“Dem Dry Bones”
I recently referenced a creation poem by James Weldon Johnson. Now I refer to another work of his in collaboration with his brother, J. Rosamond Johnston, the song, “Dem Bones”. Each verse and chorus ends with the phrase, “Now hear the word of the Lord.” This is of course because the inspiration for the spiritual song is from the prophet Ezekiel’s instructions from God on how to proclaim hope to Israel. The people of God thought of themselves as cut off completely, with no hope for life. It is not even Halloween but we are looking at this skeleton song in Lent, contemplating the resurrection life of Easter.
It goes nicely in Year A, on the Fifth Sunday in Lent, with these phrases from Psalm 130 which accompany the Ezekiel passage:
My soul waits for the Lord…
O Israel, wait for the Lord,
for with the Lord there is mercy;
With him there is plenteous redemption (Ps 130:5-7)
Given the mercy and redemption of God, the people have reason to hope that they will live. Israel has no life as piles of dry bones in the middle of a valley. The word of the prophet is: God can connect all the bones with sinews and flesh, cover them with skin, and breathe the life-giving wind of God into them. So, as the song goes, “The toe bone connected to the foot bone…the heel bone, the ankle bone, the leg bone, knee bone, thigh bone, hip bone, back bone, shoulder bone, neck bone, head bone, aka the skull. Thus, we hear the word of the Lord. It will help for you to absorb the dramatic vision with these excerpts of Ezekiel 37:1-14 –
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 you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.” …So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude. Then he said to me, “Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. … O my people. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act,” says the Lord.
It is powerful that this prophecy comes into our ears in the dry wilderness of Lent, just two weeks before Easter. Its impact is compounded as it comes alongside the strikingly dramatic gospel miracle of Jesus raising Lazarus, calling him forth from the tomb after four days in death. (John 11)
We are human beings, mortals, so we are acquainted with death. We have our own death to anticipate; we grieve the loss of people, dear ones who die. We also face many experiences of loss, which feel like encounters with death. Because all of this comes with the territory of our humanity, we place ourselves in the hands of the God of the living—the Author of life who restores life to his children. Just to move through the pain of loss as it comes to us, we put ourselves in God’s hands. We say, “My soul waits for the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy—plenteous redemption.” However dry your life is right now, as individuals, and as a people of faith, God can put us back together. We will not just be rattling around, we will be reconnected, covered, living, and breathing the life of God. Can these bones live? Yes, they can, and they will.
