Easter 2 - Quasimodogeniti - 4-19-09

The Church Season of Easter,
Easter 2 - Quasimodogeniti
Our Savior Lutheran Church, Midland, MI (April 19, 2009)

“The Resurrection of the Dead”

Readings:
Psalm 33
Ezekiel 37:1-14
1 John 5:4-10
John 20:19-31

Sermon Form: Deductive

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Grace, mercy and peace be to you from the Father

and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

Ezekiel 37:1-14

“1 The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 3 He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “O Sovereign Lord, you alone know.” 4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! 5 This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’ ” 7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. 9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’ ” 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army. 11 Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ 12 Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.’ ”

Alleluia! Alleluia! Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Amen.

And what do we know of this book from the prophet Ezekiel? Well if we know anything it is probably closely connected to the idea of the “Valley of dry bones” and a African-American spiritual song called, “Dry Bones” or more simply “Dem Bones.” But beyond that, we don’t much, just one of those stories from the Old Testament that piques our minds and tickles our ears, into saying, “yeah I think remember that one.” Our world strives to convince us that there is no need to dig in any further to understand the words of those long dead prophet’s. This world would have us think it’s from the Old Testament, just a bunch stories, tales, and adventures made up like the characters in some fictional novel.

But this is no novel, no short-story, but the God breathed Word of the Lord who set the prophet Ezekiel, “in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones.”(v. 1) This was no collection of laboratory skeletons but a “sea of scattered, disarticulated bones.,” meaning endless piles of human bones which had no shin bones connected to thigh bones, just bones. But these bones were different, for God breathed His Word over them and they were returned to life, truly this was...

The Resurrection of the Dead

God asked Ezekiel if all those bones could live, and Ezekiel responded, “Lord, YHWH, you know.”(v. 3) And God did know, for He would command Ezekiel to “breath and blow into these slain that they may come back to life,”(v.9) and that is exactly what happened. Not a story and not fiction, God caused Ezekiel to see it and Ezekiel believed what he saw.

In the same way, on the sixth day the Lord God created the man Adam, He “formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”(Gen 2:7) The dust of the ground received the breath of God and from this force majeure, this act of God, Adam became a living human being, from dry dust to a quickened living man. Unbelievable?

Elijah took the lifeless body of a young boy and soon after the boy’ life returned to him. (1 Kings 17:22) Elisha too came to the aid of another young man who was found lifeless, yet he too healed the boy, and he came back to life.

Yet the scene that Ezekiel was viewing was different than that of Elijah and Elisha, these disconnected bones were not still warm, there was no flesh, no skin, just scattered bleached and very dry bones. Yet upon breathing upon these bones, they came to life, they connected together, first tendons, then flesh, then skin, then there was a vast army. And God said, “prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them.”(v. 12-13)

An amazing story, pretty good review of the Old Testament scripture, but you may well ask, “What has all this to do with me?” Last week and today you proclaimed, “Christ is risen!” It means that you believe that Christ was resurrected from the dead. Yet you did not see it like Ezekiel, like Elijah, or Elisha. You did not see Lazarus fall asleep and die, nor did you see Christ heal him and watch as Lazarus stepped forth from his tomb. But you do believe that Jesus Christ is God’s only son, “Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell. On the third day He rose again from the dead.” You didn’t see any of those things but you confessed together that you believe all that, even though there is absolutely no other record of a man coming back to life after three days. You believe in the resurrection of the dead.

Yet even as we confess these words of our creed each week, our weak and sinful hearts think that visions, like Ezekiels, make for a cute story, a cute song, but deep in our minds we wonder if it ever happened. Did Elijah and Elisha really bring people back from the dead? Did Jonah rest in the belly of a great fish for three days? Did God create the world in six, twenty four hour days? Did Moses cross the Red Sea on dry land? Did Noah really build an ark? But we say, oh of course yes, I believe in Christ, but what about........The questions never seem to end. But the answer to all of these is yes, they all happened just as it was written. Not by the hand of man, or to be understood by human logic, rather it is all accomplished by the right hand of God, Jesus Christ.

Our disbelief leads us to our lifelong sinful vocation of straining the gnats of human logic, while at the same time swallowing whole camels. We attempt to drag the scriptures through a strainer of sinful worldly logic. We doubt Old Testament miracle accounts, yet we confess that Christ came back to life after being in His three day grave, something unheard of in the past and in the present. How is it possible that we can we believe in the resurrection and yet still question the rest of scripture? We look to Cable T.V. shows to explain how the things of God may have happened by human intervention. And if it can’t be explained then we will just believe the parts which we understand. Or more likely we choose which pieces and parts we will believe. And so in our doubt, we stand squarely with the apostle St. Thomas and proclaim with him, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.”(Jn 20:25)

Repent. For Christ did appear to Thomas and then Thomas believed. God did speak to Moses, Noah, Elijah, and Elisha, to Jonah, to all the prophets, to Ezekiel and He still speaks to His people even today. Early on Easter morning, the women went to Christ’s tomb and Christ was not there. Jesus Christ is raised from the dead. There is nothing dead in the tomb, in fact all the dying people were, and still are, outside the tomb. For all humans “have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,”(Rom. 3:23) and all humans will die.

Yet there is hope, for just as God said to Ezekiel, he says to you, “O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them.”(Ez 37:12) Because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, you too will be resurrected along with the vast army of all Christians who have died in the faith. To Ezekiel God said, “I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land.”(Ez 37:14) And that is all achieved and made sure not by human logic, but by the totally illogical act of Christ who died on the cross, for you. And the Holy Spirit works faith in you, for your faith was given to you in your Baptism, and you hear that Spirit as the Word of God is proclaimed. And your Spirit is renewed, strengthened, and refreshed each time you receive the Holy Sacrament of our Lord Jesus Christ as you eat and drink His true body and blood.

Ezekiel was shown a great valley of bones by God, and these bones were brought to life by God’s breath. All people, who have ever lived on the outside of Christ’s tomb are a great valley of bones that God will raise again as a vast army. One day He will settle you, His faithful people, in your own land and “you shall dwell forever in the new heavens and the new earth with God.”(Rev. 21-22). And as God said to Ezekiel, “Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.”(v. 14) He has done it for you and for all would believe. In an instant, like a flash of light, you too will be resurrected from the dead, for in Christ, “Dem dry bones” of yours will live forever. Amen.

Alleluia! Alleluia! Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Amen.

The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God

and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
AMEN

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