The Valley of the Dry Bones

Have you ever been to the valley of the dry bones? 

The vivid imagery and story of ‘valley of the dry bones’ has captured readers of the Hebrew bible for centuries, with its rich material for visualization.   

We envision a desolate desert scene with bones and skulls lying around in disarray as far as the eye can see.

Seemingly alone, in the middle of nowhere,  Ezekiel stands in the middle of all these bones.   And in spite of the death & desolation all around him, God is there… with him. 

God tells Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones, and that they will come back to life.  

And so Ezekiel prophecies, and the bones rattle & shake, & begin to come together! 

One can imagine the bones coming together becoming skeletons, and dancing as they come alive.   With this visual I can almost hear the music from Saint-Saens “The Dance Macabre”, with it’s intense violin with skeletons dancing in my mind's eye!

With Ezekiel’s prophesying the word of God and with the breath of God, the bones become living beings once again! 

It is a resurrection story.  One of many… Phoenix Birds, butterflies.... just about every religion has their various stories of spiritual transformation and new life, their own version of the valley of the dry bones.

But I think we all can totally relate to this story with its desert imagery, desert dwellers that we are here in Casa Grande, Maricopa, & Phoenix!

In many ways, this is also the story of this little church, St. Peter’s!   

Yesterday a group of us attended the Daughter's of the King Spring Conference down in Tucson.   Bishop Kirk mentioned to us that he was including St. Peters of Casa Grande in his sermon for this weekend as an amazing example of a transformation – a resurrection story!     

He said when he first became bishop ten or so years ago, this little church had fallen into some hard times and was nearly closed down.  And now here St. Peter’s is, ten years later, and this little church not only refused to die, it is growing and has lots of vitality!

Yes, all of us have been thru the valley of the dry bones, in one way or the other.        

Well, they say the road to Easter is thru a cemetery!  Thru death…comes new life. 

But before we jump too soon to the joy of new and vibrant life, spiritual transformation and resurrection and all that “good stuff”, let’s get back to the those dry bones in the desert valley.

Contemplate this…what have we learned, or what can we learn from the valley of the dry bones?    The painful, difficult paths we are called to, or forced to walk?   

What other lessons are there for us, in that parched, dry valley?

Most of us can point out times of doubts, restlessness, depression, fear and anxiety that were prominent in our daily living.   Perhaps you or a loved one is in that ‘dry valley’ right now. 

What can we learn from our own dry periods of life when we feel disconnected and as brittle as the bones in Ezekiel’s vision?  

It makes us realize just how much we need that breath of God, and that “living water” that Jesus spoke of.  It is life, both physically & spiritually.

We tend to view death as something to be avoided, to not talk about, or as THE END.  But in other cultures & religions, death & dying is not necessarily the end, it is viewed as a beginning.

I read an amazing story about a team of archeologists excavating in an ancient peat bog in England.  They found some small lily seeds.   Scientists estimate that those seeds had been there for thousands of years.  Well,  they planted them, & it sprouted and produced a lily!   

God asked Ezekiel, …. Can these bones live?    

We usually associate bones with death.  But in the Spirit, and with the Spirit,  there is life!

As we stand at this point on the road to Easter and we know that--  the world will not have the last word, and we will not have the last word.   But God will have the last word!  

And these are the days of new beginnings!   

Amen.

[This was a sermon given April 6th, 2014 at St. Peter's Episcopal Church, Casa Grande, AZ]