sermon notesA collection of resources, background information, and periodic reflections on the scripture readings in worship from Pr Josh Ehrler. Archives
July 2018
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Speaking of Faith in Ezekiel 375/16/2018 Our reflection is for Ezekiel 37.1-14
In our text for today, all of life might be captured in one line. “O LORD God, you know.” This is Ezekiel’s response to God’s nearly absurd question about the vitality of a valley full of dry bones. The bones have been sitting in repose in the desert for years, many a generation or two, and they are desiccated. Harsh winds, no moisture, no shelter, plenty of heat and light, as well as scavengers, have transformed fallen bodies to sacred relics long ago abandoned. Katheryn Pristerer Darr, contributor to The New Interpreter’s Bible, hints at some of the archaeological scholarship that implies this was likely a battle scene. Though, as Darr quickly notes, “This is…a visionary experience, not actual contact with human remains.” (NIB, pg 1499) It doesn’t matter how we got here, the point is we’re here, wherever that is for each of us. And as we look over the valley of our lives, confronted by the signs and evidence of death and devastation, all we can say to God’s question of life is, “O LORD God, you know.” Darr gets to the heart of this scene when she points out that Zeke’s “response is vague.” We can’t hear it, we weren’t there the first time, we can’t know exactly what he was thinking, feeling or wondering (Darr, pg 1499). However, we know ourselves. We’ve said this to God before in countless shades of light and shadows. We have screamed it, cried it, prayed it and sang it. This one phrase is our life with God. Zeke has been lifted by the hand of God in a mystical vision quest from wherever he was to this scene of destruction. We don’t talk much about mystical experiences, at least not my Lutheran tradition, which allows us to discount them and feel ill at ease when one is shared with us. Ezekiel, in his intimate relationship with God, is transported out of his known reality and surroundings and is carried by God to a space that represents all he knows and yet, is not exactly his reality. Because, as we can see and read, Zeke isn’t dead. This isn’t a Dickensian moment for Zeke to look over a series of what-ifs meant to fix his state or get him back with God. Fundamentally, God is reminding Ezekiel, and we the current readers, that God is with us. God sees the signs of death and disappointment scattered about our lives. God names them in the question, “Can these bones live” because God knows already what our response will be. Some days there is nothing else we can see but our failures and our fear of abandonment. At some point along our path we trip over the relics of our sinful behavior or simply our inability to overcome the forces that drag us down. We can’t outrun our diagnoses, we aren’t strong enough to stop military might, we don’t have the voices to silence calls for violence and hate. Wherever our valley may lie and our hope is desiccated, there we will find God. Which is why this one statement, “O LORD God, you know,” is all we can speak. It is flooded with tears of our frustration and lack of hope. It is carried by our honesty that we really have no idea where to go or what can even be done. It is lifted in faith back to God because we know that, even though we are out of options, God also knows. And God, our God, will respond. Because God knows what to do. Not that there is some sort of master plan and God will get us back on track. There is no underlying purpose, path or reason for our suffering because God does not intend for our suffering. These lifeless bones strewn around us are not placed here by God as a test or proof of our resolve. They simply are because death moves through life. And God moves, too. It is by faith that we can know that God is still our source of life. So we say it with hope. “O LORD God, you know (because I ain’t got a clue).” We say it with resolve. “O LORD God, you know (because you’ve got me).” We say it with confidence even when as we can see is our demise. “O LORD God, you know (because you are God).” We say it and give it back to God, our source, our life and our compassion. God holds us in God’s hand in the midst of our sorrow and reminds us that this valley of dry bones was never God’s intent, either. Corrine Carvalho, contributor to Fortress Press Commentary on the Bible: The Old Testament and Apocrypha, names a powerful sign of God’s love through suffering by linking Ezekiel’s statement to the cries of refugees forced to abandon their loved ones for their own safety. This scene “validates the community’s sense that their own visions of a better world are not silly, insignificant pipe dreams. They are what God wanted all along.” (pg 799) One Million Bones was a 2012 art installation in Washington, DC, intent to be stark reminder of the cost and effects of genocide. The installation also pointed its audience to the survivors of these heinous acts, the refugees who are compelled to flee their known reality as they run with little of their own selves toward an unknown future. Carvalho deftly weaves this art and the daily suffering of unnamed refugees back to Ezekiel’s statement, reminding us that his one sentence is a despondent sigh and a new breath. Carvalho is also drawing us out of our own valleys to remember the countless barren, lifeless landscapes God’s people navigate across Creation. And that none of is part of a plan or purpose from God. God strives toward new life and needs to get Zeke out of his head and his fears by revealing God’s power and wind. God draws us up from what we expect and even makes us part of the restoring work by giving us the words to speak on God’s behalf. God fills our lungs with fresh, invigorating air, to declare that God knows and God responds. Where we can only see death and crackling bones, God can still see movement and abundance. Ezekiel needs this hope. We daily need this hope. That our response to God, when our LORD asks what more can be done, will ever be “O LORD God, you know.”
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