Valley of Dry Bones

                                                                      



A sermon by my dear friend Dr. David Shisler.  Enjoy!!!

                

OF MUNCHKINS AND MIRACLES

                  

Text: Ezekiel 37: 12-14; John 11:1-45

 

          During the dark days before the Civil War, slaves in the South had little to hope for.

 

          They had been torn from their homes and families in Africa.

 

          Their families were repeatedly shattered as husband and wife and children could be sold off in different directions.

 

          They turned to the words of Ezekiel to give them hope that some day they too might be free, might again be a people.

     

          And so they sang that rollicking spiritual, "Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones . . . Now hear the word of the Lord. The foot bone connected to the ankle bones, the ankle bone connected to the leg bone, the leg bone connected to the thigh bone . . . Now hear the word of the Lord."

     

          God gave Ezekiel a vision of a valley of bones. 

 

          These bones had qualities that represented the situation of Ezekiel's people. 

 

          They were dry, indicating deadness.

 

          There appeared to be no hope that they would be revived. 

 

          And the bones were separated from one another, just as the people of Israel were scattered across the earth. 

 

          Then God told Ezekiel to prophesy.

 

          And Ezekiel prophesied.

 

          And when he did, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone.

 

          Then tendons and flesh appeared on the bones and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.

 

          Then God told Ezekiel to prophesy to the wind. 

 

          The wind, representing the Spirit of God, began to blow.

 

          And the bones began to breathe.

 

          "Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones . . ."

     

          Then God said: "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" (NRSV). 

 

          The people of Israel had God's promise. 

 

          Those dry bones would live again.

     

          Now, let's move ahead a few hundred years.

 

          Mary and Martha expected that Jesus would come immediately when he received word that their brother Lazarus, Jesus' good friend, was seriously ill.

 

          Jesus had been in their home many times.

 

          They knew he loved them and they waited expectantly for his arrival.

 

          But Jesus lingered where he was and did not come until Lazarus had died and been in the tomb for four days. 

     

          The home of Mary and Martha was like the valley of dry bones when Jesus did arrive. 

 

          The sisters' hearts were breaking; their spirits were low. 

 

          Mary said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." 

     

          Jesus was touched by this and asked, "Where have you laid him?"

 

          They told him to come and see.

 

          Jesus began to weep.

     

          The Jews said, "See how he loved him!"

     

          Then Jesus came to the tomb.

 

          It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. 

 

          Jesus said, "Take away the stone."

     

          Martha said, "Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days."

     

          Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?"

 

          So they took away the stone.

 

          And Jesus looked upward and said, "Father, I thank you for having heard me.  I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me."

 

          When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" 

 

          The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth.

 

          Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go." 

     

          "Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones . . ."

 

          Jesus had brought the dry bones of Lazarus to life again.

 

           "Now hear the word of the Lord."

     

          In the musical The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy's house is swept up by a horrible cyclone. 

 

          When her house finally lands in Munchkin City, it just happens to set down on top of an evil witch who had been tormenting the Munchkin people. 

 

          The Munchkins want to throw a huge celebration in Dorothy's honor. 

 

          But first, the Mayor of Munchkin City has to verify beyond a shadow of a doubt that the witch has been killed. 

 

          In his song to Dorothy, he says, "As Mayor of the Munchkin City, in the county of the land of Oz, I welcome you most regally.  But we've got to verify it legally, to see if she is morally, ethically, spiritually, physically, absolutely, positively, undeniably, and reliably dead!" 

     

          Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days. 

 

          We can be sure that Lazarus was morally, ethically, physically, absolutely, positively, undeniably, and reliably dead! 

     

          One scholar notes that there was a Jewish belief that the soul of the departed hovered around the body for three days hoping to return, but when decomposition set in it would leave.

 

          Lazarus had been dead four days when Jesus arrived at his home, so no one could doubt that Lazarus was totally, completely dead. 

 

          But Christ gave him new life.

 

          He called him forth from the tomb and set him free.

     

          There are some things we need to see about this miracle of our Lord.

     

1. FIRST OF ALL, WE NEED TO UNDERSTAND THIS MIRACLE HAD A SPECIFIC PURPOSE--THAT BOTH GOD AND THE SON OF GOD WOULD BE GLORIFIED.

 

          Jesus was moved by Mary and Martha's grief.

 

          After all, he loved them.

 

          But this is not why he raised Lazarus.

     

          In 1992 this ad appeared in Yankee magazine: "Just think  . . . You passed away months ago . . . and yet on every occasion that is important to those you left behind, and on their birthdays, they receive a beautiful card expressing your warm and loving thoughts to them."  

     

          The ad was run by a company called Cards From Heaven in Fairport, New York.

 

          The thrust of the card was that before you die, you arrange to have sent to your "loved ones" on special occasions after your expiration, a beautiful card--for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and anniversaries, but not for Halloween. 

 

          For example, the "Happy Birthday" card says: "On this special day of your life, take joy in the fact that those of us who have gone on before would give anything to be in your shoes."

 

          The cost: $25 per card per year. 

     

          Well, it's an interesting idea.

 

          But I wonder if the sample birthday card is right.

 

          I wonder if those on the other side WOULD give anything to be in our shoes?

     

          Daniel Zellmer a pastor in Victoria, TX makes a profound observation.

 

          We assume, he notes, that Mary, Martha and Lazarus were overjoyed with Lazarus' return to life.

 

          Is that, he asks, always the case?

     

          At Zellmer's grandfather's funeral, his grandmother announced, "I am ready to go and be with 'Pa.'"  

 

          Three trips to the hospital and six years later she was living in a nursing home.

 

          Her enlarged heart was painful and energy-draining.

 

          She was still ready to "go and be with 'Pa.'"

