We’ve had a lot of rain recently, haven’t we?  Given all the rain we had yesterday, I thought this morning would be a good time to speak on Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones.  Ezekiel describes it this way: “The hand of the Lord was on me, and He brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones….I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry.”   The vision of dry bones must have been revealed to Ezekiel with startling reality and vividness.  It must have seemed even more real than those dreams that you wake up from and you are confused as to whether it really happened or if you just dreamt it.  In this vision I can almost see Ezekiel as he is set down in the middle of this huge valley full of bones... (Remember touching dead things made the Old Testament saints "unclean".)  The Holy Spirit causes him to pass completely around this valley for the full aerial view, and the impression sinks deep into his thoughts.  It is a sobering experience as he realizes, "This valley is full of bones!"  Imagine it were you in that situation.

It stands to reason that, as he is made to view all these bones, the first question he might have asked was, "Who were these people?"  Verse 11 tells us they are God’s people.  "These bones are the whole house of Israel", God says to Ezekiel.  At the time of this vision Israel was in Babylonian captivity.  They were the slaves of Babylon.  We also learn from this verse that they mourned over their captivity they said, "Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost: we are cut off."  They were in utter despair and ruin—they were alive, but it was like they were dead.  There was no hope—they felt cut off, they felt indeed like they were dead.  Their spirits had shriveled up and they were like dry bones bleached in the sun. 

The second question that seems logical Ezekiel would have asked is, "What happened to all these people?  How did they die?  Why did they die?  What could have caused all the death and decay?”  In his case, we could rule out war. Israel was God’s people.  No enemy that rose up against them could win over God.  It wasn’t a famine.  He fed them manna in the wilderness.  He led His sheep in green pastures beside still waters.  There could be no shortage of His supply.  It was no outside force that killed these people.  What filled this valley with their bones was sin.  The book of James says: "Sin, when it is full-grown gives birth to death" (1:15).  It didn’t happen all at once.  They didn’t jump right up from the altar of God one moment and bow in the shrine of an idol the next.  Just like most people today, it was more gradual than that.  Spiritual death came as they allowed themselves to grow cool towards God and the things of God.  Don’t ask me why it happens this way but it nearly always does.  You know how it goes.  They start missing Sunday School.  It becomes too much trouble to attend. Then it’s Sunday evenings back when they had those services—when they were real serious about God.  Next comes Wednesday nights—back when they had those services.  First thing you know they’re a Sunday morning Christian, and before long, even that becomes sporadic.  Now they’re "Chreasters," coming only on Christmas and Easter.  Eventually even that will cease.
They will be laying out in some valley with no life—dried up bones.  Sin is so cunning, so subtle, so fatal.  

The third question is provided for us in the text itself. It actually comes early in the vision.  The Lord asks Ezekiel in v:3, "Son of man, can these bones live?"  Surely that question stuck with him and Ezekiel’s answer was so wise: "O Sovereign LORD, You alone know."  "Lord, it doesn’t seem possible, but you know if they can live."  Their own prayers seem to reflect no hope.  "Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off"(v:11).  There is no faith in "death valley."  Those who once knew God, but whose souls have dried up, are among the most hopeless.  They are cut off.  Their whole life is a discouragement. That’s because life wasn’t meant to be lived without the Lord.  Can they live?  Boy, it seems doubtful.  They’re so dry.  The Lord tells Ezekiel to prophesy.  He is a prophet, so he prophesies.  The fantastic thing here is he is commanded to prophesy to a bunch of old, dry, sun-bleached bones.  This is not a living congregation.  Talk about missions.  This is starting from scratch.  I will confess that at some time or another most of us pastors feel like this—there are days when we feel we are preaching to a bunch of lifeless old bones.  Now, don’t take offense at that—I did after all qualify it: I said “sometimes” and it “feels” that way and I would also include myself in that category at times.  There are times when I stand up here and feel dried out—like an old sack of bones.  You can testify that there have been sermons here that have been drier than the bones in Ezekiel’s vision or that there have been periods in your life when your own soul was like that. 

