Cut Off and Dried Up
I. INTRODUCTION
A. Museum of Natural History.
1. 8th grade trip to Washington D.C. Washington Cathedral & museums
2. Museum of Natural History. Dinosaur exhibit
a Dig site / bones strewn around.
b Next room / cleaning and arranging
c Next room / fitting bones together.
d Final room / complete skeleton
3. It was amazing to me that the paleontologists could find the scattered bones and eventually put them together into a coherent structure that would give a sense of what the dinosaurs looked like.
4. Put together, but even the scientists could not bring life into those bones.
B. Jurassic Park.
1. In 1993 the movie Jurassic Park was a hit. Scientist / clones dinosaurs.
2. Hit and had three sequels.
3. Enjoy and marvel at movie magic that could make Dinosaurs seem real.
4. The movie put the bones together and brought life, but it was only make believe on film.
C. God’s Power.
1. The wonder of movie magic can’t even compare to the power of God to bring life to dry dead bones. This morning we are going to explore the power of God to bring life to dead scattered bones.
II. SCRIPTURE 1
A. Ezekiel began his ministry as a prophet whom God called to announce the bad news of the doom of Judah (the southern part of Israel) due to its violations of the covenant.
1. The predictions of doom came true when Nebuchadnezzar, the king of the Babylonians, laid siege to Jerusalem and in the year 597 BC deported king Jehoiachim, his family, the leading soldiers and craftsmen of Israel, and Ezekiel to Babylon.
B. Explain the mental and spiritual dislocation of even chosen moves. (My move to North Carolina)
1. The children of Israel had no such choice.
2. They were forced from their homes into an alien land with an alien culture and alien gods.
3. They had lost all hope and felt they were dying under the hands of the Babylonians.
C. In this situation God raised up the prophet Ezekiel again, but this time to speak a word not of judgment but one of hope to the children of Israel.
D. The spirit of Yahweh takes Ezekiel to a valley with dry bones scattered hither and yon. We read that in this valley of death "there were very many bones" and "they were very dry." And God asks, "Son of man, can these bones live?"
E. The obvious answer to us is, of course not.
1. Flesh and blood have long since gone.
2. Life has fled. Death and despair have long dwelt in the land.
3. There is no hope. But this was not Ezekiel’s answer.
F. His other answer could have been, “Of course, God can do anything.”
1. But this was not Ezekiel’s answer either.
2. He was neither despairing enough to answer no; nor hopeful enough to answer yes. Instead he answers partly in faith–partly in doubt: “O Lord You know.”
G. As a reply to Ezekiel's answer, God told him to prophesy to the bones and say that God will bring them together and attach them with ligaments and muscle. Ezekiel did as he was commanded and the bones began to rattle and they came together. Tendons and skin covered them. – But there was no life, for there was no breath.
H. God does not leave this image uninterpreted for Ezekiel.
1. Ezekiel 37:11 - “Then he said to me, ‘Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.’”
2. The bones are the house of Israel, dried up with their hope gone. Cut off from the land of promise.
3. CUT OFF and DRIED UP
III. COMMENTS 1
A. We are living in a very hard time–an age of uncertainty, change, and fear. Will their be another terrorist attack? What will the future hold? Who is moving in the house down the street?
1. We can understand the experience of the Israelites in Babylon; for in some ways it is our experience.
2. It seems that much of what we have known and counted on has been cut off and dried up.
B. Describe the cutting down of the holly tree in January. Limbs which were cut off and had been lying around were now dried up. Cut off from source of life.
C. Have you ever felt cut off and dried up? Like those dead bones in the valley?
1. Perhaps you are in that valley of dry bones in your marriage. Feelings seem absent and you are just going through the motions. There does not seem to be any hope of new life.
2. Perhaps you are at wits end with your children. Ready to give them away to somebody else, as all your energy for life is sucked out of you.
3. Perhaps you are languishing at a job you neither care about nor want to do any more.
4. Perhaps you feel cut off and dried up Spiritually. God just doesn’t seem to be there. No matter what you do, you can’t seem to experience his presence.
a You have questions about why God couldn’t accomplish salvation some other way.
b You wonder why God doesn’t take a more active role in the world.
c Your prayers seem to bounce back at you from the ceiling.
