God is Able

Coming back from Germany I was working on Ezekiel’s vision of “The Valley of Dry Bones” while on the airplane. One of the blessings of flying these days is the ability to watch a variety of movies so; I took a break and watched one of my favorites The Shawshank Redemption. Andy played by Tim Robbins is wrongly convicted of shooting his cheating wife and her lover.As the prison librarian he received LP records.Locking the warden in the bathroom, Andy boldly enters the prison office and plays a Mozart duet over the sound system.Prisoners inside rise from sleep those prisoners outside stand at attention.Red played by Morgan Freeman describes the music as “so beautiful it can’t be expressed in words and makes your heart ache because of it…it was like some beautiful bird flapped into your drab cage and made the walls dissolve away…and for the briefest of moments – every last man at Shawshank felt free.” Then Freeman’s voice announces that “Andy got two weeks in the hole for that stunt.” 

After the movie the moment Ezekiel announced life within the prison of a valley of lifeless bones came alive for me.It was like the startling slap on a newborn to begin a new rhythm of breathing in hope.

Martin Luther was a person through whom God breathed new life.During our short visit to Germany we visited WartburgCastle in EisenachGermany.This was the fortress that protected Martin during critical time in his life.

After he posted the 95 Theses on the Door of Wittenberg calling for reform in the Church he was asked to recant his words at the Diet of Worms in 1521.It was here where he said those famous words: “I cannot and I will not recant anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. May God help me. Amen."

After this famous encounter Luther was declared an outlaw and his writings were proscribed. Excommunicated by the pope and outlawed by the emperor, he was now in mortal danger.On his way back to Wittenberg Frederick of Saxony created a make believe kidnapping and smuggled him away to Wartburg castle under the guise of Junker George – a knight.From May of 1521 to March of 1522 he was held in this castle.It was a dark time for Luther where he battled the dark night of the soul at Wartburg.Out of this chaos he translated the New Testament from Greek to German; placing the Word of God into the hands of the common people.He wrote hymns such as a“Mighty Fortress is our God” and a Psalm Prayer Book.Though Luther found himself in a valley of transition God breathed new life into the church through him and the gift of the Reformation.It was as if God began a new rhythm of breathing for the church, out of chaos.

At the heart of the valley of dry bones is the message “God is able.” For example:

When we are lost, God’s able to find us. When we’re crushed by guilt, God’s able to lift this burden. When we’re without vision, God’s able to inspire us. When we’re overwhelmed, God’s able to calm us. When we’re attacked, God’s able to deliver us. When we’re feeling disconnected, desiccated, and discouraged, God’s able to reconnect us, refresh us, and revive us.God can take death itself, and transform it into life. God is able.How are these dry bones — speaking to us as a congregation? Where do we need the Spirit of God to be at work among us?What will new life look like, after we open ourselves to the power of the Spirit?

God said to Ezekiel, “Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel.”Our church leaders have said to us today, “Friends, these bones are the church.” When our bones are dried up, our bones are scattered, our hope is lost, and we are feeling completely cut off, at that precise moment the challenge for us is to turn to God and ask him to fill us with his Spirit. The promise is that God will put his Spirit within us and we will live, and then we will know that the Lord has spoken and will act.

God can bring life to bones, and to us. God is able.