Can These Bones Live?
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
For nearly a decade and a half, Iraq has been wracked by violence and conflict. After U.S.-led forces invaded the country to topple Saddam Hussein’s regime, an endless round of sectarian fighting was released as various militias and other groups (both religiously and regionally aligned) sought to dominate the country. Of course, the most recent push has been to try to oust ISIS from their strongholds in majority Sunni areas -- something most Westerners support because of the group’s particularly vicious behavior. Yet for those living in those areas, it appears that the Shiite militias who are “liberating” communities from ISIS control are engaging in their own form of revenge against families who they believe had assisted ISIS. It seems that many Iraqis are experiencing an almost hopeless cycle of violence and retribution, one that evokes the cry of the psalmist: “Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord.” As team member Chris Keating notes in this installment of The Immediate Word, it’s certainly a contemporary equivalent for Ezekiel’s valley of the dry bones. And yet, Chris observes, in an area where hope for peace and reconciliation seems almost completely illogical, our lectionary readings this week remind us that the Lord is more than capable of breathing new life into places of death and destruction.
Team member Dean Feldmeyer shares some additional thoughts on another present-day instance of the valley of the dry bones -- empty storefronts and malls left behind by the decline of brick-and-mortar retail outlets... even once-iconic stores like Sears and JC Penney. The combination of economic upheaval and the gravitation of consumer dollars to online shopping has left many traditional giants dying slowly. But as Dean notes from the experience of his own community, new life can return even when a situation seems utterly hopeless. And as with the valley of the dry bones, Dean points out, it’s not our own doing but the healing breath of the Lord that animates the process.
Can These Bones Live?
by Chris Keating
Ezekiel 37:1-14; Psalm 130; John 11:1-45
Squinting, Ezekiel holds his hand above his eyes, trying to grasp the array of inexplicable hopelessness set before him. Dust moves around the heaped piles, dried by the heat of desert winds and stripped of all semblance of structure. The lifeless piles of skeletons, devoid of ligament and muscle, weep silent tears in remembrances of the horror which they have witnessed. In that valley, all semblance of hope is reduced to rubble.
But out of that rubble comes God’s life-giving ruah, the creating Spirit breath which will summon new life from Israel. God’s intervention begins with a question to Ezekiel: “Can these bones live?”
It’s a good question, and only God knows the answer.
Today, Iraq remains one of many places where piles of lifeless bones continue to amass. There are, at last count, only ten countries that can be considered free from violent conflict. Nowhere is the stench of hopelessness more noxious than the Middle East. In 2016, the Global Peace Index noted that 75 percent of the world’s battlefield deaths occurred in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan.
Hopes for peace in Iraq still seem distant, even as U.S.-backed troops regain various strongholds in Iraq, defeating ISIS. But attention is shifting to what happens next. It’s also a good question. Iraq Uncovered, a documentary that recently aired on PBS, revealed levels of torture, kidnapping, and violence that even a battle-hardened journalist found shocking.
But it’s not just ISIS. British-Iranian journalist Ramita Navai spent months inside of Iraq. She noted that many Iraqi leaders remain fearful of the Shia militias that have been successful in driving ISIS out of the country yet are leaving canyons of despair behind. Navai, overwhelmed by the violence she encountered, likened the Iraqi province of Diyala to a “militia state” overrun by gangs and kidnappers. “If you want a glimpse at the future of Iraq,” she says, “look at Diyala.”
It’s a place of chaos and hopelessness, a place yearning for the breath of new possibility. That is the promise Ezekiel discovers. In a place of death, God’s breath will soon invite new possibility.
In the News
While Iraq’s prime minister Haider al-Abadi believes his country will be rid of ISIS “within the next few weeks,” others are concerned about what will happen once ISIS is gone. The challenge of keeping sectarian groups united seems as hopeless as Ezekiel’s initial glance at a valley of dried bones.
While meeting with President Trump at the White House last week, Abadi felt comfortable enough to joke that his country had nothing to do with wiretapping Trump’s telephones. But it will take more than good humor to bring healing to Iraq. Civilians who endured the terror of ISIS are now bracing for what happens next.
Abadi’s optimism stems from Iraqi advances to retake Mosul, the country’s second largest city. A coalition of forces, including sectarian militias, Iraqi military, and United States advisors, is successfully battling to retake Mosul. Following Abadi’s meeting with Trump, it appears that the United States is ready to increase its assistance to Iraq. On Monday, the Pentagon announced that another 200 soldiers were on their way to assist in the battle.
Yet once ISIS is gone, there remains the question famously posed by General David Patraeus at the beginning of the Iraqi war in 2003: “Tell me how this ends?” Sectarian groups will likely fight for control, creating struggles similar to the situations that gave birth to ISIS. In Mosul, much of the city’s predominately Sunni population distrusts the Shia-dominated national government. Many expect “plenty of revenge killings” to take place, and that reconciling the various ethnicities and sects will take a long time.
In addition, members of the Kurdish Peshmerga in Iraq are likely to hope their success on the battlefields may help realize the long-delayed dream of a Kurdish state, something Turkey will not tolerate.
Sunnis in Iraq remain leery of Shias, who represent about 60 percent of the nation’s Muslim population. They have good reason. Ramita Navai’s documentary Iraq Uncovereddetailed kidnappings and killings of hundreds of Sunni men by various Shia militias. The government seems hesitant, even powerless, to intervene. Navai’s investigations took her across Iraq, and led her to a somber conclusion.
“It’s really striking that while the west is fighting the war against ISIS,” Navai said, “most of the people we’ve spoken to here have told us they’re much more scared of the militia.” Her canvassing the nation revealed terrifying atrocities.
In the town of Saqlawiyah, just 45 miles from Baghdad, Navai discovered that 643 men and boys have gone missing. Locals believe that the same militia which drove ISIS out of Saqlawiyah also kidnapped the men. Sunnis were pushed out of Saqlawiyah and into refugee camps, where members of the militia rounded up men under age 70. Navai spoke to family members who denied having any connection to ISIS. The refugees told her they had been warned to never return home.
Sectarian militias have been part of Iraq for generations. Many fought alongside Saddam Hussein’s forces in the 1980s, and some battled American forces during the U.S. occupation of Iraq. After the fall of Mosul, Shia militias, including some with ties to Iran, were recruited by the government to help contain ISIS. Human rights organizations have documented accounts of sectarian-fueled violence and revenge.
While the U.S. does not officially support the militias -- and has labeled some as terrorists -- the reality is that ISIS remains the common enemy between the United States and militia members.
Fourteen years since the United States entered Iraq with promises of “shock and awe,” traumatizing death tolls and carnage continue to mount. As the pace against ISIS quickened last week, dozens of Iraqi civilians were buried beneath the wreckage of U.S.-led airstrikes. Iraqi officials expect the death toll to exceed 200, making it one of the worst instances of civilian casualties from an American-led attack since 1990.
War has depleted Iraq of its hope, and whether or not new life will emerge from the dried-up bones of the nation may seem to sound a bit like Ezekiel’s response to God: “O Lord God, only you know.”
In the Scriptures
Many Iraqis cry from the deep pits of war and terrorism. Their lament offers a connection to several of the lectionary texts for the Fifth Sunday of Lent, including Ezekiel 37:1-14 and Psalm 130.
Ezekiel’s eschatological imagery is striking, creating a vivid narrative of resurrection hope arising from the depths of despair. The prophet eyes the scattered and hopeless remains of a people vanquished by exile and torment. As he surveys the calcified remains of his people, Ezekiel sees the bones arise. In the words of the African-American spiritual, “I know it, ’deed I know it, dese bones gwine rise again.”
The Hebrew Bible offers little insight into beliefs about resurrection, but as the hip bones become connected to the thigh bones once more a central understanding of the resurrection of the body becomes clear. (See Kelton Cobb, “Theological Perspective,” Ezekiel 37:1-14, Fifth Sunday in Lent, in Feasting on the Word [Year A, Vol. 2].) The vision is one of Israel’s eventual return of the descendants of those long exiled -- the crying from the depths of those who wait for the Lord (Psalm 130).
Ezekiel’s hope is that Israel will one day return. The dusty, crumbling remnants will be revived and resuscitated. New tendons will grow and musculature develop. Even these very dry and nearly forgotten valleys of scattered bones will one day be renewed.
The hope is conveyed by way of the message of Yahweh’s promise. Ezekiel is commissioned to proclaim that message, and to declare that the Lord’s breath will re-enter these remnants. God’s breath will be enough, and all will know that Yahweh is God indeed. God, who breathes the gift of life, will also breathe the fresh air of resurrection breath.
This is the nature of Ezekiel’s word. God’s promise is offered to those who have lost hope, whose lungs can barely inhale the life-giving promises of God. Israel’s heart, like Martha and Mary’s, has been broken by the overwhelming stench of death. But this promise says no more.
No more shall there be those, like Eric Gardner, who gasp “I can’t breathe.” No more shall there be places, like Lazarus’ tomb, where the stench of death pollutes the air. The Lord’s promise is this: soon the torn-apart and broken bodies of war shall rise from the valley of despair.
