HEROES OF THE FAITH SERMON SERIES

Ezekiel

Ezekiel 2:1-9 and 37:1-14

Pastor Robyn Hogue June 16, 2013 Skyline Presbyterian Church

Everything we know of Ezekiel is derived solely from the book that bears his name. He was among the 10,000 Jews exiled to Babylon by Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar in 597 B.C. and it was there among the exiles that he received his call to become a prophet. His divine call forced him to suppress any natural expectation he may have had of an early return to an undamaged Jerusalem.

It was not a promising situation; not the planting of a new church that was sure to grow in an exciting fashion; not the lead pastor of First Church downtown which had tremendous influence in the entire community; not an appointment to an urban church with a network of ministries reaching out to the surrounding neighborhoods. It was a hard call and God made it clear. In exercising his prophetic office, Ezekiel had to preach to deaf ears and dwell among scorpions. Let’s listen to chapter 2 as I read it.

For the first seven years of his ministry he faithfully relayed to his fellow Jews the harsh, heart-wrenching, hope-crushing word of divine judgment: Jerusalem would fall. The fact that they were God’s covenant people and Jerusalem was the city of God’s temple would not bring their early release from exile or prevent Jerusalem from being destroyed. The only hope the prophet was authorized to extend to his hearers was that of living at peace with themselves and with God during their exile.

At the same time that Ezekiel was told that Jerusalem was indeed under siege and would surely fall, he was told that his beloved wife would soon die. The delight of his eyes would be taken from him just as the temple, the delight of Israel’s eyes, would be taken from her. He was not to mourn openly for his wife as a sign to his people not to mourn openly for Jerusalem. They were not to give King Nebuchadnezzar the satisfaction.

Once the news was received that Jerusalem had fallen, Ezekiel’s message turned to the Lord’s consoling word of hope for God’s people—they would experience revival, restoration and a glorious future as the redeemed and perfected kingdom of God in the world.

In chapter 37 we read about Ezekiel’s most remembered vision. It is the vision of the dry bones. You may know about the song that goes “Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones.” It’s a jazzy tune, but here it is the rest of the story.

This vision was the third major vision for Ezekiel, a vision of hope for people in the valley of despair. “The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord, and set me in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ I said, ‘O sovereign Lord, you alone know.’” (chapter 2:1-3)… The valleys are real.

In the 13-year war between King Zedekiah and King Nebuchadnezzar, one-third of Judah’s population starved to death, one-third were killed in battle, and one-third were carried off to Babylonian captivity. The valley of Judah contained the decayed bones of slain victims denied the dignity of a decent burial, their flesh picked clean by the birds of the air. This vision of Ezekiel was more than a figment of his imagination. He had caught a glimpse of them as he was carried away from his home town. There were a great many bones and they were very dry…The valleys are real. The bones are many.

Some of you have perhaps visited the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. or even the one in Jerusalem. I have not, but I am told that it is almost more than one can bear to remember. Yet, the world must never forget that within many of our life times, six million Jews, two-thirds of Europe’s Jewish population, were massacred, many without even bones to be remembered…The valleys are real.

Shall I go on to recall the school rooms in Rwanda where 40,000 people were murdered in six hours one spring day back in 1994? Or dare we bear in mind the mass graves newly exposed in Iraq, the result of Saddam Hussein’s ravage rampages, interestingly enough in the very same territory where Ezekiel had this vision…The valleys are real.

Gathered in the comfort of this Sanctuary, the valleys are real for you and me.

The cancer is relentless.
The marriage is dead.
The job is pointless.
The grief is deep.
The days are difficult.
The nights are long.

And we respond much like Ezekiel did, “O Lord, can these bones live?” And just like Ezekiel we respond, “Only You know, Lord; it’s in Your hands. I don’t know if there is any life left in these bones, any hope remaining in this valley. If there is any hope in the midst of the valley of dry bones, Lord, it’s in your hands.” …The valleys are real.

But it’s in a valley that this prophet is called to prophesy. “Then He said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!”(34:4) “So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and there were sinews on them and flesh had come upon them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.” (37:7)

Here’s the point. Ezekiel did what he could, used what he had. He had enough faith, enough hope, enough love, and enough courage to preach in the most unlikely place of all the earth and to proclaim hope when all hope was gone. Do we?

Let’s keep working our way through these verses: “Then He said to me, ‘Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army. (37:9-10)

Let me share with you a wonderful insight: The word for wind, the word for breath, and the word for Spirit in the Bible is all one word. It’s ruach in the Old Testament, pneuma in the New Testament. So when Jesus talks to Nicodemus about being born of the Spirit, He refers to the wind, and new breath.

I know, we ask meteorologists to predict the wind, physicians to help us breathe, and theologians to send us the Spirit. The Bible makes no such divisions. The same Spirit that caused Adam to be a living being is the Holy Spirit that comes with wind and fire at Pentecost to give believers new life.

Sometimes we talk with people who have lost contact with God. We understand that. At times we all find it hard to pray. But God is closer than we think.

When you think you’ve lost God, this is what I want to say, “Breathe.” You have to anyway. Take a breath. Take a deep breath. God is closer than the air we breathe.

I was in the grocery store the other day when I watched a two-year-old throw a temper tantrum. Something between the Cheerios and the Frosted Flakes made him unhappy. He screamed to the top of his voice. When that didn’t work, he decided to stop breathing. His face turned red. His lips turned blue. I wondered what to do. His mom, however, seemed unconcerned. She knew he would eventually breathe…and he did. I’ve thrown my fair share of temper tantrums with God; decided in anger or grief to stop breathing spiritually. When God didn’t respond with a siren and paramedics, I concluded He was not there. But like that mother, He was there all the time. He said, “You’ll breathe again at the right time, in the right way.” God is closer than the air we breathe.

Here’s something else about breath. Most of us use only about 20-30% of our lung capacity. We are shallow breathers. We breathe on the surface, not from the depths of our being. That’s why we are short of breath so much. The same is true spiritually. We dabble around on the surface. A mature spiritual person is a person who knows how to breathe. The philosopher Kierkegaard used to pray it this way: “Teach me, O God, not to torture myself, not to make a martyr of myself through stifling reflection, but rather teach me to breathe deeply in faith.”

So when you think of Ezekiel, that hero of the faith, think about the fact that God is closer than the air we breathe. Breathe deeply… because God is up to something.

It is time to open up to the mind-blowing, heat-warming, life-changing breath of God. The breath of God can invade the body, inflate the mind, swell the soul, lift the spirit and make us more than we ever imagined we could be. It’ll make you young when you’re old, and it’ll make you live even when you die. The breath and presence of the Spirit will disturb, delight, deliver and lift. When God sends forth the Spirit, “the whole valley of dry bones is renewed.”

When God sends forth the Spirit amazing things happen: (repeat after me)

barriers are broken, communities are formed, opposites are reconciled, unity is established, addiction is broken, cities are renewed, races are reconciled, disease is cured, hope is established, people are blessed, and the Gospel happens.

But most of all, Christ the Savior of all the world is lifted up! Breathe! Breathe deeply! God is closer than you think!