Sermon
Ezekiel 37:1-14 (NRSV)
The hand of
the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set
me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me all around
them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. 3 He
said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord God, you know.”
4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones,
hear the word of the Lord. 5 Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will
cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. 6 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.”
7 So I
prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a
noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. 8 I looked,
and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had
covered them; but there was no breath in them. 9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy
to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord God:
Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may
live.” 10 I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and
they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.
11 Then he
said to me, “Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel
Year A
Fifth Sunday in Lent
April 2, 2017
April 6, 2014
Cross~Wind
Title: Healing that brings Life
Ezekiel 37:1-14 concerns the vision Ezekiel had of the
valley of dry bones. The vision occurred sometime between 33:21 in 576 BC and
40:1 in 562 BC in Babylon. No end to exile is in sight. The loss suffered in
exile was not only its national life, but also its hope. This vision will
address both losses. The vision promises the resurrection or rebirth of a spiritually
dead Israel as the people of God. The people of God no longer possessed the
land, their temple for almost 500 years is gone, and they no longer have a
king. However, one thing not destroyed, as Ezekiel makes clear, is the
prophetic spirit. The same Spirit who came upon Moses, the Judges of Israel,
the kings of Israel, and the prophets of Israel, still came upon prophets in
Babylon. The prophetic spirit looked into the future and saw that the breath of
life would once again fill the presently dead people of God. We will see the
intimate relation between the divine Spirit and the presence life on this
earth. This message comes through in a rather macabre and harrowing vision of
the future activity of the power of God to bring to life what has been dead.
The prophet refers to the hand of the Lord coming on him, suggesting divine
providence and divine will. In picturing the people of God as a valley of dry
bones, the prophet is looking upon Israel as dis-spirited. They wonder if God
has abandoned them, if they could survive in a foreign land, and if they could
ever return home. The prophet will walk among the dry bones, making up ritually
unclean. The prophet stresses that their hope is the activity of God rather
than their ability to put themselves together. The Lord is sovereign over the
forces of life and death. With the rebirth of the people of God, they shall
know who their Lord is. They will become covenant partners with the Lord again.
The Lord controls their destiny in restoring them to their land. The connection
we see between people and land still controls much of the thinking in the
Middle East today.
Introduction
Crime
related shows have been popular for a long time. Something about this type of
show has long attracted me. A good one for me usually invites me to put on my
detective hat and see if I can figure out who did it.
Sherlock is a good one. We enjoyed
Criminal Minds and Numb3rs. We have not watched NCIS and CSI very much, but I have received many recommendations to try
them.
Currently in its twelfth and final
season, Bones is a top-30 TV. Over the years, it has helped
keep Fox Broadcasting in the ratings conversation, along with American
Idol and the NFL. I could not help of thinking of this show when I read
this passage again. The lead character has the nickname “Bones,” an attractive
anthropologist and archaeologist. She teams up with Seeley Booth to solve
murders. She is a logical empiricist. Everything has a scientifically
explainable answer. At some point, someone will make pop-culture reference and
she will respond with her signature line: “I don’t know what that means.” One of
the challenges of the show is to keep coming up with disgusting skeletal
remains. Eventually, “Bones” and her team will find something that reveals who
the killer is.
In case you were wondering: There
are 206 bones in the human body. They fall into four general categories: long
bones, short bones, flat bones and irregular bones.
Imagine this potential opening
scene.
An expansive valley is knee-deep
with bones. Loads of human skeletons mix with one another, all of them
wind-blown and brittle. Bones stands amid the bones, confused. There is no
obvious rational explanation. How did they get here? What caused these deaths?
Suddenly, the bones begin to tremble around her. Rattling and jostling, they
begin to merge. They take on natural, human connections to one another. Bone
piles become skeletons. “I don’t know what that means,” Bones utters.
Well, Dr. Brennan, most of us agree
with you entirely. That scene is weird. Irrational. No natural explanation.
Moreover, it is the vision God gives Ezekiel in Ezekiel 37:1-14. Explaining the
meaning of this vision for Israel can inform a theological narrative for the
Christian life, as well.
Application
I hope that today, we can reflect
upon what this vision might mean for the people of God.
First, we hear Christians today
speak in terms the ancient Hebrews might have used:
I feel spiritually dried up.
I have not heard anything from God in years.
My prayers feel as though they never leave the room.
I would believe in God
if he would show up for me, just this once.
These situations feel hopeless. No God and no end in sight. Though these cries of the heart come from people who feel spiritually dead, they are actually signs of life.
These situations feel hopeless. No God and no end in sight. Though these cries of the heart come from people who feel spiritually dead, they are actually signs of life.
A healthy view of God and the
Christian life has room for such outcries. God will take us as we are. If we
feel this dry and empty, God will start there. Real change comes through brutal
honesty and vulnerability before God. The Psalms and Lamentations model as
much, and great saints before us have endured dark nights of the soul.
