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Ezekiel 37:1-14
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. 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.”
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. I 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. Then 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.” I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.
Then 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.’ Therefore 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. 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.
Reflection More than twenty six hundred years ago the God of Israel invited the prophet Ezekiel to use his imagination. God urges Ezekiel, “…eat this scroll, and go to the house of Israel and speak my very words to them… Mortal, all my words that I shall speak to you receive in your heart and hear with your ears; then go to the exiles, to your people, and speak to them. Say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God’; whether they hear or refuse to hear” (Ezk 4.3,4,10,11) Ezekiel swallows God’s words and much as the other prophets, turns God's words into action and chastises the people of God for turning away from God (being rebels) by being unresponsive to the needs of one another; killing the innocent, deriding the poor, rejecting foreigners, and failing to care for the most vulnerable; widows, orphans and elders. Can we hear God whispering in our ears? How are we rebelling? Who are we failing to care for? God’s message has not changed in the last twenty six hundred years. Have we?
Like all good prophets Ezekiel not only proclaims condemnation and death for those who fail to follow the way of God, he also offers hope for the future because we, the people of God, always need to hear both. As we look around ourselves today and see everything seeming to expire; the streets of New York and San Francisco deserted, schools closed, businesses boarded up, jobs lost, stock market plummeting, grocery shelves barren and people succumbing to an insidious virus it is fair to say we find ourselves in a valley of dry bones and our sorry skeletons lament, “Our sinew is weak and our skin is transparent. Our bones are dry and they can no longer breath. “
But the voice of the Lord dismisses our lamentations. “ I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live… and you shall know that I am the Lord.”
Still we are hard hearted and stubborn. We protest, “The situation is awful. Our hope is lost. Let us die so the young ones may thrive.“ Suddenly there is a noise, a rattling, and our bones come together. There is sinew on them, and flesh, and skin has covered them; but there is no breath in them,” until we are still, listen with Ezekiel and receive God’s living Word, “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon (us), that (we) may live.”
There is One God, One Breath arriving from all directions , one people living in all directions. The quickening breath of God is the great equalizer. God breathes on the honest and corrupt, the pure and the vulgar, citizens and strangers, the strong and the sick, across all nations. But many of us refuse God’s breath. Like dry bones, we are inflexible, brittle, unwilling to change, which by the way is the definition of dead. We have forsaken the inspiration of life in favor of the expiration of death.
For as long as we cling like adherent adhesive to life as we have known it we are like dry bones set down in the middle of the valley of death. But our story need not end there. When we finally choose to hear and to heed God’s unchanging words, being responsive to the needs of one another; protecting the innocent, providing for the poor, welcoming foreigners, and caring for the most vulnerable among us the breath of life will fill us and we will live knowing that God is God and we are not.
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