“A Message of Hope”
Ezekiel 37:1-14
Are you on pins and needles with everything that is going on in this world?
If so, you are not alone, and in many respects, this is a good thing.
This pandemic is new to all of us and not something that we have ever experienced before.
There is no precedent for those of us living in the 21st Century.
There is no established response, and therefore, you may find your emotions all over the board.
And that is okay.
That is normal.
Think about it, four weeks ago, it seemed to most Americans that things were great and under control.
We were healthy, many were wealthy, planning Spring Break Vacations, working while dreaming of the future—considering adding additions to our homes, spending frivolously.
Then—and consider how astounding this is—a microscopic virus appears and suddenly causes the shutdown of the entire world.
It brings things, a bit, back to reality, does it not?
I mean, we aren’t invincible after-all.
Our social structures aren’t
Impenetrable; we aren’t God.
Human-made security is but an illusion, and if the last few weeks haven’t shaken our collective pride to the point of admitting that, I don’t know what will.
How, then are we to understand ourselves?
During this Corona Virus pandemic, many of us are tempted to fear.
We might experience anxiety and even despair.
Some people have lost their precious lives, some have lost those whom we love, some have lived through the misery of the illness, some have lost their jobs, their income, and almost all of us are dealing with major disruptions to the normal flow of our lives.
How are you dealing with this crisis?
Do you have hope?
Or do you feel yourself giving in to fear and anxiety?
In our Scripture Passage for this morning, the utter hopelessness of Israel kind of mirrors our situation.
It was a very dark time for Israel.
Ezekiel himself was exiled to Babylon for 11 years, and during that time he delivered a message of doom and gloom.
Then, in 586 BCE Jerusalem fell, the Temple was burned to the ground and the Davidic Monarchy came to an end.
Think about it, everything they had ever trusted, everything that had given their lives shape and meaning was gone.
And worst of all—in their eyes, their God had been defeated by the gods of the Babylonians.
Could it be that their God wasn’t really Lord at all?
Or perhaps, God had deserted them in their darkest hour.
Israel was not only in exile, they were having a crisis of faith—and what could be worse?
And we hear their despair in verse 11: “Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.”
And then, and then—as it always does—God’s grace breaks through.
And Ezekiel goes from a prophet of doom and gloom to a prophet of hope—revival, restoration—preaching about a glorious future of redemption.
But, I’m getting ahead of myself.
This prophet of doom and gloom says that “the hand of the Lord” picked him up and placed him in a valley of dry bones.
What a dark night of the soul that must have been.
Have you ever had a “dark night of the soul”?
Have you ever looked around at your life and your situation in life and seen nothing but, metaphorically of course, a valley of dead and dry bones?
Imagine Ezekiel’s situation.
God gives him this vision.
And all he sees for as far as the eye can see are bones.
Old, dead, dry bones.
Where is the hope?
Where is the life?
What good can come from here?
How would you feel in Ezekiel’s situation?
Would it be like a bad dream that you desperately tried to wake up from in order to escape the terror of it all?
And then, suddenly God is asking Ezekiel a question: “Son of man, can these bones live?”
It’s almost laughable is it not?
We are talking about old bones with no flesh on them.
They have been exposed to the elements for who knows how long?
There is no life in them whatsoever.
“Can these bones live?”
What would you say?
I wonder if I ever write someone off?
Do I ever get so frustrated with another human being that I say to myself: “There is no hope for this person.”
“They will never change.”
“They will never accept Christ.”
“They will never get out of the muck and mess they are in.”
“They are just going to keep on doing whatever they are doing until they die.”
“I give up!”?
Or how about a situation?
Do I ever think, “This ministry will never bear fruit?”
Or, “I don’t see anything good coming from all my efforts.”
“What’s the use?”
I know I do.
How about you?
That’s kind of like the situation Ezekiel is in.
His people are at the lowest of the lowest points in their entire history.
They are in exile.
They are even forgetting who they are.
They are giving up on their God.
Things have hit rock bottom.
And these “dry bones” God is showing Ezekiel is a image of their condition.
They are dead.
They have no more life.
It’s over.
All hope is gone.
And God asks Ezekiel, “Can these bones live?”
Again, if you were in Ezekiel’s place, what would you say?
How would you answer that question?
Or let’s look at it from another angle.
Perhaps you have been trying to get your life on-track for a really long time.
Perhaps you have promised God you would change your ways since you were a little kid and you are getting older now…
…and nothing has changed.
As a matter of fact, things have gotten worse.
Your sins have become more perverse.
Your attitude has become completely rotten.
You have no joy, no peace, no happiness.
If God showed you your life up to this point, and asked, “Can these bones live?” what would you say?
The answer seems obvious.
Dry bones are the very definition of dead, gone, not coming back.
But Ezekiel chooses faith over despair.
He takes a leap.
And he answers God, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”
The story of Ezekiel reminds us that life itself is utterly and totally reliant on God.
And it offers us a glimmer of hope…
…Hope that God and God alone can, indeed, bring new life, even when everything seems to be completely hopeless, completely dead.
For nothing, nothing is impossible with God!!!
A valley of dry bones.
Such an image seems so final, like it’s the literal end of the road.
It’s hard, almost impossible to have hope in these moments.
And if you have lost your job due to the Corona Virus, you may be feeling that way this morning.
Or, if you are a recent college graduate searching for a job, during such a time as this, you may be feeling as if all hope is lost.
But here, in our Scripture Passage for this morning, we read some of the first hints of our ultimate hope…
…some of the first hints of Resurrection.
God instructs Ezekiel to prophesy, to preach to these dry, brittle, dusty, well-beyond life bones.
And this is not the end of their story.
And that is because we see them come to life, as sinews and muscles and skin again cover the bones.
But, bones with skin and muscle are still, in a sense, just dead bones.
So, God breathed His breath into them.
And the word for breath here is the same word used back in Genesis when God created the first humans and breathed in them the breath of life.
It’s also the same word used for the Holy Spirit Who comes and lives and brings new life to all who will believe.
And the Lord says in verse 12: “I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them…I will put my Spirit in you and you will live.”
And so, we see that absolutely nothing is impossible with God.
Absolutely no situation is beyond repair.
Absolutely no life is beyond the possibility of redemption, salvation, transformation.
And just as God breathed new life into the valley, putting the lives of these dead people back together, God’s promise is always a promise of new life!
My friends, as we face the unknowns, the uncertainties, the craziness of this Corona Virus…
…as we watch this worship service on our computers rather than joining together in worship as we have always done…
…as we get “cabin-fever” and listen to the frantic voices on the news…
Let us remember that we worship a God of Resurrection, even though we may feel as if we are in valley of dry bones or tombs of darkness.
In these difficult places where hope seems lost and all seems to be at the end, God gives us breath…
…Life-giving breath.
As we deal with this Virus and as we enter these final days of Lent, my prayer for you and for me is that we will take that breath, and ask God to renew our spirits….
…That we will remember that God breathes new live even into the most difficult places and offers us TRUE HOPE—new Life—Resurrected Life!
And having this new life can be as simple as taking a breath of God’s Spirit.
So, how about making every breath you take your prayer, heightening your awareness of God’s presence with you, of God’s offer of salvation and Resurrection—even when you feel completely dead.
So let’s take deep breaths…
…let’s take lots of them.
And as we do, may God’s breath be a gift to us that we accept, and may we have new life.
Amen.
