Can These Bones Live?

Below is my message for Sunday, December 10 on Ezekiel 37:1-14, the Valley of Dry Bones.

 

As far as you can see, it is brilliant white. Eye blinding white covers the ground. As far you can hear, it is as silent as a closed library. You are surrounded by hundreds of thousands of millions of bones. There is no smell, because the bodies have been dead for a long, long time. The bodies have been picked clean of any shred of the person they once belonged to. The harsh rays of the sun have bleached the bones as white as the few clouds that float overhead.

God brought Ezekiel into a valley filled with dried, human bones. The bones are the bodies of the people of Israel, dead because they had lost faith in their god. The nation of Israel is dead because they did not keep Him first, slain because they did not obey His commands, murdered because they did not love Him with their whole heart. They lost their way, lost God as the focus of their lives, and lost their faith. They died because despite everything God had done for them, they were unfaithful.

Ezekiel is living in Exile. The kingdom of Israel has been defeated and destroyed. Its leaders captured and exiled to Babylon. The Promised Land has been ripped from their hands. The Temple has been destroyed. Their way of life torn has been from their grasp. The Chosen People feel abandoned and isolated; they believe God has rejected them. In fact, it was they who rejected God. They were to be a holy people, set aside to be an example, a light unto to the nations. But, they were unfaithful and ungrateful.

The bones are us, empty of faith, empty of life, empty of love, empty without God. We think that God has rejected us. We believe that God ignores us. We doubt God’s existence.

We live in a time of uncertainty. We don’t know what will happen tomorrow. There are rumors and possibilities of wars, civil strife, destruction, human cruelty, greed, abuse and violence that seem to be in a competition to horrify and frighten us.

We live in a time of diminishing returns. We see fewer: fewer people in our activities, fewer activities to be a part of, fewer friends are around, fewer people are in our towns, fewer people are in our churches.

We live in a time of increasing need. We see and hear of more people in trouble: they are hungry and starving, they are poisoned by the earth and our mismanagement, they are telling of abuse and mistreatment, they are persecuted and victimized. Their stories fill our media. Their stories haunt our nights.

And we take it all in. And we feel guilty for not doing more. And we try to resist blaming ourselves, but we want to do better, and we don’t see that we make any difference.

And inside, the light of hope dims, in danger of going out.

In last week’s message, I quoted from the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther, and said, “If you have never found something so dear and so precious to you that you will die for it, then you aren't fit to live.” That is true because our lives gain value by what we are willing to work for, what we are willing to fight for, and possibly, what we are willing to die for. Along the same lines, our lives lose value when we don’t have something to work, fight or even die for.

The greatest loss however, is the loss of hope. Without hope, our lives lose meaning. Our lives lose their value. Without hope, our lives are simply counting down until our death. Without hope, we are a walking bag of bones. A community without hope is a valley of dry bones.

This is not a prophecy. This is truth. This is history. This is what happened to the people of Israel. And this is what is happening to churches and worshipping communities across this country.

But.

“Mortal, can these bones live?”

Sometimes, the world can seem like the valley of dry bones. Dead. Lifeless. Without hope.

But.

“Mortal, can these bones live?”

God wants Ezekiel to tell the people of Israel about the valley of dry bones, because where God is, hope is. Where God is, life is.

Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.”

The Good News is that we serve a God that brings life where there is no life. The Good News is that we worship a Savior who was dead but now lives. The Good News is that we are empowered by a Spirit that is literally the breath of life.

To the people of Israel, God said I am not through with you yet. I promised you a land, and I will keep my promise even though you have not been faithful.

To the people of God’s church, God says I am not through with you yet. I promised to be with you always, to be with you until the end of the ages, and I will, though you have not been faithful. I have told you to go to all nations and all peoples, teaching them what I have taught, sharing with them God’s love and the Good News.

As God sent the Breath, the ruach, the Spirit into the dry bones and they lived, as God sent the Breath, the ruach, the Spirit into the people of Israel and they returned to the land promised to them, God is sending the Breath, the ruach, the Spirit into The Church, this church and into you, reigniting the light of hope in our hearts and calling us to share God’s love and the Good News.

But, the journey is challenging, the opposition is daunting, the need is tremendous and the way is fraught with peril.

But.

“Mortal, can these bones live?”

Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

“Mortal, can these bones live?”

With hope in our hearts, and with faith in a God who raises the dead, nothing is impossible. AMEN.