Sermon for December 31st

John 1:19-34

19 This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?" 20He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, "I am not the Messiah." 21 And they asked him, "What then? Are you Elijah?" He said, "I am not." "Are you the prophet?" He answered, "No." 22 Then they said to him, "Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?" 23 He said, "I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, "Make straight the way of the Lord,' " as the prophet Isaiah said. 24 Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. 25They asked him, "Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?" 26 John answered them, "I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, 27 the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal." 28 This took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing. 29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, "Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is he of whom I said, "After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.' 31 I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel." 32 And John testified, "I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 33 I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, "He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.' 34 And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God."

The message

It was a long process for me to become a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America,  It was 5 or 6 years from the moment I walked into my pastor’s office in Brooklyn and said “I think I have a call to ministry” to the time I graduated from seminary and started the interview process here with the call committee (a group of church members selected to review pastoral candidates) . Many of the people who went through the process would refer to it, not kindly, as jumping through hoops.  There were interviews, evaluations, a 3 year masters program, an internship, academic reviews, essays, a wide range of classes, lots of obligations and finally you needed a congregation that would meet you, interview you, listen to you preach and vote to call you as a pastor.  After all that was done, redone and followed up with, you would be ordained.  There were a lot of people who did not make it, who were rejected at a certain point in the process or sent back for more training or work.  There were even more people who were anxious every step of the way, not sure if they would be removed from the process over saying the wrong thing, writing a bad essay, a poor review, difficult moment or failed course.  Looking back on it, I still wonder if it was all necessary, if it was a good gauge of calling to ministry and predictor of pastoral ability. They are responsible for you, what you do, how you act, on the hook for abuse and personally impacted by how you represent the church..  I am part of the religious establishment, the bishops office and ELCA have some major things they can hold over me, moving churches or getting a new call, retirement, health insurance.   I do something really unapproved, I could end up sitting in a storefront called awesome Joe’s awesome church wondering if any awesome people would show up.   

The Priests, Levites and Phariseess, some of the dominant Jewish religious leaders who engage with and confront John the Baptist in today’s reading, all had their own system for admission and membership. A lot of it was based on family lineage, connections as well as extensive study, training, education and review.  You were expected to teach the party line. (we will see more about this when the Pharisee Nicodemus comes to see Jesus at night, in the cover of darkness, when no one will know about it).  I’m not sure John the Baptist would get approved for a call in our church.  John the Baptist did not give a poop about any of this, He was not part of the established religious system, he did not get trained by them, approved by them, paid by them, housed by them, and he was not indebted to them in any way. They had virtually no influence over him, there was nothing they could take away from him since they had never given him anything.  The priests, levities and Pharisees could not ignore him.  John had crowds, people going on to see him, people in the temples talking “did you hear what John said, did you see what John did, John condemned this practice, John demanded that we be baptized instead). Friends would tell friends, hey you want a real religious experience, you want to hear a great sermon, skip that trip to the temple, come with me to see John instead,  

John’s following and independence made the religious authorities very uncomfortable. What if John tells the crowds to attack the temple and seat him as high priest, what could we do, what if he tells them “the Lord said to rebel against Rome, that could get us all killed. 

They go to John to learn more but ultimately stop him.  Maybe John needs something, maybe John can be brought into compliance with the authorities.  The questions asked of John show us that he and the authorities live in completely different spaces. They have no idea who he is or how is able to do the things he is doing.  They ask are you the prophet, are you Elijah, are you the messiah, the only people they think could possibly operate outside of their system,  As John says no,  they ask if you are not the prophet, not Elijah, not the Messiah (and not authorized by us), how can you Baptize.   John’s answers make things worse. John shares some hard truth, there is church, there is temple and then there is God.  Even the authorities know that is true, your system is okay, for some things, but we are God’s people and God’s church, God is ultimately in control, God aint bound by your rules, you don’t have a monopoly on faith.  Not only that, but John was saying that the Messiah, the son of God, the Word made flesh, was here in the world and also not part of the system,   This Jesus, John kept pointing to, kept demanding people follow, was also an outsider.

