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Can These Bones Live? · Faith at Work

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  Ezekiel chapter 37,
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  like we just heard,
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  the prophet is brought by God's spirit into a valley.
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  SPEAKER_01: And what he finds there is a place of total desolation.
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  SPEAKER_01: Bones are scattered across the valley floor,
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  SPEAKER_01: picked clean by predators,
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  SPEAKER_01: bleached white by the sun,
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  SPEAKER_01: and utterly dry.
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  The Hebrew word used here is yavesh,
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  which means something more than simply dead.
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  SPEAKER_01: It means desiccated, emptied of every trace of moisture and light.
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  SPEAKER_01: There is nothing left to decay.
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  SPEAKER_01: These bones are dead, dead.
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  Now,
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  this is not a literal place,
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  just so we know,
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  that Ezekiel physically visits.
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  SPEAKER_01: It is a prophetic vision,
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  SPEAKER_01: shaped by his imagination,
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  SPEAKER_01: animated by the Spirit of God,
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  SPEAKER_01: and deeply rooted in the lived experience of Israel.
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  SPEAKER_01: Because Israel, in Ezekiel's time, was feeling exactly that way.
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  SPEAKER_01: Dead, dead.
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  SPEAKER_01: The nation had been broken and scattered into exile.
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  SPEAKER_01: The temple, well, it was in rubble.
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  SPEAKER_01: The land that they had once owned was gone.
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  SPEAKER_01: And the people's own testimony is recorded in verse 11.
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  SPEAKER_01: It tells us exactly where they were.
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  SPEAKER_01: Our bones are dried up and our hope is lost.
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  SPEAKER_01: We are cut off completely.
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  SPEAKER_00: Ezekiel 37, 11.
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  SPEAKER_00: We feel dead, dead.
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  SPEAKER_01: They are not merely sad.
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  SPEAKER_01: They are not going through a rough patch.
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  SPEAKER_01: They believe their future has been buried.
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  SPEAKER_01: And into that desolation, God's voice speaks directly to the prophet.
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  SPEAKER_01: Mortal can these bones live?
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  SPEAKER_01: Ezekiel chapter 37 verse 3.
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  SPEAKER_01: And Ezekiel's answer is an honest one.
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  SPEAKER_01: God only knows.
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  SPEAKER_01: we find a similar scene in John chapter 11.
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  SPEAKER_01: Lazarus is dead, dead.
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  And the text makes sure that we understand this by telling us
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  that he had been dead
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  SPEAKER_01: in the tomb for four days.
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  SPEAKER_01: Not one, not two, not three, but four days dead, dead in the tomb.
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  SPEAKER_01: In the Jewish tradition of Jesus' day,
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  SPEAKER_01: and in the practical experience of physicians,
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  SPEAKER_01: so they say in that era,
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  SPEAKER_01: someone might seem to be dead for a day or two and then recover.
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  SPEAKER_01: Not quite sure how that's the case, but that was the belief.
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  But after three days,
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  and certainly after four,
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  that person was not ever coming back.
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  SPEAKER_01: And into that situation,
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  SPEAKER_01: Jesus comes to Lazarus,
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  SPEAKER_01: dressed in death clothes,
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  SPEAKER_01: laid in a rock tomb with a stone rolled across it at the entrance.
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  SPEAKER_01: Lazarus was definitely not coming back.
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  SPEAKER_01: All hope was lost.
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  SPEAKER_01: So,
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  just as Israel in Ezekiel's vision was feeling that their
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  future had died and been
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  SPEAKER_01: buried,
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  SPEAKER_01: Mary and Martha were feeling the same thing.
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  SPEAKER_01: Their brother was gone.
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  SPEAKER_01: Their future with him was gone.
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  SPEAKER_01: And when Jesus arrives, Martha's response mirrors Ezekiel's.
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  SPEAKER_01: She says, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
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  SPEAKER_01: Is there any hope left?
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  SPEAKER_01: Only God knows.
