25^th Sabbath after Pentecost

November 16/18, 2007

Bible Sabbath/Thanksgiving Weekend

Victor H. Nixon

NEED HOPE?

Ezekiel 37:1-14

This sermon is the fourth in the series, "Seeking Something More," based upon the Hebrew prophets. We turn to Ezekiel today to find hope.

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When life has dealt you a cruel hand, how do you go on in the midst of disappointment and despair? Where do you find the inner strength to continue in the face of suffering, abandonment, or disease? What does faith in God have to say when I am desperate? These are questions we ask, as did Ezekiel, when hope is needed.

We know that Ezekiel grew up in the environs of the Jerusalem temple, the son of a priest by the name of Buzi. Since the priesthood was hereditary he was probably being trained for or had already taken the robes of office. We know that he was married, and his wife, the delight of his eyes, died at the beginning of the siege of Jerusalem (24:15-18). We know that the captives who survived the march settled by the Canal Chebar at a place called Tel-abib, ("hill of the storm god") in Babylon(2) and where he experienced a visionary call from God that inspired the well-known spiritual (1:4-28):

This vision, which occurred in Babylon, portrays a universal God who moves beyond national boundaries, not limited to Jerusalem or the temple where exiles were accustomed to worshipping. Ezekiel’s vision represents a major theological insight in scripture.

The prophecies of Ezekiel are among the most fascinating and puzzling writings in the Bible, expressed in a variety of literary forms—visions, allegories, apocalyptic struggles between God and evil, etc. J. K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books, has nothing on Ezekiel! He has inspired fear, awe, and wonder in readers because he attempts to describe God in words that come close to the limits of expression.(4)

Unlike other prophetic books given orally and recorded for contemporaries, Ezekiel and his followers composed the book in writing and preserved it for the specific purpose of instructing readers at a later time. The care for the written text and its accurate transmission, mark a breakthrough in the development of written scripture in Israel.

Ezekiel is made up of intricate, deliberately composed literary creations. One characteristic is frequent repetition of key words or phrases, e.g. "mortal," (lit. "son of man"), "for the sake of my holy name," "so that you/they will know that I am the Lord."

The style of Ezekiel is highly symbolic. He probes behind or beyond observable things and events, using metaphors and mythic poetry to portray the underlying structure of existence or the transcendent realities beneath sensory observation and historical records. Ezekiel’s show both inner and outer realities, abolishing or going beyond normal sensory and temporal bounds.

Because of these literary qualities, reading Ezekiel requires a very careful approach, in order to avoid mistaking some descriptions for historical events, observable behaviors, or factual reports. Some of the more bizarre descriptions, such as muteness or holding prolonged, agonizing postures, are not evidence of psychopathology or mental aberration, as some readers have surmised, but are literary images that have rich theological import.

Ezekiel connected dem dry bones

Your foot bone connected to your ankle bone, etc.

In this vision Ezekiel writes, "The hand of the Lord came upon me, and brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of dry bones."(37:1)

The valley is a picture of depression and death, representing exiles in Babylon, reminiscent of a battlefield where corpses were left unburied and left to rot and dry in the sun. Ezekiel is led into the valley by the "spirit of the Lord."

"Spirit" is a key word in this vision. The Hebrew word is ruach and can be translated "spirit," "breath," or "wind." It appears ten times in this text and reminds us of the creation story in Genesis activated by the spirit, wind and breath of God.

God asks Ezekiel, "Can these bones live?" He responds that only God knows. Then God told him to prophesy to the bones and tell them that God would breathe new life into them. When Ezekiel did so flesh began to form on the bones, but there was no breath in them. Again, God ordered Ezekiel to prophecy to the breath by calling God to come in the "four winds" (north, south, east, and west) to breathe life into them. When he did so, Ezekiel says "they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude."(37:10)

The ancients understood, as we do, that respiration is necessary for human life. No breath, no life. They also believed that breath, like the wind, was evidence of the powerful, creative spirit of God. One cannot see air or wind, only evidence of its presence as it gently blows in the trees or rips the shore with hurricane force. They believed, as this vision indicates, that this powerful Spirit-Wind is the source of life itself.

God, through Ezekiel, then interprets the vision: "These bones are the whole house of Israel" that says, "Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost completely."(37:11) As the vision indicated, God promises to restore Israel, to bring the exiles home. "I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your on soil."(37:14)

Indeed, this is a resurrection story, a story of hope to exiles and others, that God does not abandon us to suffering and death. The message through Ezekiel is that God is victorious over suffering and death, and assures us that new life and hope are always possible for those who, like Ezekiel and Jesus, are led by the Spirit of God through every wilderness in life.(Luke 4:1-13) Death cannot contain such hope.

This is a personal word of hope to those of us who are held captive by some force within or without that prevents us from experiencing the fullness of life. This is a word to those held captive by poverty and those by consumerism, by evil and emptiness, those who are abused and diseased, those captivated by greed and by fear. This is a message of hope to those who are outsiders, strangers in a strange land, lonely and searching for a home. This is a word of life to any person in exile from family and loved ones, but also from oneself and from God. God provides a breath of fresh air and hope to you.

In the story of Pentecost, it is the Spirit-Wind God that breathes life into a community of faith that spread the Good News of Jesus throughout the world. It is that same Spirit that transforms us into a community of faith and hope. And it is the same Spirit that leads us into the world, into valleys inhabited by death, depression and despair to become, like Ezekiel and Jesus, harbingers of hope and new life to those in desperate need of a new life, a new beginning. That was Ezekiel’s calling, and that is your calling, brothers and sisters.

If you need hope, listen to the word of the Lord from Ezekiel!

Thanks be to God. Amen.

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