Weekly Devotional

1 The hand of the LORD came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. 3 He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord GOD, you know.” 4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. 5 Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. 6 I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the LORD.”

7 So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. 8 I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them, but there was no breath in them. 9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord GOD: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” 10 I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.

11 Then he said to me, “Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.’ 12 Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. 14 I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken and will act,” says the LORD.

Ezekiel 37:1-14 

When I was in seminary, a common occurrence when talking about the church, specifically The United Methodist Church, was that many of its problems could be solved if we “just wait for the old people to die off.” That we could solve everything if the “young” and “new” people could be in charge. That we just need to wait until those who disagree with us or don’t see things either leave or die out. We were content to abandon an entire group of people because all we saw were “dry bones.” I think back to this day and laugh at our arrogance.

I think about this passage a lot when thinking about the state the global church is in. How in many ways we are viewed just as the bones in our passage were. Dry, dusty, dead, a relic of the past, devoid of life. I have had friends, both Christian and non-Christian,  use some of these exact words when describing the modern-day church. And the reality is that there is some truth to those statements. 

But what are we called to do? Are we called to act like myself and my friends in seminary? To discount and throw out all that we view as dead and irrelevant? Are we called to walk away? To leave a dead place, and seek something somewhere else, or abandon the idea of finding anything altogether? Or rather, are we called to be like Ezekiel, and call dry bones to life in the name of our God? 

In this passage, God tells Ezekiel to go to this cave to offer to help the Israelites avoid certain defeat. I’m sure Ezekiel was expecting God to bring him to some hidden source of power that would so obviously be something powerful and majestic that they could use. Instead, God takes Ezekiel to a pile of bones. God is reminding Ezekiel that God is more powerful than we can ever imagine. That the Lord of Hosts can even bring life to that which was considered dead. And not just life, but new life, a powerful life. And just as with these bones, God restores us to new life, and in doing so, calls us to bring new life to the world around us. 

God can do the same thing in the church. My friends and I were so arrogant to believe that we could decide what was beyond the power of God to change. That we could decide what should be abandoned. But God has a different plan. God will continue to revive us and revive the church as long as God declares that the church is still necessary. As long as we continue to work with the spirit and continue to embrace the will of God. 

 As you go about your week, look for opportunities to embrace the new life that God is giving you. To see the dry bones that need to be revived. To embrace that which God is calling you to bring new life to the world around you. 

Let us pray:

Eternal God, 

We thank you that you are a God who is constantly calling us to new life. We pray that like these dry bones, you would instill in us a newness of life to empower us to bring new life to the world. 

We ask this in your Son’s name, 

Amen.