Alive Bones

ALIVE BONES

(Ezekiel 37.1-14)

‘Mortal, can these bones live?’ [Ezekiel 37.3].

They were fed up!

After all, the Jews had been in exile since 597 BC.

True, they had a pretty relaxed lifestyle in Babylon. They were allowed to practice their own religion. They were allowed to live together in a close knit community. And they were given the opportunity to improve their economic status.

However, as the years rolled by, they became more and more depressed. They could not wait to return to their homeland, and especially Jerusalem, the focus of their religious and national life.

This is well expressed by the unknown author of Psalm 137, when he writes:

'By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept: when we remembered thee, O Sion

As for our harps, we hanged them up: upon the trees therein

For they that led us away captive required of us then a song and a melody in our heaviness:

Sing us one of the songs of Sion.

How shall we sing the Lord's song: in a strange land?.'

They were homesick, and so out of the depth of their misery, they turned to God.

Again, this is well expressed by another anonymous writer in Psalm 130:

'Out of the deep have I called unto thee, O Lord: Lord, hear my voice.

O let your ears consider well: the voice of my complaint.'

And again,

'I look for the Lord, my soul waits for him: in his word is my trust.'

Unfortunately that wait was to be a very long wait. In fact, they had to wait 72 years before they could return home to Jerusalem.

However, throughout this time, their spirit was kept alive by the prophet Ezekiel and his prophecies.

ooOOOoo

Now Ezekiel was among the first group of prominent and able citizens of Jerusalem who were deported to Babylon. He was probably a member of the powerful priesthood, which claimed to be descendants of Zadok the high priest, who was originally installed by King Solomon in the newly built Temple.

There is no doubt that Ezekiel was rather eccentric, and this is reflected in his oracles. These sayings usually came to him whilst he was in a state of trance, which he describes as being seized by 'the hand of God'. He was often struck dumb and overwhelmed by catastrophic stupor in which he lost consciousness.

His early prophecies were oracles of doom and gloom in which he interpreted the deportation of the nation as a sign of God's punishment.

Later, following a second deportation of citizens, his prophecies became oracles of hope and encouragement. And it is one of those – probably his best-known oracle - that is described in Chapter 37 of the Old Testament book of Ezekiel.

In his vision, Ezekiel is shown a valley full of dead bones. It was possibly a former battlefield in which the dead had not yet been buried.

He is asked by God: 'Mortal, can these bones live?, to which Ezekiel replies: ‘ O Lord God, you know’.

And we are told that at the word of command, ‘there was a noise and rattling and the bones came together bone to bone’. When Ezekiel looked, we are told, ‘there were sinews on them and flesh came upon them: but there was no breath.’ Then at the second word of command ‘breath came upon them, and they lived and stood on their feet, a vast multitude’.

Ezekiel interprets this vision, or dream, as a sign that God was 'going to open up [their] graves and bring them up from [their] graves – bring them back to the land of Israel’.

As I said earlier, this is essentially an oracle of hope given to a depressed nation in exile, longing to return to their homeland. It was a vision, or a dream, to keep their spirits up while they waited to return. And this they did in 525 BC.

'Can these bones live?' God asks Ezekiel. And the answer given, via a vision or dream, and later confirmed in the history of that nation, was ‘Yes’. God can indeed breathe new life into the dead bones of a nation. There is a future to look forward to.

ooOOOoo

After waiting patiently for nine years, having served two curacies and a chaplaincy, I was eventually

appointed to my first parish in 1974. It was a run-down Anglo Catholic parish in Devonport, on the banks of the River Tamar in Devon.

But it had not always been like that. The parish was established in the 1920s by Fr Blackman, and it was the second parish in England to have the Parish Communion as the principal service on a Sunday.

He was followed by Fr Dan Wood, who was Vicar there for many years, and built up a thriving parish with over 150 communicants on a Sunday, which was not bad, considering the parish had less than 5000 residents! There was a daily Eucharist, a flourishing choir and a large band of servers who assisted with offering of the dignified worship.

It also became a parish which produced many ordinands such as Gordon Dunston who became Professor of Moral Theology at King's London, Edwin Barnes who became one of the first 'Flying Bishops', Ronald Jasper who became Dean of York Minster, Freddie Matthews, who became Archdeacon of Plymouth, and Fr Garrard who became a monk with the Society of the Sacred Mission, in South Africa.

However, by the time I arrived, the church building was sad and neglected, needing extensive repairs and redecoration. The corrugated iron church hall was falling down and had to be removed because the temporary planning permit was about to expire.

The bank account was empty as were the pews, save for about twenty five elderly worshippers.

As I looked at the church and its worshippers, I found myself asking the question, 'Can these bones live?', and I made a mental note that I would probably bury all that congregation in the next five years!

When I asked the two churchwardens what they considered to be the three most important things l should give my attention to, they replied: whether to use bread or wafers; improve the finances and re-introduce processions. Given the immensity of the challenge ahead, my heart sank at their reply.

The only solution I could see was to demolish the parish hall and alter the interior of the church to meet both the worshipping and social needs of the parish. This would involve removing the pews, levelling the floor, installing a new heating system, redecorating and constructing a kitchen and lavatory, whilst setting a side chapel, which was enclosed, aside for worship for weekday use.

This seemed an impossible dream, given the age of the congregation and their probable conservative attitude. Yet, to my surprise, they enthusiastically agreed.

Fortunately, most of the residents worked as craftsmen in the Royal Naval Dockyard and possessed all the skills required. I was also Chaplain to the Royal Dockyard, and therefore, with the appropriate approval, had access to any equipment needed overnight. But first, I had to persuade a handful of these residents to help, on a voluntary basis, several evenings a week. Since it was a matriarchal society, I naturally ensured that I got the permission of the wives beforehand, so that there would be no excuse!

However, what I was not expecting was the reaction of my retired parishioners who complained that they had not been invited. So I invited them and found I had between fifteen and twenty more helpers, who worked during the day.

To cut a long story short, the work was completed within two months.

As a by-product, many of the men started attending church on a regular basis - in fact they exceeded the number of women! In addition, the retired boys continued to carry out repair and maintenance one day a week. The social life of the parish took off and the congregation quadrupled, with at least a third of them attending the Tuesday and Thursday evening Eucharist. We even produced three ordinands who have since been ordained to the sacred ministry.

ooOOOoo

‘Can these bones live?' l asked myself as I looked at the decaying fabric of the church and the ageing parishioners in the empty pews. After three years, my answer was a definite, 'Yes'.

God can bring life out of death provided we turn to him in confident faith.

This is not just a pipe dream. It can become a historical reality as it did in the life of the Jewish nation in the sixth century BC and in my first parish in Devonport in the twentieth century AD.

But more importantly, it can become a reality in your life and mine, provided we turn to God in simple trust. He can bring life out of death, as he did in Jesus of Nazareth, whose resurrection from the dead, bears witness to the power of God.