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“Is Our Hope Lost?”Ezekiel 37:1-14November 2019, the virus we know as the "Coronavirus" or "COVID-19" appeared in Wuhan, China. Today, nearly five months later, that same virus is affecting people around the world. At nearly 675,000 cases worldwide, COVID-19 is on a trajectory that will continue to infect people in 195 countries for months to come -their health, their finances, and their weary spirits. This event, next to Sept 11, 2001, may be the most devastating world event of the 21st century and is already being compared to two monumental events of the 20th century: the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic that infected 500 million people around the globe, killing about 50 million, and the October 1929 US stock market crash and the following great depression that reverberated around the world through the 1930s.The Spanish flu was a three-year epidemic. The Great Depression lasted a good 10 years through the 1930s.The changes and devastation of COVID-19 is still in its infancy. But these kinds of devastating events don't just impact our wallets and our health. They severely impact our emotional, mental, and spiritual health. 1918 ended the bloodiest war (WWI) in history with huge losses of life but was followed by more loss with the Spanish Flu. Both devastated the young, killing primarily those from 18-40. In 1929, the suicide rate jumped 12:1 to 18.9 per 100,000 after stocks plummeted 13% on Black Monday (October 28) and another 12% on Black Tuesday (October 29). The economy would take years to recover. My grandmother lived through all these events and would tell me stories of how these world events were woven into the fabric of our family story.And yet the human spirit, aided by the Holy Spirit, continues to strive, to hope, and to love.Every time we face death, destruction, despair, and devastation, we call upon the Holy Spirit to renew us, refresh us, and set us on our feet again. Just as faith surged in the past after global changes and difficulties such as the industrial revolution, the Revolutionary, Civil, and World Wars, the Spanish flu, and the Great Depression, we live in a time when faith is needed now more than ever. All of humanity has needed faith at every time in history.The prophet Ezekiel prophesied to a people who had lost hope as a nation. Ezekiel and others had been exiled from Judah after Jerusalem had fallen to the Babylonians. The book of Ezekiel contains the accounts of his prophecies and visions made over a twenty year span of being an exile in the sixth century B.C.E. His words echo the words of his contemporary Jeremiah. Today’s text tells of God taking Ezekiel to a valley of dry bones where he asked him a question. A simple and yet profound question, “Can these bones live again?” How would you answer God? We know logically that they can’t live again. The bones were dry, brittle, and sun bleached. They couldn’t possible live, again could they? Ezekiel chose a different answer. “If you will it Lord.” God did will it. God told Ezekiel to preach to the bones. As he preached God moved and the bones were joined, and the skeletons were covered by flesh. Can you imagine it? God commanded Ezekiel to preach to the four winds so that the spirit would return to these bodies. The more Ezekiel acted in faith the more God gave life to the “valley of the dry bones.” What would you do if God told you to do something like this?You see God used this event to teach Ezekiel through a metaphor. The bones in the valley represented the Jews and their loss of hope in their situation. They were broken as a nation. Living in exile never believing that they would be a nation again. Their own disobedience had brought them to destruction. Isn’t that the way?I believe that God teaches us two things to hold on to in this passage concerning hope. First, our hope is lost if it is in HUMANITY!What I mean is that our hope is lost if we trust in ourselves without understanding that we are powerless to control everything around us. This COVID-19 is teaching us that reality. We don’t like to submit our will or ourselves even when it benefits us, our community, or world. We hoard groceries and essentials. We look for ways to skirt the rules or flat out think that we are above the rules, or that they just don’t apply to us. The Biblical stories of creation tell us that we’ve collectively demonstrated disobedience from the very beginning of human history. But God always reaches out to us. To Ezekiel and his people, God wanted them to know that as the bones lived again, they would be a people again. This leads me to our second point this morning.Secondly, our hope is not lost if it is the HOLY SPIRIT! You see it was God’s Spirit that reanimated the bones in that valley. It was God’s Spirit that prompted what Ezekiel preached to the bones. Is your hope lost today? If it is, then maybe the question is what or who do you hope in?Several years ago, I heard a sermon from a Cuban Bishop, Bishop Periera. A good friend of mine acted as interpreter. The Bishop told of how he was on the road traveling to preach at a church in the country and along the way he had to stop and stretch his legs and check a map. This was long before GPS or mobile phones. As he was moving around, he saw some cows in a field. The Lord told him to preach to the cows. He asked the Lord, “What should I preach?” The Lord told him preach what he was going to preach at the church. Well, it was an evangelistic service that he was going to that night. So, he had to choose to answer the Spirit or not. Well, Bishop Periera preached to the cows. He preached a salvation message to the cows. He told the cows that they needed God’s forgiveness and God’s grace. When he had finished his sermon, he got in his car and drove on. When He arrived, he led the service. When it was time to preach, he asked if there were any needs that anyone had in the congregation that night. A man stood up and said that he needed God’s grace and forgiveness. He began to say that he was hiding in the brush outside of town and that he was going to steal some cows and suddenly a voice began to tell the cows that God loved them and that they were in need of God’s grace. Well you can figure out the rest of what happened that night. Do you have hope this morning or is it lost or shattered? Have you trusted in others only to be disappointed? Let me tell you God is in the business of restoring lives. Will you make God’s Holy Spirit the object of your trust and hope? Let’s pray. ................
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