When I was a kid growing up in Jackson, Minnesota, a long time ago, I always went to Bible Camp at Lake Shetek, Minnesota. Like almost all Bible camps, this one was located on the shore of a lake such as Lake Shetek. At Bible Camp, I loved swimming in the lake, boating, canoeing, playing softball, chasing girls, and harassing the camp counselors. But I especially liked singing songs at Bible Camp campfire. They had really good songs in those days. I was in grade school and like all my classmates, I was enthusiastic about singing the songs around the evening campfire.

Way back in yesteryear, there was a different set of songs for Bible Camp than the songs we sing today at campfires. All the songs that our kids sing at Bible Camp today are newer songs.

One song that we never sing at our church Bible camps today nor at our church retreats nor at our church mission events is one particular “old favorite” from decades ago. In the old days, we sang this song over and over again at my Bible Camp as a kid.

The chorus went like this:

Dem bones, dem bones, de gunna walk around
Dem bones, dem bones, de gunna walk around,
Dem bones, dem bones, de gunna walk around,
Now hear the Word of the Lord. 

We knew that song so well. We sang it backward and forwards. There were verses that went along with the chorus.  Each verse went up a half a note. The verses started with the foot bone. 

De toe bone connected to the foot bone.
De foot bone connected to the ankle bone.
De ankle bone connected to the shin bone,
De shin bone connected to the knee bone,
De knee bone connected to the thigh bone,
De thigh bone connected to the hip bone,
De hip bone connected to the back bone,
De neck bone connected to the head bone,
Now hear de Word of de Lord. 
Dem bones, dem bones, are gunna walk around;
Dem bones, dem bones, are gunna walk around;
Dem bones, dem bones, are gunna walk around;

Now hear de Word of de Lord. (shaking and wiggling the whole body as the preacher does the chorus) 

That’s the way it was gone in those days, with the body twiggling, jiggling and wiggling like we imagined a skeleton would do. That is about as wild as it got more than fifty years ago at a Bible Camp near Jackson, Minnesota. Our world was mighty tame. Because of the antics and the wiggling that went along with the chorus, that song was deeply embedded in my head.

Now, I want you to know that, as a child, I had never seen a skeleton.  It was tenth grade and I was in my biology class when I saw my first skeleton. It was in Mr. Berg’s biology class. Mr. Berg was also the Senior High principal and I had met him on a few occasions before. I saw a skeleton there, hanging in Mr. Berg’s biology class room. My first skeleton ever.

In my mind, I saw those bones hanging there in Mr. Berg’s class room and then slowly, those bones began to move rhythmically in my imagination.  I saw those bones start moving. “Dem bones, dem bones are gunna walk around. Dem bones dem bones dem bones are gunna walk around.’ When I saw that skeleton, those bones start to move within my mind. Twiggling, wiggling, and squiggling. I couldn’t look at that skeleton without those bones moving, shaking, rattling and rolling. That was in high school, in Mr. Berg’s biology class.

Life continued to evolve. My family and I would go to Chicago to visit my Aunt Sena and Uncle Howard. I was now mature and eighteen years old, half grown up from my point of view. We would go to Chicago and see the White Sox play baseball at Comisky Park. I saw Joe Dimaggio hit a homerun for the New York Yankees. We would not only go to the baseball games at Comisky Park, but we would also go to the Museum of Natural History down there on the shores of Lake Michigan. In that Museum, in one room, there was a glassed-in display case about four feet wide and forty feet long and that display case with filled with skeletons. About thirty skeletons. It was a history of the evolution of human skeletons from the beginning of the human race. It was the coolest thing you ever saw if you were a high school student from Jackson, Minnesota, a “back water” small town, if there ever was one. As I looked at that row of thirty skeletons there in that glassed-in case in the museum, I noticed that those skeletons started moving, wiggling, jiggling, shaking and baking, just like in the song, “Dem bones, dem bones gunna walk around. Dem bones dem bones are gunna walk around. Dem bones dem bones gunna walk around.” Those thirty skeletons in that class in that museum started rattling and rolling and moving in my mind.

During this whole time, from being a grade school boy at Bible Camp to a high school sophomore to an eighteen year old mature man, I never knew what this song was about. I knew the song, but I didn’t know where the song came from. I knew the song but I didn’t know that it came from the Bible. I had to go to the seminary and take many Bible classes before I finally learned the story behind the song, “Dem Bones.”

Do you know the story behind the “Dem Bones?” Maybe you don’t. I would like to tell you the story which is behind the words of the song, “Dem Bones.”

