dry bones — Andy James

Resurrection, Continued

May 24, 2015 By Andy James

a sermon on Ezekiel 37:1-14
preached on Pentecost, May 24, 2015, at the First Presbyterian Church of Whitestone

Over the years, I’ve gotten to be a big fan of Easter. As a child, it was all about the Easter bunny, but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve developed a deeper appreciation of the need to celebrate the resurrection. This strange and wonderful event, after all, is the reason why we Christians exist at all. The death of Jesus was certainly important, but that death would have meant nothing were it not for his resurrection. It made the power of God to bring new life clear once and for all, brought a change in the day of worship from the Saturday sabbath of Judaism to Sunday, the day of resurrection, and reminds us of the new life that has been promised to us and is already coming into being around us.

Today’s reading from the prophet Ezekiel is a perfect bridge between the joys of celebrating the resurrection in the Easter season and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. This story is one of the great resurrection stories, perhaps as appropriate for Easter as for Pentecost, because it has as much to do with new life as it does with the Spirit.

The prophet Ezekiel, writing from the confines of exile in Babylon, tells of a strange vision where death shifts to life by the power of the Spirit of God. God takes him to a strange valley, filled with bones. There were a lot of bones there, and they were very dry. Upon his arrival there, God questioned him quickly: “Mortal, can these bones live?” In that time and place, life seemed utterly impossible. The valley was dry and barren, and the bones were just as dry and just as barren—dead as a doornail, we might say. Those bones were like everything around Ezekiel—bearing hopelessness, mired in darkness and despair, dried up and withering away, decaying beyond belief.

But Ezekiel knew better than to assume that God could not work beyond human visions of death. Soon God was instructing him to prophesy to the bones, to proclaim that they could be alive again, to insist that they were something more than dead, dry bones, to call forth sinews and flesh and skin to cover these bones so that they might live. When Ezekiel did this, he heard a great rattling as the bones came together, “bone to its bone.” As the scattered bones became assembled skeletons, muscles and flesh and skin came upon them, and what once had been a barren valley of lifeless bones was now filled with lifeless bodies.

This first word had put things back together, but it was not enough to bring new life. So Ezekiel turned again to hear God’s voice commanding him, “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.” When he offered this second word as God commanded, breath came upon the lifeless bodies of that deserted valley. What had once been a lifeless valley was now filled with an eager multitude. What had once been a pile of dry bones was now a crowd of standing bodies awaiting new possibilities ahead. What had once been the most certain sign of death was now most definitely very much alive.

After this new life became clear to Ezekiel, God finally explained what it all meant in one final word of proclamation and prophecy. God instructed Ezekiel to follow up his words to the bones of the valley with one more proclamation to the exiled people of Israel, promising them that new life would emerge for them from their graves, that they would return to their homeland, and that they would be filled with the spirit of God and so live in fullness of life.

All the new life in those dry bones came about because of the spirit of God. The great Hebrew word used here is ruach. It’s one of those words you can’t help but love to say, and when you learn everything that it means, it feels even better to say it. Like many words in Hebrew, ruach does not have an exact equivalent in English. Depending on the original context, we can translate ruach as “breath,” “wind,” or “spirit”—the same three words that we so often use to describe the Holy Spirit. Whether it be breath, wind, or spirit, this ruach always comes from God, and even before anyone ever understood it, this ruach was showing us the presence and activity of the Holy Spirit.

God’s ruach brings life to the lifeless, blows through our world to restore all that is broken, and inspires the church to join in God’s work of bringing new life. This ruach is not our own breath, not the wind created by a fan, not the spirit of a departed loved one. This ruach is the Spirit of God, the wind that blew upon the chaotic waters at creation to begin the creation of new life, the breath placed in each of us as we take our first breath outside our mother’s womb, the fiery presence that filled Jesus’ disciples on that first day of Pentecost and helped them to be heard as they spoke to those who gathered in Jerusalem, the spirit that fills our world with the presence of God and guides us the continuing work of resurrection in that valley of dry bones and beyond. God’s ruach blows where it will, guiding us in bringing new life to our world that seems to be ruled by death, bringing the dead to life when we might least expect it, and showing us that we can live in ways that we never imagined we could live before.