Can these bones live? Only God knows.
In the Sermon
The hope of Lent is contained in these verses. Each of the texts offers an imaginative reading that breaks through the crust of Lent like daffodils in spring. Ezekiel’s encounter with the valley of the dry bones offers a particularly poignant reminder to those whose hearts have been wearied by endless cycles of war and violence. God challenges Ezekiel to imagine how the animating breath of the Spirit can bring new life. Those who have given up, whose own souls are as withered by war as those dried-up bones, are called to wonder “Can these bones live?”
It’s a question we see etched in the faces of the victims of war. We see it in the tear-stained cheeks of Iraqi women searching for their men. We see it the faces of refugees searching for home. We hear it in the agonizing cries of heroin addicts and their families.
Can these bones live?
One of the Jewish cemeteries that was vandalized last month is on the other side of town where I live. I have wondered about the grief faced by family members. I have wondered if we have heard the silent screams of the skeletons. And yet, even in the carnage of hate, there has been hope as hundreds of volunteers helped to restore the cemetery, and hundreds of thousands of dollars have been raised for future efforts.
Can these bones live?
Only God knows.
SECOND THOUGHTS
Dry Bones at the Mall
by Dean Feldmeyer
Ezekiel 37:1-14; John 11:1-45; Romans 8:6-11
Years ago, Sears ran a television ad campaign where the commercials began with an announcer saying, “This Saturday, when you go to Sears...”
That’s how big Sears was. It was just assumed that everyone went to Sears every Saturday, and the assumption was very nearly correct. They sold just about everything a person could want or need, from clothing to candy, from automotive tools to carpets and vacuum cleaners. Their Craftsman (tools) and Kenmore (appliances) lines were widely known for setting the industry standard in quality and durability. If you needed something ? anything -- you could “just go to Sears and buy one,” as my aunt used to say.
People went to Sears on Saturday. The aisles were crowded and business was brisk. And if you couldn’t find what you wanted in the store, you could page through a 3-inch-thick catalog and be sure you would find it there.
That was then; this is now.
In the News
The Craftsman brand has been sold. Sears Holding, the company that owns Sears and Kmart, has announced that in 2017 they will close 150 stores (108 Kmart and 42 Sears locations) in 40 states. They have also announced that “substantial doubt exists related to the company’s ability to continue as a going concern.”
Meanwhile, Sears CEO Eddie Lampert is getting rich while watching his company fail and his stockholders go broke.
Sears isn’t going down alone, however.
JC Penney will close 138 locations, about 14 percent of its stores, in 2017 and is offering buyouts to 6,000 workers.
Macy’s has announced that they will close 68 stores, and the company itself may be up for sale.
MC Sports will close 68 stores as well. The company has filed for bankruptcy, following other sporting goods retailers like Sports Authority, Golfsmith, and Sport Chalet. Outdoor adventure giant Gander Mountain has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and will close 32 stores this year.
And, of course, when the stores fail, the shopping malls and strip centers fail as well. Hardly a town exists in America that has not witnessed malls closing, strip centers emptied, and shopping venues under construction abandoned. The fall of the retail dominos is tragically predictable. The company’s failure leads to the store’s failure. The stores’ closings lead to the mall’s failure, which leads to the failure of adjacent and nearby businesses -- restaurants, motels, gas stations, etc.
Suddenly, what was once a thriving retail enterprise zone has become a wasteland of abandoned, empty buildings whose owners hope can be repurposed as anything that will save them from the wrecking ball. But let’s be honest. We’ve seen this before. These empty storefronts are pretty much hopeless.
In the Scriptures
Ezekiel 37:1-14
This week’s lectionary readings confront hopelessness head-on.
In Ezekiel, the prophet is led by YHWH to the valley of dry bones. The passage doesn’t say why the bones are there or even if they are human, but we always assume that they are. I tend to imagine that a great battle was fought in this valley and the carnage was so horrendous that people couldn’t face it. They were overwhelmed, so rather than bury the bodies they just turned and walked away and allowed the predators and scavengers and nature have their way.
Or perhaps this is the site of some great catastrophe, an earthquake or a fire or a flood that killed so many people that they could not all be buried so they were left for their bones to bleach in the sun. Or maybe it was the sight of a plague that reigned death upon the inhabitants of the valley, and though the survivors would have liked to come back and bury the dead, they dared not for fear of the silent killer that took their friends and families.
Whatever the reason the bodies were left, and eventually, the bones were left to bake in the sun. They’ve been here a long, long time, Ezekiel notes, because they are obviously dry. They are symbols of hopelessness.
“Mortal?” God asks. “Can these bones live?
Ezekiel hedges his answer. Probably he would want to say, “Of course they can’t! They’re dead. They’ve been dead for a long, long time. There’s no more walking left in them. They are hopeless.” But he hedges his answer because he’s talking to YHWH, and God is known for his trick questions. We don’t have a recording so we don’t know what kind of inflection or pronunciation he used, but his answer makes us wonder. At any rate, it is brief.
“O Lord God, you know.”
What follows, then, is a series of mini-sermons which God tells Ezekiel to preach to this dead congregation. (Insert joke about preaching to the dead here.)
Through these sermons, God makes it clear that these hopelessly dead bones can, in fact, live and walk again -- but this happens by no human agency. It is God who makes this kind of thing happen, if and when it happens, and don’t you forget it.
Then God tells Ezekiel that this whole dream/vision has been a metaphor for what God is planning for the Children of Israel who are being held against their will in Babylon and have given up hope.
God will breathe life back into them and they will live and walk again. But it is God who will make this happen, in God’s own time and in God’s own way.
John 11:1-45
The gospel writer known as John retells the now-familiar story of the raising of Lazarus from the dead, but takes his time doing so.
There is a plethora of sermons nestled in this long reading. I particularly like Timothy’s response to Jesus’ insistence on going to Jerusalem: “Okay, fine. Let’s aaaaallll go to Jerusalem and die together.” There are the friends who have walked two miles to be with Mary and Martha in their grief. And those who aren’t convinced about Jesus until they seem him raise someone from the dead. Lots of sermon stuff.
But, of course, the star of the show is Lazarus, so it is to him that we turn.
He has been in the tomb for four days when Jesus gets there. Three days was the customary waiting period to make sure that someone was really dead; Lazarus had passed that threshold. Also, there’s the stench. The body has already begun to decompose.
So, like the dry bones in the valley, Lazarus is a hopeless case, right?
Not so fast there. Jesus has got this one under control. “Lazarus,” he says, “come out.” And what do you know? There’s Lazarus, standing in the entry to the tomb, looking like the mummy in those old movies, all wrapped in his death garb which is immediately taken away by his sisters. And then, in an epilogue, we are told that many (not all) of the Jews who were there to comfort Mary saw what he did and believed in him.
Romans 8:6-11
Usually, people believe that if they can provide all that their body needs and wants, then they will be free to tend to their spiritual needs and they will be happy and their lives will be full, and rich, and authentic.
If I could just have that sexy little convertible, I’d be happy then. If I could just have a really well-made designer suit, I’d be more successful. If I could just put together the money I need to buy that house, man, I could be content for the rest of my days.
Then I could concentrate on my spiritual life and get right with God.
Paul, however, turns that notion on its head.
Paul says that we should concentrate on our spiritual lives first. Get right with God. Let God’s spirit (breath) fill you and guide you and heal you and deliver you. Then you will find that your physical needs will be met quicker and more easily.
Get your spiritual life in order, he says, and the rest will follow.
In the Sermon
So, what do you think? Will these empty storefronts, these closed factories, these shuttered restaurants ever live again? Will they ever do business again? Can they live?
“O Lord God, you know.”
Those are not just academic, rhetorical, theological questions, you know. In 2008, Clinton County, Ohio -- the rural county where I live -- had the lowest unemployment rate in the state at just under 4%. That year the international freight carrier DHL announced that they were closing their break-bulk terminal in the county seat of Wilmington. Within a year 6,000 jobs in our county were gone, along with another 4,000 in the contiguous counties. Our unemployment rate was instantly the highest in the state at nearly 35%.
The dominos began to fall almost immediately. Over the next 24 months, stores, restaurants, dry cleaners, and churches all began to close as people left the county to find work in other places. Home sales plummeted and construction on new homes stopped completely. People walked away from their mortgages and leases, leaving empty homes all over the county.
“Mortal, can these bones live?” We heard the question being asked in our hearts, if not aloud, as we gathered in task forces and work groups to try to mitigate the effects of the disaster. We gathered on the courthouse lawn and in our churches to sing hymns, and pray, and witness to our faith in God and each other.
Eventually things began to slow and even turn around.
Today, nine years later, things are much better in Clinton County. The exodus to other places to find work eased some of the pressure. New home construction has resumed, even as some abandoned homes continue to sit empty and gather cobwebs and dust. We’re even beginning to see some “Help Wanted” signs on storefronts and ads in the paper.
