March 29, 2020 “Can These Bones Live?” Ezekiel 37:1-14 Central Christian Church David A. Shirey

There are bad dreams and there are bad dreams. Ezekiel had a miserable vision. Kim read it to us. Ezekiel, that most peculiar prophet, says, “The hand of the Lord… set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones…” (Ezek 37:1). The year was 587 BC. King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon destroyed Jerusalem, razed the Temple, and consigned the survivors to exile. So, when Ezekiel speaks of a valley of bones, he’s seeing the skeletal remains of a slaughter, a once-proud nation in ruins, bereft of its Temple, its King and its people. “Mortal,” says the Lord, “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’” (Ez 37:11). Note the adjective Ezekiel uses in describing the bones. They are dry bones. Ezekiel says, “There were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry.” These aren’t intact bodies recently having drawn their last breath. If so, maybe there’d be some hope for divine intervention. After all, Elijah raised the son of the widow of Zarephath (1K 17:17-22) and Elisha raised the son of the Shunammite woman (2K 4:32-35). Bu they weren’t dead long. Whereas it’s one thing (and a miraculous one at that) to raise up a body that still has flesh on it and blood in it, Ezekiel looked out over very dry bones. Long dead. Dead dead. Beyond hope. Ezekiel had a bad dream, a miserable vision: dry bones as far as the eye can see. Wake me up when it’s over. Speaking of “Wake me up when it’s over,” it feels like we’re living a bad dream, doesn’t it? In recent mornings I’ve wanted to pull the covers over my head, go back to sleep and try waking up again. But it’s real. And we need to face it. And that calls for some mental health hygiene. So I called the doctor for advice-- Central’s own Dr. Terry Gevedon (medical director of the University of Kentucky HealthCare Outpatient Child and Adult Psychiatry Clinic) -- and she gave me a prescription for mental health beginning with getting up and getting out of bed and bathed and dressed for the day. Terry said, “Our world has been turned upside down. But human beings need routine. So, have a plan for the day. A schedule. Removed from your normal routine, set up a new one.” And then she said, “One dimension of life that is still on schedule is spring. Creation is not quarantined.” It is spring and there are signs of newness and life to be taken in and soaked up. 99-year-old Ann Burns sent Julia Hall a handwritten note this week that began, Dear Julia, There are baby birds in the pine tree outside my window. Bless you, Ann! Terry said, “Don’t just open the blinds and look out. If you’re able, open the door and go out. Take a walk. Exercise. Wave and smile at someone else you see. The good doctor told me the physical act of smiling improves mood. She added, “Take Vitamin G every day -- make a daily Gratitude list. And take care of your body. “Fast food places are set up for drive through, but not so much for nutrition. And sure, you can stay up till 2 am and watch Netflix, but you need sleep.” Her prescription for mental health continued: “Decide what are reliable sources of information and watch them, but don’t binge. Make it a point to turn the dial, change the channel, surf the web for something enriching, beautiful, good: Music. Art. Literature. Drama. She said, “Stay connected. Physical contact is off limits, but personal contact isn’t.” This isn’t a time for emails or texts. It’s time to reclaim a near-forgotten tool of communication: a telephone. So as to hear a human voice. Or through Face time or Zoom to see human faces. My Bible says “God so loved the world that God sent...” not a text, not an email, not an emoji-- God sent his Son. A face. A voice. Think of that: into a world of woe, God didn’t send an explanation as to Why? or an accusation as to who or what’s to blame, but an incarnation: a face marked by compassion and concern voicing words brimming with wisdom and assurance. In addition to all these tips for our mental health, our Scripture offers a word that undergirds our spiritual health. God spoke a word into Ezekiel’s bad dream, specifically, a question: “Mortal, can these bones live?” With positive test results increasing, stock market flagging, unemployment applications rising, and anxiety simmering on a low boil, God asks, “Mortal, can these bones live?” How do you answer that question? No is one answer. No, bones long dead can’t live. Cue that 1987 R.E.M. song, “It’s the End of the World As We Know It.” Add in several heaping tablespoons of cynicism, skepticism, and despair. Leaven with an eerie conspiracy theory. Wring hands for fifteen minutes and then place head in hands and sigh without ceasing. “Mortal, can these bones live?” One answer is No. A naïve, shallow Yes is another answer. How ‘bout if I ask Keith Dean to stand out on our Short Street porch and serenade passersby with: Gray skies are gonna clear up, Put on a happy face;1 Dry bones’ll live so cheer up, Put on a happy face. Take off the gloomy mask of tragedy, It's not your style... Spare me! Answering “Can these dry bones live?” with a simplistic Yes is inappropriate. So is a Yes that masquerades as bravado but in fact denies reality and endangers others. As in Coronavirus shramonavirus! Yes, dry bones can live! Watch mine! I’m gonna live my life business as usual. Spring breakers cavorting in contagion. Great-- and the virus spreads from such knuckleheaded arrogance to others. Even worse is perverting religion to license irresponsibility: No social distancing for us. We’ll fill a sanctuary and God will protect us. We’re people of faith. To which I say, ‘No, you’re people who’ve forgotten that every Lent begins with the story of the Temptation when the Devil tells Jesus, “If you’re the Son of God, jump off the pinnacle of the Temple because God will send his angels to catch you before you hit the ground and catch the coronavirus.” To which Jesus says, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test” (Matthew 4:5-7). Spare me from a use of religion that takes the Lord’s name in vain (Ex 20:7) and in so doing puts one’s own life and others in jeopardy. Give me instead a faith that finds God in the gritty valor of nurses and doctors who “lay down their lives” (John 15:13) for others’ well-being, a faith that embraces science as a way of loving God with the mind that serves as a channel of God’s healing grace. God asks, “Can these dry bones lives?” and whereas some sigh and answer No and some say Yes with a naïve optimism or an irresponsible bravado that takes the Lord’s name in vain, Ezekiel answers in five words, “O Lord God, you know.” What do you make of that response? I wish I could hear how Ezekiel said that. What inflection did he use? • Was there resignation in his voice? “God only knows. Heck if I know.” • Was it said quizzically? “Lord God... You know something I don’t know?”

