Fifth Sunday of Lent                               

          March 25, 2023

Dear Road Church Friends,

One of the Scripture readings in the Lectionary for the fifth Sunday of Lent is Ezekiel’s Vision of the Valley of Dry Bones. It is one of the eeriest, but also one of the most forceful lessons about hope in all of scripture. Ezekiel was called by God to be his prophet to the exiles who were captives in Babylon. It was the worst of times for God’s people. God said to him: “I am sending you to an angry, hurting, captive people who have become disillusioned and embittered. Living among them will be like living among scorpions. They are a hard headed lot, but I will make your head harder harder than theirs,—harder than flint, so they will not be able to wear you down.” This people’s problem was that they had lost all hope. Ezekiel’s job was to be the one and only God-fearing, hard headed optimist among a bunch of hard headed pessimists. Ezekiel’s hard headed hope was based on the vision of the Dry Bones. Sunday’s lesson will be about what Ezekiel’s vision has to say about our Christian hope. Gather with us Sunday at 10 am to pray, praise, and celebrate the hope we share.

SCRIPTURE:  Ezekiel 37:1-14           SERMON TITLE:  A Hope Harder Than Flint

The Lord carried me away to an old battlefield strewn with bones. They were scattered everywhere across the ground, completely bleached and dry. He asked me, “can these bones become living people again?” I replied, “you alone know the answer to that.” Then the Lord said, “I want you to prophesy over these dried out bones and say: Listen, you bones! God is going to make you live again! He will put flesh and muscles on you and cover you with skin. He will breathe life into you, and you will become an army of living, breathing souls.” Suddenly I heard a rattling noise all across the valley. The bones of each body came together to become complete skeletons. As I watched, muscles and flesh formed over the bones. Then skin formed to cover their bodies, but none of them were breathing.  Then God said to me, “Summon the breath of life that rides on the four winds of the earth to come here and tell it to enter these dead bodies so they may live again.” So I did, and sure enough, they began to breathe. Then the bodies opened their eyes and stood up on their feet. Those dry bones had become a mighty army just as they had been once before.

Then God told me, these bones represent the people of Israel. They are saying, ‘We have become old, dry bones without a future. All our hope is gone. Our nation is finished.’ It’s your job Ezekiel, to give them hope, and tell them that I will open the graves they are in. I will put my Spirit in them. They will live again!  They will return to their own land.

ONLY ONE KING

In arrogance and vanity kings sculpture regal words and creeds on granite,

That posterity may marvel at their mighty deeds of war and conquest,

But time and rust grind these memorials to dust.

Only one King  came scorning power, walked with the humble of the land

And served mankind his willing hour,— and he wrote only on the sand!

by John Richard Moreland 

Blessings to all,

Pastor Norm

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