To be sure, some of this relief has been the result of long hours and hard work by our community leaders and our citizens. But we are all clear that much of it is not the result of any human activity. Rather, it is the work of the one who showed Ezekiel the vision of dry bones come to life, the one whose hand lifted Lazarus from his tomb when Jesus said, “Lazarus, come out!”
And it is because as a community we have come, once again, to the realization that our lives are not defined by what we own or how many reserved parking spaces we have. We are made authentic not by the depth of our checking accounts nor by any of those physical things which make us feel good. No, we are made authentically human, authentically the people of God, by our relationships with God and each other.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Ron Love:
Ezekiel 37:1-14
Flying in outer space attracts most people as being a glorious, wonderful, exhilarating, experience. If more people had the millions of dollars required to be a space tourist, then the sign-up list would be endless. But Bloomberg’s Caroline Winter cautions against having such an anticipation of euphoria, as space flight can cause individuals to become very sick, with the sickness lasting several days after returning to earth. Zero gravity does not allow body fluids to move about the body properly, causing one to be ill. The fluids in the inner ear float, so one becomes disoriented. Exposure to radiation has ill effects on the body, as well as affecting how the eyes process light.
Application: When the dry bones came alive, we often fail to realize the difficulty of the new experience the individuals encountered.
*****
Ezekiel 37:1-14
In a Blondie comic strip, Dagwood is walking past a man on the street holding a string bass. Dagwood asks the man if he can really play the instrument, to which he gets the reply “It’ll cost you a buck to find out.” Dagwood pays the money, only to hear an ear-shattering “skwwerk!” coming from the instrument. Disheveled, Dagwood walks away, saying: “It cost me a buck, but I found out!”
Application: It can be difficult for us to learn the truth about God and life.
*****
Ezekiel 37:1-14
Tom Nichols just published a book titled The Death of Expertise, in which he contends that ignorance is bliss for so many Americans. Ignorance is bliss, because they only seek out and believe in news stories that confirm their already-held beliefs; they will not entertain any opposing ideas or arguments. This is one reason that Donald Trump got elected, because people believed what he said no matter how untruthful it may be; it was what they wanted to hear absent of reflection. Nichols refers to this as the “confirmation bias.” That is, we look for and accept information that does not challenge what we accept as truth.
Application: It can be difficult for us to learn the truth about God and life.
*****
Ezekiel 37:1-14
Early politicians required feedback from the public to determine what the people considered important. Since there were no telephones, televisions, or radios, politicians sent their assistants to local taverns, pubs, and bars. They were told to “go sip some ale and listen to people’s conversations and political concerns.” Many assistants were dispatched at different times. “You go sip here” and “You go sip there.” The two words “go sip” were eventually combined when referring to the local opinion, and thus we have the term “gossip.”
Application: It can be difficult for us to learn the truth about God and life.
*****
Romans 8:6-11
In a Dennis the Menace comic, Mr. Wilson is leisurely lying on a hammock in his backyard. He has a look of peace and contentment until Dennis rides up next to the hammock on his tricycle. Dennis says to Mr. Wilson: “So this is where you have all the time in the world?”
Application: Paul is very clear that if we live by the Spirit we do not have all the time in the world to fulfill our calling in Christ.
*****
Romans 8:6-11
In an Andy Capp comic strip, Andy comes out of a bookie’s office in a rage. As he is tearing up his betting slips in a fury, he comes face to face with his church’s rector. The pastor says to Andy: “Lost again, Mister Capp? Never mind. Money can’t buy happiness.” Andy, with a thoughtful look that puts a smile on the pastor’s face, says: “You’re right, Vicar.” Then Andy walks away in a rage, leaving a look of discouragement on the pastor’s face as he says, “But it can buy me beer -- that makes me happy.”
Application: Paul is clear that if we live by the flesh we will never be happy.
*****
Romans 8:6-11
Joey Meek has been sentenced to 27-months in prison for failing to report the crimes of Dylann Roof, who in a hate crime murdered nine people at the AME church in Charleston. Meek knew about Roof’s intentions prior to his act of violence, but it was not a violation of the law to remain silent. Once the act was committed, and Meek knew who did it, and even went so far as to prevent a friend from reporting it to the police, he violated the law. At his sentencing Meek said: “I’m really sorry. A lot of beautiful lives were taken.” He then started to cry, saying he feared retribution while in prison. “I don’t know if I’ll make it out of prison alive. I’m scared.”
Application: People who live by the flesh only become scared when others who live by the flesh threaten them.
*****
Romans 8:6-11
A 15-year-old Chicago girl was gang raped, with the rape being streamed live on Facebook. None of the roughly 40 people who watched the rape reported it to the police. It is not illegal to watch the rape or report it to the police if the livestream is not downloaded. But certainly it is unethical.
Application: Sometimes we just cannot comprehend how evil people can be who live by the flesh.
*****
John 11:1-45
The state of Arkansas plans to execute eight men, two per day, over a ten-day period. This is because the state’s supply of the drug midazolam expires at the end of April, and the drug cannot be replaced as pharmaceutical companies will not sell it to prisons. Midazolam is the first of three drugs administered during an execution, and is supposed to cause the inmate to go to sleep, alleviating any possibility of feeling pain. But there are questions if midazolam really works as it is supposed to. There are a great deal of protests and questions about how efficient such a mass execution can be with the stress it would cause on the staff, further highlighted by the fact that extra staff people are receiving fast-track training to assist the regular execution staff. In reply to this Gov. Asa Hutchinson defended the mass executions in ten days, saying that “it’s not any easier to string it out over four or five months.”
Application: Do people really comprehend the meaning of death?
*****
John 11:1-45
After several years of research, consulting every expert in various academic fields to make sure that it was done properly, Sesame Street will introduce Julia -- the first autistic character in the history of the series -- when its 47th season debuts on April 10. The show will emphasize that rather than being regarded as an outsider, Julia will be a part of the gang.
Application: We are taught to be caring.
***************
From team member Mary Austin:
Ezekiel 37:1-14
Easy Money
A group of high school students wondered what it would take to revive their dying town. The book Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard by Dan Heath and Chip Heath tells it this way:
“In 1995, a group of high school students in Howard, South Dakota, started plotting a revival. They wanted to do something, anything that might revive their dying community.” Their teacher, Randy Parry, asked them what they thought their town needed, and so “the class, with Parry’s help, conducted a survey of 1,000 registered voters in Miner County, examining their spending habits. They were alarmed to find that half of them were traveling an hour -- to Sioux Falls, South Dakota -- for most of their shopping. If Miner County was going to be reborn, its economy would need a boost,” the Heaths wrote. “Most of the things that would boost an economy -- investment, entrepreneurship, immigration -- were out of the students’ control. But they had uncovered one thing that was very much in their control: spending money locally. They had found their first rallying cry: Let’s keep Miner dollars in Miner County.”
With a little research, the students concluded that if each adult spent just 10 percent more of their disposable income locally, the Howard economy would increase by $7 million.
They presented their idea at a town meeting. “The audience was impressed, and the presentation worked better than anyone expected,” the authors wrote. “The students had scripted the first critical move for Miner County, and the locals responded immediately, consciously spending more of their money in the county. A year later, South Dakota’s Department of Revenue released an astonishing number: The amount of money spent in Miner County had increased by $15.6 million, more than twice the increase the kids had expected.”
One thing led to another, and the town has seen an economic resurgence. Thanks to the ingenuity of a group of high school students, revenue has increased and the town is in noticeably better shape.
*****
Ezekiel 37:1-14
Resumé or Eulogy?
Columnist David Brooks says that if we truly want to be alive, not just a collection of dry bones, we have to live with attention to our eulogy and not our resumé. Brooks says: “I’ve been thinking about the difference between the resumé virtues and the eulogy virtues. The resumé virtues are the ones you put on your resumé, which are the skills you bring to the marketplace. The eulogy virtues are the ones that get mentioned in the eulogy, which are deeper: who are you, in your depth, what is the nature of your relationships, are you bold, loving, dependable, consistent?” Most of us agree that the eulogy qualities are more important, but somehow the resumé qualities demand a place in the front of our minds.
To get to the eulogy virtues, Brooks says, we need to go into the desert and look at the dry bones of our own lives: “Through history, people have gone back into their own pasts, sometimes to a precious time in their life, to their childhood, and often the mind gravitates in the past to a moment of shame, some sin committed, some act of selfishness, an act of omission, of shallowness, the sin of anger, the sin of self-pity, trying to be a people-pleaser, a lack of courage.... [Character] is built by fighting your weaknesses. You go into yourself, you find the sin which you’ve committed over and again through your life, your signature sin out of which the others emerge, and you fight that sin and you wrestle with that sin, and out of that wrestling, that suffering, then a depth of character is constructed.” New life comes out of the dry bones, if we’re willing to confront them.
