Breathing Life: Exodus 37:1-14 - Fifth Sunday in Lent

¹The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. ²He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. ³He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” ⁴Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. ⁵Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. ⁶I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.”
  ⁷So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. ⁸I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. ⁹Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” ¹⁰I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.
  ¹¹Then he said to me, “Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.’ ¹²Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. ¹³And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. ¹⁴I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act, says the Lord.” (NRSV)

Lebanon Lutheran Cemetery, Felton, PA.  Photo by author.

For as much as we talk about the modern-day decline of the Church and Christianity, there’s one American institution that’s declining even faster—the neighborhood mall. 

Nearly one-third of malls are at risk of dying off in the very near future—because the stores that fill them are closing at a frantic pace.  Sears, JC Penney, and Macy’s are just a few of the many that have been closing up shop, with nobody else is moving in.

You wonder, how can this be, since new malls and shopping centers were popping up everywhere just twenty years ago?

The obvious answer is the recession—and the shrinking middle class.  And one of our most popular local malls has seen fights and shootings.

With these abandoned malls, shopping centers, and restaurants littering the landscape we’re left with even more signs suggesting that our best days are behind us.

I probably wouldn’t feel the way I do if we lived in a one of the region’s sprawling suburbs.  But this is life here in Armstrong County.  There aren’t many opportunities to earn a decent living.  There’s poverty, drug abuse, domestic violence, blighted properties, and death. 

Yet our experience pales in comparison to that of the prophet Ezekiel in today’s Old Testament reading.  He and his fellow Israelites were captives in Babylon.  God’s Holy City of Jerusalem was destroyed.  God’s Holy Temple had been burned to the ground.  God’s chosen people had lost their land, their homes, their livelihoods—and with that, their very sense that they were still God’s people.  Theirs was a situation of absolute and total defeat.  They were living dead. 

Today, God has led Ezekiel into a valley littered with bones.  The scene would suggest that these bones were all that remained of a people who’d suffered a terrible defeat, and weren’t even granted the dignity of a proper burial. 

Yet God does not permit Ezekiel even a moment to dwell on the horror before him.  Immediately, God asks him, “can these bones live again?” 

I have no doubt God asks the very same question of you and me today—as we live amid so much death. 

I’d love to tell you that we could pray the steel mills back open; that we could pray five hundred people into this sanctuary on Sunday morning; and that we could pray everyone on our prayer list back into the lives they once knew.  But this isn’t what happens with Ezekiel.

God commands Ezekiel to speak to the bones—and they become bodies.  God commands Ezekiel to speak to the breath—and the bodies come alive.  Finally, God commands Ezekiel to speak to the crowd and affirm to them that God will have the final word over them.  These bones will live again.

The thing to bear in mind here is that this is a vision.  It’s not a return to the glories of yesterday.  It is a promise, but one that Ezekiel will not see fulfilled in his lifetime. 

In the meantime, the God who did these things is going to be with Ezekiel—and the people in exile.  God’s will isn’t death and defeat—but life and love.  You do not have to wait for God to start giving life.  God gives life now.  God breathes life into dead situations.

This is what God is up to here in our corner of the world.  God is bringing new life right here in this Church—at GriefShare; our clothing ministry; our new prayer ministry.  God is bringing new life through Community PATH—and the ministries happening in other churches. 

This community does not need Starbucks, Whole Foods, or costly new homes to be alive.  You just need God. 

Today, God is asking you: can these bones live again?  What is dead in you? What fear or disappointment is too much for you to bear?  What is it that you’ve done—or that’s been done to you—that you just can’t move past?

Believe that whatever is too much for you is never too much from God.  Christ is present in your struggle and working resurrection.  So listen to the promises of God’s Word.  Dwell on these instead of the demonic voices shaming and blaming you; telling you all hope is lost. 

One more thing—as a child of God, the power of the Holy Spirit is in you to bring life into dead situations.  It only takes just a little bit of forgiveness, compassion, and hope for God to create new life out of the ashes and broken pieces brought by death. 

After all, we’re still in Lent.  Good Friday looms on the horizon.  But resurrection is just around the corner. 

Hope is real because there is nothing that can happen that is beyond God’s power to redeem.  God makes a way when there is no way.

So lift up your heads and believe—because a new creation dawns just beyond the horizon.