The year was 587 BCE, Before Christian Era, Before Comma Era. It was the bottom in the history of the Old Testament nation. It was the low point of Israel’s history.  Their nation had become like a desert floor covered with dead skeletons in Death Valley. It was kind of like the World War I. No, it was much worse than the World War I. It was more like the Civil War and the battle of Gettysburg and there were dead bodies out there in the fields by the thousands. It was the low point, the worst time in their nation’s history. All those bodies were out there, lying on the desert floor. And the whole desert, as far as the eye could see for 360 degrees, was filled with white bones of long dead young men. The Babylonians had wiped out the total Israelite army. It was no contest. The Babylonians were the strongest nation around. Babylonia was a great big nation; Israel was a dinky, little nation. Israel was nothing; their army was nothing and they got wiped out.  In 587 BCE, all their young Israelite warriors were killed. Their bodies were sprawled out on the desert sands as far as the eye could see in all directions. Those bodies were not buried but just laid there to rot in the sun.

The temple was destroyed. The capital city was destroyed. The people were in total poverty. Everybody was hungry or on the edge of starvation, so much so that I even hate to tell you this but it is part of the story. From the Book of Lamentations, we are informed that the people were so hungry that mothers boiled their own children for food. It was the low point. Lamentations says, “All the people grown as they search for food but no one gives them anything. The hands of compassionate mothers have boiled their children. They become their food in the destruction of the daughters of the people.”

And the Israelite people who were alive were taken as prisoners, chains around their necks, and dragged back to Babylonia. The Jewish nation had become like the dead skeletons strewn across the desert floor in Death Valley.

The Jews began lamenting to themselves, “God can’t help us. God won’t help us. There is no God. God is punishing us for our sins. We are here to rot and die in the desert. We have become like dry bones.”

There was one person left. His name was Ezekiel. The Bible tells us that the Lord took Ezekiel out into death valley and the Lord looked around the desert floor and the Lord asked Ezekiel: “Shall all these white bones (circle 360 degrees) covering the desert floor live again?”

And Ezekiel wisely replied, “Only you know, Lord if those bones shall live again.”

And the Lord God said softly and then louder, with all the gusto of God, “Dem bones, dem bones, are gunna walk around. Dem bones, dem bones are gunna walk around, dem bones, dem bones are gunna walk around. Now YOU hear the Word of the Lord.”

Then the Lord God breathed the Breath of Life into those dead bones. 

“De toe bone connected to the ankle bone;
De ankle bone connected to the foot bone;
De foot bone connected to the shin bone;
De shin bone connected to the knee bone;
De knee bone connected to the thigh bone;
De thigh bone connected to the hip bone;
De hip bone connected to the back bone;
De back bone connected to the neck bone;
De neck bone connected to the head bone;
Now hear da Word of the Word.” 

“Dem bones dem bones are gunna dance around. Dem bones, dem bones are gunna dance around.”

When Israel was at the very bottom and they were most depressed, they heard the Word of the Lord. “Dem bones are gunna rise again.” The nation of Israel would come back to life again.

Today, the question is still asked: “Can God make skeletons dance?” This is the title of the sermon for all of you confirmation students who are taking notes on this sermon. The title is: “Can God make skeletons dance?” It is from Ezekiel, chapter 37.

A most important question that you need to answer today is: “Can God make the skeleton of your life dance?”

Today, I would like to suggest to you a basic thesis: that the very essence of God is to take that which is dead and make it alive again.

Today, I would like to suggest to you a basic antithesis: God’s can’t do it. Today, there is so much pessimism, so much cynicism, so much disbelief that God cannot take that which is dead and make it alive. Today, there is so much pessimism that God cannot make our lives dance again. That is the antithesis statement.

Throughout our lives, there is this perpetual clash between the thesis and the antithesis; that God can make skeletons dance and “No God’ can’t.”

I would like to give four illustrations where God takes the dry bones of our lives and makes them live and dance again.

The first has to do with marriage. I don’t know about you and your marriage, but we are all keenly aware that so many marriages today go on the rocks. Many men and women fall out of love with each other. Who knows why? One out of two marriages end up in divorce. What is wrong with the water of our culture that contaminates so many marriages and kills so many families? What is wrong with the air of our culture that poisons so many marriages today and kills so many families? And none of us really quite know why. Is it the jobs? Is it the stress? Is it our faced pace life? Is it our materialism? Is it the lack of commitment in the first place? People when they get married initially often think to themselves, “Well, if it doesn’t work out, I can always get a divorce.” There is something in the water and air of our culture that poisons marriages. Where a man and a woman finally say to each other, “Our love is dead. Our marriage is dead. Let’s get a divorce.”

So we, as friends, give these “troubled” couples advice. “Try harder,” we say. Try harder to love. Isn’t that an oxymoron, “to try harder to love?”

Or we say, “Try harder to communicate.”

Or, “obey the commandments. Do not commit adultery. You shall not lust after your neighbor’s spouse.”

Or, “think positively and go with Norman Vincent Peale” or the latest version of possibility thinking.

