The Valley of Dry Bones

The Valley of Dry Bones

Ezekiel 37:1-14

Tonopah, Nevada, located approximately 400 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is a historic town on the northwestern edge of Nevada. Current population approximately 2,400. Summers in Tonopah are spectacular, but very hot. However, the high desert assures that by nightfall the evening temperature drops significantly, bringing good sleeping weather after the long, hot days. Winters are brutal with high winds, snow and temperatures in the 20s.

In the early 1900s, Tonopah was the site of one of the most spectacular silver mining booms in the West. It began on May 19, 1900, when an itinerant miner named Jim Butler accidentally stumbled upon the second richest silver strike in Nevada history.

News of the discovery traveled quickly, and soon prospectors were coming from all over to search the area. By the summer of 1901, the mines around the town had produced about $750,000 worth of gold and silver, about $23 million in today’s economy.

By 1907, Tonopah was a large city with modern hotels, electric and water companies, five banks, multiple schools, and many other buildings and businesses. From 1900 to 1921, the ore produced by Tonopah’s mines was worth nearly $121 million, or approximately $3.5 billion in today’s currency.

By 1906 the initial boom was past, and by the end of World War II, all the mines were closed. Today, Tonopah is a ghost town. Rotting mining camps and miner’s shacks are visible throughout the entire Tonopah Valley area – empty shells, just like dried bones on the desert floor.

I lived in Nevada for five years in the early 2000s. My company had a satellite office in Tonopah, and I drove there regularly. The drive from my home through the desert was a long four hours during which I passed through smaller mining camps, also abandoned long ago. As I drove along, I often compared the barren and deserted mining camps to the robust Las Vegas Strip with its overflowing hotels and casinos – a different type of mining boom.

I often wondered if the Strip would ever revert to its former self - a desert filled with abandoned, rotting hotels and casinos. Was the Strip just a modern-day iteration of Tonopah’s booming mines?

Enter the coronavirus, COVID-19, and the massive nationwide effort to maintain social distancing and to self-isolate to the greatest degree possible. Fast forward to the now empty Las Vegas hotels and casinos. All the restaurants and businesses on the Strip are closed. All meetings, events, conferences, and shows scheduled to fill the hundreds of thousands of Las Vegas hotel rooms have been cancelled. All the elegant meeting rooms, the  sexy and busy gaming tables, and the city’s financial coffers are empty. Welcome to a new Tonopah.

We have now entered a time in which our “normal” way of life must be abandoned. We are precipitously cast into the unknown. Figuratively speaking, this is a time of exile, in which we will have to adapt to a new reality and way of being, as yet unknown. A time in which we will become companions with so many others throughout the world who have already suffered the loss of life as they knew it.

These days I find myself wondering, is the transformation from riches to scarcity in Tonopah, in Las Vegas, and throughout the world, cyclical? At some point, do even the most spectacular of riches inevitably become dry bones, skeletons of their former selves, lying on the desert floor or in an abandoned neighborhood or in a war-torn country.

In the gospel reading for this coming Sunday the Prophet Ezekiel prophesies about a valley full of bones – dry bones. God said to Ezekiel, “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.” (Ezekiel 37:4-6)

Ezekiel prophesied as he had been commanded by the Lord, and suddenly the bones came together, developed muscle, were covered with flesh, and filled with breath. As the breath came into them, they lived, and they stood on their feet. A vast multitude of them were resurrected and filled with the Spirit of the Lord.

And then the Lord God commanded Ezekiel to say to those who had believed that their bones were dried up and that all was lost, “...I will open your graves, and bring you up from you graves, O my people. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and you shall live on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act.” (Ezekiel 37:9-14)

The historical context of Ezekiel’s prophesy is important to understand. The sovereignty of the Judean kingdom in the land of Israel came to an abrupt end with the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of its leading citizens to Babylon in 586 B.C.E.  Judah’s elite, its scholars, and almost all skilled laborers were exiled to the Northern Assyrian Empire where they were prohibited from observing their faith and where they were exposed to other religions.

Some retained their observance of Judaic Law in secret. Others, influenced by their new neighbors, allowed themselves to modify observances. In the end, some returned to Israel, and others didn’t, happy in their adoptive home.

The Ezekiel prophesy and today’s Gospel reading from John, the raising of Lazarus from the dead (John11:1-45), are both precursors to the resurrection story. Those who have died but live in Christ will be saved – resurrected. Dry bones will become whole and healthy once more. The trick is to live in Christ; to have faith; to have hope; and to observe the great commandments. Love your neighbor as yourself and love God with all your heart, mind, and soul.

For many this will be a time when faith falls away. For some, faith will be used as a tool to get through each day. For still others faith will hold its breath as we “wait and see” what the next period of time brings. Some will return to their spiritual homeland untouched; others will stray into other ways of being.

One thing we do know: There will be a resurrection. God will be there with us every step of the way as we pull together and pull through. He will take us to the cross and beyond. The big question for us all is, are we listening? Are we watching? Are we seeking to live in Christ? Will we recognize the resurrection when it occurs? Or will we walk away in blindness?