“Ezekiel: Valley of Dry Bones” Ezekiel 37:1-14

 Hope. How has your last week been, brothers and sisters, as you have sat with the message of the hope of Christ? This week, as we focus on the message of God’s peace, we do not throw away hope or forget about it. Yet, our peace is built upon this foundation of God’s hope offered to the world in our Savior, Jesus Christ. 

This year we are approaching Advent a bit differently as a parish. We are looking at the Hebrew Scriptures to see how the prophets of old foretold the coming of Jesus and all that they said he would offer to the world. We are bringing together the scriptures with the Advent wreath - this symbol of the eternity of God and his endless mercy. This way we have to reflect upon the newness and renewal that takes places during this sacred season as we walk with God. The candles themselves tell the story of Christ being the light of the world. A light that was needed long ago, which we will see in our scripture lesson, but also a light that our world stands in need of today, as well. 

Last week we talked about the hope that God offers to his people. The hope that shines into the dark places. The hope that we have in Jesus. This week, we light the second candle, the candle of peace. Peace that shines into the dark places. The peace we have in Jesus. 

Ezekiel, like Jeremiah, is another prophet who is called to serve the Lord during the time of Babylonian exile. Only he is called while he is living in exile himself. In fact, he was only ever a prophet in exile - he never got to return to his homeland. 

Remember last week to how we heard about the Israelites finding themselves in exile. They are in crisis. Both politically - they have been carried off. But also spiritually - the point where they are starting to doubt God’s power and faithfulness.

Enter Ezekiel. Called to minister to a people who are struggling.In to this desperate situation walks the prophet Ezekiel - telling them that he had a message from the Lord that he had tasted, one that was as sweet as honey. But in reality, that didn’t make the children of Israel want it any more. They didn’t want to hear yet another message from yet another prophet. No thank you. Under no circumstances. Not here or there, not in a house or with a mouse. Not anywhere. All they really wanted were words of assurance and comfort, and Ezekiel admitted that wasn’t exactly the message he had come to relay to them. In fact, up to this point his prophesy has been less than cheery, and now where we pick up with the prophesy today he is talking about unpleasant things - dry bones in the valley - symbols of the ultimate death. 

But also Ezekiel - who very clearly calls the people to account for their sins. the people of Israel were so set on not receiving what this prophet was presenting that they missed what happened next. They missed that God spoke through the prophet Ezekiel and told the dry, dead bones to come to life. And they did! God had sent Ezekiel to proclaim to this defeated people that God had the power to bring new life out of disrepute situations. Even destruction. Even death. Even their current state of exile. 

Jesus knew what it was like to try to get a stubborn people to swallow something difficult, but necessary for us - his death and resurrection. Throughout the gospels Jesus proclaimed the truth, that he was the son of God who had come to redeem us from the sin that had plagued our human nature since the time of Adam and Eve. He came and preached the radical and saving love of God. He demonstrated that love by freely dying on the cross for us, even when we rejected him. And the power of that love still resounds today because of his resurrection from the dead.

  Jesus knew that we needed him to make it through life. He knew that people needed to see the love of God shining through him in order to truly find the way to God. But he was ulimately rejected by so many - the government and religious establishment, many of his disciples and friends. People who had welcomed him eagerly at the beginning of one week and would turn on him in short order by the end. Because his message was hard to swallow and they would not, could not accept him as their Lord. 

  Jesus was rejected because of the message he was preaching. He was rejected because he was a man from a place that wasn’t very special, Nazareth. He was rejected because he wasn’t the type of savior that many people had envisioned - one that had come to lead a rebellion and over throw Rome, bringing freedom to Israel. He didn’t look like a Savior, until you started to spend time with him. 

Friends, the dry bones that Ezekiel is speaking of and to are still in our lies today. We still have places of disgrace and unrest in our lives where we need to receive a word. And need to receive the Word in the flesh, Jesus Christ. The word that is spoken to the bones is one of hope, but also one of peace - that the way that world exists now will not be the way that it exists forever. The bones are those who have seen death on every side, yet even for them there is a renewed future because of the Word of the Lord. For God has spoken and Israel will live - and not live as they did before. 

Here’s the truth brothers and sisters, the message of Jesus Christ is just as hard to swallow today as it was back when Jesus walked this earth. And people just as passionately don’t want to receive what we have to say, as the people of Israel were with Ezekiel. But we keep sharing - because someday the people around us who we love dearly are going to realize that they need Jesus Christ in their lives. Maybe when they are going through a difficult time or maybe when everything seems right in their lives but they still sense that something is missing. The apostle Paul writes to the church in Corinth that we are ambassadors for Christ. An ambassador is one who acts and speaks on behalf of. We need to start representing Christ to the world, Church! Christ didn’t die so that we could continue to live for ourselves - he died so we could live for him. And he gave us a very clear mission to make disciples for him, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And yet, we aren’t bringing new people to Jesus Christ. We live in a world that is just crying out for people to passionately share their faith, but we are too scared to do it.  We, too, need hope. We, too, need peace, But not just for ourselves. We are surrounded by people who need to try a new thing - who need to come to know the love and hope of Jesus Christ in their lives. What are we willing to risk to make that happen? What are we willing to risk to share the love of God that changed our lives? Amen.