You Shall Live Ezekiel 37: Every time I hear this passage, it brings to mind a high school field trip to the University

Transcription

1 1 You Shall Live Ezekiel 37: 1-14 Every time I hear this passage, it brings to mind a high school field trip to the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. For someone who, at the time, was considering medicine as a career, it was such an exciting afternoon. We were escorted around a building named Old Red, the first home of the school, and shown room after room of treasure. In one there was a collection of skeletons, just simply standing there. With my neophyte clinical eye, I could see them as subjects of study. Then it occurred to me, Those were people! Well, that was a bit unnerving! Ezekiel was a prophet who lived in 6 th century BCE Babylon at a time when the Jewish world was crashing down. The twelve tribes who entered the Promised Land and become the nation of Israel had divided into two kingdoms centuries earlier. The northern kingdom of Israel had already fallen. Ezekiel witnessed the demise of the southern kingdom and became part of the Jews exiled to Babylon. He was probably not the most helpful or comforting prophet to have around at such a time. He had strange visions of chariots of fires and spinning wheels. He predicted God s wrath would be poured out, not only on Judah for leaving God, but also the entire Middle East! Then news reached the exiles in Babylon that the Temple of Solomon, the place where God s presence dwelled, had been ruthlessly destroyed by King Nebuchadnezzar. Not only had their physical home been conquered, now even their spiritual home was no more than rubble. The glory of God was shattered. At the time when hope seemed so elusive and unlikely, at a time when the people of God felt they had lost it all, Ezekiel, the prophet of judgment and doom, now also became prophet of hope. With images of a restored Israel and the shekinah, or holy glory of God, firmly planted in a new Jerusalem, his visions of life must have been a solace for a people hungry for hope. Yet the reality was grim. They had just been crushed by one of the most powerful monarchs of all history.

2 2 As Ezekiel stood in the middle of valley of dry and parched bones, I wonder if that hopelessness filled his soul. God asked Ezekiel, Mortal, can these bones live? 1 Stop for a moment and consider that question. Can desiccated bones left on the floor of a hot, dry desert become living creatures? I don t think so. The bones that I saw in Galveston that day had been people at one time. The chance of their becoming people once more? Not so great. So I wonder what Ezekiel thought, really thought. His answer could be seen as one of profound faith, O Lord God, you know. 2 Or perhaps his answer was one that dodged the question altogether. Maybe I am projecting my own cynicism onto this prophet from long ago. I might have answered, O Lord God, you know, but that is probably not the direction my thoughts headed. Seriously, God? Bones are going to live? These are tough times. In a world in which fires devastate huge portions of land, in which caravans of terrified people search for home and safety, in which people are murdered with no consequences, in which up is down and lies are truth, how do you hope? In the Church that used to be so dominant and an accepted part of life and is now looking at a decline in numbers and rise of hatred in the name of God, how do you hope? In this place when the building formerly overflowed with people, when Sunday Schools spilled out with children, when there was so much life here and now it all appears to be but a shadow of the past, how do you hope? It s a struggle, a very real, discouraging struggle to hold on to hope when it seems all is lost. When my children were young, we read together every evening. Okay, to be honest, we read all the time and still do! For me, who had been mired in the academic field for so long, it was a delight to return to children s literature. Oh, the wisdom I discovered! One of my favorite 1 Ezekiel 37: 3a NRSV 2 Ezekiel 37: 3b NRSV

3 3 writers was Shel Silverstein. In a poem in Where the Sidewalk Ends, his words sound like the voice of God breathing to an emotionally overwhelmed Ezekiel: Listen to the MUSTN TS, child. Listen to the DON TS. Listen to the SHOULDN'TS, the IMPOSSIBLES, the WON'TS. Listen to the NEVER HAVES, Then listen close to me - Anything can happen, child. ANYTHING can be. 3 Anything can be. Even bones, beaten almost to dust by time and desert winds, can live. Even the Church, which appears to be on life support, can thrive. Even this congregation, which is not what it used to be, has a wonderful future ahead. We live into the hope that God can bring life to those things the world calls dead. Hope is an odd character. Sometimes it burns brightly within us, and we walk into the day filled with joy and enthusiasm. Other times hope flickers low, barely a glimmer, a bit overwhelmed by it all. Hope is not out there like Ezekiel s visions, an elusive, untouchable unknown. Hope sings within each of us, because God is present in us. Poet Emily Dickinson wrote, Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul, and sings the tune without the words, and never stops at all. Hope doesn t just sit there, waiting for something or someone else to do something. We ourselves are agents of hope. It may all look like the world has fallen off its axis; it might seem the tasks before us are insurmountable. Those bones in Ezekiel s valley certainly appeared dead. Then God breathed life into them, whispering to them of hope and that anything can be. Hope does not wait; hope lives now. When God breathed life into the valley of dry bones, it was not a careful, one-by-one restructuring but a collective endeavor. Together the bones were reconnected, together the bones took on muscle and flesh, together God s holy breath was given, together they found life. 3 Shel Silverstein. "Listen to the Mustn'ts". Where the Sidewalk Ends by Evil Eye Music, Inc. HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

4 4 Moreover, that assembly had meaning and purpose. Then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act 4 In Hebrew the word know is a beautifully intricate and intimate term. It s not head knowledge but a soul-to-soul connection. That is how God weaves us together; that is how we are intertwined with God. The knowing that God is embedded in our beings and that we are part of one another is our hope that anything can be. We don t wait; we live now into the vision of life that God has before us. We live as if God s new world is among us, because it is. It s already here. It is up to us to choose to be people of life. Next Sunday begins the season of Advent. Traditionally it s a time of preparation and waiting, but it s more. We are on this side of the manger and the cross. God is already here, hope is living within us now. That is the nature of the journey of faith: we wait with hopeful joy that anything can be, and we are the living hope that God is already here among us. How would the world appear if we lived the hope that is within us? The second hymn is a wondrous description of that world. Heaven doesn t wait for doors to be opened, for voices long silenced to be heard, for justice to become reality, for love to be known. Heaven does not look at the struggles of today and say, Wouldn t it be nice if somebody did something about this? Hope sings that God is here now, and then hope comes becomes real in our embracing life to its fullest. It is not hope that stays centered in the self, or even solely in the Church. It is not a hope that looks to a tomorrow yet to come. Hope and the life it carries goes out into the world right now. The hymn opens: Heaven shall not wait for the poor to lose their patience, The scorned to smile, the despised to find a friend: Jesus is Lord; he has championed the unwanted, In him injustice confronts its timely end. 5 4 Ezekiel 37: 14b NRSV 5 Heaven Shall Not Wait. Text: John L. Bell and Graham Maule. Music: John Bell WGRG, Iona Community (admin GIA Publications, Inc.)

5 5 Its final verse reminds us that, though the world be overwhelming and we ourselves imperfect, God s Spirit continues to breathe life into us, into this community of faith, into all the world. Heaven shall not wait for triumphant Hallelujahs, when earth has passed and we reach another shore: Jesus is Lord in our present imperfection; his power and love are for now and then for evermore. 6 As you sing, listen to the words, then let God s hope sing in your soul, and live the hope within you. The Rev. Melodie Long First Presbyterian Church Oshkosh, Wisconsin November 25, Ibid.