Many parts of the church in America
are experiencing such a dark night.
Second, the return to hope comes
first through embracing our spiritual
despair.
God showed Ezekiel total death
before he received the vision of new life. God will take us as we are. God
does not want to leave us that way.
God was willing to overlook
generations of the dry and decaying spiritual life of Israel. He would give
them undeserved blessing again.
Life
into death. God’s mission was not just forgiveness through the death of the
Son. It was new life through the resurrection of Jesus.
Life into death. For
Christians today, death is not the final verdict. Believers can always have
hope. No situation is beyond the reach of God. The current is not the final.
Life into death. Nevertheless,
at the point of renewed hope for life, full life is not yet there. Anyone who
has decided to diet and work out more knows there is a huge difference between
believing you can change and changing.
Third, we have new life because
God’s spirit breathes it into our spirit.
For today, what does this mean?
When we turn away from the source
of life, we begin to die. The Spirit of God is always a life-giving Spirit.
Only God knows what hope can come
back to the church through proclamation of God's Word. Only God knows what hope
can come back to any person who stands beside the covered hole in the ground
where are buried all his or her hopes and dreams. What one of us has not stood
by such a graveside?
• How many churches are praying
that they will come to life again?
• How many of the faithful assume
their fellowship is past its prime?
• How many empty sanctuaries are
there across America, rural and urban, that pray for a renewal of Spirit, for
flesh to fill the vacant pews with hearts wide open to God?
• How many people feel dryness in
their spiritual bones?
• How many are yearning for the
filling of their empty lives?
God can achieve
the impossible. God can act and intervene in the lives of churches and in our
own personal lives, renewing our Spirit, giving us hope, giving us new life. God
gives us the vision, the words, the tools and the Spirit to make it so. Nothing
is impossible with God.
•
After all, when the people of Israel felt that their hope was dead in Babylon,
the word of God was “You shall live.”
•
When the Jewish leaders rejected, reviled, flogged, and finally killed Jesus on
a cross, the word of God was “You shall live.”
•
When the early church faced opposition and persecution, from Jewish leaders and
from Roman authorities, the word of God was “You shall live.”
•
When we were “dead in trespasses and sins,” the word of God was “You shall
live.”
•
When we were stuck in a barren place, when we were at the end of our rope, when
we had no place to go, when we were without hope — the word of God was, and is,
“You shall live.”
Disconnected and dried up, we hear God
say, “I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live.”
A transformation that takes us from
shrunken sinews to spiritual strength and that reconnects us not only to God,
but to others — the family of God, brothers and sisters, parents, friends and
those in need of our life-touch, and love-touch.
A metamorphosis begins with our call
for help. As Rick Warren says in his book The
Purpose-Driven Life, “You’ll never know that God is all you need until God
is all you’ve got.”
At the heart of this passage from
Ezekiel is the message “God is able.” For example:
• When we are lost, God is able to find us.
• When guilt crushes us, God is able to lift this burden.
• When we have no vision, God is able to inspire us.
• When life overwhelms us, God is able to calm us.
• When life attacks us, God is able to deliver us.
• When we feel disconnected, dried up and discouraged, God
is able to reconnect us, refresh us and revive us.
Conclusion
What does that mean? That is not a
bad question to ask of a puzzling text. It needs to lead us to further
exploration.
It may mean something like this.
God can take death itself, and
transform it into life. God is able. What do these dry bones tell us about who
we are as a congregation? Where do we need the Spirit of God to be at work
among us? What will new life look like, after we open ourselves to the power of
the Spirit?
God took the dust at creation and gave it life it never had
before. In this vision, God gave bones that once had life the opportunity for
new life. That is redemption, God redeeming the people of God, restoring to
them the life-giving Spirit.
Going deeper
Referring to this passage as “The
Resurrection of Dead Israel,” as Walther Zimmerli does in his “Hermeneia”
commentary is not the same thing as saying that Ezekiel’s vision of the valley
of dry bones is about the resurrection of the dead, as some commentators have
suggested (see, for example, the bibliography in Zimmerli).[1]
Ezekiel’s vision is about a restored geopolitical Israel in the wake of a
specific historical disaster, not generalized individual life after death.
