Title: CAN THESE BONES LIVE?
Focus: The Word and Spirit of God—proclaimed and prayed for—bring life.
Function: To move the people to seek God’s Word and Spirit at work in our lives
Text: Ezekiel 37:1-14
A body without spirit is a corpse; a spirit without body is a spook. Corpses we bury in graves; spooks we relegate to mythical stories or the spirit world.
I remember the first time that I stared death in the face. My 5-year-old sister laid on her bed—so still, so lifeless, asleep as it were. I was nine years old, but I was not fooled. I knew that the truck had hit her. I knew she was dead, a corpse. There was a picture of my sister on the chimney mantel in our house. When I looked at my sister in the picture, I noticed a sparkling light in her eyes. That light—I knew it reflected her spirit or life—was now gone. Her life was gone; the lights had gone out, so to speak. She was dead. A body without spirit is a corpse.
So it is also with the church. The church is the body of Christ. The body of Christ without spirit is a corpse. Calvary Church without the life-giving Spirit of Christ at work in our midst is nothing but a corpse turning into a skeleton. What must happen for the people of God to be alive? That’s the question on Pentecost Sunday: what brings life? God gives us the answer in Ezekiel’s vision: The Word and Spirit of God—proclaimed and prayed for—bring life to us today.
Today is Pentecost Sunday. The church of Christ—world-wide—remembers and celebrates God’s gift of the Holy Spirit to his people. The gift of the Holy Spirit is God’s way of creating and restoring new life in this world.
The gift of the Holy Spirit is God’s way of reminding us that we are not alive UNTIL we receive the Spirit, that we are powerless and ineffective followers of Christ UNTIL the Spirit blows his breath in us and moves our carcasses into action and life.
Pentecost Sunday forces us to take a good look at ourselves: Are we animated, moved by the Spirit of God to do his work in this world, or are we in the process of dying a slow death? Are we alive? Or are we spiritually dead?
Ezekiel faced this question in his days. Ezekiel and the Israelites no longer live in the promised land. They now live in Babylon, in exile. Ezekiel and his people have seen death all around them: The kings of Israel have perished; the army of Israel is no more; the city of Jerusalem is sacked and burned; the temple with its priestly service and worship is destroyed; the nation of Israel is now dispersed throughout the Babylonian empire, so much so that you really can no longer talk of a people or nation called “Israel.”
Are we alive or dead? is a question that Ezekiel and the people of God can answer only with a resounding “Yes, we are dead.” Babylon has knocked the wind out of Israel. There is no more spirit, no more life in Israel.
Ezekiel’s vision pictures for us the hopeless, lifeless condition of God’s people. Note the following:
spiritual and physical condition of Israel. The text tells us that “The hand of the Lord was upon Ezekiel, and the Lord brought Ezekiel out by the Spirit.” In a grand and shocking vision, God transports Ezekiel into the middle of a valley. The valley was full of bones.
When I try to visualize what Ezekiel sees in this valley, I always think of a scene in the movie “The Killing Fields.” There the main character of the story comes upon a battlefield a few days after the battle is finished. The scenes in that movie are filled with horrendous pictures of people slain and slaughtered by bombs, bullets and grenades. Ezekiel’s valley of bones is a gruesome place. Note also:
horrors of the battlefield. God takes Ezekiel by the
hand and leads him back and forth through the valley. Ezekiel sees nothing but
bones and skulls and skeletons—bones that are very dry. God shows Ezekiel a
bone chilling sight. And then God asks Ezekiel a loaded question: “Son of
man, can these bones live?”
The question is daring and seems so out of place. In Russia, near Leningrad, I believe, there is a war monument dedicated to WW. II soldiers. They fought the Germans heroically and stopped the Germans from conquering the city. The war monument is massive, somber, and the sound of music piped day and night near the war monument is a mournful sound of sadness and remembrance. Though haunting, the sound is appropriate for that place of death. A sound of joy and jubilation would be totally out of place.
Yet, here is God, sounding a
question that dares to replace the sound of sadness for a sound of hope and joy:
“Son of man, can these bones live?”
What do you
say to such a question? Human experience tells you that skulls and skeletons
turn to dust. They do not live and rise again on their own. You need an act
from God to see such a thing happen. So, while standing in that battlefield
turned graveyard, Ezekiel responds: “O Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”
What takes place next in Ezekiel’s vision brings us back to the first pages of the book of Genesis. There we learn that God created man in two stages: First God formed Adam (man) from the dust of the ground. He took clay and molded it in the shape of his own image. Like a potter working his clay, so God shaped Adam. But there was no life in Adam.
