Pentecost: First Reading, Ezekiel 37:1-14                                 

Ezekiel 37:1-14

“Goodness we’ve heard this one before.” My hope is that whatever you read from the Bible in these meditations you’ve heard/read before. But I do understand that this one is a classic. The Valley of Dry Bones stands in the Bible as a place for good fun. And yes, I do think there are places in the Bible, though it is all to be taken seriously, that we can take with a heart of fun.

Dry bones. Lifeless bones. Death and dust bunnies. All are a part of the beginning of the vision that the Lord gives to the great Ezekiel. Do you imagine that during their conversation, Ezekiel ever thought his task and the result would be molded into a single ranking among the best of early skeletal education? I begin tapping my toes just thinking about it. But even in this fun ditty that we all love to sing (admit it), there is a refrain at the end that is both critical to the song and to understanding the actual Biblical account. Do you remember it? “Now hear the word of the Lord.” Now do you remember?

As Ezekiel encounters this lifeless mess at the beginning of chapter 37, God asks, “Son of man, can these bones live?” and Ezekiel, not wanting to get the answer wrong quickly offers, “O Lord GOD, you know.” Well of course God knows. But God desires that the seemingly impossible situation before His prophet would melt away as easily as did the manna at sunrise every morning in the wilderness. God’s question stands and in his goodness He gives Ezekiel the solution to the dilemma, “Prophesy over these bones,” and then our familiar refrain above.

The issue at hand? God’s people have no life. Exiled, defeated and dragged to their sin-filled “deaths,” they have no recourse for living and no hope of resurrection save one: hearing the word of the Lord. And Ezekiel is the one tasked with declaring to the Israel of the account, and to the people of God of all time the life-giving word which will not only save them from a worldy death, but from an eternal one as well. Can you hear the old prophet’s voice ringing aloud today, “Hear the word of the LORD?” Lots of people through the centuries have pretended to have life. But only those who hear the word of the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, rise from their tombs or their walking death. “He who has the Son has life,” says John, the apostle centuries apart from the great old prophet. Death needs life. And the word of the Lord is the ONLY thing that provides it. Listen well.