Restoring the Church

Passages: Ezekiel 37:1-14

Verse 1 - Ezekiel was taken to a place that represented their despair, their hopeless state of being. A place of bones, a place of the dead where nothing is alive and this is final. In other words, death and these bones are one in the same. Death is the end of life and there is no going back from it or coming back, especially here where there is only bones left, only a shell of what was remains.

Verse 2- valley full of bones, very many lying in the valley , and they were very dry. These dry bones show the life had been gone from them for a very long time. These many bones, enough to fill a valley had been dead for a while. Dead long enough to become very dry. Very many representing how wide and vast the people affected by this state of despair and hopelessness. Israel and Judah had both been conquered and the people scattered. A whole nation, in fact two nations were now in a state of hopelessness and fear. They were dead and lifeless now in the wake of the judgement carried out against them. This seemed final to them just like death. The felt nothing was left for them as a people. At times, it is easy for us to despair and think maybe God is not going to do anything more with this church. It is easy to think that we are here for a short while and then we die, filling up that graveyard.

I have been at this church now for seven years. I have spent 7 years getting to know people. Watching babies born, marriages, and people leaving this world. What has been hard is being part of those up and down moments and coming out at the end of them wondering what is the fate of Asbury. We have seen neighbors leave and become independent. We have seen others close their doors permanently. In all these things, what is the fate of Asbury? This is always the thought in my mind. Have we simply become a church fated slowly fade away? Are we a church that has lost so much that it is too hard to recover?

Verse 3 - God’s question - can these bones live again? Ezekiel knows only God knows the answer to this question. We don’t know what is possible but God knows. God’s question, can these bones live? Can what has been lost and hopeless be restored? Can what has been divided be made into one again? God is asking us this question today. NLT speaks plainly here “can these bones become living people again?” While some translations are not clear on whether Ezekiel knows others say that God alone knows the answer.

Can this defeated and broken people who are lifeless become alive again? Can these people who have suffered so much who have become not much more than a valley of dry bones be brought back to life again? Can this church who has endured much, celebrated much, experienced much, and loss much, become alive again? Can this church become a wellspring of life giving water again?

Verse 4 - Prophesy - speak words from God to these dead bones - to these dry bones that have been dead for so long. Hear what the LORD has to say to you. Ezekiel was told to speak to the people, these dead and lifeless ones, what the Lord had to say to them. The one who spoke and the universe came into being. The one who promised the exodus from Egypt into the promised land. The one who spoke blessings and judgments over the people. What the Lord spoke, came to be.

God who holds all knowledge and wisdom and power knows the answers to all of our questions. God knows our fate as individuals and as the church. Sometimes we get into such a broken state we feel hopelessness creep in, yet this does not mean God is not still speaking. We just have to be listening in order to hear God speak. What does God want to speak to us today? Listen to hear God speak to you today.

Verse 5 - Prophecy to these dry bones is that life will be restored to them. They will live again. What has been dead for so long will be restored back to life. The people of God in the promised land who had been exiled, whose life had been ruined, who felt they were no longer a people but simply destined to fade out of existence, God said he will put life back in you. The people who had lost and suffered much will receive the life that God brings to his people. The people of Israel will be brought back to life once more.

As I was reading this passage last weekend, sitting on the lookout point seeing a wide valley below me, I was reminded of Asbury and this struggles of ups and downs we have been going through lately. I thought about the ways in which different people had ideas of what would make things better, what we needed to continue doing, and me being in the middle of this ongoing conversation with no overwhelming sensation that this is what God was speaking for us to do. I am always saddened when there is any strife or division in the church, even small ones. I realized this church is not much different than lots of other churches are struggling to live. In the end, if we all stop to listen to God, we may hear the word of the Lord. We all need to hear a word from the Lord to bring us back to life.

Verse 6 - I will restore the body that was lost. All the necessary things will be restored. The life, the breath of God that is what brings life, will be placed in these restored bodies. You will know the LORD, by the breath being putting in this restored body. You shall live again by the LORD’s breathe being put into this restored body.

