Please read this Scripture passage first, before the homily.)
Israel, the people of God’s own choosing, had died and lain dead on the ground, a bunch of dried bones, bleached by the sun. Into exile had gone the nation, into the barren wastes of homelessness. Dry bones, scattered and sanitized by wind, rain and sun, were all that was left. There was no more: all was gone.
“Ezekiel,” God said to his prophet, “Ezekiel, can these bones live?” The prophet replied, “I do not know; I cannot make them live. You alone know the answer to your question; I cannot answer it.”
Then with a rustling and a rattling, a popping and a shuffling, a clanging and a bumping, with a stirring from all directions, came together the bones, sinews and skin of all the people with the breath of God stirring within them, as they came to life.
We have no power over life, to raise from the dead or to forgive sin. This is all God’s doing. The restoration of God’s people to their homeland, their return from exile, was like a rising from the dead. Only God’s mighty and merciful power could gather from among the nations all the scattered remnants of these people and bring them to life again.
God claims to be God, with all-powerful strength and might. If God were to leave us dead in our bodies or dead in our sins and not restore us to life, God’s own honor among all people would be at stake. If God’s redemption of us through Christ would be unable to save us from our sins, then the devil or we would have more power than God. Only God can make the dry bones of our relationship with God come alive.
When God restored the people to their homeland, God did it for the glory and honor of the divine name of God. If, in our day, God has brought the people God had chosen long ago back to their ancient homeland, God has done it for the glory and praise of God’s name and for no other reason.
Neither the people of Ezekiel’s day, nor we nor any other group can lay claim to the power to free the self from disaster and death. It is only the mercy and the power of God that does this.
When God does do this and restores to us the divine Spirit, then we and all others shall know that God is God and Lord, and that we are God’s own people.
Then Ezekiel said to God, “God, can these bones live?” God replied, “I alone know and I will make them live again.”