Can Skeletons Dance?
Gosh! I loved church
camp as a kid! I still find myself
singing those church camp songs like "De toe bone connected to the foot
bone. De foot bone connected to the ankle bone.
De ankle bone connected to the shin bone...." As we sang about
"Dem Bones" we would be shaking and wiggling our whole bodies. That
is about as wild as it got at the Baptist church camp - especially since
dancing was forbidden.
Do you know about the story behind "Dem
Bones?" Maybe you don't. It was a low point in Israel's history. Their nation had become like a desert floor
covered with dead skeletons. And the
skeletons were certainly not dancing. The
Babylonians had wiped out the total Israelite army and their bodies were not
buried but just laid there to rot in the sun. The temple and the capital city were
destroyed. The people were in total poverty.
Everyone was hungry or on the edge of starvation. I hate to even share
this but Lamentations informs us that the people were so hungry that mothers
boiled their own children for food. And
the Israelites who were alive were taken prisoners and dragged back to
Babylonia with chains around their necks. The Jews began lamenting to
themselves, "God can't help us! God won't help us! There is no God! We are here to rot and die
in the desert. We have become like dry bones."
Then there was Ezekiel.
Today's scripture tells us that that Lord took Ezekiel out into the
valley and the Lord looked around and asked Ezekiel "Can these bones
live?" And Ezekiel wisely replied,
"you alone know." Then the
Lord told Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones, to start preaching to the bones.
God even gave Ezekiel the sermon he was to preach.
So, here's Ezekiel, standing in the middle of this great
valley filled with dead, dry, scattered bones.
Maybe he's thinking, '"I've preached to some pretty dead
congregations before, but this takes the cake." What does he say? "Good morning, uh
bones, it's good to see so many of you gathered here today." No, he tells the dead, dry scattered bones
the message God gave him: "Don't
give up hope, dry bones! God is going to cause you to LIVE again. God will
breathe life into you. You will enjoy life again. You will know that God is God."
And the rest of the story - "the foot bones were
connected to the ankle bones..." As Ezekiel preached, the bones were
resurrected into a mighty army.
A most important question for you to answer today is
"Can God make the skeleton of your life dance?" Is your marriage ready
to dance again? Is your family ready to dance
again? The very essence of God is to
take that which is dead and make it alive again. Maybe things are good in your life and you
need to open your eyes to the dead around you and ask "How can I help
these skeletons dance?" Maybe you
can help someone dance again by providing food, by providing affordable
housing, by providing mentorship. The
opportunities to let God breathe life through you are endless, really.
The God whose word and breath revived Israel's dry bones,
the God whose living Word called forth Lazarus from the grave, the God who
raised Jesus from the grave, is the same God whose living Spirit empowers and
sustains us and gives us hope even now.
And He is the same God who will one day call all of us by name and give
us life beyond life, life that will never, ever know death again.
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