Rise Up

“Rise Up”
Ezekiel 37:1-14 & Romans 8:6-11
Pilgrim Congregational Church, UCC
Rev. Tina Walker-Morin
April 2, 2017

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable to you O God our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

This morning I have a message for you about hope.

​Did you hear the news? No, it is serious stuff. Did you hear who was killed off? Well, the official wording is “retiring” but we know what that really means. Who has been cast aside and left for dead?

It was dandelion. Do you know dandelion? I am sure you do. Meet, Dandelion. That’s right, on Thursday it was leaked that crayon-maker Crayola is putting the kibosh on Dandelion. How will we now color in our picture of dandelions? Or use that perfect yellow to fill in the rays of sunshine or the arch of a rainbow? Dandelions are the flowers of children and aggravating adults as they fill yards with little spots of yellow happiness. Easy for kids to pick and give as a bouquet of flowers. Turning white and begging to be picked up and blown all over to spread even further.

The color of so many childhoods just like that will be gone, to be replaced by some blue hue millennial. Crayola thinks they can soften the blow by giving us a chance to name this new kid in a contest this summer.
Meanwhile dandelion is thrown to this land of broken, torn wrapper crayons. Lying around like dry bones.

Yes like the bones we hear of from the prophet Ezekiel. Bones which are lifeless filling a valley. Bones of despair and death.
Last week we encountered the anointing of king David which introduced the period of monarchy, and today the prophet Ezekiel is in a time of exile when he has a vision which announces the revival of Israel.

During this time the Babylonian King Nebuchadnessar captured Judah, destroyed Jerusalem with its holy temple and took the peoples to Babylon. Maybe you have heard the song By the Water of Babylon by Boney M? It goes:
By the rivers of Babylon, 
when we sat down
and there we wept, 
as we remembered Zion.

By the rivers of Babylon, 
when we sat down
and there we wept, 
as we remembered Zion.

When the wicked
Carried us away in captivity
Required from us a song
Now how shall we sing the lord's song 
in a strange land

Let the words of our mouth 
and the meditations of our hearts
be acceptable in thy sight 
over Zion

It is a song based on Psalm 137 which reflects the feelings of the people who are following the prophet Ezekiel who have been taken captive. It is hard to over exaggerate the extreme sorrow and crisis of faith during this exile.

The Judeans have lost the land promised to their ancestors, their Davidic king is being held captive, and the temple where they believed the Lord dwelled and where his glory was known, lay in ruins. The prophet “Ezekiel envisioned defeat as the departure of the glory of the Lord from the temple (Ezek. 10-11). [It is a] small wonder that the exiles asked if the history of Yahweh with his people had come to an end.”[1]

The prophet Ezekiel shares a vision he had, one where the Lord took him out by the spirit and put him down in the middle of a valley which was scattered with dry bones. Ezekiel emphasizes that the bones were very dry. They were lifeless, there was no bone barrow in them, no blood or tendons wrapping around then and no flesh covering the nakedness of the bones. The bones were there, lifeless and bare.

Ezekiel is told to prophesy to the bones about being covered with skin and the Hebrew word ruah, meaning “breath” and “wind” as well as “spirit” will come upon them and the bones will know that “I am the Lord” (v. 6). Ezekiel does as commanded and there came a noise, a rattling  and the bones came together, but there was no life in them.

Then God told Ezekiel to “prophesy to the breath: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” (v. 9). Ezekiel did so and they stood to their feet, a vast multitude (v. 10).

The prophet goes on to interpret what all of this meant in verses 11-14. That these bones represented all of Israel who say “Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost” (v.11). God then tells Ezekiel that God will bring them up from their graves, from their dark, lonely places and they shall know that “I am Lord” and “I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live” (v. 14).  The apostle Paul also reiterates the notion that the spirit is life giving in our passage this morning from Romans 8.
Have you heard of the expression “full of life”? For example: I remember thinking to myself that he seemed unlikely ever to die; he was eighty-two but so exuberantly full of life that he seemed ageless.

Perhaps you know someone who is full of life, maybe you are that person. Yet how about those who are not? Those who feel like dry bones lying in the valley. Those who feel the heavy weight of depression hanging on their bones. The people who are living in exile, the refugees from Syria or from domestic violence. The individuals who have fled their homes out of fear. The people who lost their homes and have been cast out onto the streets. The individuals whose temples and ideas of God have been torn down by violence, or death of a loved one or child. Where is their hope, where is the breath of God?

The breath of God is in each one of us. As stated in Job (acclaimed by some as the most powerful biblical story because of his faith while suffering) “The spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life” (Job 33:4). The breath of God is in each of one of us. The challenge is to recognize that breath and use it in life giving ways.

Life giving not just for ourselves but also for others. Ezekiel was leading the exiled people, Jesus went to those who were oppressed and outcasts. We too are called to give life and hope to those dry bones, to the people who are without hope.
“Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live” (v. 9). We are called to come from every direction to reach every person to bring those who feel alone or lifeless, the breath and spirit of God. It may be a person right here in this sanctuary that you know needs to feel God’s spirit, or it may be a friend out there on Facebook that needs a message of hope. Or it could be a person in a minority group who needs to hear and read the affirming words that God loves them just as they are.

Maybe you know a person who feels like the dandelion crayon, who feels like they have been cast aside and are no longer needed or valued. It is our duty as Christians to reach out to those dandelion crayons. Those beautiful and needed dandelions that are so needed to create the rainbow of humanity, and bring them the breath of God through hope.

O breathe on me breath of God and help me fill someone else with life anew.
Amen.
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[1] Preaching Through the Christian Year A, 174.