Text used – Ezekiel 37:1-14

• I can’t hear this odd tale from Ezekiel without thinking about the Disney Pixar movie [1]
  • Basic storyline
    • Miguel (young boy) wants to be a musician more than anything but his family forbids anything musical → through the magic of Dia de los Muertos – the Latin American Day of the Dead festival to celebrate, remember, and honor past family members – Miguel finds himself in the Land of the Dead → goes looking for his musical idol and ends up finding the truth about his family → And, in true Disney Pixar fashion, putting all the family history pieces back together and tying everything up in a nice, happy-ending sort of way.
    • Because Miguel spends almost the entire movie in the Land of the Dead, the vast majority of the characters throughout the movie are skeletons.
      • Plenty of skeleton- and bone-related humor sprinkled throughout (for both kids and adults)
      • Definitely the part that reminds me of this tale of Ezekiel’s vision from Scripture this morning → movie full of skeletons up walking around … singing … dancing … participating in Disney-fied hijinks and mayhem
      • But one of the most touching parts in the movie is when Miguel’s quirky and somewhat scheming guide Hector seeks out the help of one of his bone buddies. (scene below) → while they’re visiting this friend, he disappears → Hector explains to Miguel that when nobody on the other side sets out your picture in an ofrenda – a family remembrance shrine – on Dia de los Muertos, you disappear in the Land of the Dead. While people remember you, in a way, your life goes on. But when you are no longer remembered, you disappear.
        • Hector’s description: When there’s no one left in the living world who remembers you, you disappear from this world. We call it the Final Death.
  • And it’s really that point – that particular element of the story, the fact that being remembered gives life, even after dead – that really had me thinking about Ezekiel’s strange tale.
• Ezek begins today’s passage by giving us the language of prophecy → makes it clear to us that this is a vision given to him by God, not an actual occurrence – text: 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.[2]
  • Literal Heb. = “hand of the Lord” → phrase often used by prophets and those who communed with God (e.g. – Moses) to express the way God was with them → didn’t literally indicate a hand but more the powerful presence of God upon them
    • Scholar: The metaphor “the hand of the Lord” describes divine action for the salvation of the Hebrews. … As an expression of divine redemption beyond social and political trauma, it appears nearly 190 times in the Hebrew Bible.[3]
• Moves into that unforgettable description of the valley – text: It was full of bones. … I saw that there were a great many of them on the valley floor, and they were very dry.[4] → Even with so few words, it paints a vivid picture, doesn’t it?
  • Imagine it for a minute
    • Something about this valley always evokes desert → maybe it’s the “dry” description of the bones, maybe it’s because we know that the part of the world in which Ezekiel himself lived is indeed a land of deserts and desolate wilderness
    • So there’s sand and bare rock everywhere you look – not just beneath you, but to the left and right as well. Remember, this is a valley.
      • Any potential vegetation is stunted and scraggly
    • Surrounded by bones – bones that are “very dry” – as bleached and abandoned as the centerpiece in a Georgia O’Keeffe painting
    • As you imagine it, I want you to feel the desolation of it … the remoteness of it … the solitariness of it … Close your eyes. Feel the harsh wind whipping up the sand so that the grittiness of it scrapes at your arms and your cheeks. Feel the heat of the sun bearing down on your back and on your dry lips. Hear the utter silence, broken only by the whistling of the wind, the quiet rasp of the sand as it moves, possibly the skittering of some desert creature. [PAUSE] See the whiteness of all the bones around you – bones, as far as the eye can see … bones that clearly haven’t lived for a long, long time.
  • When we’re feeling depleted inside – worn out from the challenges of our day-to-day lives and the mountains we’ve had to climb … worn out from all the normal moments piled one on top of another with the weight of the hard moments bearing down on top of it all … worn out and weary, not just in our bodies, but deep, deep down in our souls … When we’re feeling depleted inside, we can relate to those bones, can’t we?
    • Wayne Muller, in Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives[5], talks about how damaging our lack of sabbath rest can be to ourselves – our bodies and our spirits – as well as our relationships and our communities
      • Drives home this point by drawing an interesting comparison: the Chinese pictograph for “busy” is composed to two characters: heart and killing.[6]
      • Emphasizes the importance of rest in the face of this culturally-driven and -demanded busyness: If busyness can become a kind of violence, we do not have to stretch our perception very far to see that Sabbath time – effortless, nourishing rest – can invite a healing of this violence. When we consecrate a time to listen to the still, small voices, we remember the root of inner wisdom that makes work fruitful. We remember from where we are most deeply nourished, and see more clearly the shape and texture of the people and things before us.[7]
