Sermon for Pentecost, May 19, 2024
Ezekiel 37:1-14 The hand of the Lord was upon me. He brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord
and set me down in the middle of a valley, which was full of bones. 2He had me pass through them and
go all over among them. There were very
many on the valley floor, and they were very dry. 3He said to me, “Son of man, can
these dry bones live?” I answered, “Lord
God, you know.” 4Then he said
to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of
the Lord.’” 5This is what the
Lord God says to these bones. I am about
to make breath enter you so that you will live.
6I will attach tendons to you. I will put flesh back on you. I will cover you with skin and put breath in
you, and you will live. Then you will
know that I am the Lord. 7So
I prophesied as I had been commanded, and as I was prophesying there was a
noise, a rattling, as the bones came together, one bone connecting to
another. 8As I watched,
tendons were attached to them, then flesh grew over them, and skin covered
them. But there was no breath in
them. 9Then he said to me,
“Prophesy to the wind. Prophesy, son of
man, and say to the wind that this is what the Lord God says. From the four winds, come, O wind, and
breathe into these slain so that they may live.” 10So I prophesied as he commanded
me. Breath entered them, and they came
back to life. They stood on their feet,
a very, very large army. 11Then
he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They are saying, ‘Our bones are dried
up. Our hope is lost. We have been completely cut off.’ 12Therefore, prophesy and say to
them that this is what the Lord God says.
‘My people, I am going to open your graves and raise you up from your
graves and bring you back to the soil of Israel. 13Then you
will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and raise you up from
your graves, O my people. 14I
will put my Spirit in you, and you will live.
I will settle you on your own land, and you will know that I, the Lord,
have spoken, and I have done it,’ declares the Lord.”
(EHV)
The
Spirit gives life to dry bones.
Dear sojourners in a harsh and foreign world,
Ezekiel
was God’s prophet to the exiled Israelites in Babylon. In those troubled times, the people lived in
despair of ever returning to their homeland, the land promised to their
forefathers as an everlasting home.
Though the people had become hopeless, the God of their forefathers
remains ever faithful. Thus, in His
vision to Ezekiel, God shows us that The Spirit
gives life to dry bones.
The vision given to Ezekiel is that of a valley
in the wilderness covered with the bleached bones of a vast multitude of slaughtered
soldiers. The condition of those bones
showed that life was long past. The
bones had been picked clean by the vultures, scavengers, maggots, and bugs,
then bleached dry in the hot desert sun.
The vision shows a people who had no life left at all.
For Jacob’s descendants, now in exile, God was
answering the complaint of those who were saying, “Our bones are dried
up. Our hope is lost. We have been completely cut off.” They had lost their faith in God’s promise
that this exile was for a limited time.
After a certain number of years, they would be returned to the Promised
Land where they would again enjoy peace.
Because God wanted them to know that He is always true to His promises,
the Lord had Ezekiel return to the people with this message:
My people, I am going
to open your graves and raise you up from your graves and bring you back to the
soil of Israel. Then you will know that
I am the Lord, when I open your graves and raise you up from your graves, O my
people. I will put my Spirit in you, and
you will live. I will settle you on your
own land, and you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken, and I have done it.
Our question, of course, as it always is with
the events that happened to Israel, is what does this prophecy mean for you and
me? This vision given to Ezekiel shows
us that like the exiles of Israel, and those dry bones in the desert valley,
you and I were once hopeless and without life in God’s kingdom. Though we were born physically alive, we were
yet dead in our trespasses and sins without any hope of forgiveness and peace
with God and therefore, having no hope of life everlasting in heaven.
Now, this prophecy was meant immediately to
restore hope to the people of Judah who were suffering as exiles in a foreign
land. Yet, it applies well to us, also,
for we too are sojourners here on earth, in a place and time were there is much
hardship, with increasing opposition from enemies both human and spiritual. Therefore, without God’s aid and promises, we
also would be hopelessly lost and our bones dead in condemnation.
But, The Spirit gives life to dry bones. Our reality today is no different. Though we entered this place and time devoid
of spiritual life, God didn’t leave us in that condition. In a fortunate circumstance, today, as we are
celebrating Pentecost, the day we remember the gift of the Holy Spirit to God’s
people and the source of life for our once dead souls, two young people will confirm
the faith that the Holy Spirit put in them at their baptisms.
Ezekiel was instructed to prophesy to the dry
bones, and he watched those bones then put on the physical evidence of living
beings: the flesh and tendons and skin knit those bones together. Still, those individuals had no life, so God
told Ezekiel to prophesy, again, this time to the four winds that the breath of
life might enter those still dead bodies.
Consequently, Ezekiel watched the result of his prophesying as the
breath of God restored those bodies to living beings.
This is a picture of what happened to you, Ian
and Katelyn, and to all of us with you here today. In Baptism, the Holy Spirit comes to us
through the pouring on of water and God’s Word, and we are restored to life in
God’s everlasting kingdom. In that
moment, your body likely didn’t feel any change, but God had put His seal of
ownership on you. By the blood and water
Christ shed for us on the cross, your sins and guilt were washed away, and you
were no longer under the control and power of Satan. Because The Spirit gives life to dry bones,
the devil can no longer accuse you of being dead to God, for the Spirit has
breathed into you new life with ownership of a home in heaven,
Just like with those dry bones in the desert of
the vision given to Ezekiel, you and I had no ability to bring ourselves back
to spiritual life. Yet by the power of
the Holy Spirit, God breathed life into us just as much as He had breathed life
into Adam in the Garden of Eden. Then, from
the day of your baptism, the Holy Spirit has been strengthening your spiritual
life through the Word of God proclaimed to you in our worship services, through
your personal study of God’s Word, and for the last few years in your study of
the catechism. By this Holy Gospel, you
have been brought to believe in Jesus who rescued you from eternal death by His
holy life and innocent sacrifice on the cross.
As St. Paul was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write, “Don’t you know
that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his
death? We were therefore buried with him
by this baptism into his death, so that just as he was raised from the dead
through the glory of the Father, we too would also walk in a new life.” (Romans
6:3-4)
Dear friends, God wants us to live lives of
faith in His Son and to give faithful service in His kingdom, and we rejoice in
the opportunity to do so. At the same
time, we know that our lives here on earth will come to an end, and that this
can happen at any moment in time. With
more and more enemies of God emboldened to attack believing Christians, you may
find yourself put on the defensive, or even put you in danger of death for your
faith. Yet, through faith in Christ
Jesus, we will not be afraid, and even if fear should come to trouble us, we
have God’s promise of forgiveness, now, and victory in the end.
Furthermore, just like those exiles of Judah in
Babylon, God has promised us that He will raise us from our graves so that we
may live with Him forever in the Promised Land of heaven. Always remember that the lives we live here
on this dusty planet are not the end of your story. Therefore, whether we may live or die, God
has promised us that when the trumpet sounds on Judgement Day, we will
experience the promise given through Ezekiel that long, long time ago: “‘Then
you will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and raise you up from
your graves, O my people. I will put my
Spirit in you, and you will live. I will
settle you on your own land, and you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken,
and I have done it,’ declares the Lord.”
The message God gives is clear, no matter the circumstances, He has our
best interest at heart, and the most powerful being anywhere has your
everlasting life as His goal. So that we
never feel the need to boast in ourselves, and so that we never need be afraid,
The Spirit gives life to dry bones.
Amen.
God
will fully supply your every need, according to his glorious riches in Christ
Jesus. Now to our God and Father be
glory forever and ever! Amen.
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