5. The question is real for us, “Can These Bones Live?” “Can These Bones, cut off by life and dried out by circumstance, live??
IV. SCRIPTURE 2
A. Those bones and flesh came together in the valley, but the body was without life. So God told Ezekiel to prophesy to the Breath.
1. Tell the breath to come from the four winds and breath life into the dead and they will live.
2. Ezekiel did as he was told and the bodies came to life.
B. It is important to note that the Hebrew language has just one word for Wind, Breath, and Spirit: "Ruah" This word means the energizing force of God, which can transform dry bones into warm flesh and tired prophets into dynamic preachers of hope. (Like the creation of man.)
1. The Spirit of God brought the breath of life into the dead dry bones.
C. God finishes his interpretation of this vision.
1. The bones are the house of Israel; they are dried up and cut off;
a But the Lord God will open the graves,
b bring them up from the dead,
c and return them to the land of Israel.
d The descendants of Abraham will be summoned up from the grave of exile and returned home.
e The Lord will breath the Spirit into them and they will live.
V. COMMENTS 2
A. The Ezekiel passage is not about life after death or resurrection to eternal life. Rather this passage speaks of the new life which God can bring in hopeless situations here and now.
1. “Can these bones live?” is a specific question of trust and faith.
2. “Can the people of Israel, beaten and battered and seemingly dead,
3. Can they be revived with the Spirit of God to live and fight another day?”
B. This question is as relevant today for us: “Can These Bones Live?”
1. Can the broken bones of a marriage in trouble be brought together and be healed?
a O Lord you know.
2. Can the scattered bones of a life with energetic and exasperating children be brought to order?
a O Lord you know.
3. Can weary bones of a tedious and un-fulfilling job be re-energized?
a O Lord you know.
4. Can the dry bones of a spiritual life be renewed and empowered?
a O Lord You know.
5. Can these bones live? Can THESE bones live? (Pause)
C. The Lord’s response to us is Yes!
1. The bones can live.
2. The dead can rise.
3. Despair can hope
4. Those cut off and dried up can be grafted in to the vine and nourished by the Spirit.
D. Through the Breath of God, the Spirit of Life, God can breath new life into even the driest of lives, into those who feel like the walking dead.
1. We have hope in the Spirit of God; a holy power that can transform even the deadest of bones into the vibrant life of the body.
E. William Willimon, the chaplain at Duke Divinity School, tells the story of a true situation where a bishop sent a seminary graduate to her first assignment in an inner city church in decline for 20 years. “Just keep it going as best you can,” he suggested.
1. She told the church board that she had a gift for working with children. They replied, “Then the bishop sent you to the wrong church. We are way past that” Could these bones live? Well the creative wind of the Spirit began to blow. The wind that brought life to those dry bones.
2. The pastor found an old lady in the church who used to play with count Basie. She found two ladies who could make peanut butter sandwiches. Then on a Wednesday, they rolled the old piano out of the doors of the Fellowship Hall. The pianist began to play the hits from the 30's. By 3:30 a crowd of children had gathered. The pastor passed out sandwiches, and Gladys switched from IN the Mood to Jesus loves me. Then the pastor told them a story about a man named Jesus.
3. A year passed. Today nearly a hundred children crowd into that church every Wednesday afternoon. On Sunday, classes are full, taught by a group of older women who thought that they were now too old to have anything to do with children. Those children brought their parents.
4. The dry bones have flesh and sinews and the power of the breath of God is bringing life.
VI. FINAL COMMENTS
A. This passage is a passage of hope to everyone who is facing hopeless situations.
1. God is able to take completely lifeless situations in our marriages, in our families, in our friendships, in our communities, and in our churches, and knit together whole persons from dry, discarded, lifeless pieces.
B. But lets remember that there was not yet life until the breath– the Spirit of God blew through them
1. Sometimes, we may put together all the pieces in our lives and in our church so it looks like we are alive; but we’re not.
2. It is not until the breath of God, the holy Spirit, blows through our lives, that we will truly be alive.
C. My prayer and hope for all of us here is that God will blow his life-giving Spirit through each of us an this church. May our prayer be the words of one of Keith Green’s songs:
Rushing Wind blow through this temple
Blowing out the dust within
Come and breath your breath upon me
For I ‘ve been born again.