*****
Ezekiel 37:1-14; John 11:1-45
New Life
Many wonder if religious orders are becoming a thing of the past, as fewer and fewer women become nuns. A group of nuns in Kentucky has found a way to bring new life to their religious vocation. The Sisters of Loretto have found a calling in opposing fracking in their Kentucky landscape. At one early protest against a gas pipeline through Kentucky, “a company representative asked the police to arrest the sisters for disrupting the meeting that day. But the officers, who were graduates of local Catholic schools, refused to arrest their former teachers.”
A documentary filmmaker who met the nuns says the sisters are “the glue that held the diverse group of protesters together and kept them focused.” “They all have really strong, glowing spirits.... They brought their inherent qualities -- energy, compassion, and education, as well as a certain ethereal element -- to the whole campaign.”
An article on the women notes: “Whatever the nuns brought, it worked. In March 2014, a circuit judge ruled against the pipeline, saying the companies had no right to use eminent domain against owners unwilling to sell their land. A few months later, the companies agreed to redraw their route to avoid Loretto’s grounds, but the sisters kept protesting to support their neighbors. The case eventually went to the state supreme court, which upheld the lower court’s decision. The pipeline was defeated -- and the same coalition is now fighting another one.”
The article wonders: “As more and more of the sisters age, who will continue the orders’ missions and care for their grounds? Who will stand up for local people, advocate for sustainability, and offer a place of quiet in which to contemplate nature? ...Then again, the Kentucky orders may continue to serve their communities for a long time to come. Rather than relying on an influx of young girls graduating from Catholic schools, some of the convents are recruiting non-traditional members. Co-members at Loretto can be male or female, married or single, and Catholic or not, so long as they are committed to peace and justice.” The bones of an old tradition are alive in a new way, in God’s spirit.
*****
Ezekiel 37:1-14; John 11:1-45
Reviving the Night
In Chicago, a city hard-hit by violence, St. Sabina’s Church has been working to improve its underserved neighborhood for years, with efforts in “providing social services and job opportunities for young people and those who were formerly incarcerated to hiring former gang members to do outreach in the neighborhoods. They’ve also started a basketball league with rival gang members; helped bridge the divide between local police officers and black youth through conversations, basketball, and role playing; and formed a group called Purpose Over Pain for parents who have lost children to gun violence.”
This year, they began to seek new life for the neighborhood in another way. In June, “on the last day of school for most students, they started peace walks. Every Friday from June to October, residents walked the streets of their community to engage with their neighbors. ‘Friday night seems to be the night of most violence in the city. So we go out in different parts of the community to walk to reach out to people, to talk to people, to try to find out what we can do to bring things down. To let people know, here are support services we have, here are things we can do,’ says [Father Michael] Pfleger. ‘What we try to do is find where in our area has the most tension, and that’s where we go on that Friday.’ ” The goal, he says, is to set a different presence on the street, one of hope and action rather than apathy.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Out of the depths we cry to you, O God.
People: Hear our voice! Let your ears be attentive to our supplications!
Leader: If you, O God, should mark iniquities, who could stand?
People: But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered.
Leader: We wait for our God, our soul waits, and in God’s word we hope;
People: With God there is steadfast love, and power to redeem.
OR
Leader: Let us worship the God who brings us hope.
People: Even when things seem hopeless, God lifts us up.
Leader: Let us give praise to the God who brings life.
People: Even in death, we find life in our God.
Leader: Let us share God’s hope and life with all.
People: We will spread the good news of God’s grace.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“Great Is Thy Faithfulness”
found in:
UMH: 140
AAHH: 158
NNBH: 45
NCH: 423
CH: 86
ELA: 733
W&P: 72
AMEC: 84
Renew: 249
“All My Hope Is Firmly Grounded”
found in:
UMH: 132
H82: 665
NCH: 408
CH: 88
ELA: 757
“Jesus Shall Reign”
found in:
UMH: 157
H82: 544
PH: 423
NNBH: 10
NCH: 300
CH: 95
LBW: 530
ELA: 434
W&P: 341
AMEC: 95
Renew: 296
“What Wondrous Love Is This”
found in:
UMH: 292
H82: 439
PH: 85
NCH: 223
CH: 200
LBW: 385
ELA: 666
W&P: 257
STLT: 18
Renew: 277
“O Sacred Head, Now Wounded”
found in:
UMH: 286
H82: 168, 169
PH: 98
AAHH: 250
NNBH: 108
NCH: 226
CH: 202
LBW: 116, 117
ELA: 351, 352
W&P: 284
AMEC: 133
STLT: 265
Renew: 235
“Pues Si Vivimos” (“When We Are Living”)
found in:
UMH: 356
PH: 400
NCH: 499
CH: 536
ELA: 639
W&P: 415
“It Is Well with My Soul”
found in:
UMH: 377
AAHH: 377
NNBH: 255
NCH: 561
LBW: 785
ELA: 428
W&P: 448
“My Faith Looks Up to Thee”
found in:
UMH: 452
H82: 691
PH: 383
AAHH: 456
NNBH: 273
CH: 576
LBW: 479
ELA: 759
W&P: 419
AMEC: 415
“How Majestic Is Your Name”
found in:
CCB: 21
Renew: 98
“Your Loving Kindness Is Better than Life”
found in:
CCB: 26
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who brings life to what was once dead: Grant us the faith to trust in your life-giving Spirit that we may be lifted up into new life; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
O God who brings hope out of hopelessness and life out of death: Grant us the courage to trust you when things get hopeless so that we may give hope to others; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, for you bring hope where there is hopelessness and life where we see only death. Fill us with your grace so that we may have the courage to look beyond our darkness to see your light. Help us to show others the hope and life you offer. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our failure to see beyond the darkness.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We look at the situations around us and see only helplessness, hopelessness, and death. We fail to look to you, and so we miss the hope and life you bring. We are so weighed down by the darkness around us that we are unable to share light with others. Break through the dark with your great light, that we may find hope and life in you. So fill us with your Spirit that we are able to share your good gifts with others. Amen.
Leader: God is hope and life. Receive these good gifts as God’s children and share them with all.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
We sing your praises, O God, for you are the one who bring us hope and life.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We look at the situations around us and see only helplessness, hopelessness, and death. We fail to look to you, and so we miss the hope and life you bring. We are so weighed down by the darkness around us that we are unable to share light with others. Break through the dark with your great light, that we may find hope and life in you. So fill us with your Spirit that we are able to share your good gifts with others.
We give you thanks for all the blessings we receive from your hand. We thank you for the constant hope you bring us in the darkest of days. We thank you that you teach us that not even death is stronger than life.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for all your children in their needs. We pray for those who look at their lives and see only hopelessness and despair. We pray for those who can see only death, even in the midst of life.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father . . . Amen.
(or if the Lord’s Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
Time for a history lesson. Tell the story of Thomas Edison inventing the electric light bulb. He tried so many different things that didn’t work. When he was asked if he was discouraged, he said, “No, I know a thousand things that don’t work.” He had hope and he never gave up. God gives all of us hope to not give up and to keep trying as we follow Jesus.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
by Beth Herrinton-Hodge
Ezekiel 37:1-14
Optional props:
* lyrics to “Dem Bones” written on newsprint or posterboard
* bendable Halloween skeleton or toy skeleton bones
(Display the skeleton image or toy bones for the children. Invite them to manipulate the bendable skeleton or to try to put the bones together to make a whole skeleton. Notice the number of bones and varying parts of the skeleton.)
There’s a song I remember from my childhood called “Dem Bones” -- we’d sing it in Sunday school and on the bus while riding to church camp. It goes something like this (the leader can sing it if desired; manipulate the bones as you sing or recite the song):
Dem bones, dem bones gonna walk around.
Dem bones, dem bones gonna walk around.
Dem bones, dem bones gonna walk around.
Now hear the word of the Lord.
Then we’d sing about how each of the bones in our body connect, from toe to head. (Sing again!)
The toe bone connected to the foot bone;
The foot bone connected to the heel bone;
The heel bone connected to the ankle bone;
The ankle bone connected to the shin bone;
The shin bone connected to the knee bone;
The knee bone connected to the thigh bone;
The thigh bone connected to the hip bone;
The hip bone connected to the back bone;
The back bone connected to the shoulder bone;
The shoulder bone connected to the neck bone;
The neck bone connected to the head bone.
Now hear the word of the Lord.
Growing up, I never knew that this song comes from a Bible story. It’s from the passage we’re focusing on in our service today.
Read aloud Ezekiel 37:1-5, 7 (Ezekiel tells about a vision he saw in a dream):
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. He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry.
He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?”
I answered, “O Lord God, you know.”
Then he said to me, “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.’ ” 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.
The bones lived! The foot bone connected to the heel bone, the heel bone connected to the ankle bone, and so on.
Ezekiel saw a scary sight -- a valley filled with dry, scattered bones. God breathed the Spirit upon them and up they rose, bone came together with bone, just like we used to sing about in the song.
It is believed that long ago a poet and songwriter named James Weldon Johnson wrote this song, and it’s been handed down through the years -- helping to tell the Bible story about Ezekiel’s dream. By making the Bible story into a song, it makes the story easier to remember. And it makes the story less scary.
A valley full of dry bones = scary.
A fun song about dancing bones = not so scary.
