Ezekiel 37: 1-14 Psalm 130 Romans 8: 6-11 John 11: 1-45
“The leg bone’s connected to the hip bone….. them bones, them bones, them bones!”
Don’t know if you recall the old song but it comes from our 1st reading from Ezekiel. Ezekiel has a vision of a valley of dry bones. These bones were not simply dry, but very dry. I guess you could say it was a valley of no life and no hope…. A valley of death!
One thing that is really lacking in our modern western society is the ability to properly grieve. It is something that really strikes me throughout these readings as something that the people of God did very well. Ezekiel and other prophets lamented and grieved over the state of Israel and the sins of the nation to the extent that we have a book in the Bible called Lamentations – tears that were put into music. We probably think that the last thing we would want to do as people who grieve, is to sing, but I, as a singer and songwriter have experienced the benefit of this often. I’m sure it surprised many to see that I sang at Joe’s funeral, and I’m sure many would not understand. Joe knew and had planned his funeral this way, but more than this, singing is my lamenting… my tears… my outlet and often the resolution for the inner turmoil.
Our Psalmist in this week’s psalm expresses the fullness of his heart and cries out from the depths…
Psalm 130: 1-5 “1 Out of the depths I cry to you, LORD; Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. If you, LORD, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve you. I wait for the LORD, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope.”
And here we come to an important fact; if God kept a record of our sins none of us could stand. Without God’s mercy none of us has any hope.
In more ways than one we are “dead”. Perhaps through grief or disillusionment you can relate to the emotional deadness. The band, Evenesence, sang in one of their songs “bring me to life”. Many people are living lives aided by anti-depressants – why? It seems to me that the underlying reason is to cope with the inner sense of “deadness”…. Or what I believe to be very deep grief. What do we do with this grief? As I have already stated, our society just doesn’t cope with grief.
In our Gospel reading Jesus weeps. It has been made a verse all on its own but few realize the significance. “Jesus wept.”
I was recently having a melt down and sent a text to a friend – my way of coping and reaching out. The text I received back stated “turn to God and he will let his light shine through”. You know this person missed the point altogether and I just wanted to slap them. Even the apostle, Thomas, who had no idea of what was really going on, knew how to support someone in grief when he said, in John 11:16 “….., “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”” He understood the concept of standing with someone in their grief.
The reason Jesus was weeping was because his friend who he loved deeply had died. The sisters who Jesus also loved deeply were grieving and Jesus filled with love and compassion shared their grief. Jesus knew that this story had a happy ending and yet he didn’t say to them, “Cheer up, God has it all under control” he wept with them. We know from the dialogue that Jesus had with the sisters that they believed in God and the resurrection of the dead – so they didn’t need reminding of their hope in God, but they received the comfort and love of a friend – who just happened to be THE resurrection and life.
We can be dead emotionally due to our grief and disillusionment with life on planet Earth, but we are also, without the sacrifice of Jesus and the gift of God’s grace, dead spiritually. Not only this, but we are subject to death as a physical reality. It never ceases to amaze me the amount of people who state the death of a beloved Grandmother as a reason for turning away from God – the reality of our physical life is physical death. I don’t believe God meant it to be this way and I believe this is why we can’t comprehend death – we were not created with death in mind. But death rules because of sin – physical death and spiritual and emotional death – when you think about it, in every way, death is the consequence of sin.
Jesus declares to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life” John 11:25,26 “Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?””
Jesus well and truly died on the cross. His blood was completely shed and the soldiers had no need to break his legs to make him die quicker, because he was already dead, but just to be sure, they pierced his side with their sword and blood and water came out – ie. He was dead and all his blood shed. On the third day, Jesus was again alive. How could this be? He is the resurrection and the life. If we cannot believe this, we are left quite rightly depressed as we are subject to the hopeless reality of a senseless and hopeless life, where everything is meaningless – let’s eat and be merry for tomorrow we die! However, if we can grasp the reality of the situation we can have the amazing and blessed assurance of love and eternal life in our relationship with him.
As a community, a church or a nation we can be rather dead also. The same solution is for all our deadness. Jesus – the resurrection and life.
The Israelite nation was described by God in the words of Ezekiel as being “dry bones” . These bones were in a pile and not connected in any way. But God commanded his prophet to speak his word to them:
Ezekiel 37: 4-6 “Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’”
If God can make dry bones into a living army of people He can do anything. But what is He telling us through the vision of Ezekiel? He commands the prophet to speak – to proclaim the word of God. We, the church are the prophet to our nation and community and we need to proclaim loud and clear. And in that message is that we live, not by any strategy, but through the life of God.- Ezekiel is told to prophesy breathe into the bones. This is the Holy Spirit.
If we have the Holy Spirit we are alive. It isn’t a particular program or activity or movement that brings life. It isn’t a particular denomination…. Remember the letter to one of the churches in Revelation says, “You have a reputation for being alive, but you are dead.” The dead are raised by the word of God. The prophet is faithful and speaks God’s word, but it is this speaking exactly what God commands that brings life, which means that we, the church, need to be waiting on the Spirit of God for our direction and walking in line with the Spirit.
Romans 8:6- “The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.”
In the same way that God brings us to life, and promises eternal life, by the gift of His Spirit, we need to live in that “alive” reality. We need to dedicate our lives to walking in the Spirit and in this way we will find our churches alive, our community alive and our nation alive.
The same person who sent me that text message has been disillusioned with our church and recently stated, “Yes but, where is the church headed?” Implying that the church is in bad shape and getting worse. The prophets were always disillusioned with God’s chosen people and their wayward sinfulness, but they never opted out. They prophesied God’s word over and over and when God said to Ezekiel to prophesy life into the dry bones that is what he did.
So many people are only going to church occasionally and stating that they don’t get much out of church. WE ARE THE CHURCH. And the church is headed where ever you take it. If it seems the church is dry bones, maybe today God is challenging you. What are you being asked to do about it? The prophet only speaks the word of God- it is God / Jesus who IS the resurrection and the life. This resurrection life is the gift of God to us – when we are in the church it can’t help but be alive if we are.
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