Can This Bone Live?

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.

“Mortal, can these bones live?” Mortal, can Israel and Palestine live together in peace?  Mortal, can your country come together?  Mortal, can you be healed from your trauma?  Mortal, can your depression, anxiety, addiction, cancer, dementia, joints, bones, heart be healed?  Mortal, can hate be transformed into love?  Mortal, can racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, greed, and fear be removed from the earth?  Mortal, can Christianity be recovered from the Fundamentalists and Nationalists?  Mortal… can these bones live?

Excellent questions God but let me start with the bones question.  They are…REALLY OLD… VERY DRY bones.  That’s not encouraging.  As if that wasn’t enough, check this one out… looks like a femur… it has a metal spear head stuck in it!  I’ve got to be honest with you, God, a spear head stuck in a completely dried out bone doesn’t scream "I'm alive" to me.   Look at these bones over here… the vultures and vermin have been at them for years… years!  The skeletons aren’t even all together anymore!  The leg bone ISN’T at all connected to the hip bone… Heck!  I don’t even see a hip bone anywhere around here!  This whole valley is a jumble of bones!  Here’s a skull… Alas, poor Yorick… there’s a mouse nest where your brain used to be… then where is the rest of him?  Could be anywhere.  This valley is FILLED with bones.  Can these bones live? 

It seems like a hopeless proposition… these bones living again.  Just like Israel and Palestine seem hopeless… just like a country tipping into Fascism… just like life changing trauma, illness, injury and disease.  It seems hopeless… these bones living again… just like the chance of raw, illogical hatred being changed into raw, illogical love seems hopeless.  Can these bones live?  I sure as hell don’t know… mere mortal that I am… as you’ve very correctly pointed out already God… but I suspect you know.

At that point God told the Ezekiel, “Prophesy to these bones.”  Prophesy?  What's that goign to do?  Why did God tell him to PROPHESY to the bones?  Because, you see, Ezekiel was a PROPHET and prophesying was what Ezekiel did best… Prophesy was his expertise… prophesy was his gift… his calling… his talent… his jam!  God was telling Ezekiel NOT that “prophesy” was the answer to the world’s hopelessness.  God was telling Ezekiel that pouring his gifts into the world’s hopelessness… WHATEVER those gifts might be… THAT was the answer.  If Ezekiel had been a musician, God would have told him to sing to these bones!  If Ezekiel had been a monk, God would have told him to pray for those bones.  If Ezekiel had been a nurse, God would have told him to comfort those bones.  If Ezekiel would have been a finance guy, God would have told him to make a spreadsheet for those bones.  Teachers would be told to teach.  Doctors would be told to heal.  Therapists would be told to listen.  Builders, bakers, and candlestick makers would be told to do the things they do best for those bones.

But what possible difference could a candlestick make to the devastation, pain, and fear that fills the people of Israel and Palestine?  What difference could prophesy make to a valley filled with bones?  Well, God says it can make ALL the difference.  It is, you see, when we pour our talents… our gifts… our expertise… our passion… WHATEVER THAT MIGHT BE… when we pour our talents, gifts, passion and expertise into the hopelessness of the world, things begin to happen.  It might start like a noise, a rattling, but then you will see that what was impossible will begin to come together, piece to piece. 

Looking out at that awful, horrible, hopeless valley of dry bones, God asked Ezekiel to use only what he already had within him at that particular moment of his life.  God didn’t ask for more than Ezekiel had.  God didn’t ask him to do something he’d never done before.  God asked Ezekiel to do the thing he did BEST and when Ezekiel did that… things changed all around him and there began to be life in a place there had not been life before.  

You may not have Ezekiel’s gift for prophecy, but it isn’t prophesy that brought life to those bones.  It was pouring the  gifts, talents, calling and passion that he had been given by the Holy Spirit into that moment… THAT is what brought life to those bones.  You and I are called to do the same.  To pour our own personal gifts, talents, calling, and passion that we have received from the Holy Spirit into the places around us that are dry and lifeless.  No matter how seemingly unrelated and irrelevant your gifts might seem to a situation... maybe even as unrelated as bones and prophesy, those gifts, in ways we will perhaps never really understand, WILL bring life to those places that are as dry and lifeless as a valley of bones.  So let us go… and bring the world… LIFE.  Amen. 

