Acts 2, Ezekiel 37
Dry
Bones do Live
“The spirit of the Lord … set me
down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones …. dry bones.”
That sounds like a scene of utter despair and horror. A valley filled with dry bones! But this is very place where God’s way will be revealed.
This valley is intentionally set opposite to the reading from Acts, Chapter 2. To the upper room where the disciples are “all together in one place.” “All together in one place” is somewhat of a euphemism for “hiding out and scared out of their wits”! The disciples find themselves facing despair and horror. Jesus was crucified; now he has departed; they could easily be the next candidates for crucifixion.
I do want to draw a further comparison to us – here at St Michael and in the One Holy and Apostolic Church. We are somewhere halfway into these readings in that we can see that God is preparing to come among us and do an amazing thing. Where the comparison or contrast is appropriate is whether we can yet anticipate how the flames of fire or the rattling of bone joining bone will give direction.
While Acts 2 is the text which explains why we celebrate Pentecost Sunday, I do want to focus on the Ezekiel image. Ezekiel 37.
As is true for most of the Old Testament, you have to start in the middle and work your way to the beginning and to the ending.
Look at verse 11. Here we see to whom it is that God speaks; to whom God sends his messenger. It is “whole house of Israel.” These are a people whose circumstances and misfortunes have led them to conclude “our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.”
We won’t turn this into a history lesson, but if you are unaware of why the people of Israel might have felt as if all hope was lost, set that thought aside or at least take my word for it. Those whom God chose as His people were continually being harassed and bombarded by those who prefer to live differently. Take your pick as to why this was the case. I might say take your pick as to why this is still the case.
It was to a people who feared that all was lost that God comes and breathes life.
I said that St. Michael may be a bit closer to the middle of these texts – in that we can see the new thing that is happening. Pastors Bates and Bates moved to Greenville this week and into their new home. They have come by the office, though all of us need to avoid asking them to start their ministry here until they have completed their farewells to the congregations in North Carolina. We can see that God is among us and active.
But where will God take us? And how will the Spirit lead us?
Look again at Ezekiel.
The act which causes the bones to connect and for sinews to hold them in place is the same as the act which allows them to live. The prophet “breathes” on them. God’s messenger shares the air which he has inhaled.
Hopefully you know (and will remember) that the same root word is interpreted into English from Hebrew. The word can be understood as 1) breath, 2) wind, 3) air, and 4) spirit. Knowing this allows us to perceive how it is that the prophesy of the messenger pours out the spirit of the Lord on those dry bones. Ezekiel is sharing the spirit of God, temporarily being stored in his lungs.
This allows us to further understand why each breath is a gift from God. Each breath is the Spirit entering our lives. And death is that condition in which God is not in us and part of us.
In the Acts reading, there is also spirit/breath/air/wind. In Acts 2:1 we are told “there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house.” It may be the “sound” which filled the entire house, but the sound seems to have been a byproduct of the moving of the spirit. If it is the moving of the spirit which we note, I would also want us to see that the writer speaks of it as a “violent wind.” “Violent” can mean strong or undeniable. But it also gives rise to questions of unpredictability and a force likely to rearrange things.
How appropriate that St. Michael is about to enter a new phase of ministry so close to Pentecost Sunday. And how helpful these lessons are as we open ourselves to the ways and places in which God is breathing life.
For too many years we have watched and worried about the rise of those churches which follow a less formal liturgy and/or remain bound to historical and doctrinal statements. Call them the “mega-churches,” or “evangelicals,” or the ‘Non-denoms,” there is this ever-present fear that we are losing members and losing ground. The witness of a God who breathes on the very bones of those who are his people dispels any fears or worries we might have. Maybe we will lie for a while in a dry valley. Preserving our way of life is not the issue. The only concern is whether we are following God. And if we find that we have forsaken the mission of Jesus and allowed ourselves to seek other ends, then we of all persons ought to be prepared to admit our failures and repent.
COVID is going to change the way many if not most think about “church.” I am appreciative of those who have corrected me when I started to speak of “getting back….” We can’t go back, we won’t be able to go back, and on this Pentecost Sunday some of my colleagues are shouting that we shouldn’t go back. Let’s not be so frightened by a sound like that of a mighty wind that we fail to feel and follow the Spirit’s push to get out of our gathering places and into the world. Out there, in the world, there are Parthians and Medes, and homeless and hungry, abused and neglected. They need the Good News of Jesus. On the beach, Jesus doesn’t advise his disciples on liturgical settings he asks them to tend his sheep and feed his lambs.
Can these dry bones live? Of course they can. And by the very breath of God they will. The life they live is the life God has in mind.
Amen.
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