So, God continued with the second stage of creation: God breathed into Adam’s nostrils the breath of life. And “the man became a living being” says Scripture. God confronts us again with that two-fold creation act in Ezekiel’s valley of bones. Note, for example:
speak to the dry bones: “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, “Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life.” Ezekiel obeys. He speaks the Word of God to the skeletons in the valley.
And the miracle happens: There’s a
noise—a low noise, a rattling sound—the sound of clicking and snapping. The
noise increases as the ribs re-attach to spines, as femurs re-join the hips.
Bones are coming together, reforming into human bodies. The bodies take on
tendons, muscles, and flesh. Skin forms on the bodies. We no longer are looking
at a bone yard; we no longer see skeletons; now we see corpses, intact human
bodies ready to function, ready to act. But listen to these haunting words of observation:
“but there was no breath in them.”
If Ezekiel were alive today standing in the midst of
Calvary Church, what would Ezekiel see? Would he see a community that is alive
or dead? Would he see dry bones here, dry bones there? Would he see skeletons?
Or corpses? Would he see a body that is ready to function, that has all the
gifts needed to act as Christ’s presence and body in this world—but still a
body without breath in it?
If Ezekiel would enter our homes and consider our relationships with our spouse, our children, our families, our neighbors and co-workers, would Ezekiel see death or life? Would he observe the dust of death or would he feel the wind of spirit blowing through our homes and all our relationships?
You think a cemetery is a somber place to be? Think again. A Christian without spirit, a married couple without the breath of God, a Church without the life-giving, power-shaping, and abiding presence of the Pentecostal Spirit of Christ—are testimonies of death, a tragedy to the gospel, a mockery to everything that God stands for and promises.
God seeks life. God seeks action. God seeks a vast army of people who stand up to be counted for and live life to the fullest. Would Ezekiel say about us “but there is no breath in them”?
Ah, thank God for his Pentecostal
Holy Spirit! The vision unfolds:
Ezekiel: “Prophesy to the breath: prophesy, son of
man, and say to it: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come from the four
winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” Ezekiel
obeys. And the miracle happens: The ruach, the wind, the Spirit of God fills
the valley of bones. The breath of God enters the lifeless bodies. The breath
of God animates the corpses in that valley. The living beings rise! They stand
up on their feet—a vast army.
Glory be to God! When the Spirit of God enters us and fills us with his presence, we can stand and be counted. Only when God’s breath moves us, can we experience the life of God and his life-giving energy or power.
So let me ask you: Do you sense the Spirit of God energizing our church today? Are you and I in tune with the Spirit? Do we walk and stay in step with the life-giving Spirit of Christ? I think that
God has given Calvary Church great form: we are a community with gifted people, a beautiful facility. And God has given us elders and deacons and many willing volunteers who are doing a lot of work. So let me ask you again: do you sense the Spirit of God energizing and leading us today?
Also, did you notice? God seeks a militant people. Ezekiel’s vision is clear: when the breath of God enters the slain whom God has physically restored, we notice that they rise; they stand up on their feet—a vast army. God does not want a church of corpses, in which everything fits so nicely: every bone, every muscle, and every organ in the right place. God does not want a church filled with people who don’t have spirit, who aren’t breathing the breath of God.
Neither is God interested in a church that is made alive with the Spirit but that stays on the ground, inactive, that is lethargic, that warily dreams of the good old days, but is too lazy to get up and work with the opportunities provided for us today.
God is not looking for a church “at rest” but a church that is a militant, struggling, conquering, forward-moving, culture-changing, risk-taking body, fully alive, standing up. God is looking for an army—a vast army. “Put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then…” says scripture.
A body without spirit is a
corpse. Here’s what we need to
do: We need to hear and act upon God’s Word.
Remember that Ezekiel needed to
prophesy God’s Word to the bones in the valley. The bones need to hear in order
to become equipped for service. We also need to pray for God’s Spirit. Remember
that Ezekiel needed to prophesy to the breath of God: “Come from the four
winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain.”
God has sent his Pentecostal Holy Spirit to the earth. We receive him through faith. Now we must pray fervently that God the Holy Spirit will fill us every day, and empower us every day to do the work of a soldier.
“Can these bones live?” Yes! They can! By the grace
of God’s Word and Spirit, we can live—today and forevermore!
In
the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.