This vision
of Ezekiel’s (Ezekiel 37:1-14) seems to be more appropriate for Halloween than
for the Sunday after Easter. The scene is ghastly: a landscape that is covered
with human bones, the results of bodies that have lain unburied for years. All
that remains are their skeletons – their very, very dry skeletons. What once
made them human – their thoughts, their motivations, and their intentions – are
long gone, along with the flesh that once covered those bones. Now, my guess is
that these bones are the result of a great battle that was once fought right
here. Ezekiel doesn’t tell us that outright, but he gives us a clue when he
tells us that they are located in a valley. Valleys were common battle sites.
The armies would take positions on the surrounding hills and then swoop down to
engage in battle. If that battle was a big one, the casualties would lie
unburied, and the result would look much like the valley of bones in Ezekiel’s
vision.
Is there
life despite the carnage of war? Can these dry bones live? God assures us that
they can. In Ezekiel’s vision, God raises up this entire community of the dead
and breathes life back into them. He even tells us what the vision means.
“These bones are the people of Israel,” God tells Ezekiel. “They say, ‘Our
bones are dried up and our hope is gone. We are cut off.’” But God promises
that he will bring them out of their graves, lift them up, and fill them with
his Spirit. God promises hope even when everything seems to be hopeless. Maybe
this isn’t such a bad vision for the week after Easter, after all.
But I’m not
sure that we really believe that God’s promise ever comes true – at least, not
for whole communities. Oh, we’re good with individual resurrection. We believe
that God’s resurrection power can restore relationships, break the chains of
fear, anger, and resentment, and allow us to live fully and freely as children
of God who are loved and forgiven. We’re good with that. But resurrection of a
whole community – especially one that has suffered the anguishes of war?
Communities at war have seen their young men killed in battle, their women
molested, and their children starving to death! How can a resurrection take
place after experiencing such atrocities? And we see those things all the time
these days. We may not see a valley of bones like Ezekiel saw, but we see
images of bombed out homes, videos of women carrying coffins to graveyards, and
pictures of civilians who have been executed by ISIS. Can there possibly be any
resurrection for communities that have suffered such terrible atrocities?
Don’t be too
hasty to answer “no.” In fact, I’ve seen that kind of resurrection during my
own lifetime. Some of you may remember the situation that used to exist in
Northern Ireland. In the 1980s, Belfast, Northern Ireland looked very similar
to some bombed-out cities in today’s Middle East. The Irish call the conflict
“The Troubles.” It began as a campaign in mostly Protestant Northern Ireland to
end discrimination against the minority Roman Catholics. Although it began as a
non-violent civil rights movement, violent methods of resistance quickly appeared.
Riots, firebombs, and murders became commonplace. British army members, sent to
Northern Ireland to protect Roman Catholics, were attacked again and again. The
impact on the people of Northern Ireland has been compared to the impact by the
German blitz attacks on London during the Second World War. Alcoholism
increased, the unemployment rate rose, vandalism became commonplace, and families
were left homeless. Is community resurrection possible in a situation like
this?
You will
know the answer when you look at a picture of Belfast today. It is now a beautiful,
thriving city! Resurrection power raised up the dry bones of its people and
breathed new life into them. That resurrection began with the Good Friday
Agreement that was signed in 1998. One of the people who was responsible for
that agreement was a man named Martin McGuinness. You may have heard about his
recent death, when he was honored as a peace-maker. But he was not always such
a man. In the early years of the Troubles, McGuinness was a member of the Irish
Republican Army whose purpose was to force the British to withdraw from
Northern Ireland. Their methods were violent: bombings, assassinations, and
executing informers. But at some point during his time with the IRA, this
gunman changed into a statesman. In 1994, McGuinness commented to the New York Times: “Before [Nelson] Mandela
came out of prison, he stretched out his hand in friendship to a people who had
been arrogant, who had neglected the blacks, and who had been very
narrow-minded. We have got to do the same.” Working as lead negotiator for the political
arm of the IRA, he helped to establish the 1998 Good Friday Agreement that
brought lasting peace to Northern Ireland. “Dialogue has replaced conflict,” he
said. “Respect has replaced mistrust. What I want to see develop now and in the
time ahead is a relationship based on equality and respect.” Dare we say that resurrection
power had anything to do with this remarkable change? Certainly through the
peace agreement that he helped to forge, resurrection power was let loose in
Northern Ireland!
It is true
that the wounds inflicted by the Troubles are still relatively fresh; and it
will take time for them to heal. But just as God is the one who can raise a
community from the dead, God is also the great healer; and I am confident that those
wounds will one day heal completely. One of my good friends recently traveled
to Ireland; and she tells me that Protestant and Roman Catholic children are
now intentionally brought together to work and to play so that they learn to
understand, instead of to hate, one another. Belfast is now a peaceful city
where, I was told, police officers do not even carry firearms. At the height of
the Troubles in the 1980s, no one even imagined that such an outcome could be
possible!
That, my
friends, is resurrection power. As God showed Ezekiel in his vision, it can
even raise up a whole community of dry bones and breathe the breath of life
back into them. We need not despair! The resurrection power that raised Jesus
Christ from the dead is still working to raise up not only individuals, but
whole communities! I pray that our children and our grand-children will one day
see the whole world as peaceful and as beautiful as Northern Ireland is now. After
all, that’s what God has promised us. On this Sunday after Easter, God has the
same message for us that he had for Ezekiel: “You will know that I the Lord
have spoken, and I have done it!”
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