Sermonette: March 30, 2020

“I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, . . . then you shall know that I the Lord, have spoken and will act, says the Lord.” — (Ezekiel 37:14)

There is a lot to unpack in this story of the valley of dry bones found in Ezekiel 37:1-14. This story of a place of dry bones, of a slaughter from long ago, an attempt to eradicate a people and the memory of that people, can lead us to a number of messages. And I think one central message is this: real life begins with the Spirit of God.

The imagery of the valley of the dry bones is a powerful scene depicting a people entirely devoid of hope. They believed that they were cut off from the Spirit that gave them life. Even the form and shape of the people had begun to dry up like bones of an animal in which the flesh had disintegrated, and the wind and elements had even separated the bones one from the other.

It is totally beyond their control to save themselves or even imagine how it could be possible. All sense of community and connectedness had been fractured beyond repair. This was not a comatose situation in which, somehow, they could be miraculously revived. This was the total disintegration and dispersal of a people. In such a situation, which was beyond despair, the prophet told God’s people what God would do. God would raise them from the grave and put God’s Spirit in them.

After the destruction of Jerusalem, after the destruction of the temple, after great loss of life, after exile and hopelessness, Ezekiel preaches hope!

This famous passage seems impossible. The whole point of the vision is that the prophet sees the remains of an ancient killing field (much as we discover in our world today). The people are not just dead. They’re gone. Ezekiel is not simply coming upon someone who has been clinically dead who can be revived.

Then Ezekiel feels a touch on his shoulder. It is no one less than the Spirit of God. In this distant land, this ancient battlefield, this gruesome scene, we learn that the Spirit of God is what we need to experience real life. To simply offer life is not sufficient. The bones are knit back together, sinew and flesh restored, but it is not enough.

What we learn is that what we really need is real life! Ezekiel saw the bones come to life, but more important, only with the Spirit of God does real life begin. This message for the exiled had hope only because the breath of God, which hovered over the face of the deeps at the dawn of time, which lives and moves and breathes among us, something even the pagan poets knew, is what gives the exiles in Babylon hope!

Here is hope to those struggling, hope for those falsely accused, hope for those who are ill and find no easy cure: God has power to restore life. In any difficult and desperate circumstance, in any horrific and hopeless situation the Spirit of God can bring real life. This is but one promise from God in this powerful scene. Glory be to God!