him uh talk about this.

He even has a talk, and it's called Salvation for Zombies.

Salvation for Zombies.

Okay, from his perspective, even though zombies are often portrayed as being against human beings, trying to destroy human beings, the whole zombie genre is designed to reveal the truth about human beings.

So in the movies and the stories, zombies go around with like this never-ending thirst.

It never stops.

They will do anything to try to satisfy this never-ending thirst, but no matter how much they try to pass on the zombie virus, no matter how much they try to satisfy it, no matter how much human life they take, they destroy, it's never enough.

They always want more.

And Rollins talks about how zombies are representative of human beings, because human beings constantly crave the kinds of things that will never satisfy.

And we go after these things, oftentimes against our own self-interest, oftentimes to our own detriment, to our own harm.

Imagine the zombie who's going after the person, even though the person's holding a shotgun, but they're going after and they won't stop no matter what.

A lot of times human beings do things that are not about self-interest, but do things that are to the detriment of themselves, yet in the pursuit of those kinds of things that they hope will satisfy.

He calls this within human beings the zombie drive, the zombie drive.

Always looking for the thing that will satisfy.

And for humans, oftentimes it's the next thing that you hope will satisfy because the previous thing, as soon as you got it, let you down.

But then they're driving around and they don't want to, you know, let anybody in on the secret that it didn't really bring the satisfaction they hoped it would bring.

And whether it be like money or fame, the right relationship, the right job, as human beings, we tend to think that the next thing, the next big thing, the next thing we can grasp is what will ultimately bring satisfaction.

And he says, like zombies, this is where the title of that talk comes from, we need saved from that.

Because as human beings, we always look for the next big thing, but no matter what it is, it always stays beyond reach.

The drive is never quenched.

And we participate in a lot of things that are to our detriment to try to feed this drive.

In fact, it's what could also be called the death drive.

Okay, now this is where Pete goes in directions that some people um would be surprised by, uh and some people uh would would say that uh he is presenting a version of Christianity that is quite different from what uh they're familiar with.

So Pete says that oftentimes religion is positioned to be that thing above all other things that can ultimately quench that thirst.

So, you know, we get all the things that society tells us will make us happy.

You know, whether it be money, the right job, the right relationship, fame, whatever the thing might be, you know, society tells us this will make you happy.

And oftentimes, according to Rollins, you know, the teaching of religion or the church is that none of those things can make you happy, but ultimately, God will make you happy.

Ultimately, you can find that satisfaction, that thirst can be quenched through God.

So instead of money or fame or a relationship or a job or whatever it might be, we are taught that God is ultimately that thing that can quench our thirst once and for all.

Ultimately, it will satisfy.

Ultimately, that void can be filled.

So he positions religion alongside all the other things that try to give us satisfaction.

And religion, or God, is the only one thing that can.

All the other things fall short, but God is the one who can provide that true fix.

And that's a very popular presentation of religion.

Uh, I think I've probably shared that many times over the years.

But Pete says that from this vantage point, all we are doing is just making a different move in the same game.

He says we need to play a different game altogether.

Because right now, uh in the models we're playing in now, we just substitute God for one of the other things.

And he wants to say this misses the whole point of what Christianity is trying to reveal.

And he says the key to understanding all of this is to back up one verse to Matthew chapter 27, verse 51.

Matthew 27:51

This is where we read about the curtain in the temple being torn in two when Jesus died.

So in the temple, if you aren't familiar with this, there was this special section.

It was called the Holy of Holies.

I mean, kind of like where we make the communion here at Brentwood.

In the workroom slash mini kitchen slash sacristy, depending on the purpose.

It was believed in this holy of holies, God's presence dwelled most fully.

And only a select few people, priest, and only appointed priest, could go back to this holy of holies and only at select times of the year.

It was off limits, mysterious, it contained the truth of all truths, but human beings dare not enter.

And Pete says, when the curtain of the temple was ripped in two, people could see what was hidden behind the scenes in that holiest of all places.

And what was it?

What was it?

It was nothing.

It's empty.

There's nothing there.

If a spirit is there, you can't touch or taste or feel it.

It's nothing, it's no thing.

It's not just another thing among all the other things.

It is no thing, nothing behind there.

Now, historically speaking, and I gotta worry a little bit about my sentence construction here, because I said historically speaking, human beings like zombies, I'm not sure I can say like zombies in a historically speaking kind of sentence.

But human beings like zombies, we're always looking for the next thing to satisfy our thirst.

But we never find it.

Ultimately, that void remains.

And and Rollins he'll talk about how that void in our hearts, it's not that God comes and fills it, it's a void there that shows our ache.

Our ache, our ache for things like love.

And what the cross reveals is the destruction of this whole system where human beings are just constantly seeking the next big thing.

And so, from this perspective, God on the cross dies.

And nothing is revealed.

No thing is revealed.

So where are we going with all this?

Here's the thing.

Love does not exist.

Love does not exist.

Love is not a thing in the realm of being.

Love is not something you can touch or taste or see.

I can touch this pulpit, I can touch this iPad, I can touch the communion items, the table.

But love is nothing that you can touch in the same way.

Love does not exist.

The only way to experience love is to participate in acts of love.

That's the only way that love begins to exist.

The fact that love does not exist is the very thing that leads us, or the very non-thing that leads us to want to put love into action.

If this world was perfect and love was everywhere and we felt it and there were no problems, there would not be an urgency to respond to that call of love, to that void within us that makes us hunger and thirst, weep and sigh and dream for love to be actualized in our world.

So this is similar to the takeaway in Matthew chapter 25.

Matthew 25 · chapter mention

And some scholars view this passage of Scripture as another resurrection story when the early followers of Jesus are trying to figure out where he can be found after his death.

And the answer, according to Matthew, is that Christ is found in the very least of these.

Where will you encounter Christ after he is dead?

In your encounter with the hungry, the thirsty, the sick, the imprisoned, the stranger, the foreigner, which is to say the immigrant.

That is where you will encounter the risen Christ.

Whatever you do to the least of these, Jesus says, you do it also unto me.

Love does not exist as a thing among other things.

There is nothing, no thing in the Holy of Holies.

But when you participate in acts of love, when you give love flesh, when you give love breath, when you participate in acts of love, when you feed the hungry, when you give drink to the thirsty, when you clothe the naked, when you visit the imprisoned who are in ICE detention centers here in Green County, when you care for the sick, then you make love a reality in this world.

That which does not exist, as Jack Caputo says, insist on our lives, and we are responsible for bringing it into existence, for making it real, for giving it flesh and bone and breath.

I gotta wrap up.

It's Fellowship Luncheon Day, so we got a little bit more time to go past eleven.

But love is only an idea.

Love is just another thing until we give existence to it in this world.

Which, to sum up, brings us back to those levitating or flying saints who rose out of their tombs even while Jesus was dead as dead can be.

That little part of the story, maybe it was a mix-up, I don't know, an error in the plot.

But I kind of like it.

I kind of like it.

Because that little part of the story indicates we do not have to wait for God to do all of the work for us.

We do not have to wait for God to be the thing to come and fix everything for us.

When we participate in the same kinds of acts of love that define Jesus' life, the kind of love that is limitless, the kind of love that risks everything for the vulnerable, the kind of love that doesn't do something for the payoff or for the reward, but simply because it is the right thing to do and your heart can do no other.

When you participate in that kind of love, that is when we too rise up in the spirit of love, making that which insist upon our lives, making it real.

There is no thing out there that can quench the thirst, but we can participate in acts of love that make love take on flesh and breath and life here and now.

Amen.