Dry Bones and the Breath of Life
Pentecost Sunday | May 23, 2021
Ezekiel 37:1-14
Its mental health awareness month and this is mental health awareness Sunday at Our Saviour’s. Now you may wish to shut down at this point since you don’t see mental health as an issue for you or your family. You are well; normal. I’m pleading with you to stick with this sermon for the next few minutes and to keep your mind open.
Take depression for example. We don't have to have a severe form of it to have negative voices in our head. Voices that tell us how bad, weak or unlovable we are. People diagnosed with depression have them worse. Or anxiety. We don’t have to have an anxiety disorder to be haunted by useless fears and worries. Whether we struggle with severe problems mentally, occasional mental health crises, or every day mental health issues, hope comes through Christ who breathes new life into us through the Holy Spirit. The same Holy Spirit who literally fired people up at Pentecost. You’re not sure about that stuff? Not sure its for you, today? Listen to the Spirit's work in the valley of the dry bones.
Ezekiel 37 The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 3 He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?
I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”
4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! 5 This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath[a] enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”
7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.
11 Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ 12 Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.’”
Unless you’re into Zombie movies, this is a bizarre scene. Not just bones, but dried up. The prophet is not on a hillside overlooking the valley. He’s stuck in the middle of it, surrounded by these very, very dry bones. This is pretty weird even for a vision. All the bones are separated. They are not even skeletons. They are as close to dust as they can get and still maintain their shape as bones. They are as far away from being living people, or being anything that’s alive, as they can be. This scene represents the status of the people of Israel: “Their hope is lost. They are cut off completely.” It can also represent our state of mind whether we struggle with a severe mental health issue or the ordinary stressors of life and the extra stressors of a pandemic.
We’ve been through a difficult time in the last 15 months. All of us. And its not over yet. In June of last year, only part way through the pandemic, over 40% of Americans reported struggling with a mental health or substance use issue. 40%.
It has been a time of greater depression and anxiety. Even if we never became ill, never lost a job, never lost someone close. We’ve lost our regular routines, like going to work, going to school, going to church. We lost the privilege of hanging out with friends, eating in restaurants, going to games, graduations, farmers markets. As in a total war, we have all been affected, even if we were never in battle ourselves. We have been cut off from our normal support communities and our normal ways of life.
At one time we saw two types of people with regard to mental health. Most of us were normal and the rest were abnormal; insane, sick, crazy, nuts, off the deep end. But, not like normal me at all. The new model sees mental health on a continuum. Some people have severe conditions that require long term use of medications and therapy. Some of us have situations that require short term therapy and perhaps temporary medications. All of us have ups and downs and the downs can sometimes feel like we need therapy. Like physical health and illness mental health and mental illness come in degrees.
Verse 11: “…our hope is lost… we are completely cut off” To me hopelessness means I no vision, no possibility, of a positive outcome. You’re in your little car at a stop light. A huge SUV pops up over the hill, barreling right down on you. There’s no time. You can’t move your car. You can’t leave your car. You see no way out. In that moment, you are hopeless. Your fears and anxieties are sky high. You are in the valley of the dry bones. Some people live with high anxiety most of time. Maybe not life threateningly high, but it can get that high for them in ordinary stressful situations. The level of anxiety that they call normal might be the level I feel before preaching.
Most of us have had times of depression, perhaps driven by losses like death, but more often by major changes like jobs, physical health, friends moving, pets dying. Then that negative thinking pushes us into a state of hopelessness. People with clinical depression may feel that way most of the time. They live in the valley of the dry bones. They can even lose their sense of purpose and connection and feel “completely cut off.”
A clinically depressed person cannot cheer up. It feels to them like no one can reach their “…dry bones.” They have been cut off and they feel hopeless.
A friend reflected on two of her difficult life experiences. Years before, she had been through a very hard round of chemotherapy treatments to deal with a life-threatening cancer. At another time she suffered from clinical depression. She said this to me, “If you told me I was going to be sick again but that I get to choose between depression and a life-threatening cancer, I will pick the cancer hands down.”
Christian faith is built around the concepts of death and resurrection. The resurrected Christ was not a Zombie revivified after death. He was and is always “Word” that was in the beginning and that was God. Equally importantly, he rose to a new life as a human being. Not the old life he had as a person, but an entirely new one, a resurrected life.
I’m intrigued by the fact that these resurrections in Ezekiel are a process rather than an event. It’s not a magic wand, shazam, kind of thing. First the bones come together as a skeleton. Sinew is added, then Flesh, then skin and finally breath. Only then can they stand on their feet. Only then can they journey forward. The breath is what gives life. “And you shall know that I am the Lord.”
Now think about that as you journey forward, maybe struggling with ordinary depressed and anxious times. Maybe, struggling over the longer term impacts of being in pandemic. Maybe, struggling mightily with depression or anxiety as severe mental states. Know that the breath of life has been put in you by the Spirit of God. The same Spirit that put the fire of excitement onto the heads of the disciples at Pentecost. Know that as you struggle and as you reach out to serve those who struggle more, that Holy Spirit is breathing the breath of life into you. He says, “I will put my Spirit within you and you shall live.” The more deeply we experience that Spirit, the more we allow our Lord to be the central value and motivator of our lives, the more fully we live.
Pastor Otto Schultz
Faith-to-Face Recovery Participant
Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church
