Life Always Springs New!
Sermon
WIND THROUGH The VALLEYS
Sermons for the First Third of the Pentecost Season
To some disappointed people, life is a long valley of dried bones. To them, the world is like a glass marble that has dropped, unnoticed, from the pocket of the Almighty, and is rolling its unhindered way down the gutter of time to drop into oblivion. No matter where they look, they see the bleached bones of lifelessness and hopelessness.
There are reasons for these feelings of futility. A student goes to school for years, but upon graduation there is little opportunity for employment in the area for which training was received. A couple is separated by death in mid-life and the remaining spouse not only feels the awful loneliness, but also the nagging problem of not being able to make decisions, even of a minor nature. A youth wants to experience life fully and makes decisions before all the facts are in, only to discover that a direction has been set that is not desired, and hard to change. Religious people want to serve God, but they are always hindered by their own sin and their own limitations. Elderly folks have carefully prepared the nest-egg, and just when retirement begins, health fails. The reasons for hopelessness are as numerous as there are people.
Ezekiel shared this experience of frustration with the people of his own time. With thousands of other Jews, he was deported to Babylon in 597 B.C., when the Babylonians conquered Judah. Even though many of the people held out hope because the city of Jerusalem and the holy temple had been spared, Ezekiel spoke only words of judgment in his early ministry. He told his people that the earlier decisions they had made put them on a collision course with disaster, and there was no changing that. The people of Judah had used prosperity to promote slavery. The well-to-do had gotten rich from taking advantage of the less fortunate. In an attempt to be tolerant and open-minded, the practice of fertility cults and the worship of other gods was permitted throughout the country! The result of these decisions, Ezekiel said, was the fall of the nation of Judah. He announced that the worst was yet to come. And it did! In 586 B.C. the Holy city was demolished. The temple of Yahweh God already stripped of its gold, which was sent as tribute money to Babylon, was burned. The worship of God by means of animal sacrifice ceased. Hopelessness struck the hearts of most Jews, as also Ezekiel.
The vision of the valley of dried bones is symbolic of the feelings of the people. The nation was gone! The city was gone! The temple was gone! The Ark of the Covenant was gone and the people came to the conclusion that God left them, too! In the vision, God said to Ezekiel, "Mortal man, the people of Israel are like these bones. They say that they are dried up, without any hope and with no future."
Though we may not have the same vision of dried bones, we have our own experiences in the valley of despair. We have the feeling that we are caught in a burning building and see only a flashing light that reads, "No Exit"! We have that emotion rise up in us as we go through personal tragedy, or as we see the results of a war, or as we view the photographs of the early arrivals of the allied forces to Dachau and Auschwitz.
There are artists who have expressed this despair in other ways. Rock musicians belt out the hopelessness of life. Christians sing about earth being a "desert drear." Picasso expressed it in his famous painting, "Guernica," showing grotesque bits and pieces of human beings torn apart by warfare. Jose Posada, a Mexican artist, has done many pieces showing people doing normal activities, but all only as skeletons, indicating the hopelessness of it all. "Can these bones live?" God asked Ezekiel. Ezekiel answered, as we all answer in our moments of futility, "God, I don't know; only you know the answer to that!"
It was precisely for such a disappointing and troubling time that God had called Ezekiel to be a prophet. It is for that kind of situation that God had sought a spokesperson. To Ezekiel, God said, "Breathe on these bones! Prophesy to them! Tell the wind to come from every direction to bring life to the dead. Blow, Ezekiel, blow! If you have faith to speak, I will act, because life always springs new!"
Where there are dry bones, there the wind blows. There the Spirit of God is at work. The wind blew in the history of the Jews. Life sprang new. Just as in the vision, bone was joined to bone, and flesh covered the skeletons, so the pieces of Jewish history came together. God caused a political and spiritual reawakening for the Jews. Within seventy years some of the Jews were back in Judah and Jerusalem. The temple and the walls of the city were rebuilt, nationalism was alive again, and so was worship at the temple. Synagogues were constructed for the study of the Law, the Prophets, and the other writings.
Out of this post-exilic Jewish community, God brought other new life. Outside that reconstructed city of Jerusalem a cross was placed, years later, to bear the weight of the Son of God. Within that city, even later, Christians gathered on the Jewish Feast of Pentecost and the Spirit of God blew to bring hope again. He blew to give the ability to sort out the many voices and ideas and philosophies, to put to an end the voices of confusion and doom. Life sprang new for God's people, because God was present and active in his world.
