Can
These Bones Live?
Ezekiel 37:1-14
Over
the past four weeks I led a Bible study focused on the tension in all of us
between faith and doubt. I began by asking what prompts us to question our
faith? Where does doubt come from? The class came up with a number of good
observations. The culture around us
doesn’t seem to share our convictions as it once did. Fifty years ago the
majority of Americans could be found in worship each week in some kind of faith
community, but it is not that way now, so we wonder sometimes, do they know
something we don’t? Scientific discoveries to some challenge the words of
scripture and so some question, “Is this really the Word of God?” But, far and away the most common reason
cited for faith faltering and failing is a crisis of some kind: loss of a loved one, loss of a job, an
illness, a marriage breaking up.
Something bad happens and it doesn’t seem to be getting any better. We’ve prayed and prayed but our circumstance
doesn’t change and we begin to wonder if it ever will.
We find ourselves in
the midst of the Valley of the shadow David described in the twenty-third psalm,
so we see no light at the end of the tunnel.
We ask ourselves, “Is God really there?
Does God really care?” That’s
when we have more questions than answers, more doubt than faith. So, we are tempted to give in and give up and
make do with what we have and where we are.
We are not the first to
feel that way.
Round about six hundred
years before Christ a priest named Ezekiel looked over the walls around
Jerusalem and saw the cooking fires Babylonian army. Some in Ezekiel’s circle
calmed the fears of the King and country by saying they were God’s chosen
people and God was stronger than any army and would protect them. Ezekiel was not so sure. He believed that God’s people made more time
for themselves than for God. He saw them
sacrifice their moral conviction on the altar of convenience and comfort. The
rich seemed to be getting richer and the poor were getting poor and he was not
so sure that God would overlook the suffering brought on by injustice and
oppression. So Ezekiel that that God
might let this foreign army breach their walls as an expression of judgment
upon a people. He saw bad times a coming and he was right.
The army conquered
Jerusalem and carried off the best and brightest, Ezekiel included. These Hebrew exiles were not kept in prisons
or in concentration camps. They were free to marry, build homes, plant crops,
buy and sell. In other words they could make
a home far from home. They were also
free to gather and worship their God, but many had a hard time doing that
because they could not reconcile their circumstance and situation with a God
who was really there and who really did care.
They were not where
they wanted to be. They were not where
they were supposed to be, so they lived with a sadness that ran down to their
bones. The Bible says they refused to “sing
the Lord’s song in a foreign land.”[1]
I’ve seen this happen
before. Sometimes when people’s lives
have been interrupted by a great tragedy, they stop coming to worship. At exactly that moment when folks need God
the most, they walk away from him. I
suppose there are many reasons for this, but I wonder if they do that because
they have lost their vision of God. They’re not sure if God is really there or
if God cares or if God is fair. They no
longer see any light and so they have no hope. They believe the way they feel
now is how they’ll feel always. Life has
lost its flavor and joy so they cannot stand next to others who are singing
their praise to the Lord because that does not jibe with their feelings or
their experience.
So, they do what the
exiles in Babylon did. They tried to
numb the spiritual pain by making life more comfortable. We do the same. We work hard.
We gather lots of stuff to feather our nests and make our homes as nice
as we can. But, however nicely we do decorate it, Babylon is not our home. As we deaden our longing for God we die
spiritually day by day. We die from the
inside out.
That’s what happened in
Babylon. They no longer thought of the
Promised Land. They made due where they
were. So, one day the Spirit of the Lord
came upon Ezekiel and set him down in the middle of a valley full of dry dusty
bones. And God said, “Ezekiel, what do
you think? Can these bones live?” Ezekiel, no fool, said “Only God knows”.
Flipping the question
back to God did not get him off the hook, because God next says, “Ezekiel,
preach to the bones.”
Now, there’s not a
pastor alive who has not had the feeling Ezekiel must have had at that moment,
who has not at one time or another stood in a pulpit and looked out and
wondered is there any life here? Am I
talking to myself? Is anyone listening?
There are many today
who think there is not life anymore in the church, who believe that the church
is dying and so God must be dead or at least not very relevant to our modern
world. Those who study such things run
the numbers and see for example the membership losses in the Presbyterian
Church over the past few decades and carry that rate of decline into the future
and conclude in only a matter of decades we will no longer exist. We are not the only ones who have seen these
hard times. It is clear the culture is
becoming more secular and the number of people who list no religious
affiliation is growing. There doesn’t
seem to be the spiritual vitality there once was, so the valley is filling up
with dry bones.
Still God says, “Preach
to the bones.” Now, if it was me, I’d be
thinking, “God bring those bones to life and then I’ll do a little preaching.” But, that is not the way of God, who calls us
to believe without seeing and to step out in faith. That’s because the Lord’s
word always makes room for hope, and it is hope that brings us back to
life. Hope rises up from our bones and
chooses to believe no matter what circumstance or situation we find ourselves
in.
Hope tells us that
today will last for today but it does not have a hold on tomorrow or for
eternity. Working in concert with God we can make a better tomorrow. That’s why
hope is revolutionary. It is not locked into today. It envisions a better tomorrow.
America used to be like
that. People used to think life will be
better for their children than it was for them, that the brighter days are
before us and that’s why they were willing to work so hard and sacrifice so
much. Today many believe that is not
so. They don’t think that what they
believe or do will matter or affect any kind of outcome, so they don’t work as
hard, sacrifice as much. Instead it is
eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we may die.
If we turn against tomorrow, we turn our back on hope. That’s when the human spirit begins to wither
and die.
This is what the church
has to offer and this is why I believe that though the forms and structures of
churches may need to change or they will die, the message remains the same and
that will not change and will not die.
The Apostle Paul wrote
to the believers in Rome that the one “who raise Christ from the dead will give
life to your mortal bodies and through his Spirit dwell in you.” The church has always found its life not in
what it sees today but in the spirit of God who raises dead hopes. The day we lose our ability to envision a
better tomorrow is the day we deny the resurrection.
That’s why we keep
trying. That’s why we keep pouring hope
out of our little cups, why the Deacons lead worship at Kingston manor, why we
bake brownies for a soup kitchen downtown, why we support a health ministry for
those who cannot afford it, why Sunday school teachers show up every Sunday,
why youth leaders give their time and effort.
Meanwhile, back in my
Bible Study, I began by asking what prompts you to doubt your faith and I
concluded with what encourages your faith?
Both classes morning and evening responded by saying community. Gathering with other people of faith
encourages our faith. Being with like
minded people strengthens your thinking.
Both classes said prayer encourages faith because it connects us to God.
Now the morning class then
said music, while the evening class said preaching and Bible Study. Obviously the evening class was correct in
their priority, but music is important also.
It does touch our souls in a way the spoken word does not.
Finally, each said
service encourages faith. When we give
to others we do receive. Why? Image of God…...
So we will take our
stand beside Ezekiel and proclaim our hope to the dry bones, “Thus says the
Lord, I will cause breath to enter you and you shall live!” You who gave up hope, who gave up dreaming;
your who think your best years are behind you, you who think the lord God has
forgotten all about your little life.
To you we say, “Arise!”
Arise from the heap of discard dreams. Arise to discover the Holy Spirit is
breathing life back into you. Arise to
live with magnificent hope! Because the
world is dying for you to believe God is not done.
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