Can dead, dry bones live? That's the question Yahweh posed to the prophet Ezekiel in our Old Testament lesson on Sunday, and it's the question we'll wrestle with together. Gazing over a valley of death, the prophet is invited to believe that God can breathe new life into skeletons. While it's the only time that question is directly posed in Scripture, in one sense, it is the overriding question of the whole canon.

From the garden-exile onward, man has struggled to believe God's promise of new, resurrection life. At times, the people wonder if God is good enough to fulfill His big promise. Does He really care about our suffering? Does He remember us? At other times, the people wonder if God is powerful enough to fulfill His promise. The problems are so big, the grave so final, can He really put skin and tendons back onto dry bones?

We're still in Lent; and while signs of spring are everywhere, Easter is still in the distance. Just this week I've heard from many of you facing seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Marriages dissolving, health fading, bills mounting. Each of us, like Ezekiel, have pondered the question: can these bones live? We don't know if the tenor of his voice sounded confident or cowering, but the prophet's response to the question was, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”

The Lord did know, of course, but He had more than foreknowledge, He had the compassion and power to do the impossible. What lay inert and rotting suddenly moved as the breath of God commanded the grave to give back what it stole. This is the hope, the promise, we'll remind each other of on Sunday. Our pain and suffering is real, no doubt, but it is finite. Into a world of death God made a promise of life, and our God keeps His promises.

Two thousand years ago the disciples gathered together in hiding: scared, alone, and grief-stricken by the death of their friend, Jesus. For three days the disciples, along with angels and archangels and demons and rocks and trees and the whole of the cosmos, asked the question: "Can these bones live?"

It is still Lent, dear friends. But Easter is coming.