Dry Bones
by the Rev. AJ Ochart
Sermon Notes
This week we continue through the season of Advent, and in the Narrative Lectionary we continue through the Babylonian Exile.
The prophet Ezekiel was removed from Judah in the first wave of Exiles (the same wave that Jeremiah wrote to). He began his prophetic ministry around five years into the exile, preaching to the Hebrew people in Babylon. Ezekiel is also a great example of apocalyptic literature with wild imagery and visions (like the one we are reading today). Ezekiel used these visions to bring hope to the exiles. For instance his first vision was of a spectacular chariot of God, suspended on ‘wheels within wheels’ and pulled by terrifying ‘living creatures’ with four faces covered in wings and eyes. This was not meant to be some Michael Bay favor dream, but an image of the LORD unbound to the Temple in Jerusalem or the territory of Judah. This is an image of a God who’s astonishing vehicle can (and will) go anywhere they dang-well please. This becomes especially important in chapter 10 when the LORD’s Glory leaves the temple and Jerusalem as witness against its wickedness. Yet the LORD also promises to restore the people to their land with a new and everlasting covenant. Ezekiel also proclaims the LORD’s judgement on the unjust nations of the earth. In chapter 33, Ezekiel encounters a refugee from Jerusalem, who in the twelfth year of the exile tells him that the temple has finally been destroyed. While Ezekiel grieves this destruction, he boldly proclaims the blessing and renewal of Israel.
Today’s text is a hauntingly beautiful vision of the exiles as dry bones filling a valley.
Questions to Consider
- In what ways do you feel like dried bones? In this era or this season.
- How does God bring life and light?
- How does God invite us into their creative activity?