Like many of the other familiar things around the story of Christmas John’s Gospel does not make any mention of the magi or kings going to see Jesus. (the story is only found in Matthew’s Gospel).  The visitors from a foregin land whose gifts made the epiphany, the moment when the world starts to realize who was born on Christmas.  In their story, a star points them to Jesus. Their gold tell us this child is king, their frankinsence tells that this child is God with us, is to be worshipped, their myrrh, a perfume used in burial, tells us this child will die for our salvation.  In John, this message of who was born on Christmas is told in the preaching of John the Baptist. He is the first to realize who Jesus is.  His declarations are the epiphany or 3 kings in John’s Gospel.  Jesus can do what John cannot, that Jesus can baptize with the Holy Spirit, that Jesus can take away the sin of the world, that Jesus ranks ahead of John because he was before John, his pushing away of followers, of reducing himself as Jesus increases, all show us who Jesus is.  John puts his credibility, his name, all of the work he has done and struggles he endured on the line for Jesus. He tells the crowds, I myself have seen and testified,

As we complete our 150^th anniversary year, we can look back on what we have accomplished, give thanks and celebrate. We made money, we maintained relationships, took care of the property (my 2 long term goals that seemed daunting and overwhelming, replacing the gym lights and painting the gym, were both done this year, pretty easily at that) we didn’t grow much numerically,  The churches that share the space with us are doing well. the launch of an English fellowship, great growth in Lightcast,  Our relationship with Rainbow is getting better and better.  We are a community together and they are big part of it. 

The real question we have to ask, we have to look at and judge and shape our work is, how have we pointed to Christ.

Sermon for Christmas

the reading 

 

John 1:1-18

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. 6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. 14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth. 15 (John testified to him and cried out, "This was he of whom I said, "He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.' ") 16 From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known.

The message

This is mostly what i said at Christmas (a mix of my morning and evening messages, which i did without a manuscript)  

We are now starting John's Gospel. This journey will take us from today until Easter Sunday. This is a good start, the reading we just heard is the prologue, introduction or summary of John's Gospel. Everything we hear after this will be about providing evidence for or a deeper look at the ideas and statements of faith in these 18 verses.  

  

Its packed with incredible statements and each time you read it, you see something new. to engage with the start of John is intense and always interesting. I can walk down a street that I have walked down hundreds of times and notice something new, a small, unique architectural element on top of a house or building, a first conversation with someone that I have said hello to and that’s it for months or eating at a restaurant I always pass on the way someplace else. 

As I prepared for tonight I had the same experience with this reading from the opening verses of John’s Gospel.  John 1 is a street we have walked down many times before.  If you asked me where is “in the beginning was the word”  or “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it”  in the bible, I could tell you oh that’s the start of John.  I always thought of it as beautiful, poetic language and I knew it was a summary of John’s gospel, sort of an abstract for the book or thesis statement for what comes next.  For me, looking again was an encounter with the power of God and experience of God’s saving, joy giving, sin forgiving grace.

 

John 1 is not just a summary of what the book will explain and argue, it says what it will do to you: You will be inspired by the story of Jesus’ greatest advocate and evangelist, a person who diminished himself so that the true light could shine, a man known as John the Baptist.  You will know that Jesus Christ is the word of God, the long promised savior and that the kingdom of God is open to all people.  You will see signs that verify and witness that these things are true. It will deepen your faith, call you back to a faith you have stopped believing or introduce you to the joy we experience here. It will assure you that your sins are forgiven by and only because of God’s grace. 

John 1 is good news. In elementary school, we learned that newspaper articles, all journalism really was based on answering 5 questions, or the 5 w’s who what where when why and sometimes how (which does not start with a w so I guess gets left out a lot). The quicker that was done, the better (attention spans aren’t always great, you wanted the reader to know everything they needed in the first minute in case they got bored or distracted, they would still know the main ideas).  We had an assignment to go home and look. To cut out 4 or 5 articles from different papers and look at who, what why when, where and how.  I still remember looking at the articles all those years ago and being surprised, like I had discovered some secret, that those 5 w’s were all there in each one.  I felt the same way as I looked at the opening words of John’s Gospel.  Wait a minute, all that is in there, in that chapter I read so many times before. 

Christmas has a big part in this who, what, why when and where of John’s Gospel.  We are much more familiar with the stories of Christmas in Matthew and Luke’s Gospels.  Matthew takes 2 chapters to tell the story of Christmas. He reports the genealogy of Jesus, connecting him to the family of King David and other great men (and even a few women) in the history of Israel.  Matthew tell us about the faith of Mary trusting the promises of the angel, the faith of Joseph trusting God’s word experienced in a vision, choirs of angels singing hymns of news and praise and the arrival of wise men, kings or magi to give gifts to the newborn Christ.  Luke’s Gospel takes 2 long chapters to tell the story of Christmas, sharing powerful songs by Zechariah and Mary, more information on the birth of John the Baptist and a census that brought Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem. 