     

          Then one morning as the nurse's aide was getting her up for the day, her heart stopped.

          The do-not-resuscitate (DNR) order had long since been buried in her chart and the staff did what they were trained to do.

 

          They performed CPR and brought her back to life.

 

          When she woke up in the hospital room, she called her son and chewed him out and ordered him to "take care of it." 

 

          Two weeks later, she died undisturbed in her sleep.

     

          The resurrection of Lazarus was not for Lazarus' benefit.

 

          After all, he died as a friend of Jesus.

 

          His destiny was taken care of. 

 

          Neither was it for Mary and Martha's benefit. 

 

          Lazarus' resurrection was temporary at best. 

 

          It is not recorded, but doubtless Lazarus died again.

 

          If Jesus raised people because of his love and consideration for people left behind, then all the cemeteries would be empty, for Jesus loves all of us who are confronted with the loss of a loved one. 

 

          No, in the Bible miracles take place for a specific purpose.

 

          Jesus stated the purpose of this particular miracle--that both the Father and the Son might be glorified.

     

          There is a second thing we need to see.

 

2. THIS STORY AFFIRMS CHRIST'S POWER OVER LIFE AND DEATH.  

 

          In fact, that is how the Son is glorified--by this demonstration of his power over the grave.

          There is an amusing story about an Army mineralogist who happened to be stationed in Anchorage in 1964 when that year's great earthquake hit.

 

          Joe was in his bathroom, and his first inkling of trouble came when the water in his toilet suddenly shot up seven feet and splashed all over the ceiling.

 

          Joe didn't have to think very long about the implications of this before running out of his house into the street.

     

          By then, the earthquake was going full tilt, so to speak, and the street was full of people.

 

          One young mother, Joe's next-door neighbor, had a toddler under each arm and a terrified look on her face.

 

          She staggered up to him and cried out, "Joe YOU'RE a geologist! For god's sake, DO something!"

      

          Well, poor Joe was in a bind.

 

          He may have studied earthquakes, but he had no power to actually prevent one or stop one after it was started. 

     

          The Bible is unequivocal. 

 

          Jesus has power over death.

 

          "Dem bone, dem bones, dem dry bones . . ." 

 

          It is a staggering thought, too big for the world to buy into. 

 

          But this is why the story of the raising of Lazarus appears in John's Gospel. 

 

          It is to say to us that Christ has power over both life and death.

     

          And that brings us to the last thing we need to see:

3. CHRIST HAS THE POWER TO GIVE US NEW LIFE.

 

          You and I may spend our entire lives and never see a miracle, like the kind of miracles that the Bible describes.

 

          But we can experience a miracle.

 

          We can allow Christ to come into our lives and give us a new heart, a new spirit, a new outlook, a new destiny.

 

          Christ can speak to our dry bones as surely as he spoke to Lazarus, saying, "Come out! Come out!"

     

          William Marcus Cathey was a well-known and respected woodsman and hunter in Swain County, North Carolina, back in the 1800s. 

 

          He became a guide for other outdoorsmen, and his instincts for finding game and fish were the stuff of legends. 

 

          His reputation was such that politicians courted his favor, and Hollywood offered him movie roles. 

 

          But Mark Cathey didn't want to leave his beloved Carolina woods. 

 

          His greatest joy was being in the outdoors, fishing and hunting all day long. 

 

          But evidently, Cathey found an even greater source of joy at some time in his life. 

 

          For the great hunter and fisherman gave himself over to the Fisher of Men, as evidenced by the epitaph on his tombstone:  MARK CATHEY BELOVED HUNTER AND FISHERMAN  WAS HIMSELF CAUGHT BY THE GOSPEL HOOK JUST BEFORE THE SEASON CLOSED FOR GOOD 

     

          The greatest miracle in life is when a person who has been spiritually dead comes alive to Christ and the Master says, "Unbind him, and let him go."

     

          A nurse on the pediatric ward, before listening to the little ones' chests would plug the stethoscope into their ears and let them listen to their own hearts. 

 

          Their eyes would always light up with awe. 

 

          But she never got a response to equal four-year-old David's.

 

          Gently he tucked the stethoscope in his ears and placed the disk over his heart.

 

          "Listen," she said, "What do you suppose that is?"

     

          He drew his eyebrows together in a puzzled line and looked up as if lost in the mystery of the strange tap-tap-tapping deep in his chest. 

 

          Then his face broke out in a wondrous grin. 

 

          "Is that Jesus knocking?" he asked. 

 

          Friend, is Christ knocking on the door to your heart this day? 

 

          Is this the day for you to begin a new life in Christ? 

 

          "Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones . . . Now hear the word of the Lord." ----------------

 

 

 

 

 

 OF MUNCHKINS AND MIRACLES Scripture: Ezekiel 37: 12-14; John 11:1-45 Object: a handful of potato chips, especially a few with green spots on them

 

 Good morning, boys and girls. 

      Do you like to eat potato chips? I sure do.  But have you ever been going through a bag of potato chips and come across a chip with green spots on it?  Did you eat it?  You might have thrown it away.  Well, green potato chips won't hurt you.  There's a simple explanation why they're green.  Potatoes grow under ground, in the dark.  But sometimes, a potato accidentally pokes up through the ground while it's growing.  The light of the sun touches the potato and changes its color. It's kind of like a potato sunburn.  It doesn't hurt anything.  The sunlight just leaves a spot of green on the potato, that's all. 

      Just like sunlight touching a potato changes it, our lives change when they're touched by Jesus. In the Bible, Jesus is called the light of the world.  And when we have Jesus in our hearts, His love touches everything we do and changes it.  We have more peace, more joy, more hope, more love when we ask Jesus into our hearts.  Let's thank Jesus for touching our lives in so many good ways.