Sermon on Ezekiel 37:1-14

This sermon was preached at First United Lutheran Church in Hammond, Indiana on Sunday, May 20, 2018.

Good morning. My name is Wesley, and I was invited here by Pastor Chris to lead the family mission conference over the weekend. During the conference, we spent Friday evening and yesterday here at the church talking about the gospel and how to share it more comfortably in our relationships with others. It was a conference about being evangelists in the world.

The word “evangelism” has a lot of weight to it. For some of us, it brings a lot of pressure. We feel like God is keeping tabs on how many times we mention Jesus to people around us. We feel like it's an extra weight of obligation to meet a quota so we can keep our “Christian” membership card. Other times, we might feel a stigma toward the word “evangelism.” We can have the image of someone shouting at another person about their sin and be turned off by it. It makes us want to say, “I'm not that kind of Christian,” and so we become extra accommodating and apologetic about our faith. Even though we just spent a whole weekend essentially talking about becoming “better” evangelists, evangelism isn't about doing. Being an evangelist means living into the Gospel of Christ. It means knowing the Good News of who Jesus is and what he's done. It means allowing the knowledge of that truth to influence who you are.

We are in the midst of graduation season. Students from all levels of schooling will be finishing up degrees over this coming month. They will celebrate with one another, with their friends and families, at the prospects ahead of them. Some are going on to more learning. Others are entering the workforce. Still others, maybe don't know what the future holds, and are waiting in eager anticipation to find out what comes next. They invested years of their lives into this one transformative experience. I have many friends who are graduating from different levels of education. Some from seminary just received their master's degrees. High School students I know have their diplomas. My cousin just graduated from college with her bachelor's. Whatever level they are graduating from, there's one thing that is in common: rejoicing.

When I graduated from seminary, I sent invitations for friends and family to join me in celebrating the end of a lot of work I had to put in to my studies; all of the years of long nights, early mornings, and high-stress moments. I wanted to celebrate that my work was finished. Even so, with everything I put toward my degree, I only got a piece of paper. It didn't promise me anything for the future. It didn't change who I am. I definitely grew a lot in understanding of myself, those around me, and God. But, graduating isn't want provided that growth, and it certainly didn't signify the end of my growth. After my graduation, for all the celebration and rejoicing at a job, well, done, it only led me into continued work. I wasn't finished. I'm still not finished. The good news of graduation isn't the end. It's the beginning of more work to be done. There is always more work to be done.

In a way, Jesus submitted his final exam on the Cross. He completed the work that was set out for him to do. His task was extraordinary. He was given the assignment of saving the world. To do this, he never sinned, he suffered loss and betrayal, and ultimately, he was dishonored and tortured to death. Now, if that was my assignment going into seminary, I'd have probably decided to explore other vocations. The good news, though, is that the love of God was strong enough that Jesus willingly went through all of that for our sake.

When we talk about evangelism, we need to remember that it's literal meaning in the Greek is “good news.” We need to understand that this is the spreading of a good message to the world. It's good news because we now have access to the reward of salvation without having to put in the work that Jesus did to receive it. What Jesus did-- what we will never be able to do on our own-- is give life to the dead.

In our Old Testament reading, the prophet Ezekiel found himself caught up in the Spirit and brought to a valley. Looking around, he saw the bones of people long-dead scattered across the valley floor. God asked Ezekiel, “Mortal, can these bones live?”

With the advantage of hindsight, the answer to this question is obvious. First, we're reading the Bible, so this account wouldn't even be written if something incredible didn't happen. Secondly, not being in that place and at that time with Ezekiel, it's easier for us to suspend disbelief. But what I want us to do right now is stop here and think about this question. First, let's think about the context of what this valley might be. God describes these bones as those where were “slain” in verse nine. Likely, this means that the valley was the scene of a battle, and these bones belong to warriors who were killed while fighting. Also, the bones are dry, meaning they've been in this valley a very long time, so that there's no more flesh on them. In other words, to quote the Coroner in Wizard of Oz, these bones aren't only “merely dead,” they are “most sincerely dead.”

Next, I want to consider the question itself. Throughout the book of Ezekiel, in the Hebrew God addresses the prophet as “Son of Man.” The translation we have uses the term “mortal” for this title. This is important because the address itself is a reminder of where we stand before God. The title shows the stark contrast between Ezekiel, a human being, and God, the divine and immortal Lord. God asking Ezekiel if the bones can live by using the title, “Son of Man,” is an answer to itself. Ezekiel himself will die. He has no power to stop that from happening. He now stands in a valley surrounded by the evidence of this fact. None of the bones around him are marked with a name. No memory is attached to them. The Son of Man stand in the midst of death, powerless to stop it. Ezekiel knows this. He knows that the bones have no power to will themselves to life. He knows he also, being merely human, can do nothing to change the death surrounding them.