Pannenberg says that in this passage, we may simply have a metaphor for the
rebirth of the people, and thus one should not use it as providing the context
for the Jewish concept of resurrection.[2]
Barth will stress that one thing
was not destroyed when Israel became a valley of dry bones, and this was the
prophetic Spirit by whom this people had become a nation. The same Spirit who
had once quickened Israel and kept it alive was now to quicken it afresh after
its merited disappearance. It was of this return of the breath of life to an
Israel already dead that Ezekiel spoke. [3]
Ezekiel 37:1-14 (NRSV)
[Ezekiel 37:1-10 is the report
of the vision. The vision is one of the best-known prophetic visions. It
teeters between the harrowing and the macabre. The vision is vivid as it looks
toward the power of God to bring back to life something truly dead.] The hand of the Lord [The expression is
frequent in the Hebrew Bible, and is a favorite of the prophet Ezekiel (1:3,
3:14, 3:22, 8:1, 33:22, 37:1, 40:1). The phrase usually denotes the divine
presence in a negative way — the hand of the LORD is often “against” someone or
something (e.g., Judges 2:15; Ruth 1:13; I Samuel 5:9). The expression has
clear directive implications — the “hand of the LORD” functions synonymously
with what we would call “divine providence” or “the divine will” — as it does
in the present context.] came upon me,
and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle
of a valley; (or plain, biqah) it was
full of bones. [This vision pictures the people of Israel as dis-spirited
people. The Babylonians had killed the sons of their last king, Zedekiah,
before his eyes; then they blinded him and led him off, in bronze chains, to
Babylon. They destroyed the temple and much of the rest of Jerusalem.
Babylonians killed many of the family members and friends of exiles. Had God
abandoned them forever? Would they cease to exist as a people, hundreds of
miles from home? Would they ever return? How could they survive in a strange
land? Psalm 137 gives voice to their agony: "By the rivers of Babylon --
there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion ... How could we
sing the LORD's song in a foreign land?" (vv. 1, 4). This suggests the prophet is in Mesopotamian,
a land of broad alluvial river basins. Considering that many exiles thought
that prophesy could only occur in Israel, this geographical detail is important.
The idea of the continuing nature of divine revelation in exile was
extraordinarily powerful and reassuring, and set the stage for the emergence
and development of post-exilic Israelite religion.] 2 He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley,
and they were very dry. [As a prophet-priest, Ezekiel would now be unclean
by this contact with human remains, as Numbers 19:16 suggests.] 3 He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones
live?” I answered, [piously and trustingly] “O Lord God, you know.” 4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these
bones, (bringing him close to necromancy, communicating with the dead) and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word
of the Lord. 5 Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to
enter you, and you shall live. 6 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.” [In this series of causative
statements, the prophet declares that the dramatic events about to unfold are
through the agency of the God of Israel, and not through the ability of Israel.
Israel will not be able to put itself together.]
7 So I prophesied as I had been
commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the
bones came together, bone to its bone. 8 I looked, and there were sinews on
them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no
breath in them. 9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy,
mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four
winds, (ruchot, plural of ruach) O
breath, and breathe upon these slain, (Israelites fallen in battle) that they may live.” 10 I prophesied as he
commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their
feet, a vast multitude. [This statement reminds us that the focus is the
restoration of the politico-religious entity known as Israel, and not notions
of individual immortality. Pannenberg notes that we find the Jewish concepts of
the relation between the divine Spirit and life.[4]
Further, consistent with the dominant anthropological view of the Hebrew Bible,
humans are a psychophysical unity of body and breath/spirit that is
unrecognizable as such in the absence of either component. The animating spirit
has entered the slain.]
[Ezekiel 37:11-14 is
an explanation of the meaning of the vision. The Lord has shown sovereignty
over the forces of life and death.] 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.’
[This verse seems to be the nucleus
around which the vision and its explanation revolve.] 12 Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus
says the Lord God: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your
graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 And
you shall know that I am the Lord, [Pannenberg
notes in his discussion of the multiplicity of biblical ideas of revelation
that in this case a classical prophet looks forward to new deliverance as a
form of self-declaration of God and knowledge of God.[5]] when I open your graves, and bring you up
from your graves, O my people. 14 I will put my spirit within you, and you
shall live, [Into this enlightened,
restored people Yahweh promises to put the divine Spirit, bringing them to
life, and establishing them once again as his covenantal partners.] and I will place you on your own soil; then
you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act, says the Lord.‘ [One way to look at this issue is that
Yahweh intends to do with the house of Israel what he has just done with these
nameless bones. Yahweh identifies the bones as the house of Israel, based on
the Israelites' lament, which he quotes. The lamentation of dried-up bones may
have become proverbial by the time of Ezekiel, as the application of heat and
aridity to bones is a common biblical expression of distress (e.g., Job 21:24,
30:30; Psalm 102:3; Proverbs 17:22; Jeremiah 20:9; Lamentations 1:13). In the
context of the languishing Israelites, the prophet brings into close connection
their dried bones to the abandonment of hope and their utter annihilation. That
the vision is about the restoration of the geopolitical collective known as
Israel rather than the afterlives of individual Israelites is emphasized in
verses 12 and 14, with the promise of the land. The Israelites will know that
the Lord is in ultimate control of their destiny only when the Lord restores
them as a people and returns them to their own land; people and land are
inseparable in mainstream biblical thought, an idea that continues to shape the
politics of the Middle East even today.]
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