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“Can Dry Bones Dance Again?”
Ezekiel 37:1-14
Rev. Tonya Arnesen
July 16, 2006

Introduction to the scripture:
Last week, we heard from the prophet Jeremiah, who reminded a people in exile, that God had a plan for them – plans to give then a future and a hope.” This morning, we hear from Jeremiah’s contemporary, Ezekiel – the priest turned prophet.

We don’t generally hear too much from Ezekiel’s writing in worship. Perhaps that’s because much of it sounds as if it could be taken from the pages of a “Biography of a Madman.” This Old Testament prophet saw God in a fiery chariot and spoke of Jerusalem as a rusty pot that boiled its citizens. He ate scrolls and burned his hair to shock people into paying attention. But there was a method to his madness. For Ezekiel was also doggedly hopeful. He had two missions in life – to warn Israel of God’s displeasure with her disregard of him and then, after she suffered his wrath and sat stewing in exile, to offer the promise that God would save her.

We know that God has the desire to give us a future with hope – and Ezekiel’s vision reminds us that God also has the power to bring new life to those who trust in the divine Word – in spite of all evidence to the contrary.

(read Ezekiel 37:1-14) –

SERMON

Some time ago, I was driving in Detroit and spied a big metal heap that used to be a car – parked along the street. What a sad sight! The back two tires were completely flat and the front tires didn’t look much better – they were worn through the treads and the hubcaps were gone. The front windshield was shattered, but still intact. The soft top roof was shredded to pieces and the back bumper was secured to the trunk with rusty wire. The passenger door was completely rusted through and the paint job was so oxidized that I couldn’t tell whether the original color had been blue or green. To me, it looked like a hopeless wreck. I wondered, “Why doesn’t somebody tow that thing off to the junkyard?” Then I chuckled to myself when I saw a sign taped to the rearview mirror that said, “This is not an abandoned car!”

This morning, through the prophet Ezekiel, God speaks a Word of hope to us saying, “This is not an abandoned world! This is not an abandoned city! This is not an abandoned church! Yours is not an abandoned life!”

That is precisely the kind of news that the people of Israel longed to hear. They were as low as low could be. They had ignored every warning from the prophets: defied God’s law, abused the poor and followed after idols. As a consequence of their rebellion, God allowed them to be conquered by the Babylonians, dispersed to surrounding nations, separated from family – forced into slavery. Now isolated, wiped out, disheartened and spiritually depleted, they lamented, “Our bones are dried up, our hope has perished, our life rope has been cut.” And what happened at their darkest hour? God showed up! God used their time of crisis and weakness to bring His people back into fellowship with Him.

Ever notice that folks are more likely to pray when they’re in trouble? Losing a job; getting a divorce; struggling with their sexuality; battling with rebellious children; overwhelmed by the bondage of addition; hearing grim news from the doctor; losing a spouse or loved one – these are the kind of things that bring folks to their knees. In fact, pastoral experience tells me that more often than not, people come to church for the first time, or come back to church after a long time – because they’re at the end of their rope! And while I don’t believe that God causes life’s crises – I do know that God can use our times of struggle to remind us how much we need God; to draw us closer to Him.

Listen to what Dr. Grace Imathiu says about our times of crisis – our “exile times.” “Take heart because God can turn the hostility of exile into precious space to hear God loud and clear. Louder and clearer than you have ever heard God before. God can turn the despondency of heartbreak in exile into sacred space which God mends and God fills. God can turn the apathetic territory of exile into fresh ground for plowing over by God. You see, exile, personal or community, emotional or spiritual, exile is no time for superficial Pollyanna cliché answers. Shelve those, they won't cut it. Exile is time to go back to the drawing board, back to the essential, back to asking basic questions, hard questions, even embarrassing questions, questions that can no longer wait on the back burner. Thank God for exile! Thank God it is season for brutal eyeball-to-eyeball honesty. Thank God for exile. Thank God it is the season to be purged and purified.” (from her sermon, “Medicine for Dry Bones” preached on The Protestant Hour, 9/24/2000)

Friends, WE live in a time where the people of God are in exile! We have been carried away by worldly values: consumerism, individualism, hedonism, secularism. We are enslaved to unholy pursuits: pornography, gambling, drugs, alcohol and gluttony, grudges and unforgiveness, selfishness and greed, apathy and hopelessness, racism and intolerance.

But thank God for exile! It can become a precious space to hear God loud and clear. In what way do you need to be honest with yourself? In what ways do you need to alter your course or change priorities so they are more in line with God’s purpose and plan for your life? What essential, basic, hard questions do we need to be asking as a church in order to be purged and purified? While we would never ask for the struggles in our lives, let us remember that in God’s gracious goodness, God can use our times of exile – personal or community – for His good purposes.

That is what Ezekiel and the people of Israel discovered. In a vision, Ezekiel is led by God to a valley of dry bones. We don’t know exactly where this place is: some say it is the Jezreel Valley, others say it’s the Megiddo Plains, still others say it’s the Valley of Armageddon. Wherever it is, this place is grim. He finds himself standing in a broad valley full of bones and “lo, they were very dry,” he writes. Try to imagine the Death Valley scene, the heat, the glaring light shimmering off the bleached bones, the horror of such a monstrous symbol of death. As Ezekiel stands in the midst of this Death Valley, deep in bones, beyond any hope of life, God asks him, “Can these bones live?”