The story of Christmas takes 9 words for John to tell.  “the word made flesh and dwelled amongst us”.  For John, there are no angels bringing news or songs of celebration, no chorus of them in the night sky .  There is no stable or inn, there are no animals, no magi or kings, no new star in the sky,  there are no frightenend shepherds in their fields, there are no visions. there is only “the word made flesh dwelling amongst us”.    

Christmas is the time when the Word comes to the world.  The word of God is more than speech, it is God’s main agent in the world, it creates, it gives life, it redeems, it sustains.  It is God that we can encounter, experience and know. Jesus is the word made human, that is who is born on Christmas.   Now God’s word has come into the world before, spoken by prophets, given victory, stopped kings, made kings, parted seas, brought down walls, clouds of fire, changes in society, announced hope,  The word of God called creation into being, made air, water, land and sky, sustains life, parts waters, gives freedom,  but Christmas is different.  Now God’s word is not just spoken at particular times, bringing comfort and condemnation, hope and news.  God’s word when made flesh, brings salvation, forgives sins, makes a new covenant  Speaks healing and joy, peace and forgiveness, trust that God is in control of the world,

This Christmas we have to remember If God’s word spoken into nothing can create life, If God’s word spoken by Ezekiel can restore life to a pile of very dry bones, if God’s word spoken by Jeremiah can change the course of life for a whole people , if God’s word spoken by Moses and Aaron can set the people free from the Egyptian Empire, can make water flow from a rock and bread on the desert floor, imagine what that word made flesh, living amongst us can do,

To summarize a summary: 

Who = Jesus,

what = is the word of God physically with us

why =  God’s grace and desire for our salvation

when = spoken a lot but physically with us at Christmas

where = In the midst of the world  (everything human, social systems, culture, relationships, the daily things we interact with, oppression, suffering, history)

 (how = Death and resurrection )

Sermon for December 17

The reading

Isaiah 55:1-13

1 Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. 2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. 3 Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live. I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. 4 See, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples. 5 See, you shall call nations that you do not know, and nations that do not know you shall run to you, because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you. 6 Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; 7 let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. 8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. 10 For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it. 12 For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. 13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall be to the Lord for a memorial, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.

The message

About 2 years ago, I made a big decision to change our Sunday readings from the familiar and shared Revised Common Lectionary to a relatively new and less known list called the Narrative Lectionary.  I felt like something had to change.  This move has greatly affected my preparation, sermons and understanding of the church year.  The purpose of this new list is to tell the story of God’s revelation to us in a time or chronological order, to help communities see the whole picture, to place the events, miracles and hopes of the bible in their context to better see how God speak to ours.  We have one reading a week to allow a more focused and connected worship. We have old testament readings from September to Christmas. This allows us to see the hope, need and expectation for the Messiah. We read one of the Gospels from Christmas to Easter (John this year). This allows us to experience and even participate in Jesus ministry as it happened, to feel the tensions, drama, fear and joy.  From Easter to Pentecost, we read the Acts of the Apostles and Paul’s letters, as we live in the time after Jesus death and resurrection, we find inspiration and knowledge in what Jesus first followers did in that time. 

It is now the last Sunday before Christmas and we are at the end of our Old Testament series for this church year. Next Sunday, we will sing familiar carols of great history, comfort and joy, we will announce Christ our savior is born, we will remember the grace of God appeared bringing salvation to all.  However, we will hear the story of Christmas from John’s Gospel, where all we get is a single sentence, the word made flesh and dwelled amongst us.  There is no nativity, no census, no angels or shepherds, no cast of characters or drama. Instead, all of those events are summarized by their deepest meaning and importance, God’s active, living, powerful word made flesh, seen, heard and experienced in ways people, who themselves had seen great things,  could not even imagine,  

This morning is going to be a sort of year in review from our Old Testament readings.  The reason we spent 3 plus months on Sunday readings without Jesus should be explained. It is something thoroughly and completely Lutheran, something that helps us make sense of why Christmas matters. We did this to see that God’s word works on us and on the world.  We were shown the power of God’s word in history and human life.

We have really spent the past few months getting glimpses of what God’s word can do,  hearing Old Testament readings that look forward to the birth of the Messiah, that explain and explore God’s promises, people’s hope and the power of God to change things.  In the beginning of September, we heard one of the creation stories in Genesis.  Today, we hear one of the later works of a prophet  (Isiash 55 is the end of  a collection known as second Isaiah, prophesy shared at the time of the return from exile around 520 bc).  A lot happened in between those two events and times, a lot that we looked at but even more that we did not stop for. 

