Bible text for this sermon is available at https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=505805692

The prophet Ezekiel is given a literal vision of the figurative way that his people are burnt out. They are weary of living in exile, their ancestors are dead and their legacy is in ruins. They feel entirely cut off.

From former faith, former relationships, identity, meaning, belonging, wholeness.

This is the valley of despair.

For ancient Israel - literally and figuratively...and likely.. in us too. We feel it in our bodies and souls. We see it physically around us still. Unmarked mass graves like those recently found at Indian residential schools, the 95 African-Americans found a couple years ago in Sugarland as a result of the convict and leasing system. We don’t really have to imagine. Standing in the middle of a valley of loss and sorrow, exhaustion and loneliness...

God’s people are cut off, broken, dried up, dead, long dead, nothing but a pile of scattered and mixed up bones. Every ounce of life is gone.

As we are standing before this valley of heartache and hopelessness, the divine voice asks: Can these bones live? What Kind of questions is that!?! Are you kidding me? Is this a joke? Have you seen the state these bones are in!?! At least that’s what I would say if anyone but God was asking. But in the presence of the ultimate divine, I know better than to rule out the impossible. Sill, the best I could probably muster is, “I don’t know. I fear not.” Even the prophet Ezekiel defers to God’s wisdom saying “O God, you know.”

I wonder if that’s the moment God gets a twinkle in her eye because she DOES know and the time has come to bring us in on it. I wonder if this is the same kind of holy knowing Maya Angelou put into verse when she wrote “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”

A free bird leaps

on the back of the wind

and floats downstream

till the current ends

and dips his wing

in the orange sun rays

and dares to claim the sky.

But a bird that stalks

down his narrow cage

can seldom see through

his bars of rage

his wings are clipped and

his feet are tied

so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings

with a fearful trill

of things unknown

but longed for still

and his tune is heard

on the distant hill

for the caged bird

sings of freedom.

The free bird thinks of another breeze

and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees

and the fat worms waiting on a dawn bright lawn

and he names the sky his own.

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams

his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream

his wings are clipped and his feet are tied

so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings

with a fearful trill

of things unknown

but longed for still

and his tune is heard

on the distant hill

for the caged bird

sings of freedom.

God speaks to Ezekiel and tells him to speak of life and restoration and healing…

and as the words fill the air, it creates what was spoken. As the process begins it is accompanied by loud rattling. Bones being reset is never comfortable business, healing can ease pain but there can also be loud cries along the way. There’s a reason therapists keep tissues in their office. What unfolds is not in a snap of the fingers or all at once, but the rebuilding of a people happens piece by piece, bone by bone, layer by layer, sinew restored, connection and strength restored, skin cell by skill cell to cover and hold our raw humanity.

But still the work is not complete, life is not fully life until...breath. Our breath holds in it every corner of creation. It draws in life itself and the very source of that life. In this text the word for breathe and Spirit, Holy spirit is the same. As we breathe, it is God’s own breath, God’s own presence and being that moves through us. God’s restoration, God’s re-creation, God’s arrival if for our bodies and our Spirit, our whole being, it extends to the vast multitude, and all of that sits in the smallness of each breath we take.

Breathe and notice.

Breathe and notice the dry or despairing places within you.

Breath and notice the places of connection that hold you - your ankles, your hips, your shoulders, your knuckles, your spine, what else?

Breathe and notice the places of mending in you.

Breathe and notice

Breathe and notice.

It’s not that God tells Ezekiel or the downtrodden people to chin up or cheer up, but God promises what God will do, is doing, and that does its own work in us. God says it’s not just a bones day, you are a bones people, and I will always be with you, restoring you.

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. 13And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. 14I 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.

Can These Dry Bones Live?