Dem Dry Bones: Preaching, Death, and Hope

2. Hear the Word of the Lord

51 2 Hear the Word of the Lord The Content of Spiritual Preaching O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. —Ezek. 37:4 I’m gonna preach when the Spirit says a-preach —Traditional R emembering the spirituals not only aids the perspective that death is the context of preaching, but also reveals the significance of the Spirit in preaching. The spirituals suggest an intermingling of the Spirit, death, and hope. This is important especially for those who desire to preach in the Spirit. Through the lens of the spirituals, if preaching is a “living , breathing, flesh and blood expression of a theology of the Holy Spirit,”1 two vital components of the content of Spirit-filled proclamation, or what I call spiritual preaching, are death and hope. This chapter will explore the Spirit, death, and hope as found in the spirituals as a way of reflecting on what it really means to preach in the Spirit. Death may be the context of 52 • DeM DRY Bones preaching in the valley of dry bones, but the Spirit provides the power and substance of that preaching, embracing death while animating hope. Ezekiel and the Spirit Ezekiel in the valley of dry bones as a homiletical metaphor suggests the importance of the Spirit in the preaching ministry. Just as prominent as the images of death in Ezekiel 37 is the source of life, specifically the Hebrew word for “spirit,” “breath,” or “wind”: ruach. It occurs ten times in this passage and it is the main theological motif in this context of death. Death and Spirit play significant roles where Ezekiel is called to prophesy, to preach, in the same way that the presence of death and the Spirit exist in our congregations. Facing death courageously reveals a deep trust in the Spirit, for as Ezekiel says, “[God] brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley” of dry bones (v. 1), in the middle of death and contamination. The Spirit brings him to the place of death and contamination to preach, to take a risk for the life of a community; if one is not ready to face death, one is not ready to preach because preaching is a matter of life and death. It is critical to note, especially for those who only see the Spirit in the mountaintops of life and moments of prosperity, that the Spirit is also present in the lowest of valleys, even the valleys of dry bones. The Spirit is there in the homiletical domain of death and is the one who nudges us to proclaim a word of the Lord in the midst of death. In other words, the Spirit of life resides in the valley of the shadow of death. Thus one might say that an embrace of death is an embrace and invocation of the Spirit, because by risking contamination and death by engaging it, preachers demonstrate their hope for resurrection and new life. Preachers must risk death to bestow life. When Ezekiel prophesies to the dead, dry bones, it is clear that the “breath” or “spirit” is linked to new life, because wherever he mentions these terms, except in verse 1, he follows it by saying “you shall live” (vv. 5, 6, 14), or “they may live” (v. 9), or “they lived” (v. 10). The Spirit of God is the source of new life and hope, not any human being or preacher. One’s preaching does not bring salvation but the Spirit working through one’s preaching initiates it. Even when the “bones came together, bone to its bone” (v. 7) with sinews, flesh, and skin, there was no life, no breath, no spirit initially (v. 8), though we hear what one scholar calls, “a grand rattle of recreation.”2 There are just empty shells of flesh, zombies, until the breath or spirit of life is imparted to these once dead people (vv. 9-10), HeAR tHe WoRD oF tHe LoRD • 53 painting a reenactment of the primal act of creation, when God formed humanity from the dust of the ground and breathed into their nostrils the breath of life (Gen. 2:7). As in Genesis, it is true here—God is the source of life and revivification. The many dry bones were “lying in the valley” (v. 2), but because of the inspiration of the spirit of...