We started with a story of creation from Genesis. This reading teaches us that God is in the world, that  everything and everyone has a place, a purpose and a relationship with God.  God’s word “let there be light”, Let there be air, let there be sky let there be stars, Let there be land, let there be animals, let there be humans in our image”, all of these tell us God’s word is the creative and sustaining foundation of our world.    

God’s word is not always cosmic, sometimes God’s word is very personal, spoken to just one or two people. There was the sacrifice of Isaac, one of the most challenging experiences in the bible, when Abraham is told to kill Isaac, the son that God had promised and given him and Sarah.  God intervenes at the last second, sending an angel to stop Abraham. God’s word has the power to kill and make alive.   

Sometimes God’s word is for a specific community and time. In calling Moses from the burning bush, God starts the process of setting the people free from slavery in Egypt with a word, The Lord God says let my people go. There is the appointment of leaders, Samuel anointing a new king even though he likes the old one,  There are the prophets and great leaders of Israel, The ones who survived, always knew where their power and strength came from.

Sometimes, God’s word is immediate. After freedom from slavery in Egypt, there is confusion, anxiety and fear of hunger and thirst. God’s word provides Water from a rock and bread on the desert floor. There is God providing our day and daily bread, God’s word giving the things to sustain life. 

Sometimes God’s word is speaking to things a long time into the future. The promise of restoration to Israel, spoken at times of defeat and loss of faith.  The promise of a savior for all nations spoken at a time of deep and violent division.  

Sometimes God’s word is not what you want to hear.  Sure the prophets spoke great promises, God has not forgotten you, God’s word, God’s  promises are still good, things will be restored but they also spoke corrective truth, confronting faithlessness, greed, abuse of power and corruption.   

We heard revelation to us of God present in the world, we were inspired by the faithful work and choices of God’s people, we learned from their example as they struggled with the violent, complex social and political events of their time and wondering what it meant for us today, We were challenged by ancient words of correction, restoration and hope still incredibly relevant for us today.

 Our reading today from Isaiah 55 is one of those times when God’s ancient word still matters. It is described as an appeal to participate in the restoration of Jerusalem, a call to the people of God to come back home, come back to church, come together and live in the joy and peace God has promised. God’s word to the people through the prophet Isaiah is “the restoration is real, it is good, try it”. That meant leaving whatever lives, resources, comforts and homes they carved out in the land of exile.  It was a bold leap of faith. It confronted some very practical concerns, how will we eat, what happens to our money and property. I was a successful banker here, what will I be there. 

Last week, God reanimates a valley of dry bones, a symbolic vision of God restoring Israel and all those who feel like they are in that place of hopelessness and neglect. This week things get a lot more personal, we go from the world of ecstatic visions that demand explanation to a world where everyone eats and drinks, where food, water, shelter are  basic human rights.  The truth is you who have no money, come buy and eat is as strange as a valley of dry bones coming back to life.

This Christmas we have to remember If God’s word spoken into nothing can create life, If God’s word spoken by Ezekiel can restore life to a pile of very dry bones, if God’s word spoken by Jeremiah can change the course of life for a whole people , if God’s word spoken by Moses and Aaron can set the people free from the Egyptian Empire, can make water flow from a rock and bread on the desert floor, imagine what that word made flesh, living amongst us can do, maybe it can even let you who have no money come buy and eat.    

Sermon for December 10

The reading

1 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. 2 He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. 3 He said to me, "Mortal, can these bones live?" I answered, "O Lord God, you know." 4 Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. 5 Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. 6 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." 7 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. 8 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. 9 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." 10 I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude. 11 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.' 12 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. 13 And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. 14 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."

The message

(sung, not by me)

Dem Bones

Ezekiel cried, "Dem dry bones!"

Ezekiel cried, "Dem dry bones!"

Ezekiel cried, "Dem dry bones!"

"Oh, hear the word of the Lord."

The foot bone connected to the leg bone,

The leg bone connected to the knee bone,

The knee bone connected to the thigh bone,

The thigh bone connected to the back bone,

The back bone connected to the neck bone,

The neck bone connected to the head bone,

Oh, hear the word of the Lord!

Dem bones, dem bones gonna walk aroun',

Dem bones, dem bones, gonna walk aroun'

Dem bones, dem bones, gonna walk aroun'

Oh, hear the word of the Lord.

