God's Message to Dry Bones

See the Glory of God Here and Now

5th Sunday in Lent — March 22, 2026

Ezekiel 37:1–14 ⠂Psalm 130 ⠂Romans 8:6–11 ⠂John 11:1–45

Lenten Blessing to God’s beloved,

Nineteen years ago, before my father turned eighty, I learned what “dry bones” really meant. He had lived seven years in bed after a car accident —

seven years of decline,

seven years of slow fading.

When he died, I flew back to Taiwan, officiated his funeral,

and then went to the cremation center to pick up his bones and ashes.

I still remember the staff guiding me — how to put them into the urn.

explaining how the density of a person’s bones depends on their health,

their age,

their gender,

their life.

I still remember how easily the bones crumbled

as I touched what remained.

Some turned to ash with almost no pressure at all,

and I thought, how fragile we are.

I remember placing every piece, every grain of bone, into the urn.

And in that moment — and for many months after — I thought of Ezekiel.

Ever since then, whenever I read this passage,

I don’t think first of those who have already found rest in God’s arms.

I think of us,

the living,

the body of Christ,

the places in us that feel worn down, dried out, stretched thin.

So today, I dedicate the core of this message to the dry bones,

to the dry places in our lives

and in our churches

where, even now,

we still see the glory of God.

That’s the good news.

Because God is at work, always,

the Good News we were reminded of last Sunday.

Ezekiel 37 — The Vision of Restoration

So we heard today: Ezekiel is taken to a valley full of bones.

He tells us the bones are very dry,

long past hope.

And God asks, “Mortal, can these bones live?”

Ezekiel doesn’t say yes.

He doesn’t say no.

He says, “O Lord God, you know.”

And then God begins the work of re‑creation:

Bones

Sinews

Flesh

Skin

Breath

A whole process.

of restoration.

A whole process

of resurrection.

How do we see this restoration — this resurrection — unfolding in our individual lives and in our life together as a faith community, the body of Christ?

• Through breath — God revives what feels suffocating.

• Through sinews — God reconnects what has come apart.

• Through flesh — God restores meaning and purpose.

• Through skin — God shapes identity, values, and vision.

• Through breath again — God animates what we cannot, for the sake of God’s kingdom.

This is a vision for congregational renewal.

For our renewal.

Psalm 130 — The Posture of the Waiting Heart

If Ezekiel gives us the vision,

Psalm 130 gives us the posture.

“Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord.”

This is the voice of someone who knows dryness.

Someone who knows waiting.

Someone who waits “more than those who watch for the morning”,

more than the exhausted waiting for relief.

They wait for breath, the Spirit of God.

This is what dry bones do.

They are fully surrendered — like the posture we learn to have in Lent.

Romans 8 — The Spirit Who Raises

In Romans 8, Paul takes Ezekiel’s vision and turns it into theology.

He says to the people of God in Rome:

The mind set on the Spirit is life and peace.

The Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in them.

That same Spirit gives life to their mortal bodies.

This is Ezekiel 37 in New Testament language:

The same breath that filled the valley

is the breath that fills you and me,

the body of Christ.

Paul is telling us that the Spirit

who raised Jesus is not a future promise,

it is a present power.

John 11 — Jesus and Lazarus

And then we come to Lazarus in John 11.

Jesus didn’t wait until Lazarus became dry bones.

He enters the grief of Mary and Martha.

He enters the confusion of the disciples.

He enters the pain of the community.

He doesn’t bypass human experience.

He doesn’t intercept death but steps into it.

And here we remember:

our human language for “death” is not the same as God’s.

In Jesus’ teaching, death is a condition of being cut off from God’s life,

including the places where sin or fear traps us.

Jesus steps into a death so deep, no one else can enter it on our behalf.

And after four days — long enough for decay,

but not long enough for dryness,

he calls Lazarus out,

“Lazarus, come out.”

So, this is the Good News:

Jesus doesn’t wait for our 100% faithfulness to save us.

God meets us at the point where life seems impossible or irreversible.

Just as Jesus steps into our grief, stands at the entrance of our tombs,

and calls us into life.

Let Us Pray

Jesus, you call us out of the places where hope has thinned,

and you speak a word we still need to hear:

“Unbind him, and let him go.”

Unbind us, O God —

from fear, from weariness, from the stories that keep us small.

Unbind our church —

so we can see what you are doing here and now,

breathing life where we thought only dryness remained.

Breathe on us, O God,

that these dry bones may live.

Lead us toward the empty tomb,

where death loosens its grip

and your Spirit makes all things new.

Amen.