Reflection on Ezekiel 37:1-14 and Acts 2:1-21

 

Ezekiel 37:1-14

1The 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. 2He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. 3He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” 4Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. 5Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. 6I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.”

7So 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. 8I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. 9Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” 10I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.

11Then he said to me, “Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.’ 12Therefore prophesy, and say to them, 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.”

 

Acts 2:1-21

¹When the day of Pentecost had come, [the apostles] were all together in one place. ²And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. ³Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. ⁴All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
  ⁵Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. ⁶And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. ⁷Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? ⁸And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?

 

Reflection

The Lord’s hand fell across Ezekiel’s shoulders and Ezekiel felt the familiar push of God.  Through a wind of the Spirit, God whisked him away.  The violent wind blew dust, swirling around, and as the dust began to settle Ezekiel suddenly found himself in the middle of a dessert valley. 

Mountains of rock and sand surrounded God and he.  And, before them was a gruesome scene.  Littered across the rocky ground in front of them were bones; human bones; bones that still clung to scraps of what used to be Israelite clothing.  They were the bones of his people who were no more.  Their nation had been devastated.  They were no more.  Ezekiel stared at the bones of his people.  The bones looked brittle; so brittle that even a small breath would demolish them to dust.  “All are from the dust, and all turn to dust again” (Ecclesiastes 3:20).  His people were dust, almost.  The bones were dry, but they were still there; serving as gravestones to the people who once used them.

“The Lord said to [Ezekiel], ‘Mortal, can these bones live?’” (Ezekiel 37:1-3).

Can these bones live?

When we think about the thriving centers of life that use to be our churches and then look around at the empty pews of our churches, we ask, “Can these bones live?”

When we think about the way things used to be in our communities and then look around at our divided and crumbling society, we ask, “Can these bones live?”

When we think about how our lives used to be, those who used to be with us and are no longer, how we used to thrive and be happy, how the smile came easily and the pain did not press so hard against our heart, and then we look down at our tired and worn bodies, we ask, “Can these bones live?”

“Can these bones live?” we ask, not knowing the answer.  “Maybe, they cannot,” we wonder.  Maybe, they are dust, and to dust they shall return, we ponder.  Maybe the time for these bones has past, for good.

But, it was not Ezekiel, standing among the bones of his ancestors who asked the question, “Can these bones live?”  Another look at the Bible reveals that it was the Lord who asked the question.

And, that makes all of the difference, because God already knows the answer.  God already understands what God can do.  God already knows how the end of the story is going to be written.

And, that is the problem with us whenever we are left on our own, staring at the dry bones in our lives.  All we see is death.  All we see is a dead end.  All we see is a period at the end of the last sentence in the last book of the series.

But, Ezekiel was not the one who asked the question.  We did not ask the question.  Humans did not ask if the bones can live.  God asked the question.

“[The Lord] said to [Ezekiel], ‘Mortal, can these bones live?’ [Ezekiel] answered, ‘O Lord God, you know.’  Then he said…’Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.  Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live.  I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord’” (Ezekiel 37:3-6).

And, then it happened.  Ezekiel began to tell the bones that they shall live and have breath.  Instead of staring at the bones in despair, Ezekiel does as he is told and speaks to the bones as if they can hear, as if he believed that they may have a future.  He told the bones that they can have breath and live again.  He told the bones that they can have a future.  He told the bones that the Lord is able to restore anything.

And, the voice of Ezekiel falls on the man staring at the bottom of the empty bottle, and he hears that he can have a life again.  And, the voice of Ezekiel falls on the family that cannot move on after the child’s death, and they take a deep breath of fresh air once again, as if for the first time since the tragedy.  And, the voice of Ezekiel falls on the organist of the church with few singers, and she starts playing again as if she were in a basilica on Easter morning, with the rafters rattling and the voices booming. 

And, the voice of Ezekiel falls on the dry bones, and rather than blowing apart into dust they become white, calcified, and hard.  The bones start to move and take shape.  Muscle and skin raps the bones and human bodies start to take form once again.  They become humans, almost.  They are dead humans; empty shells without life.

And, then Ezekiel remembers the Lord’s promise: “I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live” (Ezekiel 37:5).

“Say it,” the Lord encourages.  “Say: ‘Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.’”

And, Ezekiel says it and they all live.  They stand up on their feet and live.  The people of God, who were lost to the dust just moments before are back!  They are brought back, just like that, with a breath from the Lord.

“Lord give us that breath,” we cry.  “Lord breathe in us again.  Make us new again.  Bring us up from the grave and restore us again.”

And, the Lord does.  We see it again and again in the Bible as the Lord does.  First the Lord brings back the house of Israel.  The Lord says, “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.  And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people.  I 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” (Ezekiel 37:12-14).

And, the nation of Israel comes back.  By, Jesus’ time religious life is strong, and the desire to be the Lord’s people is even stronger.  It is so strong, in fact, that God chooses that time out of all times in the history of the world to send the Messiah, God’s Son, Jesus, the savior of the world. 

Even when Jesus is apparently snuffed out of existence, leaving behind a scared remnant of believers, God breathes new life into the world once again, raising Jesus to life.  And, this leads to that day when God’s wind blows on those fearful disciples, filling them with a fire that burns for the Lord.  Just when God’s Word seemed lost, it was breathed onto the world once again.  It allowed the disciples to speak in different languages so that the news of new life that the Lord promised could spread far and wide.  The Bible says, that the people gathered on the day the Spirit was breathed onto the world once again were “Amazed and astonished, they asked, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?  And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?’’ (Acts 2:7-8).

Whenever it all seems lost, whenever our bones seem dry, whenever it seems that God’s people are no more and will be nothing but a distant story of the past, God breathes the Spirit of life on the world.  It happens again and again and again, and it continues to happen even today.

The Lord’s promise is still true, “I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live” (Ezekiel 37:5).  You shall live.  You too shall live!

Is your world turning to dust?  Jesus has a word for you, “You shall live!” 

Is your life broken, seemingly beyond repair?  Jesus has a word for you, “You shall live!”

Is death lingering and pain grinding your spirit into dust?  Jesus has a word for you, “You shall live!”

Death cannot hold Jesus down!  Fear cannot hold Jesus back.  And, dry bones are not dead waste to Jesus.  Your dry bones are the building blocks of something new.  They just need to have some life breathed into them.  They just need someone to believe that they can live again, someone who will say to them, “breathe and live,” and they will.  They just need you, filled with the Spirit of God, to believe that it is not the end and truly believe that all is not lost.

Listen to the voice of the Lord talking to you right now: “Prophesy to all the dry bones that you see around you, and say to them: O dry bones, hear what the Lord says: ‘I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live.’”  And, the bones will live.