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Lenten devotions 2008

MARCH 4 - LIFE BACK INTO BONES
By Hope Langeland, a senior English and social work double major from Grand Rapids, Mich.

SCRIPTURE: Ezekiel 37:1-14 (NRSV)
Scroll down for complete Scripture.

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DEVOTIONAL:
Standing by my grandfather’s casket, I remember trying with all my might to envision him back alive, to will the blood back through his veins and oxygen through his lungs with the force of my imagination. I touched his hand, though, and it didn’t feel like him; I could see the foundation collecting strangely in the creases under his eyes, and I couldn’t imagine those eyes opening. I think what scared me more than the death itself was that I could not make myself believe he was ever coming back. Life after death, even life of a disembodied soul, seemed impossible. That was terrifying, not just because of my grandfather, who I loved, but because looking at his body, I thought of Jesus in the tomb, and could not make myself believe concretely in the resurrection. In the exhaustion of sorrow, however, I held out one last desperate hope that truth did not depend on my understanding.

This is what I thought of when reading about Ezekiel’s valley of bones. I have never seen a human skeleton, but I would think that it is even more impossible to imagine life back into bones than into a dead body. It is significant, then, that Ezekiel does not attempt to imagine it himself, but places the work entirely in the hands of God: “Only you know that, Sovereign YHWH.” This is the step of faith that is asked of us as we seek new life. I know that I don’t have the strength to imagine the renewal God has in mind, but I have just enough strength, just enough faith to say that I don’t know the parameters of reality, but I am willing to stretch out my hand in the hope that God will take it. When Ezekiel obeyed God’s strange command and prophesied to the bones and the wind, I think that is what he said, more or less.

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SCRIPTURE: Ezekiel 37:1-14 (NRSV)
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 round 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.

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.” 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. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. 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.’
Posted at 14:25 #