No Dry Bones

No Dry Bones

Rev. Dr. Tom Sorenson, Pastor

April 2, 2017

Scripture: Ezekiel 37:1-14

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in your sight O God, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones.

Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones.

Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones.

O hear the word of the Lord.

I’ve know that song, or at least those opening lines of it, for about as long as I can remember. Here’s one thing I didn’t know until much more recently. I didn’t know that those words about dry bones came from the Bible. Much less did I know that they come from a book of the Bible with the odd name Ezekiel. Even less did I know that Ezekiel was a prophet and that in the book Ezekiel these words come from a vision the prophet had of a valley full of dry bones that represent the whole house of Israel. And even less did I know the historical context of the story. I learned much more recently, like just a few years ago, that the book of Ezekiel dates from the early sixth century BCE. Ezekiel, it turns out, was a priest who had been hauled off from Jerusalem to exile in Babylon after one of Babylon’s sieges of the Judean capital but before Babylon’s final conquest of Judah in 586 BCE. He wrote his book for the Hebrew people who were still back in Judah.

It’s a very strange book, one of the strangest in the Bible. It is full of all kinds of weird visions, some of them a lot weirder than the one of a valley full of dry bones. It has an excruciatingly boring, detailed, description of the new temple to be built in Jerusalem. Why anyone bothers to read that part of Ezekiel escapes me. The book’s language is horribly stilted and repetitive. The story of the valley of dry bones is that only thing from Ezekiel that appears in the Revised Common lectionary, and there are really good reasons why nothing else does. But let’s take a look at that story of the dry bones and seen what we can find in it that might be worthwhile.

I start with an understanding of the historical context of the story. When Ezekiel wrote of his vision of a valley of bones Israel hadn’t yet been finally conquered by Babylon, but there wasn’t much left of her. What was let would disappear soon enough. If Israel were going to survive it would need a miracle. That miracle actually came decades later when the Persians conquered Babylon, but Ezekiel of course knew nothing of that. He knew that the Babylonian Empire had attacked, defeated, and greatly diminished the Hebrew homeland and that only what would seem to be divine intervention could save what was left.

In his image of the dry bones coming back to life Ezekiel held out the promise that God would indeed provide that miracle. In that vision Ezekiel sees a valley full of dry bones. He follows instructions God gives him, and first flesh comes back on the bones; but there is still no breath in them. Or they have no spirit in them, for in Hebrew breath and spirit are the same word. God tells Ezekiel to prophesy to the breath, which could also mean to the spirit. Whereupon breath—or spirit—enters the restored bodies and they come to life. Ezekiel’s vision ends with God telling Ezekiel that the bones are “the whole house of Israel” and Israel that God will settle the people of Israel in their own land.

The story itself makes it clear that we aren’t dealing with historical facts here. Ezekiel starts this story by saying “the hand of the Lord was upon me.” That’s an odd expression. I take it to mean somehow Ezekiel was in some kind of Spirit-induced, abnormal state of consciousness. He’s having some kind of powerful spiritual experience. He says that God brought him out “by the Spirit of the Lord.” Whatever his experience actually was, we can be sure that this was no ordinary one. Ezekiel is describing a visionary experience not a physical one. God says the bones are “the whole house of Israel.” That’s clearly a metaphorical statement not a literal one. Ezekiel had a vision, and it is what that vision signifies that’s important.

So just what does it signify? Metaphorically speaking, a whole nation is dead. Then God brings them back to life by breathing the Spirit of God into them. Now, perhaps we aren’t terribly concerned with the fate of ancient Israel. After all, that’s just ancient history to us. The bones in Ezekiel’s story are a metaphor for a people who aren’t all physical dead but who are spiritually dead and threatened with extinction, with ceasing to exist as a people. Have you known people who were spiritually dead like that? I have. Have you known institutions that were still in existence but spiritually dead and threatened with ceasing to exist? I have. I’m the pastor of a church like that today. Or rather, I’m the pastor of a church that tends to think of itself that way even though I don’t think it really is. Some of you at least fear that this church will not continue to exist very long into the future.

And it is precisely in situations like the one this church faces that the meaning of Ezekiel’s vision is so important. Maybe sometimes we see dry bones, but with God there are no dry bones. Ezekiel’s vision show us that no matter how dry we become, no matter how dead we think we are, God can and will breathe new spirit into us. Now, that doesn’t make us humans immortal of course, but it does mean that no institution is necessarily beyond resurrection. In our story God tells Ezekiel to “prophesy,” first to the dry bones, then to the breath or the spirit—again, those two things are the same word in the Hebrew in which Ezekiel wrote. Now, in the Bible to prophesy is usually to speak a word to the world that God has given to one of God’s prophets. Here God tells Ezekiel to tell the bones that they will come back to life. Then God has Ezekiel speak to the breath (or the spirit) and told it to come into the restored bodies. It’s a little hard to see how those words apply directly to us, so let me suggest something. God probably hasn’t given us new words with which to prophesy to something or someone. But God has given us a call to pray. To pray without ceasing, as Paul says in one of his letters. When we read God saying to Ezekiel “prophesy,” let’s hear God saying to us “pray.” Pray, and listen. Listen for what God wants to say to us. Trust that God will never dessert us. Do our fallible best to discern what God wants from us, and have the courage to do it. That’s how dead bones come alive. That’s how churches that are discouraged can come alive again. It’s all up to the Holy Spirit, and it’s up to the people of those churches to turn to God and listen for Holy Spirit. Listen for the rattling of dry bones. Pay attention to new life entering the church.

There is new life entering this church, you know. There actually are remarkably many new people with us in my time here. A church doesn’t have to be big to be alive. A small church can be as alive as any big one, in a different way to be sure, but just as alive. So let’s remember. With God there are no dry bones. We’re not dry bones, and needn’t ever become dry bones. Pray to God. Listen for the spirit. I already hear a rattling sound.

Dem bones, dem bones, no dry bones.

Dem bones, dem bones, no dry bones.

Dem bones, dem bones, no dry bones.

O hear the word of the Lord.

Amen.