334 SE Tecumseh Road  P.O. Box 5  Tecumseh, Kansas 66542  (785) 379-5005  Fax - (785) 379-5061

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Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones! Ezekiel 37:1-14 You know that old spiritual, don’t you? One of the great songs which comes to us out of the African-American tradition. Just imagine for a moment that we are part of an African-American congregation some 150 years ago, and together we are all singing that song. Just imagine what that must have felt like. We were oppressed, downtrodden, literally and figuratively spit upon by our ‘masters’, by the people of our own “free” society. When in church, and only when in church, we could share of our pain and of our longing. When in church and only when in church, we could openly express our dreams about and longing for resurrection. When in church and only when in church, we could sing about being brought to real life, to full life, to the kind of life which God intended for all of God’s people. Is it any wonder that Ezekiel’s words took on special meaning for us, back then?  Slavery is behind us – at least in this country, thanks be to God. And yet the words of Ezekiel, that prophet of old, still ring with hope for us. Nowadays, enslavement takes other forms, and our valleys are filled with dry bones. Dry bones, dry human bones, devoid of any signs of life. Long ago these bones stopped hearing the word of God. Long ago these bones stopped believing that there really is a word of and from God, and long ago these bones found any relevance in church. Self-proclaimed prophets abound, offering to breathe new life into our dry bones (for a small price). Their self-serving messages are filled with deception, and those messages will put no sinews on our dry bones. What they offer is hot air, which in the end will only dry out those bones even further. Ezekiel speaks of the breath of God, not the breath of mortal humanity. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord. (37:5)  Toe bone, to foot bone, to leg bone, all the way up to neck bone and head bone – we need to hear the word of the Lord. Like Ezekiel, we must prophesy to these dry bones, and offer words of hope and resurrection. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; and then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act. (12-14) Don’t you hear the word of the Lord??  - Pastor Piet - March 9, 2008: 5th Sunday in Lent  [ originally written in 2005 ]