like the holiest dream, there's someone calling

an angel whispers my name


A sermon from Ezekiel's vision of a valley filled with bones: 

On my left calf I bear a scar from a muscle biopsy. 
But the truth is, that scar reveals more than the vestiges of some operation…

I’ve always walked up on my toes ever since I was a baby. 
At first, my mom thought it’d go away when I became a better walker. But as I continued to grow, I kept walking that way. 
So my mom she mentioned it to the pediatrician. But he said I’d grow out of it once I noticed how other kids walked. 
He was only half right, though. Yes, I learned I walked differently, but I couldn’t do anything to stop it! I’d remember I was walking funny and make a few conscious efforts to correct it, but in a moment or two my mind would drift and I’d be on my toes again.
*I mean, how often do you think about the way you walk?

So we went to specialists…
And we tried a bunch of different things, but each one was as ineffective as the last. So finally, at wits end, the biopsy was scheduled. We’d have surgery, extract a piece of muscle, analyze it and then know why I was walking the way I was…

And after all that, we went to the U of I doctors and my folks were told, “he’s an idiopathic toe-walker.” And when my mom asks, “What does that mean,” they said, “it means he just walks like that.”

So that’s why I have that scar. 
But really, it reveals more than that. It shows the scars I carry from being teased. The scars I have from not fitting in. The scars I have from having this part of myself I can’t fix.
And the thing is, I’m not alone in this, am I?

We all have our scars like this. Some may be more visible than others, but we all have them, don’t we?
Isn’t that what the new holiday blockbuster, “Wonder” is all about? The scars we carry?

None of us get through this life unscathed. 
That’s why they say you have to have thick skin.
You have to have a hide thick enough to bear the scars life will give you. You have to be able to carry on after suffering one barb or another without coming apart at the seems; or in this case, skin…
That’s just how life is. The way the world words

And today in scripture we see the fruit of “the way the world works;” a pile of dried up bones…
Because that’s the inevitable outcome of one scar too many, isn’t it? The nick we can’t heal from. The cut that undoes everything else, and leaves us reduced to nothing more than a pile of bones.

Because that’s the trouble with our worldly wisdom.
We all know our skin isn’t as thick as we need it to be to get through this life. The barbs work their way in. The cuts accumulate. And all the while, it’s killing us.

So while we’re able to hold everything together today, we’re not sure if we can keep it up for much longer…
In fact, if we’re being honest, many of us are just barely holding it together, aren’t we? Actually, many of us aren’t holding together; and like the Israelites we say; “Our bones are dried up, our hope is lost; we are cut off.”

Anyone here whose scars aren’t healing? Anyone here with a cut that’s gone deeper than skin?
Anyone here today unable to hold it together? Anyone here whose suffered one cut too many?
Anyone here who that happened to long ago? And since then you’ve been drying up, dying inside?
We could all raise our hands, couldn’t we? Because that’s all of us. We all have our scars. We’re all hurting from the wounds we can’t heal. That scars that mark our bodies, and our hearts too…

So you who are here with your scars, hear me loud and clear: you’re exactly where God wants you! 
Like Ezekiel, it’s the spirit of the Lord that’s brought you here today. 

Because that’s the thing about our little gathering, folks: The church is the nothing more than a boneyard. That’s all we are, even at our best!
Every time the church gathers; whether we know it or not, we’re nothing more than the pile of bones.
And that’s EXACTLY the way our Lord God wants it!

Because God doesn’t despise our bruises. The way we walk through these doors. Our bones that are dried up and dying. 
Like the psalmist prays, “a broken and contrite heart O Lord, you will not despise.” The sacrifice God is after is a trembling spirit…

The Lord walked Ezekiel through the a desert-valley, filled with bones. And then asked the question we’ve all wondered but have always been too afraid to ask; “O mortal, can these bones live?”
And the meager, “O Lord, you know,” that Ezekiel manages to squeak out, is more faithful than we are nine-tenths of the time. 

Because we’ve made up our minds, haven’t we?
We’ve decided that once the cut doesn’t mend, the skin comes apart, the flesh and sinew exposed and our bones dry up; we’re done for. 
That’s what we think…

But what God shows Ezekiel, and what Ezekiel prophesies to us in turn is, that’s all God needs to do God’s best work!
After all, before God showed Ezekiel the resurrection, God walked him through the cemetery! Like we say, God does God’s best work in cemeteries!

With nothing more than a pile of bones, God gets to work. With only the Sprit, God’s Word, like at Creation and Pentecost, God makes something out of nothing!

From the nothing of a pile of dried up, old bones, God puts us back together. Puts our lives back together. God covers our flesh and sinew with Skin. God even goes so far as to fill us with God’s own spirit!
hear this, your cuts, bruises, and broken bones; these are the very tools God loves best to work with!

So you who are here with a scar, or two. You who are here and everything is falling apart. You who are here, and your bones, your hope is drying up and dying; you are right where God wants you!
Listen up: God gives you something better than a call for thick skin!
God has given you God’s own skin!

During Advent we prepare for the scandalous thing God did; we call it the incarnation. God taking on flesh.
But what you need to hear is that God didn’t just assume any flesh; God took on your flesh! God took on flesh for you!

This is better than thick skin! This is God taking on your scars, your broken bones, your hurts and dashed hopes unto himself!

Beloved, hear this Word:
At another pile of bones, Golgotha, God sent another prophet to a pile of bones; Jesus. But this time, instead of just having Jesus walk around the bones, look at them; God had Jesus take those bones upon himself! Cover them with himself! Fill them with himself!

Jesus takes on flesh for you! Your flesh, even! Jesus covers your bones with himself! For in your baptism, you have put on Jesus Christ!

And here is the mark that Jesus bears your scars: Have you ever noticed that we’re promised that when we’re raised to eternal life our bodies will be healed; but when Jesus is raised he still bears his scars?
This is because the scars Jesus wears are not his own, but yours!
Jesus bears your scars for all eternity; so that you may be freed from the wounds they inflict! The death they bring!

Jesus bears your scars on his own body. And in turn, gives you not merely thick skin, or even new skin, but his skin! 
His skin that is raised to life eternal. His flesh that is incorruptible!

This is why we call Jesus the “healer of our every ill!” Because he’s just that!
He takes the insults you’ve heard upon himself, and in turn gives you himself! His grace, his mercy, and his love!

Jesus arrival, his advent, it culminated when he was stripped naked, pierced and cried out his last. 
This happened so when your flesh and sinew are exposed; you can cover yourself with Jesus! This happened so when your spirit fails you; you can have the spirit Jesus gave up to you! This happened so that by his stripes; we would all be healed!

Your scars, no longer do they merely bear the marks of your wounds. 
Now, they bear the mark of your hope! They are your stigmata even, for they reveal Jesus and all he has done for you! 
They show the point where your salvation took on flesh and blood for you. Where the Good News became truly yours. 


So as you get ready for Jesus’ arrival, his advent, know your wounds are the very cradle he is born into! It may be advent, but Jesus isn’t going to wait.

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