Dry Bones

CEB Ezekiel 37:1-14 The LORD's power overcame me, and while I was in the LORD's spirit, he led me out and set me down in the middle of a certain valley. It was full of bones. 2 He led me through them all around, and I saw that there were a great many of them on the valley floor, and they were very dry.  3 He asked me, "Human one, can these bones live again?" I said, "LORD God, only you know."  4 He said to me, "Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, Dry bones, hear the LORD's word!

5 The LORD God proclaims to these bones: I am about to put breath in you, and you will live again.  6 I will put sinews on you, place flesh on you, and cover you with skin. When I put breath in you, and you come to life, you will know that I am the LORD."  7 I prophesied just as I was commanded. There was a great noise as I was prophesying, then a great quaking, and the bones came together, bone by bone. 8 When I looked, suddenly there were sinews on them. The flesh appeared, and then they were covered over with skin. But there was still no breath in them. 9 He said to me, "Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, human one! Say to the breath, The LORD God proclaims: Come from the four winds, breath! Breathe into these dead bodies and let them live." 10 I prophesied just as he commanded me. When the breath entered them, they came to life and stood on their feet, an extraordinarily large company.

11 He said to me, "Human one, these bones are the entire house of Israel. They say, 'Our bones are dried up, and our hope has perished. We are completely finished.' 12 So now, prophesy and say to them, The LORD God proclaims: I'm opening your graves! I will raise you up from your graves, my people, and I will bring you to Israel's fertile land. 13 You will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and raise you up from your graves, my people. 14 I will put my breath in you, and you will live. I will plant you on your fertile land, and you will know that I am the LORD. I've spoken, and I will do it. This is what the LORD says.”

INTRO

The prophet Ezekiel is faced with a situation of great despair. As we reflect on the biblical text this morning we are reminded of the many times that we have seen and heard of moments of great despair and hopelessness. Beloved, hours after the election text messages with racial slurs were sent to one of my friends telling them that they have been “selected” to pick cotton “at the nearest plantation.” Leaving them devastated. Childbirth morality rates have risen by 11% nationally, and the cost of food seems to be ever rising. Russia is still at war with Ukraine, Israel is still bombing the Gaza Strip, our nation is divided right down the middle politically, and people are frightened on both ends of the political spectrum. Despair seems to be creeping. While many celebrate, many are also grieving. Division is something which should bring all of us a sense of despair.

Yet, sometimes despair is more personal..maybe, this great despair comes with the news of company layoffs and the uncertainty of where one might find the money to pay their bills. Despair is even found on the heels of success that never plan out the way we envisioned that it would, leaving us lonely and empty inside. Amidst our situation here and now it does not take much to become discouraged at the world and wonder where is God in all of this!

These events that come heavy on our hearts this morning might help us to read more deeply into our scripture passage for this morning. This type of hopelessness and despair is where the Israelites find themselves in time of Ezekiel’s prophecy. They are wondering if there will be a way out of the divide. They are wondering if there’s even a reason to hope. The Babylonians had conquered the Israelites and carried with it many of Israel’s people off into captivity or exile.

The exile to Babylon was not a short event in the history of the Israelites. It lasted longer than their wanderings in the wilderness as they search for the promised land. Exiled in a foreign land for 70 years, where they are forced to follow new customs, new laws and new ways of living. Maybe at first, it was easier for the Israelites to hold fast to their hope that God would recuse them from Babylon. But then as year after year passed by and years multiplied into decades, their continual languish in captivity turned hope into despair.

It is not hard to imagine once the 40-year mark had come and gone barring to mind the years that their ancestors had spent wandering in the wilderness that deeper despair settled in. In the past, God had shown up and as time moves on with still no action of redemption, no sign that God was present among them; their despair becomes replaced by another thought that God no longer cares for them.

Surely, it is easy to envision that the Israelites might as well consider themselves dead, or cut off from God. They are like dry bones - dead, ritually unclean and their expectation for a better life, for some form of liberation is as alive as the valley filled with dry bones. The Israelites are without hope. This is the setting of Ezekiel’s vision as found in our text this morning.

It here in the valley of dry bones, the valley of despair that God speaks: “O Mortal, O human one, can these bones live?"

In the midst of what seems to be a prophetic failure as prophecy in the biblical canon is often a message from God to tear down the walls of separation and systems of oppression and power. In this place where the sheer number of bones seems to suggest that Babylon seems to have won, that despair has won, that oppression and power have the final word - God speaks: “O Mortal, O human one, can these bones live?”

I imagine Ezekiel struggling to find the words to speak with the vision of destruction set before his eyes. I can hear him stuttering L-L-Lord until finally, he musters up the courage to speak just above a whisper “Lord, God, I don’t know anymore…Do you not see the misery of your people? Nevertheless, if anyone knows whether these bones can live, it is you - O God.”

God without explaining instructs Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones. God calls Ezekiel to preach the Word of God. Why does God do this? Why doesn't God just bring the bones to life? Couldn't the Lord just revive the valley of bones without Ezekiel's help? We tend to ask these questions because we are impatient people and we want God to act right away. Yes, God could act alone but God chooses not to. God desires an interactive personal relationship with humanity!