• And that’s exactly what we see in Ezekiel’s vision. Only when the bones have been given both the word of the Lord and the breath of the Lord, do they have life again.
  • Love the back-and-forth btwn God and Ezek at the beginning of this portion – text: He asked me, “Human one, can these bones live again?” I said, “Lord God, only you know.”[8] → It feels like there’s a playfulness to this as well as a challenge and a reverent deference. It almost feels like God is asking Ezekiel to dare God to bring these dry, desiccated bones back to life. “What do you think, Ezekiel? Can they live again? Can I do it?” And in response, Ezekiel leaves the ball firmly and faithfully in God’s court: “Lord God, only you ”
    • Heb. “know” = implies knowledge, yes, but also understanding and caring and choosing → Ezekiel is saying, “It’s all you, God. Only you know … only you understand … only you have the care for this … only you can make this choice. You are You, God, and I am not, so do your thing!”
  • And indeed, God does God’s thing!
    • Orders Ezek to prophesy to the bones: “I am about to put breath in you, and you will live again.”[9]
    • Ezek speaks the words God gives to him, and everything happens!
      • Bones come together
      • Sinews covered the bones
      • Flesh
      • Skin
  • But the bones needed more than the word. – text: 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.” 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.[10] → Those dry, neglected bones needed more than God’s word. They needed God’s breath … God’s ruach … God’s Spirit to bring life into them again.
    • Significant that the scene in Coco when Miguel and Hector are visiting Hector’s friend when he disappears → doesn’t just pop out of existence → slowly fades → last moment, you hear him exhale one last breath → Bones … [deep breath in] … and breath … [deep breath out]. Death … [deep breath in] … and life … [deep breath out] … Depletion … [deep breath in] … and renewal … [deep breath out]. In that giving of breath … in that deliberate, grace-filled, Spirit-driven, life-giving act, God refused to leave behind those dry and dusty bones. Each and every one of them. And still and always, God refuses to leave behind all who felt forgotten. Even when we feel like the world has tried to forget us … even when we feel like those we love have forgotten us … even when we forget ourselves, God will never forget us. God breathes new life into us again … [deep breath in and out] … and again … [deep breath in and out] … and again.
  • Scholar: God calls the breath to come from the four winds and breathe upon the slain. So it happens. This breath is the spirit of God, the life-giving ruach God breathed into the first human creature in the garden. This breath moves forth in the Lazarus story. This same breath was breathed into Jesus crucified, lifting him up to resurrection life, and touched us when the Spirit came upon us in baptism. This breath moves through the world, raising people into new life when all the odds are against it. We need to hear the vision of Ezekiel in the valley of dry bones. It is a scene meant to live in the imagination and the heart, when we find ourselves gasping for breath, struggling to stay alive. [We] can ask [ourselves], where are the dry bones today, where is the valley of death that needs to hear the promise of the living God?[11]
    • Muller’s book on sabbath includes a number of practices to help you find sabbath rest again → conclude this morning with what he calls “The Cadence of Breath”[12]: One beautiful form of meditation is to simply follow the breath. Sit comfortably, and close your eyes. Let yourself become aware of the physical sensation of the breath, feeling the shape, texture, and duration of the inhale and the exhale. Do not change your breathing, do not strain or push in any way. Simply watch the breath breathe itself. Feel the rhythm of the breath, feel its timing, the end of the exhale, the readiness to inhale. When the mind wanders – as it will – do not worry. Simply return your awareness to the breath. Silently note each inhale or exhale, mentally noting in, out or rising, falling. Do this for five minutes at first. What do you notice about the rhythm of rest in your breathing? What do you notice about the rhythm of breath in your body? → And to that I would add, “What do you notice about the presence of God with you … in you … all around you?” Amen.

[1] Coco, written by Lee Unkrich, Jason Katz, Matthew Aldrich, and Adrian Molina, directed by Adrian Molina and Kee Unkrich. Released by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, Nov. 22, 2017.

[2] Ezek 37:1.

[3] Stephen Breck Reid. “Fifth Sunday in Lent – Ezekiel 37:1-14, Exegetical Perspective” in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary – Year A, vol. 2. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010), 123.

[4] Ezek 37:1b, 2.

[5] Wayne Muller. Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives. (New York: Bantam Books), 1999.

[6] Ibid, 3.

[7] Muller, 5.

[8] Ezek 37:3.

[9] Ezek 37:5.

[10] Ezek 37:9-10.

[11] James A. Wallace. “Fifth Sunday in Lent – Ezekiel 37:1-14, Homiletical Perspective” in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary – Year A, vol. 2. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010), 127.

[12] Muller, 74-75.