Beautiful Things: Ezekiel 37: 1-14

Ezekiel 37:1-14

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."

Every morning, my alarm is this song. I know that’s a little cheesy. But I’ve chosen it, because every morning, I wake up with the gift of a choice. I choose to accept my fault lines, the less becoming parts of my personality, and every weakness I possess, I accept all of it, knowing that I don’t have to be my own savior. What I bring to Christ’s table is enough. I bring honesty, I bring humility, I bring effort, and I bring grace for others, because I believe that God is in the business of making beautiful things out of the dust of our lives. And so I bring my dust. That’s what it means to sit at Christ’s table together: we get a choice to honor one another’s dust, to become a part of each other’s stories in the hope that we catch a glimpse of the beautiful way Christ is at work redeeming us all. I believe this with every bone in my body, every mistake I make, every scar on my body. All of it belongs at Christ’s table, where we are received just as we are- bodies created to be redeemed in love.

I don’t think I could offer remarks on this text from Ekeziel better than they speak on their own: When we say, 'Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.' 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. 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." This is the truth Jesus came to earth to fulfill. And it’s the truth we enter every single day we claim our identity in Christ.