One commentary notes: "the commandment fits who Ezekiel is as an individual. If Ezekiel had been a singer, God would have said, "Sing to the bones." Had he been a baker, the order would have been, "Bake for the bones." God tells him to prophesy to the bones because Ezekiel is a prophet. That is, God is not asking him to do something that is outside of his nature or something that he is incapable of doing.”[1]

God is so relational that God knows the gifts that Ezekiel has and God tells him to use those gifts! God not only asks Ezekiel to use his gifts but God also gives him the message to proclaim. Instead of being the typical prophetic message calling for the dividing walls of injustice to come crumbling down the prophetic message is a word of renewal, a word of resurrection, a word of hope.

This is essential to our understanding of the church. If God desires community or relationship then the church is not the building. Rather, the church is the gathering of believers, it is the community gathered, to worship together in one Spirit. We gather to hear the restorative Word of God, to be touched in God’s name. We are called to take part in hearing the Spirit’s voice that brings both prophetic preaching and a proclamation of God’s justice. However, we are also called to take action as we use our gifts for God’s glory, as we use our gifts to speak hope into despair.

Interestingly, Ezekiel does as God asked of him but there isn't a complete restoration. The bones are given flesh and are put back together, bodies are formed. The bones now look like people but they are not alive because there is no breath or translated another way there is no spirit in them.

Just as God formed Adam from the dust of the earth and breathed life or spirit into Adam so these bones need the Spirit of God breathed into them! In other words, having breathe in our lungs does not make us alive! It is the Spirit that gives true life! Nicodemus was told this by Jesus – you must be born of water and spirit. Why was he told this? Because there is no life apart from the sustaining Spirit of God.

The source of our hope is not found in the prophet, the pastor, our meeting together. It’s not found in our elections or our elected leaders. The source of our hope is not found in the familiarity of routine nor is it found in our ability. The source of our hopes comes from the God who is ever-present with us. God is present with us in our breathing and is even present in our dying.

You see Ezekiel’s vision of resurrection does not change the situation. The Israelites remain in exile, they still grieve the loss of love ones, and they still mourn the loss of familiarity or routine. If we are honest in this time of division all of us long for justice. We too are grieved for many different reasons…and those reasons are what led us to vote on Tuesday.

Ezekiel's vision does not alleviate the difficult circumstance in which we find ourselves it does, however, give us and the Israelites a renewed hope! For even in the difficulty of our current situations God is present. For with a right spirit we are able to know God has not abandoned us. Later in Ezekiel, we are told that God will put a new heart and a new spirit within us.

The consummation of hope, the revitalization of Israel’s and our dry bones begins and ends in God. This new heart we receive is nothing that we as individuals can obtain for ourselves.

The new spirit is not our own spirit but God’s Spirit which enables us to do what we could not do before. It takes our dry bones and gives them life. God’s Spirit allows us to live as holy people or as the Book of Romans says you received not the spirit of fear but you received the Spirit of adoption. This good news of restoration is where we want to dwell…yet, God calls us to the work of resistance. Our baptismal vows speak to this “Do you accept the freedom and power God gives you to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves?” A commentator rightly notes “Before we can ask for new life, perhaps we too can simply sit with our bones. Get to know them. Grieve with them. Let the Spirit teach us.”[2]

In our grief or in our rejoicing…words such as “it is time to heal” or “it is time to move on” are not helpful. WE as the church need to provide space for our siblings in Christ to lament and grieve. We need to allow folks to be afraid, to worry about the uncertainly, to question, as they wonder what comes next. Those of us who voted in different ways need to provide space to hear the concerns of the other. We also need to realize that its not our vote that changes the situations around us…its the freedom and power God gives us to love one another.

This begs the question: What can our spiritually dry bones teach us? What are the dry bones that exist in our spirit? How do our yearnings give way to despair and hope at the same time?Might this longing for justice and love create within us a new Heart and renewed Spirit that we might become a people of compassion and empathy for all of God’s people? For God longs to bring newness of life to all.

In the words of The Rev. Fred Pratt Green "The Church of Christ, in every age, beset by change, but Spirit-led, must claim and test its heritage and keep on rising from the dead.”[3] As we evaluate the state of our soul, our church, our nation and place our trust in the God who is ever-present may we continue to find hope in all things? Let us follow God’s Spirit using our own individuals’ gifts which the Spirit of God weaves together with the gifts of the whole church that in living out our collective calling we will find repentance, forgiveness, new life in abundance and resistance to those force which seek to oppress. For in doing so our dry bones will once again come to life with hope no matter what the situation before us might look like.

Might we love our neighbor in more tangible ways than just voting…we are called to feed, cloth, and get to know our neighbors, and to speak life into the dry bones of despair as we offer glimpse of God’s love to them…On Sunday Mornings I have the great privilege of worshiping alongside of you and as I look out among the members of our congregation, I see the beautiful and joyful diversity that is only made possible in Jesus Christ. It is in the spirit of our diversity that I remind each of us our work is just beginning…people need us to speak hope, love, joy, and peace into their dry bones. The world needs us to get to work following God’s call to care for the least of these and it begins by listening to the gentle nudging of God’s Spirit found in those whose voices have yet to be heard.

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirt. Amen.