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THE VALLEY OF DRY BONES
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. He led me all around them; there were very many lying in
the valley, and they were very dry. He said to me, “Mortal, can
these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” Then he
said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry
bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to
these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall
live. 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.”
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. 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. 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.” I
prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them,
and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast
multitude.
I write these words on New Year’s Eve. In
two days, Anita and I will fly to Amman, Jordan, and begin a
two-week stay with Palestinian brothers and sisters in the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land. Right
now, a war is going on. Israel is bombing Gaza, and many have
died. In 2005, I visited the Holy Land for the first time, and
someone said: “If you visit for a day, you can write a book
about solving our problems; if you visit a week, you can write a
magazine article; if you stay a month, you don’t know what to
say.” Sometimes it seems as if there is no hope for the land
that is home to Jews, Christians and Muslims, the three
religions of the Abrahamic faith.
The prophet Ezekiel tells us there is
always hope: Hope for people in the throes of disease and death,
hope for churches weak in faith and mission, hope for nations
caught up in conflicts inflicted generation upon generation.
“These bones shall live!” is the prophet’s cry, even when
there appears to be no hope.
On this Good Friday, what strikes me is the
word breath (Ezekiel 37:9) with its connection to life.
As Jesus gives a loud cry from the cross and breathes his
last (Mark 15:37), the transformation of the world begins, the
word of God’s redemption and hope and healing for all. Just when
it appeared that all hope was lost, God reversed the spiral of
the world — from death toward life.
Even Jesus cried out in despair: “My God,
my God, why have you forsaken me?” It must feel like that to
Palestinians locked in 40-plus years of occupation; or to
Israeli victims of suicide bombers. And it feels like that when
one is trapped in depression or poverty or however sin has
manifested itself in our lives.
These bones shall live! And indeed
they do because of Easter joy and Pentecostal outpourings of
encouragement, love and peace.
But on this Friday called Good, we remember
Jesus, and the world he embraces in his dying. In three days the
prophet’s words will ring with confident hope. We journey toward
hope, through the cross.
The Rev. Gerald Mansholt
Bishop, Central States Synod
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