The season of Pentecost is one of the most celebratory seasons
of the Church year. It is, after all, the birthday of the Church. On the day
of Pentecost, we see the transformation of a scared, rag-tag group of Jesus’
disciples into bold and powerful followers of God. We see the mighty movement
of God as 3,000 people are added to the number of Christians in Jerusalem.
It is sometimes hard to remember that the Spirit of God was active and working
in the world long before the day of Pentecost. As we read through the Bible,
we see that where the Spirit of the Lord is, fantastic and wonderful things
happen: broken lives are made whole, ordinary men and women become heroes,
lives are transformed. Over the next four weeks, we will follow the movement
of the Spirit through four Bible passages that are familiar to all of us.
We will find that where the Spirit of the Lord is, amazing things happen.
In 597 b.c., the southern kingdom of Judah followed in the footsteps
of its sister nation, Israel, when the king surrendered to the powers of Babylon.
The royal family and the wealthiest people in the nation were deported, and
in 587-586, the capital city of Jerusalem was destroyed. All those remaining
in Judah were deported to Babylon as well. The people who had built their
identity as the nation of Israel, as God’s chosen people, find that
they are left with nothing. During these days of exile Ezekiel, the priest,
became Yahweh’s prophet to the people of Israel. Ezekiel was one of
the most eccentric of Yahweh’s prophets, using such prophetic acts as
lying on his side for 80 days, digging through walls, trembling and shuddering
when he sat down for meals, and using the shaved hair from his head to symbolize
the siege of Jerusalem to get his message across to the Israelites. Meanwhile,
the people of Judah are suffering and wondering what will happen next. In
the beginning, the prophet Ezekiel has no words of comfort for them. The first
24 chapters of the Book of Ezekiel are filled with signs and oracles of death
and destruction. It chronicles the punishment of the wicked Israelites for
their unfaithfulness to the covenant they had made with Yahweh. Thankfully
for the people in exile, and for us, this is not the only message that the
prophet brings. In chapter 33, Ezekiel’s message begins to change. No
longer do his oracles promise only death and destruction; he begins to speak
words of restoration to the Israelites. He begins to speak to them of the
day when they will no longer be in captivity, held far away from the beloved
homes they were forced to leave.
Ezekiel’s vision in the valley of dry bones is the third
of four times when he is transported by the Spirit of the Lord from his home
in Babylon to the middle of a valley. This valley is filled with dry, desiccated
bones. It is almost as if he has been set in the middle of a battlefield.
As Ezekiel looks around at all of the bones, Yahweh asks him an important
question, “Can these bones live?” Ezekiel doesn’t know the
answer, but what he does know is that God knows. Yahweh commands the prophet
to prophesy to the bones. Not words of destruction, but words of life that
bring together bones and covers them with sinews and flesh. We soon see that
Ezekiel’s work is not done as he calls to the four winds and breath
enters these dry bones. They live, a vast army brought to its feet.
These are not just any bones, they are the bones of the people
of Israel, those who have been utterly destroyed. God uses these words of
Ezekiel to assure the people that they have not been forgotten, they are not
alone. Even though it seems as though they have been completely abandoned
and they no longer know who they are, they have not been forgotten. God is
not finished with them yet. They will not always be strangers in another land:
God will restore them to their homes, to their own land. Not only that, but
Yahweh will continue to be their God, and they will continue to be Yahweh’s
people, no matter what they have done. It is then that they will know that
Yahweh is Lord and can do all things.
There are times in life when we find ourselves to be like the
people of Israel: we lose our understanding of who we are. We have seen ourselves
in a particular way, but when life changes, we wonder where the pieces fit
for us. We are not sure who we are, where we belong in the world, or what
will happen to us next. We may even feel as though God has left us to figure
things out on our own. We feel abandoned and we cannot see any hope for our
future. We lose our sense of identity.
The people of Israel had been violently forced from their homes,
separated from their families, and suffered the destruction of their communities.
They felt that God had abandoned them—had forgotten about them. God
does not ignore them. God hears the cries of His people and answers them.
God, through the prophet Ezekiel, makes living, breathing bodies from mere
bones. In all of this, we find God speaking to the people of Israel, caring
for them, loving them, renewing the covenant that has been made with them.
They are given a new identity, not an identity based on being a political
nation, but on being a people who have been brought back to life by God.
Like the people of Israel, we must understand we are not hopeless,
we are not cut-off, we have not been abandoned—God is here. We tend
to find our identity in what the world deems as important: our career, our
salary, the success of our children, the size of our home. God, however, tells
us that these things are not truly important, they should not shape our identity.
Instead, our identity should come from being the people of God, a people that
God wants to have relationship with, a people in whom God has chosen to give
the Holy Spirit, a people that God loves. When we allow ourselves to be shaped
by this relationship with God, we, too, are given new life.
What does this new life do for us? It gives us the opportunity
to lay aside the world and its ways of defining us. It gives us the opportunity
to build our identity not on ideas of wealth and success as the world does,
but instead to build our identity as the people of God. We can live being
reminded that we are not alone; we are cared for and are identified as God’s
people. We are called to share our lives with others, to tell them of this
new life that is available to all who would call out to God, and desire to
be given a new life.
(For the full manuscript
of this sermon go to www.preachersmagazine.org and click on “Sermons.”)
Most of the people in our congregations have at least a little
familiarity with this text, many of them probably remember singing about “’dem
dry bones” in Sunday School as children. The difficult part of preaching
this sermon is to help our congregation to see themselves as “dem dry
bones.” Christians today often find that they have divided loyalties.
We are a part of the Church, we want to shape our lives after that of Jesus.
We also have to make our way in a secular society. Like the Israelites, we
find that we are seduced by the world around us. We want to fit in, we want
to have a nice house, a nice car, we don’t want our children to feel
separated from their classmates. This passage is a reminder to us that seeking
what the world is after, grounding our identity in what the world does, can
only lead to destruction. Those who follow that path may find themselves lost
and unsure of what to do. This is certainly what happened to the Israelite
people as they sought to “be like the other nations.”
This passage also tells us that destruction does not have the
final word, God does. No matter what we do, or how far away we have wandered,
God is still there. God still cares for us, God still loves us, and God still
wants to have relationship with us. When we are reminded of this, we are given
a new identity, and a new life.