Shockingly In Between

John 17:6-19

Jesus continued to pray, ‘I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.

We missed the Ascension.  It was Thursday.  It’s always on a Thursday which is why we always miss it.  The Liturgy police would NOT accept that as a legitimate defense, but what the Liturgy police don’t know won’t hurt us… and remember… snitches get stitches!  Anyway, the Ascension is when Jesus tells his disciples that they would soon receive the Holy Spirit and that they were to be his witnesses, starting where they were and then reaching out to everywhere on the earth.  Then, of course, Jesus “ascended”…he was lifted up and carried away in a cloud.  That’s when the Disciples were left on a hillside, mouths hanging open, standing there stuck in this awkward in-between time… In-between Jesus leaving dramatically and the Holy Spirit arriving dramatically on Pentecost.  

I feel like we as a church are in a time like that… An IN-BETWEEN time.  We’re in between those dramatic days when we created and launched ALL THE THINGS.  The time when  Trudy rightly labeled our congregation as “The Church of What’s Happening Now”.  We’re in between that time then and whatever it is the Holy Spirit will bring us next.

In those Church of What’s Happening Now times we did rainbow chairs and Berkstock fairs, Appalachian Trail tents, we had family pandemic meals sent.  We did classical concerts and Broadway cabarets, silent movies, and beer with hymns.  We did a cycling hospitality center, a memorial garden makeover and a complete Grey Cottage remodel.  We did a Big capital campaign.  We solar powered our church.  We made stewardship something palatable with Joe’s lasagna, and snacks while we put free money into baskets.

We dreamed up, created, and launched ALL THE THINGS… ALL THE THINGS!  But that’s not where we are any more, is it?  I don’t think that’s a bad thing.  It’s just where we are right now.  The pandemic, illnesses and injuries, life and deaths and all those dang years pilling up for all of us… all of that has taken us out of where we were then and into where we are right now.  Like I said, it’s not a bad place to be.  We haven’t failed.  We’re not unfaithful.  Oh my God NO!  We are still exactly in the place God is calling us to be right now.  It’s just not where we were AND it’s also not where we will always be.  But for now, God seems to have called us (as God called the Disciples back then) to be… in-between and as it turns out Jesus had a prayer for them in their in between time.  It’s that SUPER convoluted prayer that we heard in the Gospel lesson.  It’s a good prayer for people in those in between times… once it’s untangled at least… so here’s an untangled version for us:  

Hello God, this is Jesus.  You gave me these incredible people so I could tell them in person what you wanted them to know.  They’ve now embraced that message which is amazing!  Amazing for me, for them, and for You too!  While I was here I protected them from a world that is more interested in wielding crushing power than in loving one another.  Now that I’m heading home, would you please continue take care of them?  This world still thinks love, kindness, generosity, grace, mercy, and compassion are weaknesses rather than the world transforming powers You and I know they are.  As you know, Father, this world can get pretty hate-y toward people who live their lives in love.  So hold them as they live their lives in love, and keep using love to change the world.  Love is the truth.  That’s what I told them.  That’s the truth they’re now telling others.  It is beautiful and holy work they have joined us in doing for sure, but it’s also really hard, so please God, hang in there with them.  Always.  Amen.

Good prayer, right?  At least when it’s untangled.  It’s a prayer for those times when our mouths hang open, not sure how to be or what to do.  It’s a prayer that reminds us that in those times… those in-between times… that love continues to be the answer, regardless of the question.  That love keeps working to change the world even while we just wait for what the Spirit is bringing next.  It reminds us that God looked after us before.  God will look after us in what will come and God is looking after us in the in between as well.  

It reminds us that the work we did creating ALL THE THINGS was beautiful and holy.  It reminds us that the work we do now in the in-between, maintaining those things, is just as beautiful and just as holy; and it reminds us that the work we will most certainly embrace when the winds of the Holy Spirit shift into a new direction will be beautiful and holy as well.  It also reminds us that it is God’s love at work through us in this world and that God’s love continues to transform literally everything.  God’s love does that through all that we’ve done, all that we will do when the Spirit blows in a new direction, and even now as we wait together faithfully in the in between.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.