What I hope to do in Feature 398.2 (the library call number for folklore) is find folk literature that connects to the lectionary texts. So, here's an ofering for this coming Sunday, because to talk about this past Sunday wouldn't be so helpful.
Sunday, April 6, 5th Sunday in Lent
Of course, a hymn before the homily.
This weeks texts feature two great stories of folks being brought back to life. We can read about Ezekiel's experience in the "Valley of the Dry Bones" and we can join Mary and Martha's celebration as Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead.
Southern folklore offers a good many ghost stories and terrifying tales from which we could choose. My favorite is "Dead Aaron." You can read his tale in Raw Head, Bloddy Bones by Mary E. Lyons.
"Dead Aaron" is a Gullah folk tale from Charleston, SC. The story is something of the opposite of what Ezekiel and John offer us. I'll offer a summary here, but you need to read Lyons' account for the language to sink in (I'll probably work up my own telling of this one, soon enough).
Aaron died. That's why they call him "Dead Aaron". Are you following now?
Aaron died. They had his funeral and they burried him. That very day, Aaron climbed out of the ground and walked back home--but he was still dead. He returned home and notice that everyone was acting as if someone had died. Guess what, Aaron?
Aaron sat around the fire at home determined that he wasn't going to leave. His widow got rather put out with him because he was just sitting there. I wonder if death was presenting a little too much of what she'd seen in life, but I digress. Aaron sat around, and all he did was decompose. It got on his widow's nerves.
One day a fiddler came to court Aaron's widow. He couldn't really do that with Dead Aaron sitting there. So they both just sat there, Aaron on one side of the fire, the fiddler on the other.
Aaron noticed the fiddle and decided he wanted to dance. He asked the fiddler to play, and so the visitor tuned up his fiddle and began to play and sing. Dead Aaron got up and danced. His bones creaked and cracked. He got caught up in the music and danced so much that his bones began to fall off.
The widow noticed this and told the fiddler to play faster. Well, the faster the fiddler played, the faster Aaron danced until he completely fell apart. Well, almost. Aaron's skull was still intact and hopped up and down asking for more.
The fiddler told the woman that he needed to go home to get more rosin, but he never came back. He couldn't get over the sight of Aaron's dancing skull still calling out tunes.
They burried Aaron's bones, but they made sure to pile them up in a heap, out of place and out of order, becasue nobody wanted to deal with Dead Aaron if he ever pulled himself together again.
How many Sundays have preachers looked out on amassed congregations and heard God ask, "Son of man, can these bones live?" And how many time have we sighed and offered a resigned reply, "Lord, only you know how to answer that."?
The tough news for churches to hear is that for too many Sundays the very living have been about as useful as Dead Aaron, just sitting there--decomposing! If that's the case, preachers, it's time to tune up and play them a jig. Shake them loose from what's holding them back from "hearing the word of the Lord"--and that very well might be themselves.
We serve a God who breathes new life into into dry, old bones. We have a Savior who brings the dead to life and calls them out to be unbound, set free and turned loose (no, they're not synonyms). It has happened before and it can happen again in your congregation. It might be difficult at first to hear the word of the Lord through all the creaking and popping sounds of folks finally fighting off their spiritual rigormortis, but our revival can be a reality. God knows that and wants us to know that, too!
No comments:
Post a Comment