Surviving the Desert

Scripture Ezekiel 37:1-14   (CEB). 

37 The Lord’s power overcame me, and while I was in the Lord’s spirit, he led me out and set me down in the middle of a certain valley. It was full of bones. 2 He led me through them all around, and I saw that there were a great many of them on the valley floor, and they were very dry.

3 He asked me, “Human one, can these bones live again?” 

I said, “Lord God, only you know.”

4 He said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, Dry bones, hear the Lord’s word! 5 The Lord God proclaims to these bones: I am about to put breath in you, and you will live again. 6 I will put sinews on you, place flesh on you, and cover you with skin. When I put breath in you, and you come to life, you will know that I am the Lord.”

7 I prophesied just as I was commanded. There was a great noise as I was prophesying, then a great quaking, and the bones came together, bone by bone. 8 When I looked, suddenly there were sinews on them. The flesh appeared, and then they were covered over with skin. But there was still no breath in them.

9 He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, human one! Say to the breath, The Lord God proclaims: Come from the four winds, breath! Breathe into these dead bodies and let them live.”

10 I prophesied just as he commanded me. When the breath entered them, they came to life and stood on their feet, an extraordinarily large company.

11 He said to me, “Human one, these bones are the entire house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope has perished. We are completely finished.’ 12 So now, prophesy and say to them, The Lord God proclaims: I’m opening your graves! I will raise you up from your graves, my people, and I will bring you to Israel’s fertile land. 13 You will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and raise you up from your graves, my people. 14 I will put my breath in you, and you will live. I will plant you on your fertile land, and you will know that I am the Lord. I’ve spoken, and I will do it. This is what the Lord says.”

***********************************************************

The title of today’s message is “Surviving the Desert.”  I selected the passage and the title in early February, long before we had any idea that we would be facing a pandemic, and attending worship from our homes.  At that time I was focused on the theme the Spiritual Growth Team selected for Lent - the Road Home.  As I planned each sermon for Lent I was thinking of road trips and the different roads I have taken to get home physically.  One of those roads runs through Death Valley, which can be a pretty stark landscape, and seems to go on forever.  The mountains in the distance don’t even look real.  They look like a painted backdrop in one of those old TV Westerns - Roy Rogers, Hopalong Cassidy, The Lone Ranger, the Cisco Kid.   But the desert is not always that way.  Sometimes it blooms, and when it blooms it is astounding.  Life, abundant life, vibrant colorful life, springs forth miraculously from the desert floor and from the dunes and the hills.  Knowing that about Death Valley, I had a pretty good idea of where I wanted this message to go.

But then, stuff happened.   Covid19 happened.  We had to make difficult decisions about keeping the congregation, and everyone we are all connected with, healthy.  We are, most of us, now sheltering in place.  If you are seeing this, it is through the miracle of the Interwebz.  (I will make sure it is mailed to people who are not connected to the internet.). We are praying that we get this right the first time - the music and the message, candles and prayers - the Lord’s Supper.   We are pretty sure that won’t happen, cause technology, but we are praying for a good outcome with minimal glitches.  

So God took Ezekiel and set him in the middle of a Valley - this is where my Death Valley imagery came from - and that valley was full of bones, dry bones, entirely lifeless bones.  This sometimes happened in ancient days, that a piece of land would be full of bones.  After a great battle, the bodies of the common soldiers were left where they fell.  When God asked Ezekiel if those bones could come back to life, Ezekiel, a very wise man, said “I dunno. You know, but I don’t.” So Ezekiel spoke the words God gave him to speak and the skeletal remains became flesh.  But not yet living beings.  Because God had not yet put the breath of life into them.   But when Ezekiel, at God’s command, called the breath to come from the four winds and fill the bodies, they lived again and stood on their feet.  Ezekiel trusted the Lord, enough to follow directions, and when he did that, the people came to life again, and they knew that God was Lord.

Right this minute, we may feel like those dry bones in the desert.   We may feel alone, isolated, because we cannot leave our homes.  We cannot gather together for worship or Bible Study or any of the other ways we usually interact with other people.  We may be frightened.   We hear this thing and that thing and the things we hear contradict each other.  We don’t know who to listen to.  We don’t know who to trust.

And I say, Trust the Lord.  I chose this passage, this dry bones in the desert passage, in February!   I found the Lenten Candle Lighting meditation for today - in February!  Let’s hear that again:

God has proven trustworthy throughout history, but at times we question and doubt, and even deny, God’s presence in our lives. We worry and fret about what is happening and what will happen next, rather than trusting in our Savior.

Right now we have no idea what will happen next with this virus.  We have heard predictions and guesstimates, but really, no human knows for sure what will happen next.  We know only that we are on a road that is completely unfamiliar,  and the best way to travel on any road is one mile at a time, one step at a time.

To help each other on the Road Home through what might seem like a desert filled with dry bones, reach out.  Make phone calls.  Encourage one another.  Read the Bible and pray  together on the phone.   Pray for those who must continue to work and risk exposure - our first responders, health care providers, grocery workers, truckers, and all the others who are doing their best to get us all through this.   And as we breathe life and hope into each other’s hearts, the desert will bloom, and it will be glorious.  

We are halfway through Lent.   We may be looking ahead to Holy Week, specifically to Good Friday - to the passion of Christ - the arrest, the torture, the death on the cross.  We might be stuck in the idea that this road we are on, this Road Home, is the road to the Cross.   And it is.  But the Cross is not the end of the road. It is a stop on the way, not the destination. The Empty Tomb is.  The end of the Lenten Road, the Road Home, is the Resurrection.   And so we continue on our Road Home, through the desert and beyond, with trust in God. Amen.

***********************************************************

Because we were not meeting in person, the Lord’s Supper was celebrated online, as follows:

I don’t know whether we will be worshipping in person together on April 12 - the date of Easter Sunday this year - but I do know that whenever that happens, whenever we get back together, whenever we reach the end of this road of uncertainty we are currently traveling, we will celebrate the Resurrection. 

And we will do that now, as well.  Because when we come together, whenever we come together, we celebrate the Resurrection by sharing the Lord’s Supper.  We remember Jesus’ sacrifice, yes.  But the Lord’s Supper is not merely a memorial of Christ’s death. It is a celebration of his resurrection. And when we share this meal, we are breaking bread with the living and reigning Christ who is present in our midst. 

For on the night he was betrayed, Jesus gathered with his disciples in the Upper Room for one final meal.  And at the beginning of the meal, he took the bread an after giving thanks to God for it, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is broken for you.”  When the meal had ended he took the cup, and again giving thanks, blessed it saying, “This cup is the new covenant, my blood poured out in love for the forgiveness of sin. Every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, do it in remembrance of me until I come again.”

I invite everyone “here” with us this morning to join me in this meal.   If you have bread (or cracker) and cup of juice (or water or wine)  - you may eat and drink when you are ready. If you don’t, please pray as you would during the Lord’s Supper if we were together.

Partake and Pray

We thank you Lord, for the gift of your love, the forgiveness of sin, witnessed in the sacrifice of your son, Jesus, and in the resurrection.  May the elements we have shared this day give us the strength to do your will, and spread the Good News, especially in these difficult days.  Amen.