Reading: Ezekiel 37:1-14
Theme: You're sure we have all the right pieces?
When you buy IKEA furniture, do you take the time to see if you have all the right parts before trying to assemble it? And what would you do if you found you were missing a few essential parts to that swing set you just bought the kids? Or had some wrong parts?
I think Christians today often approach church with this "do we have all the right parts?" mind-set. Why else would we hear so much lament about not having enough kids, not having enough young families, not having a parking lot, having the wrong mix of people, not having enough of the right music, or the right technology ... as though things like these are the problem, and we can't put together a good church without all the right parts?
When Ezekiel looked at the valley of dry bones that were the people of Israel, what a jumble of discarded, disconnected, dis-organized bits of body and bone he saw.
With no parts list to compare the contents of the valley against.
"Hey God," he might have asked, "You're sure we have all the right pieces to rebuild the people?"
To which God replies, "Stop worrying about the parts list. Each people I build is different anyway. As long as the Word and the Spirit are there, the parts that are here will be just what's needed."
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