1 Songwriters: Charles Strouse / Lee Adams

• Or was it spoken in a tone of trusting reverence? O Lord God, you know. Those are dry bones, but you are a life-giving God! O Lord God, you know what? I believe having done it before you can do it again! Dem bones, dem bones, dem’s dry bones but O Lord, “With you is great power to redeem” (Psalm 130:7). I hear hope in Ezekiel’s answer. Biblical hope. Redwood-rooted, house-built-upon-the- Rock founded (Matthew 7:25), “on Christ the solid rock I stand” hope. When God asks, “Can these bones live?” and Ezekiel answers, “O Lord God, you know” I hear a man who trusts the greatness of God to inspire the goodness of humanity forming a divine-human partnership that will yield a wisdom, togetherness and perseverance that will see us through. I heard echoes of Ezekiel’s hope this past Thursday morning when I came downstairs for my devotional time. Jennie beckoned me to where she’d already begun her devotionals. She said, “I want you to hear this” and then she played me an anthem Michael had included in a veritable bibliography of hope set to music that he catalogued for the choir to listen to. I recognized the lyrics, but couldn’t place them until I did some research and was reminded that they’re from a poem that was found at the end of World War II on the wall of a dark, dank cellar in Cologne where Jews had hidden from the Nazis. Scrawled on the wall were the words that the anthem set to stirring, soul-strengthening music:

“I believe in the sun even when it is not shining And I believe in love, even when I can’t feel it. And I believe in God, even when he is silent.”

I believe. I believe. I believe. Join Ezekiel in believing, he who when asked, “Mortal, can these bones live?” confesses with his heart, soul, mind, and might, “O Lord God, you know!” “Suddenly,” Scripture says, “there was a noise, a rattling -- The opposite of a death rattle: this was a resurrection rattle!-- and the bones came together, bone to its bone. And flesh came upon them, and skin covered them... and God’s breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude!” Those dry bones lived! They lived and we can, too, heeding Dr. Gevedon’s advice for our mental and physical health and holding fast to Dr. Ezekiel’s vision for our spiritual health. Mortal, can these bones live? “O Lord, you know they can... and will!” Let all God’s people say AMEN.