The following sermon was prepared for my preaching
class at the Lutheran Seminary, Gettysburg. While it is
true that the congregation in this sermon is factitious,
the issues raised here and the real people affected by
the ongoing crisis in American agriculture continue to
be critical issues for us and Ezekiel’s voice is as
vital as it ever was.
Ezekiel 37:1-14
The 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 dry bones. He led me
all around them; there were very many lying in the
valley, and they were very dry. He said to me, "Mortal,
can these bones live?" I answered, " O Lord God, you
know." Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones,
and say to them: 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."
So 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. I 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. Then 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
breath upon these slain, that they may live." I
prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into
them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast
multitude.
Then 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.’
Therefore 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. And you shall know that I am the
Lord, when I open your graves, and bring you up from
your graves, O my people.
I 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.
The Word of the Lord . . .
Dear friends,
On this Pentecost Sunday we have heard an amazing
story from the prophet Ezekiel. He tells us about this
"valley of very dry bones," and the next thing we hear
about is them bones a comin together
(recall the bones song . . . and my brother’s T-REX
model) and the bones reform themselves into human
bodies. Then comes the most amazing thing, the breath of
God restores these bodies into living persons once
again! This morning we want to be sensitive to the ways
in which God’s Spirit-breath desires to touch
our hearts and bring us new life as we enter into
the season of Pentecost. And in order to hear this word
and experience the graceful breath of God we will
consider Ezekiel’s teaching in light of our own
situation.
Surely these words given by the prophet Ezekiel are
strange to our hearing . . . Where is this odd
place where Ezekiel has been transported to? What is
this powerful vision that he sees, the thousands of dry
bones scattered about in a forsaken valley. We might
imagine that this place is some kind of a desert -- like
Death Valley; A place where the dry winds have blown
away the soil and revealed the bones of a people who
were once numerous in a fertile valley, but now there is
only the witness of dry bones to give evidence of their
once prosperous and dignified existence . . .
Perhaps if we use our imagination we might become
more in tune with this scene that Ezekiel is describing:
Listen! -- the dry winds are blowing through the
wasteland, can you hear the stillness? This is a
deserted place where few creatures dwell, "a haunt for
jackals." Only the wind blows like the whistle on so
many trains that have come and gone there, . . . it
pulls away the wealth of the land, grain by grain --
each one separating itself from the other and taking
flight . . .
See! -- the red sandy soil, once deep and rich,
its now being blown into the air by the dry wind. The
wealth of the land takes to the air and darkens a
cloudless sky -- it is being carried away to some
distant place, deposited in some foreign land. And when
the wealth of the land has been completely torn from the
once fertile valley, we begin to see the edges of the
ancestor’s bones, as they begin to show through the
barren earth. Exploitation and a combination of drought,
wind, and heat has caused both the people and the land
to give up their strength, to believe that they were
forsaken, and to become discouraged in spirit.
Surely a valley of dry bones is not literally a part
of our everyday experience . . .? But some of us
can relate to the feelings expressed by a people
who feel utterly abandoned by God. Remember that Ezekiel
is giving these words to "captive Israel." For Israel
had been taken from their land and forced into the
Babylonian exile. The story is not so foreign to us
because most of us can identify with the hopelessness
and despair that the Jewish people felt so long ago when
they were led away from their ancestral land -- Israel.
Here in our land we know that the first of our
ancestors came and established their claims, they grazed
their cattle, plowed and planted the rich prairie soils
and they reaped abundant harvests. Our families became
the proud owners of this red sandy soil.
At first the soil was rich and gave to the settlers
an abundant harvest, but soon the people learned that
there were limits to what this -- good -- earth could
give. And when the land had been worked too hard -
without rest, the wind carried it away and deposited it
where it should not have gone. The dry bones of our
people were then brought a little more closer to the
surface. We might say that as the wind swept away the
land, its very "life breath" was taken away from it.
In response to the difficulties that our grandfathers
and grandmothers experienced, that is, the dust bowl
days and the depression, their came men who delivered
words of recommendation about how to halt the departure
of the precious top soil from these prairie lands. These
words of wisdom came from the U.S. soil conservation
service, and ironically the words came to us and were
taught during the Sunday School hour here at "Our
Savior’s Lutheran Church" . . . the year was 1934. And
their recommendations gave a fresh breath of life and
hope for both the soil and the families who toiled with
it. After that time more words came to us about new ways
and new products that would increase our yields. And we
accepted these words as more good news for our farming
occupation and our family’s economy.
But today our story is more closely
aligned with that given to us in the beginning of
Ezekiel’s lesson. We feel like the people of Israel, our
bones are dried up. Our fields are barren once again.
Where the corn once grew tall now there is a tangle of
weeds. Where the gleaming fence rows once held our cows
and steers, there is now only broken and rusting wire.
Our barns are not full, our tractors sit idly in the
corn crib. Today many of us feel like Ezekiel who stands
at the edge of the valley of the dry bones, -- and the
whistling of the east wind keeps on blowing, and we find
ourselves asking "Why? Why O God have you forsaken us?"
