Daily Worship

The One

Jock Stein May 11, 2017 0 0

Ezekiel 37:12-14

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.’”

This has got to be the touchstone of faith – bedrock, litmus, rubber on the road:

without one resurrection, faith is wishful thought, theology is clever emptiness.

Yet you promised Israel a hundred thousand resurrections, an army of dry bones

living, breathing, testifying that we have a God who brings life from the grave.

 

But still, without that one, that faithful Jew we name as Jesus Christ the Nazarene,

Ezekiel’s word might only speak of national hope, of safe return from Babylon,

and certainly in Israel today be claimed by unbelieving leaders as a useful myth.

We celebrate a single empty tomb, and from it touch a million faithful dead.

 

 

Pray

When I think of those who have gone before me, I give thanks for their faith.

When I meet those who will be around me today, I want to show them love.

When I remember what I will face one day myself, I seek the grace of hope.

And all through Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and for ever, Amen.