As we celebrate this Pentecost, as we look at the myriad ways that God is at work to bring new life into our world, as we see how God can transform the brokenness of our world in bringing together the dry bones of Ezekiel’s valley and the diaspora gathered in Jerusalem, as we join the multitude who rose up in that valley and who responded to the words of the disciples in Jerusalem, we continue the work of the resurrection begun by God on that first Easter that has continued for two millennia. In coming in power on that first Pentecost, in restoring life to those dry bones, in inspiring us for the work of new creation each and every day, the Holy Spirit is the presence of God at work in our world. The Holy Spirit guides our reading and interpretation of scripture, helping us to understand what these ancient words mean to us as God’s people in our world. The Holy Spirit shows us how God wills us to work and to live in hope and new life, encouraging us to set aside the ways of death where we feel led out into valleys of dry bones ourselves so that we can know that power of God to bring new life. And the Holy Spirit breathes new life into us, showing us that we are not the lifeless people of the past, not those dead and dry bones, and not some temporary flicker of a momentary flame but rather reminding us that we are the people of God, inspired for new life each and every day so that God might be glorified through the transformation of our world.

So as the resurrection power of God continues in our world, may we be filled with the breath of God that gives us life, the wind of God that blows us into places we never expected might give us hope, and the Spirit of God that shows us how to walk in newness of life as we are filled with the Holy Spirit this Pentecost and every day until all things are made new in Jesus Christ our Lord. Thanks be to God! Amen.

The Stories That Define Us: Dry Bones and New Life

April 6, 2014 By Andy James

a sermon on Ezekiel 37:1-14 and Psalm 130
preached on April 6, 2014, at the First Presbyterian Church of Whitestone

One of the biggest adjustments for this southern boy living in New York is not the snow or the cold but the extended season of gray that results from a longer winter. This winter’s grays are worse than usual. Spring may have technically begun two weeks ago, but the grays just haven’t gone away yet. The snow that just wouldn’t go away made everything so blah for so long, and the charcoal color of it after weeks of below-freezing temperatures just made it miserable to look out the window for days on end. And now that the snow has melted, we see all the gunk that got piled up on the ground over the past few months: the cigarette butts so well hidden in the snow but now standing out against the gray dirt and brown grass, the litter strewn here there and everywhere by the winds of winter, abandoned gloves and hats just waiting to be reunited with their mates and owners, and the dead grass that reminds us of the winter that seemed like it would never end. By contrast, in the South, by now most trees have their leaves back, the days are consistently warmer, and flowers have burst into bloom everywhere. Now there is much that I have come to love about the seasons of New York, not the least of which is the beautiful fall colors that are simply without compare down South, but when the buds are barely on the trees by Easter even when it is as late as it is this year, this southern boy feels like he’s been stuck in the valley of dry bones for six months!

Our reading from the prophet Ezekiel this morning about that valley of dry bones is another one of those stories that defines us. Like the story of Abraham, it is immortalized in a song that keeps it more vivid in our minds than it might otherwise be. Even so, this is a little different from the other stories that we have considered that define us. This is a vision of God’s intentions for the world, not so much a real and immediate depiction of a historical moment and figure, yet it is no less a real and true depiction of how God is at work around us and through us and in us and no less a faithful reflection on what God promises to make real for us and our world.

When in a vision the prophet Ezekiel found himself in this strange valley of very dry bones, he knew that God was up to something. God started things out by asking Ezekiel a question that only God could answer: “Mortal, can these bones live?” Ezekiel rightfully turned the question back on God, who then commanded him to prophesy to the bones:

O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.
Thus says the Lord God to these bones:
I will cause breath to enter you,
and you shall live.
I 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.

Then as Ezekiel spoke out across the dry bones, into the gray darkness of the valley, “suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone.” As Ezekiel spoke, the valley of dry bones was transformed by the sights and sounds of life, with bones rattling together and sinews and flesh and skin suddenly appearing on these old, dry bones—but they still weren’t alive. It seems that those bones weren’t just lacking the outer skin of life—they were lacking the inner life that would make them flourish, the breath that would fill them and make them live. So God spoke to Ezekiel and told him to prophesy once again, this time to the wind, the spirit, the breath of life:

Thus says the Lord God:
Come from the four winds, O breath,
and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.

