Christ Jesus calls us to come out of the darkness of our lives into the light of God’s love, just as he called Lazarus out of his tomb into new life in our gospel for today. We are called to let go of whatever is holding us in bondage and to accept the transforming hand of God that waits to heal us once we are ready. Jesus’ life is the model of what our transformed life will be like. Think about what that looks like to you. I see us manifesting generous self-giving, greeting each and all with compassionate love, blessing every situation with peace and harmony, seeking God’s truth wherever it may be found and speaking it when the appropriate opportunities arise, promoting justice when and where oppression rears its ugly head, celebrating and sharing awe-filled moments of Grace, being a healing presence to those wounded folks we encounter daily, spreading joy wherever we go, spending time resting in God’s presence, sharing our perceptions and insights about our continuing transformation, paying attention to God’s hand at work in our lives as a start. You likely see other ways that our transformation into the imago dei manifests in our lives. Take a few minutes to reflect on what you see in Jesus’ life that affects our transformation process. It is clear we can’t accomplish that kind of change on our own. We might make a few cosmetic changes on the outside of our lives, but this kind of radical transformation can only come from deep within as our lifetime wounds are healed. The apostle Paul reminds us that the Spirit of God dwells in us bring us to new life. The Holy Spirit breathes new life into us, just as the prophet Ezekiel envisioned in the valley of the dry bones in our lesson from the Hebrew scriptures, so that we may be transformed breath by breath, day by day. Perhaps if we remain bound with only a few grave cloths when we “come out” of our “tomb,” the transformation may soon be complete. For most of us, however, the transformation into the wholeness of the imago dei takes a lifetime, as the Holy Spirit removes first one binding and then another, freeing us for an ever more spacious new life of love.

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