Mortal, Can You Live?

Ezekiel 37:1-14

1 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. 2 He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. 3 He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” 4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. 5 Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. 6 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.”

7 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. 8 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. 9 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.” 10 I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.

11 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.’ 12 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. 13 And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. 14 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.”

Rev Michael Vanacore | Fort Washington Collegiate Church | 3/29/2020

Most of us have been shut up in our houses now for over a week.

Being deprived of physical contact with those we love, as well as from the natural world outside, has been a very difficult and disorienting experience. For the parents among us, the stress of working from home, of caring for your families every hour of the day, and of taking on the burden of educating your children, leads many to the point of desperation daily. For those of us cut off from parents and elderly loved ones who are shut up in their homes and retirement communities, the worry is immense. And then there are all those for whom this crisis is exacting a much greater toll--workers who are having to choose between risking their lives and losing their wages, doctors and nurses who are sacrificing their own health to save the sick, prisoners and immigrant detainees whose continued incarceration will mean certain death when the virus reaches them, and those who have contracted this illness and tragically lost their lives.

This crisis is impacting all of us--every single one of us--each one in different ways, but we are all impacted.

One way that it is impacting all of us is something that Dr. David Kessler calls "anticipatory grief". In an article in the Harvard Business Review, Dr. Kessler describes anticipatory grief as grief over not only for what we have already lost, but also over what we may lose. He says,

“Anticipatory grief is that feeling we get about what the future holds when we’re uncertain. Usually it centers on death. We feel it when someone gets a dire diagnosis or when we have the normal thought that we’ll lose a parent someday. Anticipatory grief is also more broadly imagined futures. There is a storm coming. There’s something bad out there. With a virus, this kind of grief is so confusing for people. Our primitive mind knows something bad is happening, but you can’t see it. This breaks our sense of safety. We’re feeling that loss of safety. I don’t think we’ve collectively lost our sense of general safety like this. Individually or as smaller groups, people have felt this. But all together, this is new. We are grieving on a micro and a macro level.”

For many of us, this experience of anticipatory grief has reduced us to shells of what we once were, like the dry bones in the famous prophecy of Ezekiel:

The prophet says “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 around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. He said to me, ‘Mortal, can these bones live’”

Brothers and sisters, I know that at this moment, our life together has become like a desolate valley. We are worried and unsure. Some of us have lost jobs. Others have lost lives. But we all have lost something. And we are all living in fear of greater losses to come. We are far from God, and we feel like those dry and barren bones lying inert in the desert. And God is asking us, “Mortal, can you live”?

And so, at this time, I invite all who are watching to close your eyes, and join me in this guided meditation. Take a deep breath, and hear again these words of the prophet:

“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.”

Hear this prophecy, and know that it is for you. It is for all of us, the People of God, and the people all over the world who are lying in this empty valley together. Hear the mighty noise, the rattle and clack of our bones as they come together. Look and see the miracle of sinew and flesh that comes upon us, and the beautiful skin that covers us in many hues. Hear my words as I call upon the Holy Spirit: Come, Holy Spirit, Ven, Espiritu Santo. Feel the mighty rush of wind that pours over your body and and commands you to rise, to stand, and to live.

Beloved People of God, God has asked us, “Mortal, can you live?” And the time has come to answer, "Yes!".

Yes, there will come a time when we will go outside again, we will breathe the fresh air, and we will embrace one another freely and without fear.

Yes, there will be a time when the schools will reopen, and the children will run and play in the schoolyards, and you, parents will have a few hours of peace.

Yes, there will be a time when we will go back to work, when we will again embrace our elders, when the churches will ring once again with our songs and our prayers, when the hospitals will empty out, and the dead will be buried in peace.

But we do not have to wait until that moment to live again. We can live again today because we can connect to God at any time. Through prayer as we have just done in our guided contemplation today. Through confession. Through acts of love. Through whatever means we have already have at our disposal that directly connect us with God.

Remember this gift that we have as people of faith--our connection to God.

Remember that no matter what desolate valley we may find ourselves in, no matter what bones we have been reduced to, like the prophet we can always call upon God, and God will always respond. God will breathe upon us God's Holy Spirit, God will knit us back together, and God will make us live again. Amen.