And these pieces of sage advice bounce off our hearts as easily as hailstones bounce off pavement.

I would like to suggest another direction. When the bones were dead in the desert, the prophet Ezekiel called out to God and the four winds. To the Breath of God, the Son of man, he said, “God, come from the four winds, Breath of God, come into me and make me and my love alive again.”

It is the Breath of God who comes into your life that makes you alive. Yes, the breath of God, the living water, the living Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, his words, his thoughts, his presence, his attitudes, the very breath and life of God. What does that mean?

There are four parts to us as human beings. Students who are taking notes, write that down: There are four parts to our lives as humans. First, we all have a physical body. Our physical body has parts, works and moves. Second, we all have a brain. We have smarts, intelligence, gray cellular matter in the cranium. Human beings are far the most intelligent of all the species here on earth. Third, we all have emotions, feelings, and passions, feelings that sing to the highest and drop down to the lowest. And the fourth part of human beings is the most important part of you: the Spirit. Every human being has a spirit inside. All cultures of the world have a religion and temples that symbolize the spiritual realm of life. And we pray, “Breath of God, come into my Spirit.”

When the Spirit of God comes into your spirit, it starts affecting your mind and the way you are thinking about your husband or wife. The Spirit gets into your feelings and the Spirit begins to affect the way you feel about your husband or wife. The Spirit gets into your body and into your physical desires and affects the way you sexually desire your spouse. God’s Spirit gets into your spirit and things begin to change.

It is all in the Spirit of God. It is not something that you do. It is not “trying harder” to make it alive. I am going to try harder, try harder, try harder. The harder you try, often the farther behind you fall.

Rather, Martin Luther said that it was a passive thing. It is not trying harder. It is just the opposite. It is where you step back, take a deep break, slow down and you ask the Spirit of God to come into your spirit. And the Breath of God breathes into you and asks,

“Can the dead skeleton of your marriage live again? Can love again live within your marriage?”

The clash is between the yes and the no, between the thesis and the antithesis: God takes that which is dead and makes it alive. The antithesis: No, God can’t. 

And the Lord God answers, “Dem bones, dem bones are gunna walk around; Dem bones, dem bones, are gunna walk around; Now, hear de Word of the Lord.”

Second illustration where God can take that which is dead and make it alive again. Young people. Teenagers. Young adults. Let’s say that you are in junior high school, senior high school, college, young adults. It is possible for a teenager or even a young adult to become dead like a skeleton. Drinking, doping, drugging, messing around, lying to parents, hanging out with the wrong people. All I know is that young people can become like a pile of bones. We have seen young people that are nothing more than a pile of dead bones.

This past Friday night at our church, here in the sanctuary, forty young people, ages six to sixteen, were gathered to play for a piano recital. The recital was magnificent. On the other side of the wall is the Fellowship Hall and simultaneous to the piano recital, was the AA and NA meeting. For Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous. Our parking lot was filled with young adults. Maybe a hundred of them. There were swarms of young adults out in our church parking lot, with stereos blaring from their cars. Here were livings of young people who had faced the living hell of drug addition and alcohol addiction. Lives all messed up, yet trying to put their young lives back together again.

And some adults share their sage advice to the young, “Come on kid, get your life together again. Grow up. Don’t get her pregnant. Don’t you get pregnant. Use condoms.  Don’t you know the Ten Commandments? Don’t commit adultery. Think positively. Don’t be so harsh on yourself.” Adults give teenagers thousands of pieces of advice and those pieces of advice are like hailstones bouncing off of pavement. Young people don’t need thousands of pieces of advice. People need a miracle.

You pray, according to Ezekiel, for the Breath of God. The Breath of God comes into you and begins to live in your. You have four parts to you. You are made with a body and your have a mind and your have emotions and you have a spirit living inside of you. You pray for the Spirit of God to come inside of you. The Spirit of God enters your mind affects the way you think about your life. The Spirit of God enters your emotions and affects the way you feel about yourself and others. The Spirit of God enters your physical body and affects your actions and what you do for others and yourself.

It is not something that you do. It is the Spirit living inside of you who changes your life. The Spirit of God, the Spirit of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Divine Spirit slowly permeates all aspects of your life, including your way of your thinking, your way of feeling, and your way of acting.

The clash is between the thesis and the antithesis: Can God take that which is dead and make it alive? Yes God can. No God can’t. This clash never ends.

And the Lord God answers with great power and authority, softly at first and then more loudly, “Dem bones, dem bones are gunna walk around; Dem bones, dem bones, are gunna walk around; Now, hear de Word of the Lord.”

The third example that the Lord takes that which is dead and makes it alive. I don’t know about you, but I get into a funk every now and then. Do you people ever get into a funk? I won’t try to define the word, “funk.” You know what a funk is. I don’t need to define it for you. You are down in the dumps and things are not going well and you do not have much energy.