Ezekiel’s dream is about God’s power to give life to things that seem dead. The power of God’s Spirit blows over us like a wind -- just as it blew over those dry bones that Ezekiel saw -- giving life and strength and hope when things seem dry and dead.
(Teach the song to the children. Sing it together, inviting the congregation to sing along.)
Prayer: Holy and powerful God, thank you for silly songs that help us remember Bible stories. Thank you too for your power and your spirit that brings us together and gives life to all living things. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, April 2, 2017, issue.
Copyright 2017 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
Team member Dean Feldmeyer shares some additional thoughts on another present-day instance of the valley of the dry bones -- empty storefronts and malls left behind by the decline of brick-and-mortar retail outlets... even once-iconic stores like Sears and JC Penney. The combination of economic upheaval and the gravitation of consumer dollars to online shopping has left many traditional giants dying slowly. But as Dean notes from the experience of his own community, new life can return even when a situation seems utterly hopeless. And as with the valley of the dry bones, Dean points out, it’s not our own doing but the healing breath of the Lord that animates the process.
Can These Bones Live?
by Chris Keating
Ezekiel 37:1-14; Psalm 130; John 11:1-45
Squinting, Ezekiel holds his hand above his eyes, trying to grasp the array of inexplicable hopelessness set before him. Dust moves around the heaped piles, dried by the heat of desert winds and stripped of all semblance of structure. The lifeless piles of skeletons, devoid of ligament and muscle, weep silent tears in remembrances of the horror which they have witnessed. In that valley, all semblance of hope is reduced to rubble.
But out of that rubble comes God’s life-giving ruah, the creating Spirit breath which will summon new life from Israel. God’s intervention begins with a question to Ezekiel: “Can these bones live?”
It’s a good question, and only God knows the answer.
Today, Iraq remains one of many places where piles of lifeless bones continue to amass. There are, at last count, only ten countries that can be considered free from violent conflict. Nowhere is the stench of hopelessness more noxious than the Middle East. In 2016, the Global Peace Index noted that 75 percent of the world’s battlefield deaths occurred in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan.
Hopes for peace in Iraq still seem distant, even as U.S.-backed troops regain various strongholds in Iraq, defeating ISIS. But attention is shifting to what happens next. It’s also a good question. Iraq Uncovered, a documentary that recently aired on PBS, revealed levels of torture, kidnapping, and violence that even a battle-hardened journalist found shocking.
But it’s not just ISIS. British-Iranian journalist Ramita Navai spent months inside of Iraq. She noted that many Iraqi leaders remain fearful of the Shia militias that have been successful in driving ISIS out of the country yet are leaving canyons of despair behind. Navai, overwhelmed by the violence she encountered, likened the Iraqi province of Diyala to a “militia state” overrun by gangs and kidnappers. “If you want a glimpse at the future of Iraq,” she says, “look at Diyala.”
It’s a place of chaos and hopelessness, a place yearning for the breath of new possibility. That is the promise Ezekiel discovers. In a place of death, God’s breath will soon invite new possibility.
In the News
While Iraq’s prime minister Haider al-Abadi believes his country will be rid of ISIS “within the next few weeks,” others are concerned about what will happen once ISIS is gone. The challenge of keeping sectarian groups united seems as hopeless as Ezekiel’s initial glance at a valley of dried bones.
While meeting with President Trump at the White House last week, Abadi felt comfortable enough to joke that his country had nothing to do with wiretapping Trump’s telephones. But it will take more than good humor to bring healing to Iraq. Civilians who endured the terror of ISIS are now bracing for what happens next.
Abadi’s optimism stems from Iraqi advances to retake Mosul, the country’s second largest city. A coalition of forces, including sectarian militias, Iraqi military, and United States advisors, is successfully battling to retake Mosul. Following Abadi’s meeting with Trump, it appears that the United States is ready to increase its assistance to Iraq. On Monday, the Pentagon announced that another 200 soldiers were on their way to assist in the battle.
Yet once ISIS is gone, there remains the question famously posed by General David Patraeus at the beginning of the Iraqi war in 2003: “Tell me how this ends?” Sectarian groups will likely fight for control, creating struggles similar to the situations that gave birth to ISIS. In Mosul, much of the city’s predominately Sunni population distrusts the Shia-dominated national government. Many expect “plenty of revenge killings” to take place, and that reconciling the various ethnicities and sects will take a long time.
In addition, members of the Kurdish Peshmerga in Iraq are likely to hope their success on the battlefields may help realize the long-delayed dream of a Kurdish state, something Turkey will not tolerate.
Sunnis in Iraq remain leery of Shias, who represent about 60 percent of the nation’s Muslim population. They have good reason. Ramita Navai’s documentary Iraq Uncovereddetailed kidnappings and killings of hundreds of Sunni men by various Shia militias. The government seems hesitant, even powerless, to intervene. Navai’s investigations took her across Iraq, and led her to a somber conclusion.
“It’s really striking that while the west is fighting the war against ISIS,” Navai said, “most of the people we’ve spoken to here have told us they’re much more scared of the militia.” Her canvassing the nation revealed terrifying atrocities.
In the town of Saqlawiyah, just 45 miles from Baghdad, Navai discovered that 643 men and boys have gone missing. Locals believe that the same militia which drove ISIS out of Saqlawiyah also kidnapped the men. Sunnis were pushed out of Saqlawiyah and into refugee camps, where members of the militia rounded up men under age 70. Navai spoke to family members who denied having any connection to ISIS. The refugees told her they had been warned to never return home.
Sectarian militias have been part of Iraq for generations. Many fought alongside Saddam Hussein’s forces in the 1980s, and some battled American forces during the U.S. occupation of Iraq. After the fall of Mosul, Shia militias, including some with ties to Iran, were recruited by the government to help contain ISIS. Human rights organizations have documented accounts of sectarian-fueled violence and revenge.
While the U.S. does not officially support the militias -- and has labeled some as terrorists -- the reality is that ISIS remains the common enemy between the United States and militia members.
Fourteen years since the United States entered Iraq with promises of “shock and awe,” traumatizing death tolls and carnage continue to mount. As the pace against ISIS quickened last week, dozens of Iraqi civilians were buried beneath the wreckage of U.S.-led airstrikes. Iraqi officials expect the death toll to exceed 200, making it one of the worst instances of civilian casualties from an American-led attack since 1990.
War has depleted Iraq of its hope, and whether or not new life will emerge from the dried-up bones of the nation may seem to sound a bit like Ezekiel’s response to God: “O Lord God, only you know.”
In the Scriptures
Many Iraqis cry from the deep pits of war and terrorism. Their lament offers a connection to several of the lectionary texts for the Fifth Sunday of Lent, including Ezekiel 37:1-14 and Psalm 130.
Ezekiel’s eschatological imagery is striking, creating a vivid narrative of resurrection hope arising from the depths of despair. The prophet eyes the scattered and hopeless remains of a people vanquished by exile and torment. As he surveys the calcified remains of his people, Ezekiel sees the bones arise. In the words of the African-American spiritual, “I know it, ’deed I know it, dese bones gwine rise again.”
The Hebrew Bible offers little insight into beliefs about resurrection, but as the hip bones become connected to the thigh bones once more a central understanding of the resurrection of the body becomes clear. (See Kelton Cobb, “Theological Perspective,” Ezekiel 37:1-14, Fifth Sunday in Lent, in Feasting on the Word [Year A, Vol. 2].) The vision is one of Israel’s eventual return of the descendants of those long exiled -- the crying from the depths of those who wait for the Lord (Psalm 130).
Ezekiel’s hope is that Israel will one day return. The dusty, crumbling remnants will be revived and resuscitated. New tendons will grow and musculature develop. Even these very dry and nearly forgotten valleys of scattered bones will one day be renewed.
The hope is conveyed by way of the message of Yahweh’s promise. Ezekiel is commissioned to proclaim that message, and to declare that the Lord’s breath will re-enter these remnants. God’s breath will be enough, and all will know that Yahweh is God indeed. God, who breathes the gift of life, will also breathe the fresh air of resurrection breath.
This is the nature of Ezekiel’s word. God’s promise is offered to those who have lost hope, whose lungs can barely inhale the life-giving promises of God. Israel’s heart, like Martha and Mary’s, has been broken by the overwhelming stench of death. But this promise says no more.
No more shall there be those, like Eric Gardner, who gasp “I can’t breathe.” No more shall there be places, like Lazarus’ tomb, where the stench of death pollutes the air. The Lord’s promise is this: soon the torn-apart and broken bodies of war shall rise from the valley of despair.
Can these bones live? Only God knows.
In the Sermon
The hope of Lent is contained in these verses. Each of the texts offers an imaginative reading that breaks through the crust of Lent like daffodils in spring. Ezekiel’s encounter with the valley of the dry bones offers a particularly poignant reminder to those whose hearts have been wearied by endless cycles of war and violence. God challenges Ezekiel to imagine how the animating breath of the Spirit can bring new life. Those who have given up, whose own souls are as withered by war as those dried-up bones, are called to wonder “Can these bones live?”