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  SPEAKER_01: But then she adds something extraordinary.
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  SPEAKER_01: Even now, I know that God will give you whatever you ask.
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  SPEAKER_01: Even now.
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  standing at the tomb,
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  four days passed,
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  hope,
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  that is faith that has not flinched.
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  SPEAKER_01: It has not finished.
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  SPEAKER_01: It is faith that is not dead, dead.
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  SPEAKER_01: We have all been in similar places, I think.
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  We have all stood in our own valley of dry bones looking at
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  something in our lives
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  SPEAKER_01: or in the life of someone we love and felt the weight of that phrase,
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  SPEAKER_01: dead,
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  SPEAKER_01: dead.
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  SPEAKER_01: A relationship, a dream, a season of health, a sense of purpose.
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  There are moments when we look at what lies before us and all
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  we can honestly say
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  SPEAKER_01: is,
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  SPEAKER_01: I don't know what can happen here.
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  SPEAKER_01: God only knows.
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  SPEAKER_01: And that answer, as it turns out, is exactly the right one.
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  SPEAKER_01: Because it does not slam the door shut in despair,
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  SPEAKER_01: and it does not pretend that there is a certainty that we do not have.
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  It says,
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  I cannot see a way through this,
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  but I believe that God might see.
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  SPEAKER_01: I remember a trip in Israel.
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  I was lucky enough while I was in Sicily to go to Israel with
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  some friends of mine,
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  SPEAKER_01: Roy and Florence Crider.
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  SPEAKER_01: They had been missionaries in Israel for 40 years.
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  SPEAKER_01: And we were standing at the tomb of Lazarus.
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  And I will never forget him telling this story about Lazarus'
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  resurrection as we
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  SPEAKER_01: looked down into the tomb,
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  SPEAKER_01: 24 steps down into the darkness.
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  SPEAKER_01: And he reminded us that when Jesus called Lazarus out of the tomb,
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  Lazarus did not shuffle up the 24 steps to the entrance in his
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  grave clothes.
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  SPEAKER_01: Instead,
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  SPEAKER_01: somehow,
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  SPEAKER_01: when Jesus called him forth,
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  SPEAKER_01: Lazarus was picked up off the stone,
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  SPEAKER_01: propelled 24 steps up to the very top of the tomb entrance,
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  SPEAKER_01: and set steps
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  At the tomb entrance,
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  wrapped in his grave clothes,
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  not able to move at all,
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  like a mummy.
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  SPEAKER_01: I do have to wonder what he must have thought.
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  SPEAKER_01: I mean, he'd been in heaven, presumably, for four days.
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  SPEAKER_01: And as we know, four days are like a thousand to God.
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  SPEAKER_01: So maybe he'd been there for 4,000 years.
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  SPEAKER_01: Hanging out with Moses and Abraham, chewing on some manitos.
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  SPEAKER_01: Ruth and Esther sitting over there somewhere.
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  SPEAKER_01: Ladies tea, maybe.
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  SPEAKER_01: Right?
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  SPEAKER_01: Ezekiel playing a jazz snare drum with some femur bones.
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  SPEAKER_01: And he's hanging out there in heaven all of a sudden.
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  SPEAKER_01: He says, hey, Lazarus, come back.
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  SPEAKER_01: And all of a sudden he's like, whoa, what just happened?
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  SPEAKER_01: What's all this about?
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  SPEAKER_01: Here I am again.
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  SPEAKER_01: We don't really know what he thought.
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  SPEAKER_01: That was just sort of a silly aside.
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  SPEAKER_01: From these two stories,
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  SPEAKER_01: Ezekiel and Lazarus' resurrection,
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  it would be easy for us to draw the lesson from both that God
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  is powerful enough to
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  SPEAKER_01: bring dead things back to life.
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  SPEAKER_01: That God can restore what is lost.
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  SPEAKER_01: That God can breathe life into whatever has been left barren.
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  SPEAKER_01: And those, of course, are true and appropriate takeaways.