I am not sure when it was but I think it was recent. I came back from some trip and I came back in a funk. Do you know why you get into funks? I don’t always know why I get into funks. I didn’t get out of this funk for six or nine months. I didn’t know how I got into it. And you are like me. Often you get into funks and you don’t know precisely why. And those funks last longer than you think they are going to. You don’t know if you are in a funk because of your marriage or because of your job or because of your kids or because of school. You don’t know precisely why but you are into a funk.

You’re into a funk and somebody says, “Be happy.” And you say, “O thank you very much.”

Or somebody else says, “Think positively. You are so fortunate to be alive.” And you think, “Good grief. You don’t get it, do you.”

People give you all kinds of advice and you read several self help books. And all the advice from the self help books bounce off our hearts like hailstones bounce off pavement. And finally, the miracle comes. You find the miracle is not in the self help books.

You pray to the Breath of God, the Spirit, that the Breath of God will come from the four winds and will come into your spirit. God’s Spirit. Christ’s Spirit. The Holy Spirit. The Very Breath of God. God’s Spirit in your spirit affects the way you think about yourself, the way you feel about yourself as a human being, the kind of physical energy that you have inside of you. Everything is changed and becomes alive when the Spirit of God, the Breath of God, comes and lives inside of you.

The clash is between the thesis and the antithesis: Can God take that which is dead and make it alive? Yes God can. No God can’t.

And the Lord God answered with great power and authority, softly at first and then more loudly, “Dem bones, dem bones are gunna walk around; Dem bones, dem bones, are gunna walk around; Now, hear de Word of the Lord.”

The fourth illustration. It has to do with death. At the very end of Ezekiel 37, the passage for today, the Lord God says to the bones in the desert: “Rise.” And those bones began to rise.

I want to ask you all a question and I don’t want anyone fudging with the answer. Normally, when I ask a question here in worship, I sense a lot of don’t answer accurately and honestly. Here is the question: “How many of you are going to die? Could I see your hands? Very good.” Nobody fudged on that one. Everybody was honest.

We are all going to die. In this next hypothetical question, don’t think of cremation. So we are all put into a box. In this analogy, none of us are going to be cremated. We are all going to be put in a coffin. In your imagination, would you put your dead body into a box. Into a coffin. Can you imagine yourself dead and now lying in a coffin? Now that coffin has been lowered into the ground. Are you all dead, into the ground, in that box? Pretty soon, the flesh starts to disintegrate. Pretty soon, all that is left of you is your skeleton.

The question is: “Can your skeleton dance again?” That is THE question. Can God make the skeleton of your body dance? That is THE big question of life?

Another basic question this: “What did you do to make your skeleton dance?” There you are in your coffin. You are a skeleton. And your skeleton starts dancing. What did you do to make your skeleton dance?”

Nothing!!!

It is a fundamental principle that goes way back.

When love in your marriage is dead. When your kid is all screwed up. When you are in a funk. It isn’t really anything that you do that makes life come again. It is God’s miraculous presence who brings new life to the deadness in you and me.

You pray that the Spirit of God will come and breath life inside of you. God’s Spirit. Jesus’ Spirit. The Holy Spirit. When your physical skeleton is dead, from of the Breath of God, from the four winds, comes the Breath of God and that Breath of God comes inside of you and slowly….slowly…slowly… Muscles begin to grow on the skeleton and then flesh and then skin.

In the year 587 BCE, the Lord God looked around the desert and the desert floor. There were skeletons all around, all around for three hundred and sixty degrees. Nothing but skeletons, as far as the eye could see. God looked all around and all that God saw was skeletons. And the Sovereign Lord said, “Ezekiel, pray for the Breath of God to come.” And Ezekiel prayed, “Breath of God, come on these dead bodies” and all those dead bodies started to breath. And started to move. And pretty soon all of them were twiggling and wiggling and jiggling and dancing again.

And the Lord God spoke with great authority and clarity and said :

“Dem bones, dem bones are gunna walk around,
Dem bones ,  dem bones are gunna walk around,|
Dem bones,   dem bones are gunna walk around,
Now hear the Word of the Lord. 

Amen.

The praise song (with guitar) is: “The Lord of the Dance.” Have all the youth of the church come forward and lead the congregation in the praise song, “The Lord of the Dance.” Have the kids do “their” jig on the chorus.

CHILDREN’S SERMON.  Have a person who knows CPR come forward and demonstrate CPR. Here at our congregation, we had “Mike the Medic” come forward. Mike is the medical person who is present on many youth retreats. “Mike the Medic” did CPR on a person who had hypothetically died, breathing into that “dead” person the breath of life. The “dead person” was receiving the breath of life. The breath of life was a pure gift to him. The “dead person” did nothing to receive the Breath of life. So it is when God’s Spirit comes to breath life into us.


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