First it was the furniture store that closed, and we
were able to pass that off as the normal coming and
going of businesses on the west side of town. But then
Bob put up the for sale sign in the hardware store, and
we, as a community, began to feel the dryness in our
very being. Next it was the Cornerstone restaurant and
then the Johnson family auctioned off their dairy herd
and moved to Minneapolis. It was as though the dark
clouds that our grandparents knew during the dust bowl
days and during the depression years had at long-last
returned. It was not that anyone was careless in their
business dealings, nor did the crops fail.
In fact, some of you recently experienced the highest
yields ever attained in this valley -- you’ve told me
so. But the rail cars hauled those crops away and the
distributors collected their payments, the hogs were
taken to market, but when the checks came in, many of
our families would not have enough left to pay the fuel
bill, nor the costs for the family’s needs. Like Israel
in exile, the strongest among us have felt weak, the
most pious among us have been at odds with one another.
These have been difficult times.
But the promise of Ezekiel is that God will place his
Spirit within us. God comes to us in our despair and
breathes into us fresh hope and life. In years past we
have been a people who have known what it is to accept
good news -- We have been a people capable of hearing
words of encouragement or words of instruction, and
those words inspired us to action. We have a heritage of
listening to voices that come and speak to us in such
ways that we can understand . . . . In our lesson today,
at first it was the dry bones that heard the words from
God and they began to respond. At first it was just a
bunch of rattling, but then there was a coming together.
This sounds like a good description of this church!
Sometimes a new idea comes to us and there’s a little
rattling over there in the corner, maybe a little
shaking goes on in the fellowship hall, but after the
rustling -- a new idea comes into being. But notice that
even though the bones came together, it was not until
God’s life giving breath had entered them, that they
stood to their feet, and were prepared for the next
challenge.
We have been a people in years past who have given of
ourselves and of our wealth, we have been a people who
love to tell others about our glorious Lord Jesus and
God’s grace. This church has enabled many to hear and
understand the good news through our teaching and
outward ministries. The good news and the words that we
have spoken to others in the past has been more than
just dry bones or air filled with dust in this
community. You have spoken to others through your living
flesh. And it is helpful to remember that this
congregation gave even when some of our own families
were struggling to make ends meet. This church found
the breath of God working in us such ways that, we
were able to give the life breath to another family --
so that they would have a place to call home. (Story
about Habitat homes the congregation helped to build)
And so we are each asked to consider this morning,
what might it mean for us, to have a fresh wind of hope
come to our valley? What might be the result of our
looking to God for a fresh breath of renewal -- even in
the midst of hardship or discouragement? Renewal of
commerce, renewal of health, renewal of our farming
economy, renewal of the people!
If your feeling like Israel today its ok. Because it
is from captivity and bondage that God is seeking to
lead, to deliver his people. We who have sat in silence,
let us look deep inside of ourselves and ask or speak
what it is that God would have us do. If your unable to
find a voice this morning, if the solutions to the
financial problems seem impossible, may you find that
the "Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know
how to pray as we ought, [but remember that the Holy
Spirit] intercedes for us," as Paul has said, "with
sighs too deep for words" (Romans 8:26-27). Remember on
this Pentecost Sunday that the Holy Spirit comes to us
as the divine Advocate and comes to us to be our
Comforter.
When Ezekiel has finished telling us that those "dry
bones -- come to life" are the house of Israel restored
-- and that they are breathing, living, and laughing at
their freedom from exile, then it is that we can know
that Ezekiel also reveals to us, on this
Pentecost Day, that God has plans for our release
and not our captivity. When we hear the Word about the
breath of God coming down and filling his people with
LIFE, this makes us joyful once again. These are words
of HOPE for us!
And yet we’re prone to feeling along with Israel
that, "Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we
are cut off completely." But God says to us, "PROPHESY!"
We’re to go and continue to speak the good news of
encouragement to one another -- through words of
encouragement and hope we breath the breath of life into
one another. Perhaps it seems too literal, but I’ll say
it anyway -- we need to be ready and willing to offer
mouth to mouth resuscitation to the brother or the
sister who is languishing in despair or fear of these
difficult days.
You and me, we are the Christ to our neighbor, you
and I have been given the gift of God’s Breath in order
to restore life and peace in the valleys where we have
been taken. This is the purpose of Pentecost Festival --
that we share a word of understanding with those who are
living in the very shadows of death.
There will be more foreclosures, even amidst this
congregation. Some of us will move to Minneapolis to
seek work and a livelihood. But through whatever
circumstance that befalls us, this breath of God lives
on within each of us. This Spirit Breath was given at
our baptism, and it remains and lives inside our hearts.
God’s Holy Spirit is there to comfort us in our human
losses and pains . . . it cannot remove us from the
difficult circumstances, but God has promised to stand
with us, indeed Christ dwells inside of you and of me
through the personage of the Holy Spirit, and we can
take comfort in knowing that we’re not alone in this
world.
Hear once again the hope filled words from Ezekiel,
"Thus says the Lord God: I am going to open your graves,
O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of
Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I
open your graves, O my people. I 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.
Take these words to heart dear friends, and find
in them the comfort and strength you need to carry
on in these difficult days. Go fourth with Pentecost
Joy, tell everyone about the good things God has done
and will do. We are the people of hope and vision and we
look with expectation for the things that God will do
through us.
May the peace of God fill us with hearts of hope and
new life this day, through Christ our Lord, Amen.