Ezekiel 37:1-14

Easter 3
April 6, 2008
Ezekiel 37:1-14
(suggested Psalm 137)

Reader one: Ezekiel is one of the most famous prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures, mostly because of two songs from the African American spiritual tradition. “Ezekiel saw the wheel a rollin’, way up in the middle of the air . . .” and “Them bones, them bones, them dry bones . . .” (You could sing a bit of this!)

Reader two: The book of Ezekiel comes from the end of the sixth century before Christ. Ezekiel was one of the captives deported to Babylonia when Israel was conquered by Nebuchadnezzar’s army in 597, BCE.
In most of the book, Ezekiel denounces the Israelites for their faithlessness. “You are prisoners here in Babylon because you were unfaithful to God. It’s all your own fault.”

Reader one: That kind of sermon did not make him very popular with the Jews in Babylon.

Reader two: But then Ezekiel has a couple of visions, dreams if you like, which he believed were given to him by God. There’s the famous vision of “a wheel within a wheel.” But the most powerful vision, and one which has something to say to us, is his vision of a valley of dry bones.

Reader one: 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 bones.
God led me all around them. There were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. Then God said to me –

Reader two: "Mortal, can these bones live?"

Reader one: "O Lord GOD, you know."

Reader two: “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: 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."

Reader one: 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.

Reader two: "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."

Reader one: I prophesied as God commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.

Reader two: "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."

(One Second Pause)

Reader one: And so the life giving breath of God brought new life to the dry bones of a nation trying to worship their God in a strange land.
We too, a Christian people, live in exile. We are captives in a culture that worships power and commerce. It is hard, very hard to sing God’s song in a foreign land.

Reader two: And so God comes into our dreams and into our waking and asks us the question. Can these bones – your bones – can these bones live?

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