Now, we come to the answer. “O Lord GOD, you know.” Ezekiel doesn't presume that God would do the unthinkable. He only knows what he sees before him. Hearing God ask if these bones can live, Ezekiel may have assumed God is teaching him a lesson on the finality of life. He sees the bones around him and thinks they have reached their end. Maybe God is trying to remind Ezekiel that only he can live forever, and all of us lowly creatures are on a path toward death. Maybe God wants to remind Ezekiel of his place, or warn him about the impending judgment that God will bring on his people. What this question, and Ezekiel's answer, reveals is the harsh reality of human life. No matter how long and hard we work, we are still on a path toward death. These bones were once alive, with names and faces, but now are indistinct from one another.

We put in a lot of work in our lives. Some of us work multiple jobs at once, others work hard on artistic passions. We strive to move up the ladder in our vocations or to be able to provide the best for our families. Life is work. Life is constant striving. After Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden, God said to Adam, “by the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, til you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken, for you are dust and to dust you shall return.” It shouldn't be a surprise that our life is made up of work. The necessity of work is part of our burden in a sinful world. I do think that the drive to work hard is itself a gift from God. In its purest form, it's a reflection of the work he has done in the creation of the world, and caring for creation is part of his intended design for our lives. But the curse of sin is that our work has no end, and will not satisfy us or give life. The curse is that while we must work to survive, no matter how hard we work, it can't save us.

Ezekiel saw the end to which all the work of life leads. He stood in the midst of scattered dry bones in a nameless valley. But God gives hope, even in the face of such a bleak inevitability. “O Lord GOD, you know,” he says. God knows that these bones are dead. God knows that these bones have no names and no faces. God knows that all the work put into life by these bones has led them all to the same place. But God also knows something we often forget. Life itself is a gift given freely by him, when he breathed into the dust.

God said to Ezekiel, “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.”

Ezekiel prophesies and the bones are covered once again with flesh. Their faces return, but they still don't live. There was no breath in them. And God told Ezekiel to prophesy for breath to enter them, and it did, and these bodies, these lost faces and empty memories came back to life. They stood and lived once more.

The source of all life, from the very beginning has been God. The Good News of Jesus is that he offers life beyond the one we know now. During this graduation season, it is a good time to reflect on our work, and how we work from one degree to another, but Paul writes that “the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”

The Spirit brings freedom because we don't need to rely on the work we've done in our lives to truly live. In him, our memory will not be lost. Our faces will be known to him as we look upon his glory face-to-face. The closer we get to this knowledge of God, the more we are formed into his image.

This is where the Good News of Jesus is different from any other good news we've heard. When Jesus says, “it is finished,” he means it. And he promises when it is finished that there will be an end to all sin and all death. And he didn't finish the work only for himself. He did it for you, and for me, and for all the world. His work actually has an end. His work actually gives life. His Spirit is the way that we are able to share in that. The Spirit of God is the Breath of Life. Without the Spirit of God, no matter how hard we work, our end is the same. We are dry bones scattered across the nameless valley. But with the Spirit of God, we have the freedom to work toward his glory, knowing that our work is not in vain.

When we talk about evangelism, we are talking about Good News. We are talking about being invited into a graduation from the work of death to the gift of life. We can rejoice together in this life given to us and invite others to join as well. Evangelism is telling the world that they can take part in the reward of life that comes from the work of Christ. It's sharing the freedom that comes from the Spirit of God, to release us from our slavery to sin. It doesn't mean we don't have to work in this life anymore. But it does mean that this life isn't all there is. It means that there is a greater life ahead of us, where the work has already been completed.

Evangelism isn't about doing. Evangelism is about knowing that it's already been done. If the idea of evangelism feels like a burden, then we need to step back and understand these two word: Good News. This is Good News. The more we reflect on this Good News, and the more we consider why it's good news for our own lives, the more we will find that news worth sharing with others, and the more natural that sharing will become.

God's promise to Ezekiel in the valley of dry bones is that he will be the source of life to the people of Israel. His breath, which is his very Spirit, is what will bring his people to new life, standing before him on the last day. His Spirit is the source of life. If we are breathing in his Spirit, we have breath for all eternity. We can breathe easy knowing that he has already completed everything needed for us to have that gift of life. Sharing in his Spirit is an open invitation. And I think that's Good News.

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