Reflections from Boston - Ezekiel:37:1-6

I am back from Boston and still processing and feeling overwhelmed by all that happened while I was there.  Our theme for the Boston Youth Servant trip was Gandhi's quote: "The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in service to others."  And as I reflect back on the week's events, I decide to put Ruth off for another week and share instead some of the devotions (or rather a modified, past tense form of them) that I shared with the youth while we were in Boston.

Ezekiel 37:1-6 (NRSV)

The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.”

In Boston, 50 of us learned hands on about how we can find ourselves by losing ourselves in service to others.  Being found by being lost seems to be a strange paradox.  So too does creating life from dry bones as happens to Ezekiel in today’s passage.  Life and Death, Lost and found…what other things that seem to be opposite can you think of that God uses to fulfill mission and hope for God’s people?

As Christians, we know the Easter story of life coming from death.  Death and then resurrection.  But here in Ezekiel we see that God has been bringing life out of death for a long time!  Although we were in Boston to find ourselves by losing ourselves in service to others, we are also had many opportunities to find places where life springs from situations that seem to us to be hopeless or even dead.  Boston itself is a living reminder of a type of this renewal.  We worshiped on "The Greenway" which is the string of parks that now adds beauty to the city where the "Big Dig" once tore it apart and a highway literally divided it.

In our own communities we can look for these signs of renewal as well.  And we can be part of them.  Although most of us may live in the suburbs where renewal doesn't seem to be a critical problem, challenge yourself today to look for places both where it is needed - as well as where it has already begun.  How can you be part of it?

God of life and rebirth, open our eyes and hearts to be part of your ongoing renewing process.  Help us not to stay stagnant and stuck, but instead to be reengaged actively each day in your saving work for the world.  Help us to find ourselves by losing ourselves in the work of your re-creation.  Amen.