The wind, the spirit, the breath of life came upon these bones, these sinews, this flesh, this skin, these bodies—and they lived. Then God made this vision clear to Ezekiel. These bones were not just any bones but the bones of the people of God, seemingly dead and dry after a long exile and countless attacks from every quarter, ready to be lifted up to new life and shown the path to something new. This valley was not just some place where too many went to die but instead will be the cradle of new life. And these bodies restored to new life will not just be a bunch of automatons set in motion as an automated army but a blessing of God to all the nations because of the spirit, the wind, the breath that blows within them.

So what does this story of dry bones mean for us today? At one level, it seems pretty morbid—and it is. This is a story of death, after all. There were lots and lots of bones in that valley, and they were very dry, very dead. But here God promises that death is only the beginning of the story. Erin Wathen puts it very well:

Death doesn’t ruin the story.
It doesn’t steal the joy of love found or moments shared.
It just creates a new kind of beginning,
the potential to start a new chapter and learn life-giving lessons from some new trip, or relationship, or set-back.

Before the bones can rattle back together, before the sinews and flesh and skin can reappear, before the spirit can breathe life into these bodies, the bones have to be very dry and very dead. Before the spring can emerge with meaning, before the buds can sprout forth in beauty, before new life can take hold, the gray and dreary days of winter must be real. And before we can know the deep and real gift of God’s love, before we can experience the reality of forgiveness, before we can emerge from the depths of pain and hurt, we must experience the separation and frustration of sin.

But all this talk of death is only the beginning, for it helps to make the possibility of new life all the more real. It gives us new sight to see signs of new life even in the midst of the longest winter. It gives us hope for new breath to enter the lifeless bodies around us. And it gives us the promise that death may be a part of our story but will certainly not be the end of it. This story—and so our story, too—does not end with dead, dry bones but with living, breathing bodies filled with new life. Our story does not end with an empty valley but with women and men of all times and places filled with God’s Spirit and made ready to go forth to live out God’s mission in the world. And our story does not end with the gray darkness of winter but with spring taking hold all around us, with flowers bursting into bloom, trees budding with new life, and warm sunlight shining into the dark places of our hearts and lives.

So all the stories that define us—and especially this one—ultimately not only look back on the past but look ahead to the future, reminding us that God has made things new over and over again and promises to do the same with us, too. The stories that define us tell us that the gray days of even the longest winters will eventually be displaced with the burst of color in spring. And the stories that define us assure us that God will not only hear our cries out of the depths but will guide us from all our darkness into the bright light of the new day.

The other day, as I was struggling with these words and wondering when this gray and dreary winter would finally give way to new life, I left the church to take some mail to the post office. On my way out of the church, at the top of the basement stairs, I was greeted with a surprise: the first flowers of spring. At the end of this crazy and full week, even as we still wait for spring to burst forth into its fullness, the first flowers of spring reminded me that there is hope for something new, that God is even now making all things new.

So as we await the fullness of the resurrection, may the words of the psalmist inspire us anew:

O [people of God], hope in the Lord!
For with the Lord there is steadfast love,
and with [God] is great power to redeem.

May the breath, the wind, the Spirit of new life blow into us so that we too might be made new as we await the fullness of the resurrection promised in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Good for Nothing, Good for Something

May 27, 2012 By Andy James

a sermon on Ezekiel 37:1-14 for Pentecost Sunday
preached on May 27, 2012, at the First Presbyterian Church of Whitestone

What do you do with dry bones? There seems to be so little purpose in them – while living bones are an integral part of our human bodies, giving shape and form to our being and holding us up so that we are more than just a pile of muscle and skin on the ground, dry bones are no good to anyone. They just sit there, waiting for their end to come, decaying into nothingness, taking what that which was once very much alive and making it very clearly and very permanently dead. Dry bones are good for nothing.

So when Ezekiel found himself in a valley of dry bones, there was not much more to do than to listen to what God was up to. There weren’t just a few bones there, there were bones all around – and the bones weren’t just dry, they were very dry. But God was up to something with these bones. “Mortal, can these bones live?” God asked Ezekiel. Ezekiel couldn’t have been inspired by this question. Of course these bones couldn’t live! These were just pieces of deadness, dry bones in a dry valley decaying into nothingness, just waiting for the day when they would simply disappear. After all, dry bones are good for nothing.