It’s a question we see etched in the faces of the victims of war. We see it in the tear-stained cheeks of Iraqi women searching for their men. We see it the faces of refugees searching for home. We hear it in the agonizing cries of heroin addicts and their families.
Can these bones live?
One of the Jewish cemeteries that was vandalized last month is on the other side of town where I live. I have wondered about the grief faced by family members. I have wondered if we have heard the silent screams of the skeletons. And yet, even in the carnage of hate, there has been hope as hundreds of volunteers helped to restore the cemetery, and hundreds of thousands of dollars have been raised for future efforts.
Can these bones live?
Only God knows.
SECOND THOUGHTS
Dry Bones at the Mall
by Dean Feldmeyer
Ezekiel 37:1-14; John 11:1-45; Romans 8:6-11
Years ago, Sears ran a television ad campaign where the commercials began with an announcer saying, “This Saturday, when you go to Sears...”
That’s how big Sears was. It was just assumed that everyone went to Sears every Saturday, and the assumption was very nearly correct. They sold just about everything a person could want or need, from clothing to candy, from automotive tools to carpets and vacuum cleaners. Their Craftsman (tools) and Kenmore (appliances) lines were widely known for setting the industry standard in quality and durability. If you needed something ? anything -- you could “just go to Sears and buy one,” as my aunt used to say.
People went to Sears on Saturday. The aisles were crowded and business was brisk. And if you couldn’t find what you wanted in the store, you could page through a 3-inch-thick catalog and be sure you would find it there.
That was then; this is now.
In the News
The Craftsman brand has been sold. Sears Holding, the company that owns Sears and Kmart, has announced that in 2017 they will close 150 stores (108 Kmart and 42 Sears locations) in 40 states. They have also announced that “substantial doubt exists related to the company’s ability to continue as a going concern.”
Meanwhile, Sears CEO Eddie Lampert is getting rich while watching his company fail and his stockholders go broke.
Sears isn’t going down alone, however.
JC Penney will close 138 locations, about 14 percent of its stores, in 2017 and is offering buyouts to 6,000 workers.
Macy’s has announced that they will close 68 stores, and the company itself may be up for sale.
MC Sports will close 68 stores as well. The company has filed for bankruptcy, following other sporting goods retailers like Sports Authority, Golfsmith, and Sport Chalet. Outdoor adventure giant Gander Mountain has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and will close 32 stores this year.
And, of course, when the stores fail, the shopping malls and strip centers fail as well. Hardly a town exists in America that has not witnessed malls closing, strip centers emptied, and shopping venues under construction abandoned. The fall of the retail dominos is tragically predictable. The company’s failure leads to the store’s failure. The stores’ closings lead to the mall’s failure, which leads to the failure of adjacent and nearby businesses -- restaurants, motels, gas stations, etc.
Suddenly, what was once a thriving retail enterprise zone has become a wasteland of abandoned, empty buildings whose owners hope can be repurposed as anything that will save them from the wrecking ball. But let’s be honest. We’ve seen this before. These empty storefronts are pretty much hopeless.
In the Scriptures
Ezekiel 37:1-14
This week’s lectionary readings confront hopelessness head-on.
In Ezekiel, the prophet is led by YHWH to the valley of dry bones. The passage doesn’t say why the bones are there or even if they are human, but we always assume that they are. I tend to imagine that a great battle was fought in this valley and the carnage was so horrendous that people couldn’t face it. They were overwhelmed, so rather than bury the bodies they just turned and walked away and allowed the predators and scavengers and nature have their way.
Or perhaps this is the site of some great catastrophe, an earthquake or a fire or a flood that killed so many people that they could not all be buried so they were left for their bones to bleach in the sun. Or maybe it was the sight of a plague that reigned death upon the inhabitants of the valley, and though the survivors would have liked to come back and bury the dead, they dared not for fear of the silent killer that took their friends and families.
Whatever the reason the bodies were left, and eventually, the bones were left to bake in the sun. They’ve been here a long, long time, Ezekiel notes, because they are obviously dry. They are symbols of hopelessness.
“Mortal?” God asks. “Can these bones live?
Ezekiel hedges his answer. Probably he would want to say, “Of course they can’t! They’re dead. They’ve been dead for a long, long time. There’s no more walking left in them. They are hopeless.” But he hedges his answer because he’s talking to YHWH, and God is known for his trick questions. We don’t have a recording so we don’t know what kind of inflection or pronunciation he used, but his answer makes us wonder. At any rate, it is brief.
“O Lord God, you know.”
What follows, then, is a series of mini-sermons which God tells Ezekiel to preach to this dead congregation. (Insert joke about preaching to the dead here.)
Through these sermons, God makes it clear that these hopelessly dead bones can, in fact, live and walk again -- but this happens by no human agency. It is God who makes this kind of thing happen, if and when it happens, and don’t you forget it.
Then God tells Ezekiel that this whole dream/vision has been a metaphor for what God is planning for the Children of Israel who are being held against their will in Babylon and have given up hope.
God will breathe life back into them and they will live and walk again. But it is God who will make this happen, in God’s own time and in God’s own way.
John 11:1-45
The gospel writer known as John retells the now-familiar story of the raising of Lazarus from the dead, but takes his time doing so.
There is a plethora of sermons nestled in this long reading. I particularly like Timothy’s response to Jesus’ insistence on going to Jerusalem: “Okay, fine. Let’s aaaaallll go to Jerusalem and die together.” There are the friends who have walked two miles to be with Mary and Martha in their grief. And those who aren’t convinced about Jesus until they seem him raise someone from the dead. Lots of sermon stuff.
But, of course, the star of the show is Lazarus, so it is to him that we turn.
He has been in the tomb for four days when Jesus gets there. Three days was the customary waiting period to make sure that someone was really dead; Lazarus had passed that threshold. Also, there’s the stench. The body has already begun to decompose.
So, like the dry bones in the valley, Lazarus is a hopeless case, right?
Not so fast there. Jesus has got this one under control. “Lazarus,” he says, “come out.” And what do you know? There’s Lazarus, standing in the entry to the tomb, looking like the mummy in those old movies, all wrapped in his death garb which is immediately taken away by his sisters. And then, in an epilogue, we are told that many (not all) of the Jews who were there to comfort Mary saw what he did and believed in him.
Romans 8:6-11
Usually, people believe that if they can provide all that their body needs and wants, then they will be free to tend to their spiritual needs and they will be happy and their lives will be full, and rich, and authentic.
If I could just have that sexy little convertible, I’d be happy then. If I could just have a really well-made designer suit, I’d be more successful. If I could just put together the money I need to buy that house, man, I could be content for the rest of my days.
Then I could concentrate on my spiritual life and get right with God.
Paul, however, turns that notion on its head.
Paul says that we should concentrate on our spiritual lives first. Get right with God. Let God’s spirit (breath) fill you and guide you and heal you and deliver you. Then you will find that your physical needs will be met quicker and more easily.
Get your spiritual life in order, he says, and the rest will follow.
In the Sermon
So, what do you think? Will these empty storefronts, these closed factories, these shuttered restaurants ever live again? Will they ever do business again? Can they live?
“O Lord God, you know.”
Those are not just academic, rhetorical, theological questions, you know. In 2008, Clinton County, Ohio -- the rural county where I live -- had the lowest unemployment rate in the state at just under 4%. That year the international freight carrier DHL announced that they were closing their break-bulk terminal in the county seat of Wilmington. Within a year 6,000 jobs in our county were gone, along with another 4,000 in the contiguous counties. Our unemployment rate was instantly the highest in the state at nearly 35%.
The dominos began to fall almost immediately. Over the next 24 months, stores, restaurants, dry cleaners, and churches all began to close as people left the county to find work in other places. Home sales plummeted and construction on new homes stopped completely. People walked away from their mortgages and leases, leaving empty homes all over the county.
“Mortal, can these bones live?” We heard the question being asked in our hearts, if not aloud, as we gathered in task forces and work groups to try to mitigate the effects of the disaster. We gathered on the courthouse lawn and in our churches to sing hymns, and pray, and witness to our faith in God and each other.
Eventually things began to slow and even turn around.
Today, nine years later, things are much better in Clinton County. The exodus to other places to find work eased some of the pressure. New home construction has resumed, even as some abandoned homes continue to sit empty and gather cobwebs and dust. We’re even beginning to see some “Help Wanted” signs on storefronts and ads in the paper.
To be sure, some of this relief has been the result of long hours and hard work by our community leaders and our citizens. But we are all clear that much of it is not the result of any human activity. Rather, it is the work of the one who showed Ezekiel the vision of dry bones come to life, the one whose hand lifted Lazarus from his tomb when Jesus said, “Lazarus, come out!”
