From Bones to Vision to Reality

Pastor's Page (October 24, 2007)

We are a resurrection people . . . we are filled with the knowledge and the anticipation and the sure hope of a future with God. But what can we really say about resurrection, what does it really mean to our everyday lives? Does it just refer to some far off, indeterminate future state, when the trumpet blasts and the lion lies down with the lamb? Do we just muddle along in life, hoping for the best, buffeted by winds that blow every which way but loose? Or does the resurrection story mean something for us right today, right now, in the circumstances in which we find ourselves?

Biblical scholar Walter Wink thinks so . . . he points to the story about a time when Israel was in exile in the land of Babylon, on its last legs as a people, ready to be swallowed up and assimilated into the Babylonian Empire. God came to Ezekiel and told him what to say, he told him to preach to the people, preach that the Lord would revive them, that God would reanimate those dry, old bones. And suddenly there was a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to bone. There were sinews and flesh and muscle covering those bones, and in the vision of Ezekiel, the spirit of God animated the people, and finally, there they were, standing strong again in the valley. And in Babylon the Israelites heard this prophesy, they listened to it and they began to talk about the possibilities, and in the talking about the possibilities they came to plot and plan and hope. And in the planning, the hope came to anticipation and expectation, that what they once thought impossible would indeed occur. And we know that they did indeed succeed, that against all odds, they were not assimilated into the Babylon monster. They survived as a people.

This story moves from despair to hope to anticipation to certainty. And it took imagination first, a vision of what could be, a valley filled with life, with a reinvigorated nation . . . and that vision set people alive, it set them talking and planning and plotting, it set them to hoping, and from there it was foreordained. What began with a gleam in Ezekiel’s eye, planted there by the Lord, blossomed into a full-blown reality.

Here at Covenant, we’ve seen the bones, haven’t we? We’ve been shown them in the demographics, in the slides John has prepared, and in recent newsletter articles as well . . . and now it’s time for the vision, the vision of Covenant vital and growing and strong. Your Seekers have been working at it, they’ve been studying and praying and interviewing the congregation, and they’ve learned a lot and will learn a lot more. Now it’s time to share it with the people, to prophesy to this congregation. So watch this space for our vision, for the dream which, through God’s grace and our shared commitment, will come to pass.