We would not understand this lesson if we did not realize it is the power of God that makes us alive. It is the power of God that has life always spring new, even in the valleys of despair. Yet there is more here. There is the expectation that we act in faith, as Ezekiel was asked to do. There is the expectation that we respond to the wind of God, and be where it blows!
A drive through the plains of middle America, through the dry grassland which has little sign of life, will sometimes reveal on a knoll or hilltop, an old windmill. The wind wheel, loose from the shaft, can be seen twirling away. Windmills were built at proper places. If we have not felt the presence of God lately, if we have not had a breath of fresh air, we need to ask ourselves where we have been. We need to ask whether we have been where the Spirit blows. If we want fresh air, we don't go down into the coal mines or the cisterns of life. We go to the hilltops where we know God will do his work. We go into the company of God's people. We get in touch with his Word. We become a guest at his Table. We give ourselves to prayer and to the witness of faithful people. We read the proper printed matter. When we have done that, when we have put ouselves where we know the Spirit of God blows, then we can also trust that he will make his wind blow through the valleys of our lives and make life spring new again.
Let's be personal for a moment, and practical. If we have been bone tired and exhausted for weeks, we should do something about it. First, we should get enough sleep; sleep ourselves out. If that doesn't help, then we should have a medical examination. Beyond that, it is up to us. We need to open our sails to the four winds. We need to stop feeling sorry for ourselves, and walk right out of our valley. God is leading us in that direction.
The tragedy with many people is that, though they are human, they have no life, no breath. They are walking zombies, deep in despair. Despair has them shuffling meaninglessly through life. Yet, as long as we despair, we can do ourselves and others little good. It is so easy for us to judge the world to death as a place of dry bones, rather than loving it to life. Yet the will of God is to bring new life out of our hopelessness.
Let's be ecclesiastical. The church today finds itself coming upon dry times, too. There are some who are finding the valley full of bones. The change of personnel in leadership positions, the change of structures, and the desire for unions and mergers may all have their rightful places. Yet, new life is not through these. The life that always springs new is life with God; is it life in the Spirit that puts flesh on the skeletons of our structures. Though the "wind blows wherever it wishes" (John 3:8), we have the assurance that where the people of God are attuned to him, there will be life. Where the Gospel is preached and the Sacrament administered, there will be life. Where the people of God share their experience of sin and forgiveness, there will be new life. Where God is allowed to direct and control, to inspire and to blow, there life will always spring new, even in the driest valley of hopelessness. Breathe on us, breath of God!
There are reasons for these feelings of futility. A student goes to school for years, but upon graduation there is little opportunity for employment in the area for which training was received. A couple is separated by death in mid-life and the remaining spouse not only feels the awful loneliness, but also the nagging problem of not being able to make decisions, even of a minor nature. A youth wants to experience life fully and makes decisions before all the facts are in, only to discover that a direction has been set that is not desired, and hard to change. Religious people want to serve God, but they are always hindered by their own sin and their own limitations. Elderly folks have carefully prepared the nest-egg, and just when retirement begins, health fails. The reasons for hopelessness are as numerous as there are people.
Ezekiel shared this experience of frustration with the people of his own time. With thousands of other Jews, he was deported to Babylon in 597 B.C., when the Babylonians conquered Judah. Even though many of the people held out hope because the city of Jerusalem and the holy temple had been spared, Ezekiel spoke only words of judgment in his early ministry. He told his people that the earlier decisions they had made put them on a collision course with disaster, and there was no changing that. The people of Judah had used prosperity to promote slavery. The well-to-do had gotten rich from taking advantage of the less fortunate. In an attempt to be tolerant and open-minded, the practice of fertility cults and the worship of other gods was permitted throughout the country! The result of these decisions, Ezekiel said, was the fall of the nation of Judah. He announced that the worst was yet to come. And it did! In 586 B.C. the Holy city was demolished. The temple of Yahweh God already stripped of its gold, which was sent as tribute money to Babylon, was burned. The worship of God by means of animal sacrifice ceased. Hopelessness struck the hearts of most Jews, as also Ezekiel.
The vision of the valley of dried bones is symbolic of the feelings of the people. The nation was gone! The city was gone! The temple was gone! The Ark of the Covenant was gone and the people came to the conclusion that God left them, too! In the vision, God said to Ezekiel, "Mortal man, the people of Israel are like these bones. They say that they are dried up, without any hope and with no future."
