Breath and Life in Difficult Times

We are certainly living in uncertain times, times unlike any most of us of seen in our lifetimes. The Covid-19 Virus, now a Pandemic has literally encircled the world. People have gotten physically sick, people have died and many people around the Globe live in fear for their health and even their lives. Additionally, most of us feel anxious; we are confined to our homes, only leaving for essentials, such as food, medicine and toilet paper. Nursing Homes are on lockdown, schools are closed for the remainder of the school year, businesses are shuttered or running as shadows of their former selves and medical professionals are overworked and under supplied.

Additionally, millions of people have lost their jobs or been furloughed without pay and today is April first and rents are due and mortgages need to be paid. What do we do and where do we go for help. Psalm 121:1-2 encourages us with a similar question, and an answer: “I lift up my eyes to the hills—from where will my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” Yes, we who trust in the Lord will always go to God for help, comfort and Guidance. We will also use the abilities, knowledge and wisdom given to us by God: we will look to physicians, scientists, our elected officials at all levels of government and the civil servants who work for them. We will also love and care for one another in every way possible.

Over the centuries human beings have faced many crises: plague, famine, war, invasion  terrorism and exile. In the sixth century BC, between 597 and 586 Jerusalem was besieged by the Babylonians, the city and the Temple destroyed, the leaders and educated people taken to Babylon and most of the poor left in Jerusalem with little resources to live on. As God often does, God called a prophet to encourage, comfort, strengthen and assure the people, both in Babylon and Jerusalem that God had not forgotten them, that God would see them through, give them hope and bring them back to health and life. That Prophet was Ezekiel and he wrote out God’s charge to him and God’s hope for Judea.

“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?” I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: 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. . . .” Ezekiel 37:1-14

I believe this is a message we need to hear today and I believe there are many prophets proclaiming this message, in “thought, word and deed.” Churches and individuals, schools and community organizations are providing food and temporary shelter for those out of school and work. Landlords are helping as much as they are able to give people rent relief. Federal, state and local governments are working to provide stimulus packages, increased unemployment income and much needed supplies and equipment for hospitals and medical personal.

All is not running smoothly, we don’t agree with every decision made by our leaders, but we are all in this together, not just in the United States, but we are truly a global society, a global economy and we will only solve this problem working together. Neither was life running smoothly in Ezekiel’s day: Jerusalem was dead; the bones were lifeless and useless. God promised that the bones would be covered with muscle and skin, and just as at the creation, the ‘breath of God’ would enter them and they would live, the nation would live. Remember that the Hebrew word for breath is also the world for spirit, so God put God’s breath, God’s Spirit into the Nation and it ‘lived and knew that God was and is the Lord.’

I believe that is what is happening today, that God is breathing the Holy Spirit into our world, into each nation and its people. I believe this is true for all of us, of people, from every nation, every race and religion and no religion. God is the God of all, and God sent the Son into the world so that the whole world might be saved.

This is the time to believe that these bones will live, and that they will live because we will do our part to protect ourselves and our loved ones and those in the community. We will stay away from people until we are sure that it is safe to resume normal, whatever that will mean, activities. If there is any good we can do to help others to live we will do it with love.

Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners: Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found. Amen.