On Sunday, April 10, 2011, I was honored to speak at The Lutheran Mission of Seguin, Texas. As mentioned in other places, this sermon is the basis for what I shared not a word for word transcription. Thank you.
Ezekiel 37: 1-14
One of my favorite TV’s shows is … Bones.[1] I know that there are a lot of crime shows but there is something about Bones that is different than other crime dramas. Perhaps I enjoy Bones because of its balance of intelligent emphasis on forensic anthropology, archaeology and of course the sexual tension between, Dr. Temperance “Bones” Brennan, and FBI special agent Seeley Booth.
Possibly the reason the TV drama has been successful is that Dr. Brennan is a logical empiricist, meaning she thinks there is a rational answer to everything. From my opinion this is what adds charm to the show. She is a rounded character —– forensically brilliant, not particularly faith-friendly yet a bit socially awkward. For example, if someone makes any kind of pop-culture reference, she without hesitation or inhibition, interrupts the conversational flow with her signature line and straight face, “I don’t know what that means.”
Nevertheless, although Dr. Brennan might not have a clue about slang, metaphors or movie quotes ---- Bones gets bones. Missing metacarpals point out a crime of marital passion. Half a rib cage is evidence of a tiger attack. A burned skeleton logically reveals the motives of eco-terrorists. We’re talking a crazy, weird understanding of bones.
But I have to wonder if some bones might stump even the great Dr. Brennan. Imagine this potential opening scene. An expansive valley knee-deep with bones; all that one can see in all directions are scads of human skeletons mixed with one another, all of them bleached and brittle. I can just imagine, Dr. Brennan standing amid the bones — confused. There’s no obvious rational explanation. How’d they get here? What caused these deaths?
Then, suddenly, the bones begin to tremble around her. Rattling and jostling, they begin to merge. They take on natural, human connections to one another. Bone piles become skeletons to which the Doctor utters, “I don’t know what that means.”
Well, Dr. Brennan, most of us agree with you entirely. That scene is weird. Irrational. No natural explanation. And it’s the vision God gives Ezekiel in today’s Old Testament lesson.
God takes Ezekiel on a visionary journey to a valley filled with dry bones. After surveying the whole scene, God makes clear to Ezekiel that there is absolutely no life. Ezekiel does not need an explanation at this but perhaps we do.
This is a picture of Israel in exile.[2] From the moment the Israelites first stood on the edge of the Jordan River, they had been warned of the results of living unfaithfully in the Promised Land. But they forgot God. They chose cheap replicas. They ignored God’s demand to extend justice to all. Their worship became hollow lip service.
Now God’s anger was apparent. The empire of the moment, Babylon, had scorched the earth, sacked Jerusalem and kidnapped the best and brightest from among them. The land was lifeless. Dry. A nation given life at Mount Sinai now lay dead in a valley. Before today’s lesson, Ezekiel of course had heard the comments and whispers as to reason why this had happened, a Glen Beck chalkboard full of discussion around morality, minorities, government, natural disasters and wars.
Of course those are not the only comments, because there were others that Ezekiel was familiar with: “I feel spiritually dried up. I haven’t heard anything from God in years. My prayers feel as though they never leave the room. I’d believe in God if he’d show up for me … just this once.” We, too, may understand such comments.
These hopeless feelings and comments arise from situations where we feel no God and no end in sight. Possibly we may be looking all around us and like Dr. Brennan have one logical thought: “I don’t know what that means.”
Nevertheless a healthy view of God and the faithful life has room for such outcries, because real change comes through brutal honesty and vulnerability before God. The Psalms and Lamentations in the Bible for example, have similar cries and countless great saints before us have endured dark nights of the soul.
So, how do we return to hope? Hope comes through embracing our spiritual despair. God “asked me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ I said, ‘Sovereign LORD, you alone know.’” [3] Ezekiel was shown total death before he was shown new life. And this is where I not only disagree with the character of Dr. Brennan and the reason I do not find hope on TV or in movies or anywhere else because in that in this place of death, Ezekiel knows that only God can bring life. Knowing how someone died does not bring hope.
God commands Ezekiel to speak to the dead.[4] Ezekiel is to offer Israel the promise of new life. Only God can bring hope and restoration.[5] At which point, suddenly the dead begin rattling back together. Signs of life appear — tendons and flesh. Corpses begin to look alive again.[6]
Yet, although hope has now sprung in the bones, true hope must be authenticated by true life. In today’s lesson, reforming needed a refilling. Just like moving furniture around after a divorce can be considered a new start, more needs to be done. Restoration was to be accompanied by the people’s change of heart.[7]
How? Ezekiel had to still “Prophesy to the breath.”[8] Like Dr. Brennan we could wonder: “I don’t know what that means.” Well, beautiful wordplay is at work here in our lesson. The Hebrew word “Ruach” (roo-ach) is a multilayered word that we see throughout the Old Testament. It can mean breath, wind, the spirit of a person or the spirit of God. The Hebrew word for prophesy carries the idea of causing to bubble up like a spring, thus when Ezekiel is told to “prophesy to the breath,” it was understood to mean “pouring forth words abundantly like gushing water to the spirit of God.”
Clearly, God wanted Ezekiel to pour himself out before God. To find new life in the bone yards of our world, we must do the same: pour forth words to the spirit of God and beg God to act. God alone gives hope with new life. God alone sends his breath and work into the dryness of our landscapes. That means to “prophesy to that wind” is to pray for renewal.
No matter where we are and no matter our circumstances, God wants to bring life into death! Ezekiel speaks to God’s people, asking them to see the deadness in and around them … as well as hope in God’s new life.
Before I conclude let me add one final point, one that would be healthy to lay bare. Although I am not a member of this community, many of us have followed prayerfully your journey from despair to new life; nonetheless, simply moving from the valley does not mean the journey is complete. How can we take the momentum that has started a move from dry, brittle bones to sinews and muscle, into richer and deeper life? Ezekiel pleads with God’s Spirit to bring life anew. Let us do the same with people everywhere, pleading for God’s Spirit to bring life anew. Because guess what? There is life to be found in the bones. Amen.
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