Sometimes I feel like I’m surrounded by dry bones – the now-lifeless pieces of things that once felt very much alive, the remnant of a past that seems so far away, the scattered and disconnected pieces of life that just don’t seem to fit together when you need them to actually make sense for once. I feel like we’ve been there together, too, wandering around that valley of dry bones – trying to sort out how even the best pieces of who we are as a community of faith sometimes just don’t fit together as well as we’d like, longing for some new life to emerge in our midst and set aside the worn-out ways of the past and the deep frustrations of the present, wondering where God is in the midst of this dark valley and all these dry bones. Sure, the building blocks of life may be out here in this valley, but it sure seems like something is missing, and there is no clear way to find it. You see, dry bones are good for nothing.

But God asked Ezekiel, “Mortal, can these bones live?” and Ezekiel couldn’t say no to God, right? So he suppressed his snarky attitude and questioning spirit and responded to God’s question with the best possible human answer in a moment like this: “O Lord God, you know.” Yes, God did know. God was up to something with these bones. So God instructed Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones, to call out to them so that they would live:

O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I 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.

Well, maybe dry bones are good for something?

What Ezekiel saw proved that God was right. When he offered God’s words to the bones, there was a great rattling sound, the noise of death emerging into something new, a cacophony of sound in that dry, desolate, once-silent valley as “the bones came together, bone to its bone.” But the wonder of the moment didn’t stop there. Suddenly the bones were more than bones – they took on tendons and ligaments and muscles and flesh and skin. Yet something was missing. These bodies were standing still, not moving, not breathing, not fully alive, waiting for something more to happen. The bones may have become something more – the dry bones were good for something! – but something was still missing.

I’m in the midst of one of those strange moments in life where everything seems to be coming together just like those dry bones out in the valley. After what seems like years of waiting and planning and preparing, my dry bones seem to be coming together. This week, I’m moving into a new apartment. Within the next month, hopefully, I’ll be moving into a new office. In just five weeks, I’ll be leaving on a two-month sabbatical. And dry bones seem to be coming together in our church life, too. Over a year of work in preparing to sell the manse will hopefully come to an end sometime in July. My sabbatical time, our new office, and my new housing arrangement are the fruits of much common labor over the past year. And after many years of wondering about the presence of children in our life together, we will be talking with our parents in a couple weeks about how to expand our programs with them because there is something happening here. It feels like so many things are coming together, like something new and different might be happening – but because we’re still on this side of it, because the breath of the Spirit is still blowing life into them, there’s still something missing. Even our dry bones are good for something – but God is up to something more.

God had one more word for Ezekiel to prophesy in the valley of dry bones:

Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.

The breath came upon them as God instructed, and there was new life in the whole multitude of the dry bones of the valley. They began to live and walk and breathe and move because God gave them new life. They took inspiration from the wind of the Spirit, just as the early church was energized and empowered by their experiences on the day of Pentecost. Those dry bones were good for something after all.

So on this day of Pentecost, when we remember the wonderful wind of the Holy Spirit blowing among the disciples and the pilgrims gathered in Jerusalem after Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension, when we think of all the times and places and ways that the Spirit has shaped and formed and led and moved and even drug our church and our world into being more like what God intends for us, and when we celebrate the continued renewal of the Spirit among us now, on this day of Pentecost we can hope and pray that our dry bones will be good for something, too, by the power of that same Holy Spirit.

The work we are doing, the plans we have made, even the plans God still has for us will come into being as the Spirit breathes on us. Just as Ezekiel saw the bones coming together in that valley, so the bones of our lives and our world will come together as we trust God to lead us in these days. Just as the breath of God blew new life into those lifeless bodies in the valley of dry bones, God can and will blow new life into us. And just as Jesus Christ rose to new life on that resurrection morning, so we too can be made new by the power of God working in us and through us and even in spite of us.

So on this Pentecost day, we remember and we pray for the coming of the Holy Spirit once again, to fully bring the pieces together and to make new life real and whole and complete as the Spirit breathes life upon us once again to make us the good and faithful people God intends for us to be. The dry bones that were good for nothing will be good for something by the power of the Holy Spirit. May it be so for us and our church and our world.

Thanks be to God. Amen.