Though we may not have the same vision of dried bones, we have our own experiences in the valley of despair. We have the feeling that we are caught in a burning building and see only a flashing light that reads, "No Exit"! We have that emotion rise up in us as we go through personal tragedy, or as we see the results of a war, or as we view the photographs of the early arrivals of the allied forces to Dachau and Auschwitz.
There are artists who have expressed this despair in other ways. Rock musicians belt out the hopelessness of life. Christians sing about earth being a "desert drear." Picasso expressed it in his famous painting, "Guernica," showing grotesque bits and pieces of human beings torn apart by warfare. Jose Posada, a Mexican artist, has done many pieces showing people doing normal activities, but all only as skeletons, indicating the hopelessness of it all. "Can these bones live?" God asked Ezekiel. Ezekiel answered, as we all answer in our moments of futility, "God, I don't know; only you know the answer to that!"
It was precisely for such a disappointing and troubling time that God had called Ezekiel to be a prophet. It is for that kind of situation that God had sought a spokesperson. To Ezekiel, God said, "Breathe on these bones! Prophesy to them! Tell the wind to come from every direction to bring life to the dead. Blow, Ezekiel, blow! If you have faith to speak, I will act, because life always springs new!"
Where there are dry bones, there the wind blows. There the Spirit of God is at work. The wind blew in the history of the Jews. Life sprang new. Just as in the vision, bone was joined to bone, and flesh covered the skeletons, so the pieces of Jewish history came together. God caused a political and spiritual reawakening for the Jews. Within seventy years some of the Jews were back in Judah and Jerusalem. The temple and the walls of the city were rebuilt, nationalism was alive again, and so was worship at the temple. Synagogues were constructed for the study of the Law, the Prophets, and the other writings.
Out of this post-exilic Jewish community, God brought other new life. Outside that reconstructed city of Jerusalem a cross was placed, years later, to bear the weight of the Son of God. Within that city, even later, Christians gathered on the Jewish Feast of Pentecost and the Spirit of God blew to bring hope again. He blew to give the ability to sort out the many voices and ideas and philosophies, to put to an end the voices of confusion and doom. Life sprang new for God's people, because God was present and active in his world.
We would not understand this lesson if we did not realize it is the power of God that makes us alive. It is the power of God that has life always spring new, even in the valleys of despair. Yet there is more here. There is the expectation that we act in faith, as Ezekiel was asked to do. There is the expectation that we respond to the wind of God, and be where it blows!
A drive through the plains of middle America, through the dry grassland which has little sign of life, will sometimes reveal on a knoll or hilltop, an old windmill. The wind wheel, loose from the shaft, can be seen twirling away. Windmills were built at proper places. If we have not felt the presence of God lately, if we have not had a breath of fresh air, we need to ask ourselves where we have been. We need to ask whether we have been where the Spirit blows. If we want fresh air, we don't go down into the coal mines or the cisterns of life. We go to the hilltops where we know God will do his work. We go into the company of God's people. We get in touch with his Word. We become a guest at his Table. We give ourselves to prayer and to the witness of faithful people. We read the proper printed matter. When we have done that, when we have put ouselves where we know the Spirit of God blows, then we can also trust that he will make his wind blow through the valleys of our lives and make life spring new again.
Let's be personal for a moment, and practical. If we have been bone tired and exhausted for weeks, we should do something about it. First, we should get enough sleep; sleep ourselves out. If that doesn't help, then we should have a medical examination. Beyond that, it is up to us. We need to open our sails to the four winds. We need to stop feeling sorry for ourselves, and walk right out of our valley. God is leading us in that direction.
The tragedy with many people is that, though they are human, they have no life, no breath. They are walking zombies, deep in despair. Despair has them shuffling meaninglessly through life. Yet, as long as we despair, we can do ourselves and others little good. It is so easy for us to judge the world to death as a place of dry bones, rather than loving it to life. Yet the will of God is to bring new life out of our hopelessness.
Let's be ecclesiastical. The church today finds itself coming upon dry times, too. There are some who are finding the valley full of bones. The change of personnel in leadership positions, the change of structures, and the desire for unions and mergers may all have their rightful places. Yet, new life is not through these. The life that always springs new is life with God; is it life in the Spirit that puts flesh on the skeletons of our structures. Though the "wind blows wherever it wishes" (John 3:8), we have the assurance that where the people of God are attuned to him, there will be life. Where the Gospel is preached and the Sacrament administered, there will be life. Where the people of God share their experience of sin and forgiveness, there will be new life. Where God is allowed to direct and control, to inspire and to blow, there life will always spring new, even in the driest valley of hopelessness. Breathe on us, breath of God!
