April 2, 2017 - The 5th Sunday in Lent

Raising the Dead

Listen here.

            My dad used to sing a modified version of the old spiritual “Dem Bones” when I was a kid. He’d walk around singing, “Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones! Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones! Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones! Dem bones gonna rise again!” Then he’d sing about how the head bone was connected to the neck bone, and the leg bone was connected to the knee bone, and so on.
            That’s not quite the lyrics. This was in the days before you could Google lyrics to your heart’s content, and at some point … I think he was just making it up as he went along. But I always think of him singing, “Dem Bones” whenever I read Ezekiel 37 – the Valley of Dry Bones.
            This really is an incredible vision. It is eerie, powerful, thrilling, and wonderful all wrapped together. It is a vision that really grabs hold of the imagination. So, please, use your imagination and see what Ezekiel saw in your mind.
            Stand there and look around, and after the shock of seeing so many skeletons eases a bit, ask, “What happened here? Who were these people?”
            God told Ezekiel that these bones were the house of Israel. The skeletons represented their spiritual condition. They had worshiped other gods. They had indulged their lusts. They had neglected God’s Word. And now they were dead in trespasses and sins.
            The wages of sin is death. And it doesn’t get much deader than skeletons that are dried out, lying on a valley floor, bleached by the sun.

            On another level, this is humanity. This is humanity apart from Christ. Ephesians 2 reminds us, “You were dead in trespasses and sins.” Before Jesus. Without the breath – without the Spirit of God making us alive, this is us and this is the World. Dead in trespasses and sins. Physically alive, yet spiritually dead.
            I’d like for you to use this vision as a filter, or better, as a lens. I want you to use it as a lens to see the world through and to see your place in it. The world is the valley – like Psalm 23 says, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” We walk through the valley because we’ve been raised – Jesus has called your name and said, “Come out!” at your tomb. And now he shepherds you through the valley. He leads you as you walk – part of his vast army who have been raised by his Word.
            But we also see the bleached bones of those who are still dead in trespasses and sins. Can these bones live? Can these people who do not know Christ, these people who reject him, these who are sometimes openly hostile to God – can they live in him?
            You alone know, O Lord.
            Prophesy over the bones. That is what you are called to do – not necessarily to be a preacher or prophet – but to speak God’s Word in this world where God gives you the opportunity. To proclaim the world of the Lord to the dead whom you live among. Remind them of their maker. Remind them of God’s Will. Remind them of sin and salvation. The Word will shape them and form them. We are those who speak God’s Word into the death of this world. We confront death and announce: This is not God’s plan for you! Death, suffering, and separation from him was not his plan.

            But notice that the skeletons only became corpses when Ezekiel first preached. There was not breath in them. God told Ezekiel to prophesy to the breath. The word breath in Hebrew is ר֔וּחַ (ruach) which also means wind or Spirit. We call upon the Spirit of God to give life to the dead. It is God alone who can give life. It is God alone who can give faith in Christ – which gives eternal life, and takes us from being dead in trespasses and sins to being alive in him. So we pray for the Spirit to move in the valley – in the world – to make people alive in Christ.
            Brothers and sisters, see the valley around you. See the dead in their sin. Speak the Word there – tell of God who raises the dead, of Jesus who calls forth his friends from their graves. Speak of your Savior who assembled your bones, gave you the life of faith, and who will raise you up on the Last Day. And speak to the Spirit of God. Pray for him to enter the people around you to make them alive in Christ. Intercede for them and ask God to place his Spirit upon them. Pray for the Spirit to come and breath faith into those who do not believe in the God who made and redeemed them.

Children of God, can these bones live?

The answer is, yes! Yes, they can live when God puts his Spirit in us he calls us out of our grave – he raises us up – and then we know, because we are alive in Christ – we know he is the Lord. Amen. 

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