Can these bones live?

Can these bones live?
Ezek 37:1 (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. 2 He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. 3 He said to me, "Mortal, can these bones live?" I answered, "O Lord GOD, you know."
In Ezekiel 37 we read the account of the valley of dry bones and the question that rings through the ages; "Can these bones live?" We have all been through periods of spiritual dryness, when worship seems like tiresome work and our enthusiasm and witness seems to wane. There is a dry season in every believers life and though this season of Lent has brought its share of rain, we need to be reminded that the journey we take with Christ often leads us into the wilderness. There we come face to face with our spiritual barrenness, the realization that we exist so often on a finite resource and when the spirit runs out, as it were, we are left as a rattling reminder of the futility of our religion. Yet we are also in the season of rebirth, of life springing from death. So it is time to prophesy, to speak forth and proclaim the word of truth, even to hear that word for ourselves - that Jesus has come that we might have life to the fullest extent - "so as in Adam all die, so in Christ may all be made alive!" The dead bones of religion are about to be transformed into the vibrant sinews of an intimate relationship with the living God. I am looking forward to Easter this year..." Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live." It is time for the church of this community to come alive again!