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  SPEAKER_01: But if we stop there,
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  I think we miss something important that both of these texts
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  are pressing on us.
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  SPEAKER_01: Look at what happens in Ezekiel chapter 37.
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  SPEAKER_01: God does not speak to the bones directly.
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  God speaks to the prophet first,
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  and God asks the prophet to speak,
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  prophesy to these bones.
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  SPEAKER_01: Ezekiel must open his mouth before anything moves.
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  SPEAKER_01: He must call the spirit, the ruach, before the breath comes.
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  The prophet's obedient voice is the instrument through which
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  the spirit enters the valley.
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  SPEAKER_01: God does not work around Ezekiel.
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  SPEAKER_01: God works through him.
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  SPEAKER_01: And look at what happens at Lazarus' tomb.
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  SPEAKER_01: Jesus asks the disciples to roll away the stone.
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  SPEAKER_01: They had to do the physical work.
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  SPEAKER_01: Jesus speaks to Lazarus, and Lazarus does come out.
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  SPEAKER_01: But Lazarus is still bound, still wrapped from death.
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  SPEAKER_01: head to toe in death's clothing.
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  SPEAKER_01: And Jesus does not unwrap him.
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  SPEAKER_01: He turns to the disciples standing there and says, Unbind him.
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  SPEAKER_01: You let him go.
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  SPEAKER_01: Jesus raises Lazarus, but the disciples unwrap him.
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  SPEAKER_01: The resurrection is entirely the work of Christ,
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  SPEAKER_01: but the release into new life requires human hands.
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  SPEAKER_01: The pattern in both stories is the same.
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  SPEAKER_01: God is the one who raises.
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  SPEAKER_01: The Spirit is the one who breathes.
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  SPEAKER_01: Resurrection belongs to God alone.
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  SPEAKER_01: But in both stories,
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  God refuses to complete the work of restoration without human
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  participation.
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  SPEAKER_01: It would not be too far-fetched to say from these texts and others...
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  SPEAKER_01: That God needs our help.
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  SPEAKER_01: Now,
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  SPEAKER_01: whether or not that sits comfortably with your theology,
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  SPEAKER_01: it seems to be what the Scripture shows us.
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  God always draws on human beings to participate in His
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  redemptive process.
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  SPEAKER_01: Refusing to let restoration be something that only happens when
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  to people,
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  rather than something that happens through them and among them.
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  And friends,
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  this is the role that the Church of Jesus Christ is to fulfill
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  in our day.
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  SPEAKER_01: We are not the source of resurrection.
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  SPEAKER_01: We do not manufacture hope or generate new life out of our own efforts.
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  SPEAKER_01: But we are called again and again to go to the valleys,
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  SPEAKER_01: to stand among the dry bones in our community,
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  SPEAKER_01: for our community,
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  and open our mouths to speak words of life where despair has
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  had the final say.
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  SPEAKER_01: To call the Spirit into desolate places.
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  SPEAKER_01: And when the Spirit moves,
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  SPEAKER_01: when someone begins to stir back towards life,
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  SPEAKER_01: we are the ones who are told to unbind them.
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  SPEAKER_01: To help them out of raised clothes.
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  SPEAKER_01: Do not let them,
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  SPEAKER_01: those that are newly living,
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  SPEAKER_01: to be tangled in what death has wrapped around them.
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  SPEAKER_01: We are asked the same question.
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  SPEAKER_01: Can these bones around us live?
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  SPEAKER_01: Once upon a time, we might have said...
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  SPEAKER_01: God only knows.
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  SPEAKER_01: But now, we can proclaim, yes, they can.
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  SPEAKER_01: Because we know God.
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  SPEAKER_01: And because we know God and we trust God, we will speak.
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  SPEAKER_01: We will call.
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  SPEAKER_01: We will roll away whatever stone we are able to move.
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  SPEAKER_01: And when the living walk out still bound,
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  SPEAKER_01: we will reach towards them with our own hands and begin to set them free.