All these passages are about seeing what God sees and hearing what God is about to do. God sees our brokenness. Go sees how we feel dead and lifeless because of not seeing the growth but only seeing loss and trying to hold on to what is left. We need to be restored. We look around and see what is and we long for and hunger for what can be.

God is asking us, do you think this church can come alive again? Can this church become a wellspring of life giving water again? O God, you know the answer to this. God we don’t know what is possible. We don’t know what will be. We only know what we see and hear now but we trust you God in what can be. God if you see us and you speak to us, then we know you hold our future. We wait now Lord for what is next. We wait for your Word. We wait for your command to speak to these dry bones. We wait to be restored by your word.

Verse 7-8 - All up to this point was hearing about where they were and what God wanted Ezekiel to do. Ezekiel was in a valley of bones, bones that had been dead a long time, dry bones. Ezekiel was told to speak the word of God to these dry bones. Ezekiel was to speak to these dead bones what God said to speak. Ezekiel spoke to these dry bones what God had told him to say.

God told Ezekiel to say to these dry bones, God will cause you to come together, bone to bone, sinews, flesh, skin. Everything that restores your physical body back to what it was. Yet no life was there. For all outward appearances, they were restored but lacked the biggest part of what makes you alive. The breath of God, the Spirit of God.

In some ways, we can spruce up the building, dress our best on Sunday morning, setup all the classrooms, and everything else to make the appearance that this church is alive and well. Yet, if we do not have that breath of life from God, it is all in vain. In other words, we can make all the efforts to put everything together, but without God’s life in it, we cannot live again. What is dead will remain dead and what is dying will die in the end. Yet this is not where God left the people of Israel and this isn’t where I believe God will leave us either.

Ezekiel saw this difference. He recognized that their outward appearance was made whole yet they were still lifeless because the breath of God, the Spirit was absent. We can dress up everything in our lives. We can make the most beautiful church building and setup all the appearances of a great church and a great people, but if we lack the breath of God, the Spirit of God in us, in the church, then we are still lifeless, we are still not truly alive.

God told Ezekiel what to do next.

Verse 9 - God told Ezekiel to prophesy to the breath. God told Ezekiel to tell the Spirit of God to come upon these slain that they may live. We sing songs like this too. Come Holy Spirit, fill us. Breathe into us new life.

Verse 10 - The Spirit, breathe, came upon this lifeless flesh and they came alive. Without the Spirit, we are dead. Without the Spirit of God, we are lifeless. Yet when the Spirit of God comes upon us, we come alive, we stand, we live.

Verse 11-12 - God explains to Ezekiel, and Israel that they are the dried up bones who have lost all hope and have been cut off completely. Yet, God says he will open the graves and bring them up, raise them up from the state of being hopeless and cutoff. He will restore them.

I like how CEB and NLT expand on what their hope being gone meant. Their nation was finished. They as a people in the promised land was only in their past and would never be again.

Verse 13-14 - The people will know this is God who has restored them. God intervened and has raised them from dead and hopeless to alive and restored and full of life again. God himself will put his spirit in them. God himself will place them back in the promised land. God’s promise will be fulfilled and they will know God as trustworthy because he fulfills his words spoken. When you have seen God’s word fulfilled, you are all the more sure God is God. God makes himself known by fulfilling his own word.

Something that struck me in my studies is how verse 14 ends. God says you will know the Lord has spoken and will act. More often you heard it phrase that the Lord has spoken and it shall be. However, here specifically in NRSV, it says God will act. This verse kept running through my head and some curiosity and excitement started stirring up in me. Not only is God starting to speak hope to us, but God will act. God will carry out action to bring life to this church once again. I believe God is speaking to us again. I believe God has made plans for the future of this church. I believe and trust God will act to carry out those plans. We must listen to God and give up what we must let go of. Maybe that is things being a certain way or a certain routine. Maybe that is prioritizing things in your life differently. Whatever it is, I ask you today to listen to what the Lord has to say. Listen to God that life can be brought back into our lives and this church. Listen and do what God tells you to do, no matter what it is and no matter what it may cost, trust God. Trust God with bringing life into this church.