"Passion Sunday" - David McGaw

What do you do when God seems late and the situation has already gone past the point of no return? This sermon sits with the hardest question faith asks us to hold: not whether God can bring life from death, but what we do while we wait.

In this final Sunday of Lent before Holy Week, David McGaw explores the painful pause between death and resurrection through the lens of Ezekiel's valley of dry bones and the raising of Lazarus in John 11. Both stories share the same arc: loss, an agonizing wait, and then new life that exceeds anything anyone imagined. But for the people living through it, the wait felt like the end. Whether you're navigating career uncertainty in Silicon Valley, grieving a relationship, or sitting with a dream that seems permanently gone, this message explores what it looks like to speak hope into the driest places of your life and keep showing up when you can't yet see what God is doing.

IN THIS EPISODE

• Why the biblical pattern of "death, waiting, then resurrection" matters for people living through seasons of uncertainty and loss right now
• What the repeated word "breath" (ruach) in Ezekiel 37 reveals about God's Spirit already being at work before we see results
• The overlooked detail in John 11 that suggests Jesus was actively engaged even when it looked like he was doing nothing
• How Thomas's quiet, resigned faithfulness ("let us go, that we may die with him") models what courage actually looks like when the outcome is unclear
• Why the things God restores in your life are not just for you but become a story that walks others through their own valleys

SCRIPTURE AND LITURGICAL SEASON

Ezekiel 37:1-14 (Valley of Dry Bones) John 11:1-45 (The Raising of Lazarus) Psalm 130 ("Out of the Depths") Romans 8:11 Fifth Sunday in Lent

CONNECT WITH US

https://www.holytrinitysv.org

Join us for worship this Sunday at Holy Trinity Silicon Valley in Palo Alto. Visit holytrinitysv.org for service times and details. Follow @HolyTrinitySV on Instagram and Facebook. As we enter Holy Week, all are welcome to walk with us through the story that changed everything.