But Ezekiel says that as he prophesied to the bones, "There was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone.  I looked and tendons and flesh (muscles) appeared on them and skin covered them..."  They had all the appearance of full-fledged people.  But something was still wrong—something was still missing—there was no breath in them.  No life.  I can’t read this chapter without being reminded of the words in Gen. 2:7 concerning the original creation of man, "(God) breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being."  Perhaps you come today with a bit of "dryness" in your bones.  Your relationship with God has cooled off a bit. Let Him breathe life into you again.  Let Him refresh the touch of His Spirit in your soul.  Let Him give you a little reviving.  We are told the bones represent the nation of Israel carried off to Babylon.  It was common practice of the Babylonian Empire to deport the leaders, artisans, intellectuals; the cream of society, so to speak.  Without their leaders, the poorer, ignorant people were easier to keep in line.  Those who were carried off to a foreign land thought their circumstances were hopeless.  They felt so helpless that a common lament emerged: “Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.”  In the vision that God gave Ezekiel, the people of Israel were pictured as extremely dry bones, scattered everywhere in an open valley.  The bones were disconnected from one another and were very dry and bleached out by the sun.  There had been no moisture in them and they were as dry as dust.  The Jews in Babylon were like these bones.  Our communities have become a wasteland that is filled with dry bones.  Bones that feel as though all is lost.  Bones that are caught in a situation that seems to be hopeless.  Things don’t look too good.  In fact, The situation looks mighty bad.  A dry bone this morning is anybody who has no spiritual attachment to God.  Anybody that has a wavering fellowship with the Lord is a dry bone.  A whole lot of our churches are comatose.  They’re not dead but they’re certainly not all together alive.

How could these people achieve the impossible? Would they ever see their homeland again?  When will it all end?  Why has God forsaken us?  Can these bones live again?  The answer comes from Ezekiel’s lips, “O sovereign Lord, only you know.”  God asked Ezekiel a tough question, “Can these bones live?”  How would you answer a question like that?  Ezekiel didn’t want to say, “Well, no, that is impossible.  These bones are so dried out there is no way they could live again.”  He didn’t want to put limits on God. His response was, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”  I think that was a good answer.  Ezekiel is thinking, “I sure can’t do anything about these dry bones, they look like they are beyond hope—but you know.”  These dry bones in the vision were an accurate picture of God’s people who had lost their hope—who were in captivity—a hopeless situation.  Perhaps you see yourself in a similar situation—at least metaphorically.  I see our church in a similar situation—there are some areas where we have sort of dried up over the years and we need God to breathe new life into us.  And the good news is that God will indeed do that for us.  God says He will bring Israel to life by breathing life into the people and He will do that for us as well if we will let Him. 

The passage from Romans this morning tells us that “the mind controlled by the sinful nature is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace” (Rom. 8:6).  But Paul tells us this: “You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you.  And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.  But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.  And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you.” 

A number of us yesterday from the church board went to a seminar presented by the Covenant Church on church vitality, church health.  Our speaker mentioned this text a couple times.  As I said, I think in some ways it describes our church and most churches in America.  For too long we have taken our faith for granted, taken other people for granted and now we are paying for it—many older churches are declining or dying—the bones have dried up and the hope is gone.  These people represented in this vision are portrayed as dry bones—as dead as could possibly be and yet still they were physically alive because they are able to say, “Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.”  They knew themselves to be dead while they lived because they were cut off from the life-giving presence of the living God and therefore without hope.  That is a spiritual condition that by nature we all share.  Paul reminds the Ephesians and along with them all of us: “You were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air” (Eph. 2:1-2).  Can such dead people live?  Is it possible for people like us to be resuscitated and brought back to life toward God?  Will God do it?  Thanks be to God the answer to us is yes as it was to Israel and to all others.  Paul tells us, “When you were dead in your sins and in your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ” (Col. 2:13).   

This message demonstrated in Ezekiel’s valley and proclaimed in Christ’s resurrection is a message for you. When God’s Spirit goes to work in your life, things can come alive.  Broken homes can be repaired.  Broken lives can be restored.  Broken dreams can be rekindled.  Relationships can be mended.  And churches can be revived when God’s Spirit begins to work in us individually and as a church.  The first step for us individually and corporately as a church body is to admit the areas where we are dried up like these bones.  We need to be real and truthful about our situation.  There is no resurrection without death.  What needs to die in your life for you to really live?  And what needs to die in our church so our church can really live.  Don’t’ get me wrong—I see a lot of good stuff going on here and others do as well.  We have reason to hope—if I saw no reason for hope I would not be here—and you probably wouldn’t be either.  As those of us at the church vitality workshop yesterday heard, we need to get busy living or get busy dying.  Easter is right around the corner.  We celebrate new life in Christ and in His resurrection and we celebrate life in our world—the growth of Spring.  May we be able to grow ourselves and then see growth in our church—spiritual growth and numerical growth for the glory of God and the good of our own souls.  Can these bones live?  Can God revive a church that is well over 100 years old?  Can God breathe more life into us and give us breathe and flesh and skin?  I believe so.  I think if you listen closely you can hear the rattling sound faintly in the distance.  The bones are coming together.  I am betting my life on it, my future on it.  How about you?  I ask you to do the same for God’s sake and for the sake of our community.  Can these bones live?  You’re darn right they can.  What do you think?  What do you believe?  Amen.