And it is because as a community we have come, once again, to the realization that our lives are not defined by what we own or how many reserved parking spaces we have. We are made authentic not by the depth of our checking accounts nor by any of those physical things which make us feel good. No, we are made authentically human, authentically the people of God, by our relationships with God and each other.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Ron Love:
Ezekiel 37:1-14
Flying in outer space attracts most people as being a glorious, wonderful, exhilarating, experience. If more people had the millions of dollars required to be a space tourist, then the sign-up list would be endless. But Bloomberg’s Caroline Winter cautions against having such an anticipation of euphoria, as space flight can cause individuals to become very sick, with the sickness lasting several days after returning to earth. Zero gravity does not allow body fluids to move about the body properly, causing one to be ill. The fluids in the inner ear float, so one becomes disoriented. Exposure to radiation has ill effects on the body, as well as affecting how the eyes process light.
Application: When the dry bones came alive, we often fail to realize the difficulty of the new experience the individuals encountered.
*****
Ezekiel 37:1-14
In a Blondie comic strip, Dagwood is walking past a man on the street holding a string bass. Dagwood asks the man if he can really play the instrument, to which he gets the reply “It’ll cost you a buck to find out.” Dagwood pays the money, only to hear an ear-shattering “skwwerk!” coming from the instrument. Disheveled, Dagwood walks away, saying: “It cost me a buck, but I found out!”
Application: It can be difficult for us to learn the truth about God and life.
*****
Ezekiel 37:1-14
Tom Nichols just published a book titled The Death of Expertise, in which he contends that ignorance is bliss for so many Americans. Ignorance is bliss, because they only seek out and believe in news stories that confirm their already-held beliefs; they will not entertain any opposing ideas or arguments. This is one reason that Donald Trump got elected, because people believed what he said no matter how untruthful it may be; it was what they wanted to hear absent of reflection. Nichols refers to this as the “confirmation bias.” That is, we look for and accept information that does not challenge what we accept as truth.
Application: It can be difficult for us to learn the truth about God and life.
*****
Ezekiel 37:1-14
Early politicians required feedback from the public to determine what the people considered important. Since there were no telephones, televisions, or radios, politicians sent their assistants to local taverns, pubs, and bars. They were told to “go sip some ale and listen to people’s conversations and political concerns.” Many assistants were dispatched at different times. “You go sip here” and “You go sip there.” The two words “go sip” were eventually combined when referring to the local opinion, and thus we have the term “gossip.”
Application: It can be difficult for us to learn the truth about God and life.
*****
Romans 8:6-11
In a Dennis the Menace comic, Mr. Wilson is leisurely lying on a hammock in his backyard. He has a look of peace and contentment until Dennis rides up next to the hammock on his tricycle. Dennis says to Mr. Wilson: “So this is where you have all the time in the world?”
Application: Paul is very clear that if we live by the Spirit we do not have all the time in the world to fulfill our calling in Christ.
*****
Romans 8:6-11
In an Andy Capp comic strip, Andy comes out of a bookie’s office in a rage. As he is tearing up his betting slips in a fury, he comes face to face with his church’s rector. The pastor says to Andy: “Lost again, Mister Capp? Never mind. Money can’t buy happiness.” Andy, with a thoughtful look that puts a smile on the pastor’s face, says: “You’re right, Vicar.” Then Andy walks away in a rage, leaving a look of discouragement on the pastor’s face as he says, “But it can buy me beer -- that makes me happy.”
Application: Paul is clear that if we live by the flesh we will never be happy.
*****
Romans 8:6-11
Joey Meek has been sentenced to 27-months in prison for failing to report the crimes of Dylann Roof, who in a hate crime murdered nine people at the AME church in Charleston. Meek knew about Roof’s intentions prior to his act of violence, but it was not a violation of the law to remain silent. Once the act was committed, and Meek knew who did it, and even went so far as to prevent a friend from reporting it to the police, he violated the law. At his sentencing Meek said: “I’m really sorry. A lot of beautiful lives were taken.” He then started to cry, saying he feared retribution while in prison. “I don’t know if I’ll make it out of prison alive. I’m scared.”
Application: People who live by the flesh only become scared when others who live by the flesh threaten them.
*****
Romans 8:6-11
A 15-year-old Chicago girl was gang raped, with the rape being streamed live on Facebook. None of the roughly 40 people who watched the rape reported it to the police. It is not illegal to watch the rape or report it to the police if the livestream is not downloaded. But certainly it is unethical.
Application: Sometimes we just cannot comprehend how evil people can be who live by the flesh.
*****
John 11:1-45
The state of Arkansas plans to execute eight men, two per day, over a ten-day period. This is because the state’s supply of the drug midazolam expires at the end of April, and the drug cannot be replaced as pharmaceutical companies will not sell it to prisons. Midazolam is the first of three drugs administered during an execution, and is supposed to cause the inmate to go to sleep, alleviating any possibility of feeling pain. But there are questions if midazolam really works as it is supposed to. There are a great deal of protests and questions about how efficient such a mass execution can be with the stress it would cause on the staff, further highlighted by the fact that extra staff people are receiving fast-track training to assist the regular execution staff. In reply to this Gov. Asa Hutchinson defended the mass executions in ten days, saying that “it’s not any easier to string it out over four or five months.”
Application: Do people really comprehend the meaning of death?
*****
John 11:1-45
After several years of research, consulting every expert in various academic fields to make sure that it was done properly, Sesame Street will introduce Julia -- the first autistic character in the history of the series -- when its 47th season debuts on April 10. The show will emphasize that rather than being regarded as an outsider, Julia will be a part of the gang.
Application: We are taught to be caring.
***************
From team member Mary Austin:
Ezekiel 37:1-14
Easy Money
A group of high school students wondered what it would take to revive their dying town. The book Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard by Dan Heath and Chip Heath tells it this way:
“In 1995, a group of high school students in Howard, South Dakota, started plotting a revival. They wanted to do something, anything that might revive their dying community.” Their teacher, Randy Parry, asked them what they thought their town needed, and so “the class, with Parry’s help, conducted a survey of 1,000 registered voters in Miner County, examining their spending habits. They were alarmed to find that half of them were traveling an hour -- to Sioux Falls, South Dakota -- for most of their shopping. If Miner County was going to be reborn, its economy would need a boost,” the Heaths wrote. “Most of the things that would boost an economy -- investment, entrepreneurship, immigration -- were out of the students’ control. But they had uncovered one thing that was very much in their control: spending money locally. They had found their first rallying cry: Let’s keep Miner dollars in Miner County.”
With a little research, the students concluded that if each adult spent just 10 percent more of their disposable income locally, the Howard economy would increase by $7 million.
They presented their idea at a town meeting. “The audience was impressed, and the presentation worked better than anyone expected,” the authors wrote. “The students had scripted the first critical move for Miner County, and the locals responded immediately, consciously spending more of their money in the county. A year later, South Dakota’s Department of Revenue released an astonishing number: The amount of money spent in Miner County had increased by $15.6 million, more than twice the increase the kids had expected.”
One thing led to another, and the town has seen an economic resurgence. Thanks to the ingenuity of a group of high school students, revenue has increased and the town is in noticeably better shape.
*****
Ezekiel 37:1-14
Resumé or Eulogy?
Columnist David Brooks says that if we truly want to be alive, not just a collection of dry bones, we have to live with attention to our eulogy and not our resumé. Brooks says: “I’ve been thinking about the difference between the resumé virtues and the eulogy virtues. The resumé virtues are the ones you put on your resumé, which are the skills you bring to the marketplace. The eulogy virtues are the ones that get mentioned in the eulogy, which are deeper: who are you, in your depth, what is the nature of your relationships, are you bold, loving, dependable, consistent?” Most of us agree that the eulogy qualities are more important, but somehow the resumé qualities demand a place in the front of our minds.
To get to the eulogy virtues, Brooks says, we need to go into the desert and look at the dry bones of our own lives: “Through history, people have gone back into their own pasts, sometimes to a precious time in their life, to their childhood, and often the mind gravitates in the past to a moment of shame, some sin committed, some act of selfishness, an act of omission, of shallowness, the sin of anger, the sin of self-pity, trying to be a people-pleaser, a lack of courage.... [Character] is built by fighting your weaknesses. You go into yourself, you find the sin which you’ve committed over and again through your life, your signature sin out of which the others emerge, and you fight that sin and you wrestle with that sin, and out of that wrestling, that suffering, then a depth of character is constructed.” New life comes out of the dry bones, if we’re willing to confront them.
*****
Ezekiel 37:1-14; John 11:1-45
New Life
Many wonder if religious orders are becoming a thing of the past, as fewer and fewer women become nuns. A group of nuns in Kentucky has found a way to bring new life to their religious vocation. The Sisters of Loretto have found a calling in opposing fracking in their Kentucky landscape. At one early protest against a gas pipeline through Kentucky, “a company representative asked the police to arrest the sisters for disrupting the meeting that day. But the officers, who were graduates of local Catholic schools, refused to arrest their former teachers.”
A documentary filmmaker who met the nuns says the sisters are “the glue that held the diverse group of protesters together and kept them focused.” “They all have really strong, glowing spirits.... They brought their inherent qualities -- energy, compassion, and education, as well as a certain ethereal element -- to the whole campaign.”
