Ezekiel was a priest and a prophet of Israel who communicated with God through visions during Israel’s exile. While they were in Babylon as captives of Nebuchadnezzar, Ezekiel moved among the people calling them to purity and righteousness. He was not about condemning any particular kind of behavior, as it was about how attitudes toward God and others effected their relationship with God. He was concerned with attitudes of the heart, especially the spiritual heart. We all know people with heart disease. We know them personally as family or friends, or we know them even more intimately because the less than perfect heart beats in us. And we know people whose physical hearts beat strongly, but whose spiritual hearts are weak.

The effect is the same, as if there is a physical problem. People with weak hearts are easily tired, too much exertion, moving too much out our comfort zones, doing new things, letting go of old comfortable things, can leave us feeling bone weary. But strength comes as we follow the advise in the letter of James, it is when we become doers of the words we have heard, when we commit to doing compassion and mercy, justice and grace, hope and peace that our hearts grow strong and we are most fully alive.

Ezekiel had a vision of the heart and in the vision he hears a divine question. We hear it too; I know we do because we have spent some time now asking ourselves the same question, and we hear the same answer:

Is our heart strong? Can these bones live? God knows.

God knows because God has done for us what God does for the seeds we plant in the ground. God has already put in us what we need to live. We have a heart for the church, we care for each other, we make room for people to join us. We want to become bearers of the good news that beats in us. One way to do so is to practice what is called "Appreciative Inquiry". Appreciative inquiry does not look at what’s wrong and how to fix it, it looks at what is right and builds on it. It does not deny reality, it faces reality with a healthy heart attitude.

Appreciative inquiry happens when we encourage a child who may be struggling to figure out where they fit in with their peers and family. They may have a hard time academically or socially, but appreciative, caring adults can help them to expand on what it is they can do. They can help them put their skills and gifts to use, and then connect them with their interest and passion. A child interested in music can learn to count beats and measures and in the process become a better math student. A person interested in dance can learn to have confidence in a changing body. Reading can help a child broaden his or her horizon and dream of a wider world. Philosophy can help a child who loves to argue, focus on how to debate in a logical and factual way.

Appreciative inquiry is about positive energy, and it is life giving in the face of negativity that leads to easy anger and slow forgiveness. It causes us to prefer the sound of our own voice rather than listening to another’s, we become disdainful of people not like us and our hearts grow cold, our breath gets shallow, and our bones dry up (adapted from the Prayer of Confession in Led by Love, by Lavon Bayler. Cleveland. United Church Press, 1996, p.134).

Dried up from fear and decline - physical decline, spiritual decline and emotional decline of whatever it is that deprives us of life and hope in its fullness. How shall these bones live?

I have preached on this text before and I have come back to it because for me it is a lesson in encouragement that says no matter what is in front of us now, God intends yet more life for us. I come back to it because so many of us look around here and see a valley of dry bones, a bank account with more red than black, a church building bigger than we need right now, a people a little weary and frustrated.

God sees all of that and God sees this too; bones that can come together and live full, grace-filled lives, a bank account transformed by ministry and purpose from red to black, a church building open and useful in transforming lives several days a week, and a people renewed and satisfied that they are doing the work God has given them to do. I believe God sees all of that in this congregation and I want us to see it too.

What can we do to let these bones of ours live? We help them to claim a vision a grasp onto hope that will call them from dryness and lifelessness to new life.

Sometimes we have cried with these exiles, "our bones are dried up, our hope is gone, there is nothing left of us" (from Eugene Patterson’s translation of Ezekiel 37.11 in The Message). We do feel that way every once in a while. But remember a story near the gospel of Luke that is all about life. The women have taken spices to the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus, but he is not there. They are stunned and are standing around looking into that empty space. While they look, an angel says to them, "why are you looking for the living among the dead? He is not here, he is risen" (Luke 24.5b).

Our bones live when we remember that the cross is followed by an empty tomb, that we serve a risen savior, that we are Easter people who know that if Christ is raised and if a valley of bones can be raised, God will also raise up in us what we need. Let the bones live.

We can speak and act and trust the living God who trust us with each other an the church. This is the God who calls out life in us and encourages us to stay as positive as we possibly can.

We know that we face some difficult realities, and it will take all of doing all that we can. But why do we look for the dead among the living? God is here and we can, if we will, feel the breath of God in us, and if God is here, life is here, and if we have life, there is hope, and if hope then possibility, and if possibility, there can be the a vision that sees that as these bones of ours live, we will come into a good place. In that good place we will not just lament what is wrong, we will acknowledge it, learn from it, and then move on to build more and more on what is right. It is already happening here; people are planning, dreaming, and doing, and we are a better church for it.

How will these bones live? They and we will live as we tell the good news that God will put life in them through the spoken word followed by bold action. Let them hear the word of life and hope, let them support their hope with all that thy can – mind, body, and gifts, including money, with their whole being. Let them believe that there is life in them and that they can come together. Proclaim to them that the time for fear and doubt are over. Now is the time to put together words and deeds, courage and commitment. And so they did.

The bones came together; filled with marrow, covered with sinew and muscle and flesh. Then they just stood there. There was no movement because there was one thing missing God had renewed their lives, but there was not breath in them yet. Then God does one more thing; God calls breath from every corner of creation and breathes life into them, again.

"This entire vision of Ezekiel’s is held together by the Hebrew word, ruah. It occurs in this passage, and can be translated ‘spirit’, ‘breath’, or ‘wind’. It was the spirit that led Ezekiel out into the plain strewn with the bones of the slain. He is to proclaim that God will bring them together and instill life-giving breath in them. "Proclaim life to these bones, and I will breath life into them" (37.5), and when God keeps that promise, reenactment of the first act of creation, when God formed humanity from the dust of the ground and breathed into its nostrils the breath of life takes place (Genesis 2.7) (Interpretation series. Ezekiel by Joseph Blenkensopp. Louisville. John Knox Press, 1990; p.173).

We want to feel the breath of God that comes to us like a soothing breeze or a hot and cleansing wind. We want God to breathe into us so that we can get up and live and say to the world, beginning with ourselves that reports of Broad Street’s death are greatly exaggerated, it is not time to write our obituary yet; it is instead time to celebrate 100 years of ministry on this corner. God has placed on this soil, and there is yet more ministry for us to do here.

Our greater reality is that the Spirit of the living God is upon us and life is in us.

What one writer says is true: "there are indeed ‘dry seasons of despair’. God however is restless and intent. When a community is permitted a homecoming to its own proper place, it notices that there is new life, new joy, and new vitality. It also dares to confess, whenever there is such homecoming and restoration, that God’s reign and rule are visible. In the end, the lesson concludes not by celebrating Israel’s new life, but by asserting God’s faithful, powerful rule and reign, which works newness" (Texts for Preaching – Year A. Louisville. Westminster John Knox Press. 1995, p.221).

So take a deep breath and feel the presence of God in this place. Receive the breath of God and the vision and promise of God; the time is now when what we thought was dying is rattling back to life, what we thought was lost is being restored, and here we are, still here, about to take our new life and do a new thing. Take in the good word that declares "now to God who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to God be glory in the church in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever (Ephesians 3.20).

Let the bones live and feel the connection God has given to us. Praise be to God who breathes on us and calls us to new life. Thanks be to God. Amen.