Now Ezekiel is caught in a dilemma. He cannot deny God’s life-giving power, so he cannot say, “No.” But he also cannot deny what his eyes see, so he cannot say, “Yes.” So he says, “Only you can know, O God.” And God says, “Prophesy to these bones.” (I’m glad I don’t have to preach that that crowd!) “If you tell the bones to live, I’ll make them live. I’ll breathe the breath of life into them as I did in the very Beginning.”

Let’s face it – looking at those dry bones, Ezekiel has no reason to hope for the future of Israel. But he does know God – trusts that God will always be faithful to His word. So, when God challenges Ezekiel to speak words of life and hope in a seemingly hopeless situation – Ezekiel takes a deep breath and he speaks. By speaking, he steps out in faith that God will accomplish His divine Word.

Do we have that depth of faith, that kind of trust in God that can speak a word of hope in the face of the grim realities of life? While our struggles cannot compare with the cataclysmic disaster of Israel’s exile – we can relate to their hopelessness. We have experienced unfulfilled expectations, shattered dreams, doors of opportunity closed in our faces. We have known spiritual drought – have experienced a feeling of God’s absence. And, beyond that, who isn’t confused or angry or grieved when we look at our broken and sinful world? Still God challenges people of faith – however parched we may be – to “Speak a word of hope. Speak and I will breathe the breath of life into your spirits and into the world in which you live.”

Speak a word of Hope! Tell of our vision of a world in which no one will live in poverty; where no one need go hungry or without clothing or without shelter or without medical care; a world in which the threat of nuclear disaster or the random violence of a terrorist’s bomb or a gang member’s gun will be replaced by mutual respect and cooperation; a world safe for our children and their children; a world in which there is opportunity for education and to pursue a meaningful life; a world in which “we are not judged by the color of our skin, but by the content of our character.”

Speak a word of hope – even when your dreams dry up and fade away. That’s what God says to Ezekiel. God knows there are times when we’re tempted to give up on our dreams; give up on God. We say, “I’m done. I’m tired of having my hopes and dreams disappointed time after time.” We resign ourselves to living with the present grim reality; put our head in our hands and join the Israelites in their lament, “Our bones are dried up, our hope has perished, our life rope has been cut.”

And that’s when God shows up, saying, “This is not an abandoned world! Detroit is not an abandoned city! Metropolitan is not an abandoned church! Yours is not an abandoned life!” Your future is not limited or determined by the circumstances of the present because my power is always GREATER than your reality!”

Now, church, how do we tap into that kind of life-giving, life-changing power? By opening ourselves to the Spirit of God. Ezekiel could have talked to those dry bones all day long and without God’s Spirit, all his talk would have simply been the chatter of a mad man. No, the life of God’s people depends upon their openness to God’s Spirit – particularly during times of struggle and crisis.

Surely we cannot remedy our situation under our own power – not by our striving, not by our will power or our self-denial, not by our determined believing or our desperate prayers. Jesus reminds us, “Apart from me, you can do nothing.” It is only by the Spirit of Christ that we find new life when we are spiritually dry; that we experience new excitement and vitality in our ministry together; that our young people find new reason to hope for their future; that this great city will experience new health and vigor.

We have no power to give life to lifeless dreams any more than Ezekiel could knit those bones together. The power to give life is God’s power. Our task is to be open to God’s power, to pray for it, to proclaim it, and to plug away at helping God put some sinew and flesh and skin on the bare bones of tomorrow. And when we share in God’s dreams, however unlikely the prospect of their fulfillment, when we open ourselves to God’s Spirit, when we remember that we live in partnership with a faithful God and a community of faith, there is hope for us – for the future of our church, our city, our world.

Our progress may be painfully slow. In fact, we may see only a few fed, clothed, educated and housed. In our lifetime, there may be only a small degree of international cooperation and domestic peace; only some cracks in the barriers of prejudice which divide the human family; only some small measure of reconciliation in relationships that have been fractured. Still – these little blessings are signs to the faithful that, “This is not an abandoned world!” We can depend upon God to be true to the divine word. We know that God will have the last word – and that God’s last word is always “life!”

So, people of God, let us speak this word of hope: God can use our times of struggle and sorrow, disappointment and hardship to draw us into a deeper relationship with Him; our future is not determined by the grim realities of the present – our future is secure in the goodness and grace of our Sovereign God – IF we will entrust our lives to God’s life-giving Spirit.

God has both the desire and the power to breathe new life into our tired spirits; new love into our relationships; new strength to face every challenge; new hope to keep on keeping on; new joy in offering our whole selves to serve Him; new priorities and purpose as we align ourselves with God’s divine plan; new POWER to accomplish everything that God has set before us.

“This is not an abandoned world!” For the Spirit of Christ has promised, “I will be with you always – even until the end of the age.” Now if that’s not enough to get these old bones dancing, I don’t know what is! Hallelujah! And amen.

Rev. Tonya M. Arnesen

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