The theme for this Fifth Sunday in Lent is "Dry Bones". The texts are from Psalm 130: "Out of the depths to you I raise the voice of lamentation: Lord, turn a gracious ear to me-for your word upholds my fainting spirit!" And, from the Prophet Ezekiel: "Then God said to me, 'Child of humanity, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Listen to what they are saying: 'Our bones are dried up, our hope is gone, there is nothing left of us!'"

Let us pray. . .

In its contrast between life and death, our text today from the Prophet Ezekiel anticipates the Easter event-dead, dry bones coming to life again. But unlike the Easter event, this text before us places its primary focus upon the life of the people of God on this side of the grave. For Ezekiel's vision of a valley of dry bones is a prophecy that the people of God, long dead in exile, will live once more. It is a prophecy that the people of God, long separated one from another, will be knitted together again through the very breath of the Divine. It is a prophecy that the people of God, long comatose in their captivity, will be raised up and brought out alive-fully formed and fleshed, fully whole and healed!

And I must tell you today that I need to hear that kind of prophesy, we need to hear that kind of foretelling as a people of faith, because we clearly live in a time of dry bones-where hope seems absent and joy seems to be somehow banished to an unmarked grave. We live in a time of dry bones-where our nation's leaders talk to us about their deep and abiding faith in Jesus the Christ while their actions are about trust in other things-weaponry and money and privilege. We live in a time of dry bones-where, as a country, we have only millions of dollars for tsunami relief but billions of dollars to rain down death upon our self-perceived, and too often self-constructed, enemies! We live in a time of dry bones-where, as a nation, on this side of 9/11, we have acquired a heady-er sense of what we can get away with on the global stage-from beatings and torture to broken treaties and arms agreements. We live in a time of dry bones-where, as a country, we are desperately trying to legitimize our national-self image as God's great gift to the world while right here, right here on our own soil, children starve, and prisons grow, and the poor get poorer every day! We live in a time of dry bones-where the religious right in our nation offer to folk not mystery but unambiguous answers, not a radical vision of a common humanity but individual salvation and a materialistic heaven. Is it any wonder that many of us want to raise our voices in lament, crying out to God, "Our bones are dried up, our hope is gone, there is nothing left in us or of us!"

Yet this is why, at the close of this Season of Lent, we must not forget Ezekiel's charge-we must not forget his challenge-for the Divine, we are told, commanded Ezekiel to "prophecy over the dry bones", to speak to the remains of people thirsting for good news, and hope, and joy in the midst of their lament, and loss, and grief! Ezekiel was charged and challenged to literally call forth the breath of God, the life-giving Spirit of God, so as to renew and restore people to a connected, communal way of being-where concern for the common good was more powerful and prevalent than divisive and disconnected individualism. Ezekiel was charged and challenged to prophesy-to proclaim the good news that people could live together in true community, that people once frayed and fragmented could be enlivened and energized once more, and that people oppressed by military power or overwhelmed by political forces could be released from despair and renewed by hope!

But don't miss it-don't miss what is at the very center, the very core, the very source of this re-connectedness and renewal. It was the mysterious and the magnificent Spirit of God, it was the connective and communal breath of the Divine, that revived the dry bones of Ezekiel's day-and it is that same Spirit, that same breath, that can revive the dry bones of our own present time.

This is why I want to share with you today one of my firm beliefs (and yes, heretics can have firm beliefs!)-and it is this. I am convinced, absolutely convinced, that beneath the spirit-killing surface of our contemporary culture lies a deep, unfulfilled hunger for genuine spiritual experiences-a deep, unresolved yearning to be infused with the connective and communal breath of the Divine. In a land of dry bones, the Church cannot simply focus its mission on political rhetoric or socially responsible outreach programs and leave it at that. No, for at the very core, at the very center of the Church's communal life must be a genuine spiritual vitality. If that is absent or overlooked-then people end up drained, and burned-out, or left to wallow in their own despair. As Bruce Bawer puts it in his book Stealing Jesus: How Fundamentalism Betrays Chrsitianity "at core the Church must offer to people something renewing and revitalizing." It must offer to people "a sense of one's connection to the God of the universe and to the entirety of humankind that is so powerful, and so restorative, and so connective that one experiences God's love for oneself even as one transcends self-concern and self-focus."

Example after example demonstrates that in a land of dry bones, the revived and radical Church will become just that only through a renewed emphasis on spiritual experience-and a renewed embodiment of the life-giving breath of God! In his book The Empty Church, a legalistic rant against "liberal" mainline denominations, Thomas C. Reeves grudging acknowledges that All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, despite it's extremely liberal and gay-friendly stance, draws huge numbers of people because, in a land of dry bones, it takes seriously its obligation to provide spiritually meaningful worship services. In a land of dry bones, the equally progressive Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle attracts upwards of fifteen hundred people week in and week out, with most of these folk between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five and having little or no formal religious background But they come-come together for a time worship that is spiritually focused and faithfully restorative.

In a land of dry bones, at a time when so many people are crying out "we are dried up, our hope is gone, there is nothing left in us or of us", I have to agree with Bruce Bawer that it is the failure of many progressive churches "to respond seriously to this hunger for spiritual worship" that has caused them to decline in number and influence. And this lack of response, sadly enough, has caused far too many people to reject the politicized atmosphere of progressive churches in favor of more legalistic communities of faith that deal unashamedly with things transcendent!

And you know what? I don't want that to happen to us as a progressive community of faith! For in a land of dry bones, I don't want us to overlook the deep and abiding hunger people have for spiritual hope and healing. For you see, at our very core, at the very center of our communal life together , there must be a spiritual vitality that empowers us to do justice, and that encourages us to love kindness, and that energizes us to walk humble with God and with each other. And as amazing as that may sound, it is out of such spiritual centering that our dry bones will be nourished and knitted together once more. It is out of such spiritual centering that our fears, and frustrations, and failures will fall away as God's breath fills up our bodies and our souls. It is out of such spiritual centering that our proddings and our protests for a better world will arise-not out of guilt but out of grace, not out of oppressive obligation but abundant hope.

Ezekiel was charged to speak to a valley of dry bones and to prophecy to them that they could live once more. Ezekiel was called to address a people, long separated one from another, and to prophecy to them that they could be knitted together again through the breath of the Divine. Ezekiel was challenged with a call to invite people, long bound by the captivity of fear, to come out into the joy and love of God-fully whole and healed.

In our land of dry bones, may we hear this prophet well-this day and in the days to come! AMEN