This familiar tune has been a stable of Sunday School classes and bible stories with children for decades.  The fun up beat rhythm is the sort of song that gets stuck in your head and you find yourself singing the words again and again throughout the day.   At the same time, the Book of Ezekiel is filled with some of the strangest and most complex visions in the Bible. This vision of the dry bones is physical, earthy and seems better suited for a tv show about zombies or Halloween than it does for Sunday morning.   Honestly it might be dismissed as too difficult or strange, like the rest of the book of Ezekiel often is, if it were not told as a catchy song.

Since it was first written in the 1920s  Dem dry bones has been used in secular and spiritual ways. This song has been recorded by gospel singers, rap stars and punk rock bands.  As recent as this year, the odd rock band Phish opened their concerts with it.  It has also been used as a simple introduction to anatomy, teaching children that our body move, walk, pick up things and all those other motions because of connected bones.  It has been reworded for modern times, brittish rapper MIA, changes the words to make it a society commentary for today and our dependence on technology, need for creative safety and privacy.  For her, the  Hand-bone connects to the internet/ Connected to the Google/ Connected to the government.  

It’s not really a children’s song, at least not originally.   The song was first written in the 1920s by James Weldon Johnson and made famous in 1928 when it was recorded by the Myer Jubilee singers. It was a popular text amongst African American preachers in the late 19^th and early 20^th century.  While Johnson was not particularly religious in his later years, he saw the power in spiritual songs and a social movement built on people coming together, finding hope where there was no hope and experiencing new life among the abandoned and discarded. .  This reading from Ezekiel  found particular resonance with the African American communities of the 19^th and 20^th century and with many defeated and rejected people that had not seen much go right for them. That is because the vision was originally shared with people who were defeated and felt rejected.

 All that separates the secular and spiritual uses of this song and story, the teaching of anatomy or teaching How great is our God, of helping a people come together for a common good or of heling people come together, under God, for a common good, are the introduction, “Ezekiel said to the dry bones” and the end of the chours “ oh, hear the word of the Lord”, but those few words make a big difference.  In the vision of Ezekiel that inspires the song, it is God’s word that works, that makes things happen, Ezekiel does not get some crazy glue to rebuild broken pieces and string to tie bones together, he does not have a bag of skin grafts and organs to carefully place in their right spots.  It is God’s word that causes the dry bones to move and connect, it is God’s word  “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live” that causes those  put together but not quite living bodies to breathe and live, it is God’s word that explains the vision to Ezekiel and all further generations.  This is not Halloween, this is not Zombies, this is God’s promise:  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.

This vision is God’s answer to an ancient refugee crisis, to Ezekiel’s pain at seeing the loss of Jerusalem and the loss of faith or trust in God’s promises,   The people of Israel that Ezekiel speaks God’s word to, they felt like they are in that pile of dry bones, He shares the word with people in exile (around the year 590).   This moment in history was bad, no probably the worst. It was the fall of Judah, of the southern kingdom of Israel, of the people who the Messiah was expected to grow up from. This time was the destruction of the temple where God lived amongst the people.  It was the kingdom and temple promised by and protected by God that would be destroyed.  Ezekiel, with visions and secrets, does not shy away from hard conversations, he asks has God abandoned the temple and Jerusalem,  Does the suffering of God’s people have some redemptive purpose, is it part of a bigger plan, is any of this even real.  To each answer, Ezekiel share a word, No God has not abandoned the people,  we cannot know God’s complete plan,  God, who has done great things before, will do so again. At the center of this vision of the dry bones is the promise that God will restore Israel, which had become little more than a lifeless nation on the brink of destruction.    This might all sounds like wishful thinking, false hope or just some comforting words for people who are so defeated and desperate, they will fall for anything.

We do not stress this enough but we have to remember, the impossible does happen. The dry bones rise in the vision and Israel rises again too.  The exiles do return, the temple is rebuilt, the law and promises of God are rediscovered, the word of God is read in the assembly, praise and worship given, the poor are cared for, the people live in their own land again,  In the years after the destruction of Jerusalem, The Persians lead by Cyrus the Great completely defeat the Babylonians and take over their empire.  Cyrus is asked for permission to return and he allows the people of Isreal to go home, to rebuild and re-establish their communities.  Earthly empires rise and fall, but God’s word lasts forever.   

What is this story: This vision is news to those stuck in a valley of dry bones, who look around and see nothing.  This is a warning to those who do not think our God is big enough or cannot do truly great things. This is condemning and correction to those who think they will do things without God. It is an invitation to tell the others “hear the word of the Lord” and to know that matters.