In the Spirit of the Lord

The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 3 He asked me, "Son of man, can these bones live?"

I said, "O Sovereign LORD, you alone know."

4 Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones and say to them, 'Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! 5 This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath [a] enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.' "

7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.

9 Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.' “10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.

11 Then he said to me: "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, 'Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.' 12 Therefore prophesy and say to them: 'this is what the Sovereign LORD says: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.' "

When I started to prepare for this morning/ evening’s service, I had five texts to choose from as a basis for my sermon. There was the text in Acts chapter two, telling the story of the coming of the Holy Spirit to the believers in the early church. There was a Psalm; there was a gospel lesson and an epistle. Then there was the text that I chose and just read from Ezekiel chapter 37 vesres1-14-the vision of the Valley of the Dry Bones. The story is familiar to most of us, which can be a good thing or a bad thing. As I spent some time with the text there seemed to be two main ideas that kept presenting themselves as needing to be examined a little further. The first idea was that I kept asking myself, “What if I were Ezekiel? What if God had told me to prophesy to a pit filled with dried bones? Ezekiel’s exchange with God was rather direct. Basically, God told Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones and he did. God then told him to prophesy to the breath, Ezekiel obeyed. Notice that there is no room for Ezekiel to argue or to try and negotiate or search for excuses why he couldn’t do what the Lord had asked him to do. Why can’t life be as simple as that? Wouldn’t that be nice if God spoke to us as clearly and we just did what God told us to do?

God has told Ezekiel to do some pretty drastic things, and they weren't in visions, as this is, to get his message across to the people. God has had Ezekiel draw a picture of Jerusalem on a clay tablet, and set up mini earthworks, and then lie on his left side for 390 days, and then on his right side for 40 days. No escape, no wriggling even! And in that time he's eaten siege rations, weighing the grains he uses to make bread, and measuring his water. He's shaved his head with a sword and scattered some of the hair around, and burnt some, to show what's going to happen to God's people. He's packed his bags, and carried them around the city, and in the evening he's dug a hole in the city wall and climbed out as if he's escaping and going into exile. One extra thing: God told him to cover his face once he was through the wall, so he couldn't see the land as he went. And he's seen his wife die, and - under God's instructions - carried on with his daily routine, not outwardly mourning her.

All of these odd things which Ezekiel has done have had a purpose. They have made the people around him think. People have said to him "Why are you doing this?" As God knew they would, so God has given Ezekiel an answer for them each time. God asks questions, he expects questions, he welcomes questions.

And he welcomes honest answers. "Can these bones live?" If you're not sure about something, then an honest "O Sovereign Lord, you alone know" is better than "No way!" If I were Ezekiel, I probably would have tried to engage God in a conversation as opposed to simple obedience. It may have sounded something like this:

“Lord, uh, you know that I have been a faithful servant of yours for some time now and well, uh, I’ve done some pretty bizarre things for you and now, not that I mind all of that. But do you realize what you are asking of me? Perhaps you didn’t get a real good look at those bones- they are dry. I mean drier than dry. Who knows how long they have been there? How about we try this; a compromise perhaps. You make the bones come back to life- you go ahead and put them back together, breathe your spirit into them and then I’ll take over saying, “Look what the Lord has done!” I won’t take any credit- really.” But that’s not the way the Lord works, is it? Jesus said, “Blessed is the one that has not seen and yet believes.” Hebrews 11 verse 1 says:

¹Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

The second thing that got my attention about this text is that there have been times in my life that I felt as though I were covered up with a pile of dry bones. As if I was on the bottom of those bones and not only could I not see the light peeking through the bones, but the darkness covered me like a wet blanket. I wonder if any of you have felt that way. Abandoned? Forgotten? Left for dead?

My body may have remained intact, but I didn’t feel like I had any life in me. I would ask God “Why have I been forgotten? God, can’t you see that I’m struggling?”

That is exactly the place that the children of Israel found themselves, asking, “Is our relationship with God over now that God has allowed this to happen? Have we been abandoned to our fate? Is there anything left to cling to? The future of God’s people was in jeopardy. The Temple was gone; the dwelling place of the Almighty was razed to the ground. Verse 11 from our scripture says: “Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely” (v. 11).

Even our communities of faith take up regular residence in this valley. We see dwindling offerings, aging members, new challenges to the “old ways” of being church, and countless cultural affronts to mainstream Christianity. We are afraid of what we might lose, and we circle the proverbial wagons and hunker down to preserve what we have left. It becomes easy to ask “Can these bones live?” Can our congregation survive? Will our denomination fracture? Will we meet the budget this year? Who will be left to carry on? These are real questions; these are real fears. And so we turn to the scripture and read the rest of the story.

Verse 14 of our scripture says: “I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.”

So it’s the spirit of the Lord that will bring us back to life. Many times we underestimate the power and the importance of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Jesus, when asked what the unpardonable sin was, responded with “blasphemy against the Holy Spirit”, which gives us a real good indication of the priority Jesus gave the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer.

But it takes more than just speaking to our brokenness, more than just commanding restoration and reconciliation, more than just saying that resurrection is possible. It requires the Spirit of the Lord moving in and among the bones; infusing us with new life, moving us to better ways of living and being. Restoration is possible, but true restoration will only occur when the spirit of the Lord moves and is put within the communities and circumstances that need it.

Not until the Spirit of the Lord breathed into the flesh and bones did they come to life! Without the Spirit of the Lord- we will perish! The apostle Paul told the believers in Rome that the one "who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you" (Rom. 8:11). The church has always found its life not in what it sees today but in the Spirit of the God who raises dead hopes. The day we lose our ability to envision a better tomorrow is the day we deny that we really believe in the resurrection. We must understand that this is where our life comes from. Our life comes from the Spirit of the Lord. It is in the spirit of the Lord that we are empowered by God to accomplish those things in our lives that seem impossible. It is in the Spirit of the Lord that we are able to love the unlovable- to move toward forgiving the unforgivable. The Spirit of the Lord breathes new life into dry bones, fleshes out our hopes and dreams for ministry and mission, and calls us to walk in faith. Christ’s church will go on despite our often bungling, well-meaning, and pitifully human attempts to be good stewards of all that we’ve been so graciously given. It’s a promise we can count on, believe in, AND act on. Our dry bones do live—they live to praise God, serve others, and to walk in faith and light. Verse 14 clearly states that the source of the life that is bringing Israel back from the ‘dead’ is the ‘spirit’ of the Lord. When all life appears to have gone, the word of God is the means whereby God’s spirit revives and restores.

Why does the church keep pouring out its little cup of water into the West Bank, Sudan and other desperate places of the world where hope has run dry? Why do we keep visiting the shut-ins and those in hospitals when we have no miracle drug to take away their pain? Why do we commit ourselves to the political process when there is so much cynicism and a malaise of despair in politics today? Why? Because God is not done.

So we will take our stand beside Ezekiel and proclaim our hope to the dry bones, "Thus, says the Lord, I will cause breath to enter you and you shall live!" You who gave up hopes, who gave up dreaming -- who have settled for a comfortably routine life of work, bills and dirty laundry. You who think your best years are behind you. You who think the Lord God has forgotten all about your little life. To you, we say, "Arise!" Arise from the heap of discarded dreams. Arise to discover that the Holy Spirit is breathing life back into you. Arise to live with magnificent hope! Because the world is dying for you to believe God is not done.