Of Dry Bones and New Life

I was perusing my seminary’s new web site and came across an archive of student sermons that were preached in Christ Chapel there. One sermon written by a classmate of mine was a reflection on the familiar passage in Ezekiel concerning the dry bones. You remember the passage: God speaks to the prophet, who finds himself in a desolate valley of dry bones, and asks him if these bones can live again. The prophet replies to God, “O Lord you know!” But God in great therapeutic fashion requires that this mere mortal answer for himself this mysterious question.

If we are paying attention we see that much of our world finds itself in the valley of dry bones: Homelessness; plagues of preventable diseases in the two-thirds world; hunger and thirst; the dis-empowerment of women; inadequate educational opportunities; inadequate access to health care; governmental corruption; unfair taxation; racism; unchecked violence; wars and rumors of war. We are up to our knees in dry bones, and God asks us, “O mortals, can these bones yet live?” And now it is for us to prophesy to these bones. It is for us as the people of God to breathe upon the dry bones; to breathe life into the deathly hurt of our world.

When confronted with the choice between Eden and the valley of dry bones, let us choose the bones, for it is in the desolate valleys of our world where we will find our true calling. In our raising to new life the dead of our world we will find our own true life, our own true selves. This is what resurrection is; not an otherworldly supernatural event, but a way of life for us in this world that God loves; we the very means, the very breath of God’s love. In every act of sacrifice for our sister; in every act of sacrifice for our brother, the dry bones rattle and take on flesh and sinew, take on breath, and stand with dignity. Let us choose the valley of the dry bones, for there we will meet a certain hope; there we will meet the Christ; there we will meet our God; and there we will meet ourselves, fully human and fully divine.