An article on the women notes: “Whatever the nuns brought, it worked. In March 2014, a circuit judge ruled against the pipeline, saying the companies had no right to use eminent domain against owners unwilling to sell their land. A few months later, the companies agreed to redraw their route to avoid Loretto’s grounds, but the sisters kept protesting to support their neighbors. The case eventually went to the state supreme court, which upheld the lower court’s decision. The pipeline was defeated -- and the same coalition is now fighting another one.”
The article wonders: “As more and more of the sisters age, who will continue the orders’ missions and care for their grounds? Who will stand up for local people, advocate for sustainability, and offer a place of quiet in which to contemplate nature? ...Then again, the Kentucky orders may continue to serve their communities for a long time to come. Rather than relying on an influx of young girls graduating from Catholic schools, some of the convents are recruiting non-traditional members. Co-members at Loretto can be male or female, married or single, and Catholic or not, so long as they are committed to peace and justice.” The bones of an old tradition are alive in a new way, in God’s spirit.
*****
Ezekiel 37:1-14; John 11:1-45
Reviving the Night
In Chicago, a city hard-hit by violence, St. Sabina’s Church has been working to improve its underserved neighborhood for years, with efforts in “providing social services and job opportunities for young people and those who were formerly incarcerated to hiring former gang members to do outreach in the neighborhoods. They’ve also started a basketball league with rival gang members; helped bridge the divide between local police officers and black youth through conversations, basketball, and role playing; and formed a group called Purpose Over Pain for parents who have lost children to gun violence.”
This year, they began to seek new life for the neighborhood in another way. In June, “on the last day of school for most students, they started peace walks. Every Friday from June to October, residents walked the streets of their community to engage with their neighbors. ‘Friday night seems to be the night of most violence in the city. So we go out in different parts of the community to walk to reach out to people, to talk to people, to try to find out what we can do to bring things down. To let people know, here are support services we have, here are things we can do,’ says [Father Michael] Pfleger. ‘What we try to do is find where in our area has the most tension, and that’s where we go on that Friday.’ ” The goal, he says, is to set a different presence on the street, one of hope and action rather than apathy.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Out of the depths we cry to you, O God.
People: Hear our voice! Let your ears be attentive to our supplications!
Leader: If you, O God, should mark iniquities, who could stand?
People: But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered.
Leader: We wait for our God, our soul waits, and in God’s word we hope;
People: With God there is steadfast love, and power to redeem.
OR
Leader: Let us worship the God who brings us hope.
People: Even when things seem hopeless, God lifts us up.
Leader: Let us give praise to the God who brings life.
People: Even in death, we find life in our God.
Leader: Let us share God’s hope and life with all.
People: We will spread the good news of God’s grace.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“Great Is Thy Faithfulness”
found in:
UMH: 140
AAHH: 158
NNBH: 45
NCH: 423
CH: 86
ELA: 733
W&P: 72
AMEC: 84
Renew: 249
“All My Hope Is Firmly Grounded”
found in:
UMH: 132
H82: 665
NCH: 408
CH: 88
ELA: 757
“Jesus Shall Reign”
found in:
UMH: 157
H82: 544
PH: 423
NNBH: 10
NCH: 300
CH: 95
LBW: 530
ELA: 434
W&P: 341
AMEC: 95
Renew: 296
“What Wondrous Love Is This”
found in:
UMH: 292
H82: 439
PH: 85
NCH: 223
CH: 200
LBW: 385
ELA: 666
W&P: 257
STLT: 18
Renew: 277
“O Sacred Head, Now Wounded”
found in:
UMH: 286
H82: 168, 169
PH: 98
AAHH: 250
NNBH: 108
NCH: 226
CH: 202
LBW: 116, 117
ELA: 351, 352
W&P: 284
AMEC: 133
STLT: 265
Renew: 235
“Pues Si Vivimos” (“When We Are Living”)
found in:
UMH: 356
PH: 400
NCH: 499
CH: 536
ELA: 639
W&P: 415
“It Is Well with My Soul”
found in:
UMH: 377
AAHH: 377
NNBH: 255
NCH: 561
LBW: 785
ELA: 428
W&P: 448
“My Faith Looks Up to Thee”
found in:
UMH: 452
H82: 691
PH: 383
AAHH: 456
NNBH: 273
CH: 576
LBW: 479
ELA: 759
W&P: 419
AMEC: 415
“How Majestic Is Your Name”
found in:
CCB: 21
Renew: 98
“Your Loving Kindness Is Better than Life”
found in:
CCB: 26
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who brings life to what was once dead: Grant us the faith to trust in your life-giving Spirit that we may be lifted up into new life; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
O God who brings hope out of hopelessness and life out of death: Grant us the courage to trust you when things get hopeless so that we may give hope to others; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, for you bring hope where there is hopelessness and life where we see only death. Fill us with your grace so that we may have the courage to look beyond our darkness to see your light. Help us to show others the hope and life you offer. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our failure to see beyond the darkness.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We look at the situations around us and see only helplessness, hopelessness, and death. We fail to look to you, and so we miss the hope and life you bring. We are so weighed down by the darkness around us that we are unable to share light with others. Break through the dark with your great light, that we may find hope and life in you. So fill us with your Spirit that we are able to share your good gifts with others. Amen.
Leader: God is hope and life. Receive these good gifts as God’s children and share them with all.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
We sing your praises, O God, for you are the one who bring us hope and life.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We look at the situations around us and see only helplessness, hopelessness, and death. We fail to look to you, and so we miss the hope and life you bring. We are so weighed down by the darkness around us that we are unable to share light with others. Break through the dark with your great light, that we may find hope and life in you. So fill us with your Spirit that we are able to share your good gifts with others.
We give you thanks for all the blessings we receive from your hand. We thank you for the constant hope you bring us in the darkest of days. We thank you that you teach us that not even death is stronger than life.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for all your children in their needs. We pray for those who look at their lives and see only hopelessness and despair. We pray for those who can see only death, even in the midst of life.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father . . . Amen.
(or if the Lord’s Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
Time for a history lesson. Tell the story of Thomas Edison inventing the electric light bulb. He tried so many different things that didn’t work. When he was asked if he was discouraged, he said, “No, I know a thousand things that don’t work.” He had hope and he never gave up. God gives all of us hope to not give up and to keep trying as we follow Jesus.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
by Beth Herrinton-Hodge
Ezekiel 37:1-14
Optional props:
* lyrics to “Dem Bones” written on newsprint or posterboard
* bendable Halloween skeleton or toy skeleton bones
(Display the skeleton image or toy bones for the children. Invite them to manipulate the bendable skeleton or to try to put the bones together to make a whole skeleton. Notice the number of bones and varying parts of the skeleton.)
There’s a song I remember from my childhood called “Dem Bones” -- we’d sing it in Sunday school and on the bus while riding to church camp. It goes something like this (the leader can sing it if desired; manipulate the bones as you sing or recite the song):
Dem bones, dem bones gonna walk around.
Dem bones, dem bones gonna walk around.
Dem bones, dem bones gonna walk around.
Now hear the word of the Lord.
Then we’d sing about how each of the bones in our body connect, from toe to head. (Sing again!)
The toe bone connected to the foot bone;
The foot bone connected to the heel bone;
The heel bone connected to the ankle bone;
The ankle bone connected to the shin bone;
The shin bone connected to the knee bone;
The knee bone connected to the thigh bone;
The thigh bone connected to the hip bone;
The hip bone connected to the back bone;
The back bone connected to the shoulder bone;
The shoulder bone connected to the neck bone;
The neck bone connected to the head bone.
Now hear the word of the Lord.
Growing up, I never knew that this song comes from a Bible story. It’s from the passage we’re focusing on in our service today.
Read aloud Ezekiel 37:1-5, 7 (Ezekiel tells about a vision he saw in a dream):
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. He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry.
He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?”
I answered, “O Lord God, you know.”
Then he said to me, “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.’ ” 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.
The bones lived! The foot bone connected to the heel bone, the heel bone connected to the ankle bone, and so on.
Ezekiel saw a scary sight -- a valley filled with dry, scattered bones. God breathed the Spirit upon them and up they rose, bone came together with bone, just like we used to sing about in the song.
It is believed that long ago a poet and songwriter named James Weldon Johnson wrote this song, and it’s been handed down through the years -- helping to tell the Bible story about Ezekiel’s dream. By making the Bible story into a song, it makes the story easier to remember. And it makes the story less scary.
A valley full of dry bones = scary.
A fun song about dancing bones = not so scary.
Ezekiel’s dream is about God’s power to give life to things that seem dead. The power of God’s Spirit blows over us like a wind -- just as it blew over those dry bones that Ezekiel saw -- giving life and strength and hope when things seem dry and dead.
(Teach the song to the children. Sing it together, inviting the congregation to sing along.)
Prayer: Holy and powerful God, thank you for silly songs that help us remember Bible stories. Thank you too for your power and your spirit that brings us together and gives life to all living things. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, April 2, 2017, issue.
Copyright 2017 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
