Easter 2

Ezekiel 37:1-14

April 8, 2018

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

Step into Pastor Ezekiel’s well worn sandals for a moment.  The hand of the LORD comes upon you and suddenly you find yourself in the middle of a valley.  Not only are you in the middle of a valley, but you are in the middle of a valley filled with bones.  And not only are you in the middle of a valley filled with bones, but with dry bones.  And then, here it comes.  The question: “Son of man, can these bones live?”  What kind of question is that?  These are not just skeletons, but these are bones, dry bones long past death, scattered in a mass grave of the valley.  Ezekiel doesn’t dismiss the question as out of hand, as many would do today. That God, the Creator of Life, was Lord over both life and death, there was no doubt. So Ezekiel can do nothing but refer the question back to God. “Um, O Lord God, you know, don’t you?”  But no answer comes; just a command.

“Prophesy over these bones.”  Really? Prophesy to bones, to dry bones? I used to think it was hard to preach to you people, especially when the heads start bobbing.  But imagine preaching to dry bones.  How can they hear, they don’t even have ears anymore? But there is no time for questions.  There’s no time to prepare anything to say.  You are not to say, “I think this, or I think that.”  No, you are to say, “Thus says the Lord.”  You see, O son of man: no one cares what you think.  These bones are here to reap, not the fruit of your mind, but of God’s.  “Thus says the Lord”—a serious responsibility, but also a comfort to pastor and flock that what is proclaimed is not to be man’s opinion, not the interpretation of a person or community, but simply “This is the word of the Lord” and “Thanks be to God.”  Ezekiel 37:5-6 “⁵Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live.  ⁶And I will lay sinews upon 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."

And the weird just got weirder.  But “thus says the Lord.”  And you know what the thing about the Lord is?  He’s God, He’s the creator of all there is. He formed Adam out of the dust of the ground, and breathed life into him. For the Lord who created life out of nothing, who defeated death upon the cross, what is to Him to take dried out, scattered bones and make an exceedingly great army of the whole house of Israel, to open up graves and raise His people from them, to place His Spirit into lifeless bodies and make them live?

But Pastor Ezekiel was a good shepherd of his skeletal flock and he gave them the Word of the Lord, foolish as it may have seemed.  And guess what happened when the Word was preached?  The Lord did exactly what He promised.  Ezekiel 37:7-9 “⁷ So I prophesied as I was commanded.  And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone.  ⁸ And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them.  But there was no breath in them.  ⁹ Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.”

Sound familiar?  What if we went way back to Genesis 2:7 “⁷ then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.”  And then again, in the upper room on that first Easter evening, the day of our Lord Jesus’ resurrection, the risen from the dead Christ breathed on His disciples and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit..” That’s God for you, isn’t it, always bringing something out of nothing, life out of death!  God created man from dust and gave His life with His breath, with His Spirit.  And now God takes dead men, dry bones, and does the same all over again, filling them with His own breath, just as it was meant to be, so that we breathe in God’s Spirit, and breathe out the Word of God with thanksgiving and praise.

Pastor Ezekiel continues, Ezekiel 37:9-10 “¹⁰ So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.”  Pastor Ezekiel saw dry bones.  The Lord God saw His Church, a mighty army, waiting only for His breath, His Spirit, to bring it to life, a life in faith of the in the very Son of Man, in the very Son of God, who has been raised from the dead for us.  And dry bones came to life as God breathed His Spirit into His Church.

Dry bones—that’s what we have heaped up in Nampa today.  We come aching with the burdens of the week and more certain of our shortcomings than of anything we have to offer to God.  Perhaps many of you feel like hope is lost and you are clean cut off.  Your faith seems dry and barren.  Perhaps we wonder in our own lives, in our own vocations, in our own families, even in our own congregation, “Why, Lord, have you brought me here?  All is see is dry, lifeless bones who can’t do anything, much less anything right.”  But the Lord God is still the Lord God, and He still sets sons of men in this valley of the shadow of death filled with dry bones and says: “Prophesy.” 

So here it is: “Thus says the Lord.”  Not thus says me, or thus says you.  God is living, and in Him there is no death.  So listen up.  Christ is risen.  The Lord will resurrect His people to live in eternity with Him.  He will make His breath your breath, and you will know that He is the Lord.  Wake up, God’s children, dry bones, for your Creator and Redeemer and Sanctifier has spoken.  Who cares if nothing in you seems impressive, if your valley seems dry and filled with the shadow of the death?  The Lord our God is breathing, and, when He breathes His Spirit, you live.  So the prayer of the Church today on is “breathe, O Lord; breathe Your Spirit into us, Your remnant, Your Church.  We are dry bones, dead in sin and buried in guilt, but you make something out of nothing and bring life out of death; so breathe and bring us to the Promised Land.”

Christianity stands or falls with the resurrection, the firstfruits of which is that of Jesus Christ.  Because Jesus Christ has risen from the dead we have forgiveness, life and hope in the promise of our own resurrection. Because of the resurrection, the Gospel – the good news about the crucified and risen Lord – God confronts those dead in their trespasses and sins with his saving claim upon each person.  It also means that when people reject the Gospel they are rejecting God’s love and salvation won by Christ. They are rejecting God Himself.  John wrote of this in our epistle, “If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son. Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:9-12).

Thus says the Lord, and what He speaks, it comes to pass.  At God’s command, death must surrender its victims. Dry bones no longer, you are the Lord’s mighty army.  Dry bones, no longer, you are alive, wet with baptismal grace, dressed in the flesh Christ took at conception and offered on the cross in death.  God is breathing; He is breathing His Spirit through the Means of Grace.  Breathe in forgiveness.  Breathe out God’s Word of love and praise.  “Thus says the Lord.”  For Christ is risen. He is risen indeed! Amen.