Preaching Paths 26 March 2023

by Sally A. Brown,

Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary

Ezekiel 37:1-14

Ezekiel’s mystical vision of the valley of dry bones is one of the most vivid texts in OT prophetic literature. An endless sea of parched bones is a powerful metaphor for the human condition. It speaks to the body diminished by relentless disease; to the mind that struggles to retain scraps of the past; to the heart torn by an inconsolable grief; to the spirit that once knew the buoyancy of confident conviction, but now knows spiritual drought and a sense of abandonment.

Preachers ought not rush too quickly from the valley of bones (“they were very dry”)  to the revivification to come. Those who suffer need to know that the depth of their anguish is recognized and powerfully evoked in scripture.

It is significant that the Lord does not directly command the breath that stirs the bones of the dead, but commands the prophet to speak and to command. Human agency is essential to God’s life-giving work amid the wastelands of the human condition.

The inrush of the Spirit of the Lord sets bones rattling, conjoining them, and clothing them with flesh. Ezekiel prophesizes “to the breath;” breath fills flesh and bone with living spirit. These are echoes of the creation stories of Genesis 1 and 2 here. This is creation anew.

God promises to reclaim Israel from “their graves.” The fourfold repetition of “graves” emphasizes the power of death’s grip. That grip will be broken—but not immediately.

So it is for us on the hard journey of Lent. The Word made flesh must be consigned to death and to the grave before God inaugurates the “new creation” that will change the fate of humankind.