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Rev. Steven Davis

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The Life Giving Breath Of God - April 6 sermon

The hand of the Lord was on me, and He brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “Sovereign Lord, You alone know.” 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’” So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. Then He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” So I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet - a vast army. Then He said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put My Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.’” (Ezekiel 37:1-14)
 
 
     Thinking back to last week for a moment, I suppose you could say that we've made a U-turn, and having walked through the valley, now we're back in the valley! Last Sunday, I spoke a bit about valleys; how they can be ominous places – places that can be dark, places that can seem to close in on you, places where there can easily seem to be no escape. There may be no more ominous imagery used in the Bible for a valley than the imagery used by Ezekiel – who offers for us a picture of a valley full of dry bones. I don't know about you, but when I read these words, I get a picture of a desert, probably the old West in the United States. It's dry, it's barren, and for the most part it's lifeless – and the things we find there that are alive are probably things we'd really rather not encounter. Or perhaps you think of the elephant graveyard from the Disney movie The Lion King – a dry, barren, rocky wasteland that's constantly covered in a fog that makes it dark, even in the daytime. If you know the movie, this is the unpleasant place visited by the lion cubs Simba and Nala, where they found all sorts of dangers – not the least of which was a pack of wild and unpleasant hyenas!
 
     Whether it's the Old West, or Disney's The Lion King or Ezekiel's prophecy it's the dry bones that makes such a place seem he most ominous. They're dry and they're lifeless. They can't move, they have no power, no strength. There may be no more hopeless image that you are ever going to find in the entire Bible than a valley full of “dry bones.” Think of that. It wasn't only a valley where you would find “dry bones.” This place was full of “dry bones.” Last week we talked about the 23rd Psalm, and the traditional wording of the 23rd Psalm, which refers to “the valley of the shadow of death.” That's ominous, but there's also a sort of poetic quality to it. The words don't perhaps grate as much as we might expect them to. But Ezekiel is apparently no poet. He simply introduces us to this ominous valley full of “dry bones.” The “dry bones” represent a lot of things, but perhaps the most important is what I've already mentioned – in general, they represent things that are lifeless and serving no purpose, accomplishing very little, except perhaps becoming treasure troves for future archaeologists! But when “dry bones” become content with just being something for future study but have little to offer in the present day, then that's the final confirmation that they're really dead. When we think about the valley of “dry bones” today we can understand the vision in one of three ways – all of which have meaning for us.
 
     In Ezekiel's own context, the “dry bones” are Israel. As with a lot of the prophets, Ezekiel wrote with the experience of the exile in his mind – with the Jewish people forced out of their homeland after being conquered by Babylon. Ezekiel wrote shortly after the exile; within a few years of that event. The Jewish people were still in shock; still wondering what had gone wrong; still wondering what they had done wrong; perhaps wondering if their God was really God. And, as often happens, a people who find themselves in a collective state of shock had found themselves lifeless, with seemingly nothing left to care about. Everything they valued, everything they cherished had been taken away from them; all that they had believed and placed their faith in suddenly seemed meaningless.
 
     If we look into our own day, the comparison to the church is obvious. So much of what we used to have and what we used to be has been taken away it seems, or at least lost. Our numbers, our money, our power, our prestige, our energy, our morale – it's all either gone or it's rapidly dwindling, and the future can often seem threatening rather than hopeful; devoid of possibilities. If we look into our own lives, too often we find comparisons there as well. For far too many people, life becomes a drudgery – no longer something to be enjoyed, but the proverbial “daily grind” as we go about our business, sometimes feeling like little more than cogs in a machine, sometimes feeling as if our lives have little purpose. In both those situations – either the situation of the church or in our own personal lives, we can start to feel like little more than “dry bones” - with neither life nor hope, existing but not living, there but not really making much of a difference. The prophet Ezekiel sees all this as God reveals it to him – and the vision surely could have been overwhelming. It would have been easy to get trapped in this valley of “dry bones.” But he didn't get trapped. He didn't get lost. He didn't fall into despair.
 
     I want to go back to near the beginning for a moment – to the creation story of the Book of Genesis:
 
Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. 
 
     God brings life from lifelessness. In the Creation story, God breathes the breath of life into lifeless dust – and suddenly there was life where there had been no life before. In the valley full of “dry bones” God tells the prophet to “prophesy” - essentially, once again, to breathe the word of God onto lifeless bones – and suddenly, once again, there was life where there had been no life before. You see, this is the way of God. God is the giver of life; God, in a sense, is life itself. When God's breath – or God's Spirit (because the words are the same in both Greek and Hebrew) - is breathed upon you, abundant life suddenly appears where before life had been dry and stagnant, and glorious hope suddenly appears where before things had seemed dark and hopeless. When the word of God is breathed upon you, the most amazing things can happen:
 
... as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. Then He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” So I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet ...
 
     Whether we're talking about the people of God of 3000 years ago, the church of today or any of our individual lives, sometimes we can seem to be little more than “dry bones,” fragile and ready to crumble apart. But just as much,  whether we're talking about the people of God of 3000 years ago, the church of today or any of our individual lives, the living word of God breathed upon us can re-animate us, and give us a whole new lease on life. So we need to proclaim this life giving word to others – breathe it upon them – and we need to ensure that it's continually breathed upon us, so that on those days when we feel like little more than a collection of “dry bones” new life might enter into us and give us a whole new beginning.
 
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