St. Aidan's Anglican Church
  • Home
  • Worship Online
  • The Preachers Blog
  • Bible in a Year
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • The Re-Gathering
  • Youth
  • Cords
  • Prayer Requests
  • Request Pastoral Care
  • Give
  • Grocery Pick Up
  • Statement of Faith
  • Video Archive
    • 2023 Videos
    • Real Lives
    • 2022 Videos
    • 2021 Videos
    • 2020 Videos
  • Sermon Audio Archive
    • 2020 Sermons
    • 2019 Sermons
    • 2019 Sermon Series >
      • Gospel Centered Eternities November 2019
      • The Real Joy of Easter - Holy Week 2019
    • 2018 Sermons
    • 2018 Sermon Series >
      • Gospel Centred Church Spring 2018
      • A Gospel Shaped Church Fall 2018
    • 2017 Sermon Series >
      • The Servant King Christmas 2016
      • The Saviour King Lent 2017
      • The Victorious King Holy Week 2017
      • The Living King Easter 2017
      • The Brother King Fall 2017
      • Worship the King Advent 2017
    • 2016 Sermon Series >
      • Real Obedience Lent 2016
      • Unity of the Church
      • The Servant King Christmas 2016
    • 2015 Sermon Series >
      • Real Gifts 2015
      • Real Mission 2015
      • Mission Discerned
    • 2014 Sermon Series >
      • Real Church 2014
      • Real Lives 2014
    • 2013 Sermon Series >
      • Real God 2013
    • Sermon Archive From 2014 - 2017
  • Christianity 101
  • The Psalms Blog
  • Bible in a Year
  • The Re-Gathering

the  Preachers  blog

Blogs are posted every Wednesday

Bones and Spirit (By Lynne McCarthy)

7/15/2021

 
Ezekiel 37-39  (Ps 41) 
Observe   We begin with the familiar yet astonishing vision of the valley of dry bones. In the Spirit, God brings His prophet to a valley floor covered with bleached bones, to prophesy over them.  ‘Can these bones live?’ (3) He asks rhetorically. As he prophesies, God first recreates the bodies – just corpses, really. Then as when God breathed life into Adam (Gen 2:7), so the breath of God enters these bodies: “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain that these may live.” (9) until they became an exceedingly great army (10). God interprets this dream as restoring life to Israel with the marvelous promise, “And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I shall place you in your own land.” (14)
 
The restoration of Israel and Judah, homecoming alluded to in the first part of this chapter, uses street theatre again. Ezekiel joins two sticks into one, illustrating God’s desire to join the Northern and Southern kingdoms into one. The diaspora will return to Israel; one kingdom will have one king; they shall be remade morally pure. The promise of the land, a covenant of peace, and the promise of God’s eternal dwelling with them witness to the nations that “I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel…” (15-28).
 
Chapters 38 and 39 are actually one unit. Mysterious Gog is ruler of the equally-mysterious Magog, waging war against Israel. Imagery is violent (38:19-22; 39:17-20) as God moves in wrath against the hordes of this ruler, real fire and brimstone stuff. But God emphasizes His sovereignty. “Then they will know that I am the Lord” (38:23) we have often read in other books and contexts, but He is relentless in this declaration of His holiness, whether to His people or other nations.
 
Chapter 39 ends with the promise, “I will restore the fortunes of Jacob and have mercy on the whole house of Israel…” (39:25) Grisly scenes yield to promise of homecoming, and again God promises He will be with them and “…pour out My Spirit upon the house of Israel…” (29). His holy name will be upheld as Israel forgets its past shame, restored and forgiven and returned.
 
Interpret   This vision, the third in the book, reveals God’s power to create and recreate a community bereft of real life. As we read the sequence of restoration, all our senses are involved: sight, sound, imagination, as the Lord gives life to a dead people through His Spirit, and His obedient prophet.
 
Apply   We simply cannot live as followers of Christ without the animating power of the Holy Spirit. At Pentecost, until the powerful visitation of the Spirit, we find the apostles and others waiting, or maybe cowering together after Jesus ascended. As the wind/breath/ruach (Spirit), roars through this confined space, as the flames burn into their very beings, only then can they move outside of their own old lives to speak out the word of life. We pray God to grant us in this church His reviving, renewing Spirit, to change our lives so that others will see and ask what this is, and be drawn to the Lord.

Ask   We pray for revival in our congregation, and so we must. Am I ready for what that really means, the changes it will entail?  Do I want to so live that I leave old self, old stuff and baggage behind, to move into Him, as obedient and transparent as Ezekiel?

Pray   Actually yes, I do, Lord. Clean me up by Your Spirit so I am ready to listen, consider, and move where You would have me, even if it means staying in the same place, but changed utterly. Your Spirit’s power, and the love of Jesus, is what I will have to give to relieve the cynicism and despair around me.

Song  Ps. 41:  Consider the Poor  Randy Gordon 
Ps. 41:  Amen and Amen   Abe & Liza Philip 
Dem Bones  Delta River Boys 
​

Comments are closed.
    Picture
    Picture

    Preachers Blog

    In 2023, each week's blog is a follow-up reflection written by the preceding Sunday’s preacher to dig deeper into the sermon topic and explore engaging discussion questions.

    ​Thank you for joining us as we journeyed through the Bible in a Year in 2021 and the Psalms in 2022.  All past blogs remain available if you wish to catch up with any days missed.

    Archives

    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

    Who is Jesus?
At St Aidan's, it's our desire to know our Real God,
to grow as a Real Church and
​ to live Real Lives for Him.

Picture
St Aidan’s Anglican Church
274 Campbell Street | Winnipeg, MB R3N 1B5
Phone: 204.489.3390 Email: staidans.churchoffice@gmail.com
  • Home
  • Worship Online
  • The Preachers Blog
  • Bible in a Year
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • The Re-Gathering
  • Youth
  • Cords
  • Prayer Requests
  • Request Pastoral Care
  • Give
  • Grocery Pick Up
  • Statement of Faith
  • Video Archive
    • 2023 Videos
    • Real Lives
    • 2022 Videos
    • 2021 Videos
    • 2020 Videos
  • Sermon Audio Archive
    • 2020 Sermons
    • 2019 Sermons
    • 2019 Sermon Series >
      • Gospel Centered Eternities November 2019
      • The Real Joy of Easter - Holy Week 2019
    • 2018 Sermons
    • 2018 Sermon Series >
      • Gospel Centred Church Spring 2018
      • A Gospel Shaped Church Fall 2018
    • 2017 Sermon Series >
      • The Servant King Christmas 2016
      • The Saviour King Lent 2017
      • The Victorious King Holy Week 2017
      • The Living King Easter 2017
      • The Brother King Fall 2017
      • Worship the King Advent 2017
    • 2016 Sermon Series >
      • Real Obedience Lent 2016
      • Unity of the Church
      • The Servant King Christmas 2016
    • 2015 Sermon Series >
      • Real Gifts 2015
      • Real Mission 2015
      • Mission Discerned
    • 2014 Sermon Series >
      • Real Church 2014
      • Real Lives 2014
    • 2013 Sermon Series >
      • Real God 2013
    • Sermon Archive From 2014 - 2017
  • Christianity 101
  • The Psalms Blog
  • Bible in a Year
  • The Re-Gathering