A Little Piece of Pentecost
Acts 2: 1-21; Exekiel 37:1-14
Brad Hall

What can be as dead as a pile of dry bones? The Lord took Ezekiel into the Valley of Dry Bones and said, "Can these bones live?" And Ezekiel says, "You know whether they can or not, Lord. Not me." But surely what is going through his head is -- "No way can these dead bones live."

So God makes the task a little harder. Not only does Ezekiel have to tell God whether or not he thinks these dead, dry bones can live, HE HAS TO SPEAK TO THEM! God tells him to.

God tells Ezekiel what to say, and just as promised, the bones connect up into full skeletons, flesh forms on them, and they live. That is how the Old Testament tells us about how much we depend upon God. God makes us and gives us life. God IS our life and our breath.

But what I want to know is, WHAT HAPPENED TO THOSE DRIED-UP BONES AFTER EZEKIEL WAS THROUGH TALKING TO THEM? The scriptures go right from God telling Ezekiel that these bones are Isarael and, “I will put My Spirit within you, and you will come to life, and I will place you on your own land. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken and done it,” to, “Take for yourself one stick and write on it, 'For Judah and for the sons of Israel, his companions'; then take another stick and write on it, 'For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim and all the house of Israel, his companions.'

What happened to the bones? We need to know. It’s important to know. this whole story can go any number of ways. When you start talking about bringing dead things to life, there are not many happy endings.

Look at Frankentstein, for example. Or, two of the scariest movies ever made are NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and DAWN OF THE DEAD. These are movies about zombies, or the living dead. These movies are so scary because in them, people die, and then they come back. They don't come back to LIFE, they just come back. They can't think, they can't reason, and they can't be any good to anybody.

In DAWN OF THE DEAD, the people keep coming back to a shopping mall, walking up and down, because that was all they knew how to do. Even though they were rotting and pieces of flesh were beginning to fall off them, they kept walking up and down in front of the stores and riding up and down on the escalators.

Is that what happened to the bones? Did they just get brought to life once, only to wander around, not dead, but certainly not alive? Or did something else happen?

One of the things we celebrate in the church is leaving behind the old self and finding a new identity, a new life, in Christ. We call this being born again. Often we hear being born again spoken of as if it occurs only once, but through the gift of the Holy Spirit, we may have faith that we are born anew every day, every minute of our lives.

As individuals we are continually being reborn, and as the Church we are continually being reborn. To keep that rebirth happening, we need New Blood. We need to be born again not just once, but thousands of times in a lifetime and even hundreds of times a day.

Remember I said, when people start bringing things to life, there aren’tmaby happy endings? The Bible is about the only place where returning to life ISN’T a horror story. If those dry bones just came to life once, it would HAVE BEEN a horror story. But with God there, alongside them, breathing the breath of life into them continuously, the story of Ezekiel in the valley of dry bones becomes one of the great, joyous miracles of the Bible.

The same thing goes for us. If the Holy Spirit has only found its way into our souls once -- long enough for us to join the church or get baptized or saved or whatever, then we are no more alive that those bones were before Ezekiel started talking to them.

For the church to be what Christ meant it to be, for it to be something other than a church of bleached skeleton, the Church of the Living Dead, we have to keep finding ways to make ourselves and the whole church NEW. We don’t do that just to keep things interesting, or to avoid getting bored with ourselves, but because to stop renewing and to stop growing is to die.

Thanks to the gift of the Holy Spirit, we look forward to the new life that comes into the church whenever people are inspired to join in the great family of the church. Trusting in God through Christ, and through the Holy Spirit means everything.

I spent a good chunk of Thursday afternoon at presbytery, and I tell you with thanks that Christ is the Christian's only true leader, not the pastor, not the session, not the presbytery, and not the denomination. Our loyalty to the church will only be of value if our first and true devotion is to Christ the Lord.

If the Holy Spirit is not with us during this hour, then we are not really worshipping; and if it is not with us at every turning point, in everything we do and say, guiding us and showing us the way forward, then we might as well not BOTHER TRYING to worship , because we are not a CHURCH!

But the Spirit IS upon us and we ARE a church. The gift of the Holy Spirit has been poured out upon us, and it cannot be refused, only ignored. And if from time to time we HAVE ignored the workings of the Holy Spirit within us, we need not dispair, because God seems to be in the business of second chances. If we missed the spirit the Last Time -- it will come again.

We talk about how we'd like every day to be Christmas, and every Sunday is little bit of Easter, and every Lord's supper is a little bit of Christ's passion, but the Pentecostals have the idea when they remind us that every Sunday -- every worship service for that matter -- is a little piece of Pentecost. "And God will put the Spirit within us, and we will come to life. Then we will know that the Lord, has spoken and done it."

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Text(s): All Lessons
Name: Brad Hall
Date: 06 Jun 2000

Sermon

What can be as dead as a pile of dry bones? The Lord took Ezekiel into the Valley of Dry Bones and said, "Can these bones live?" And Ezekiel says, "You know whether they can or not, Lord. Not me." But surely what is going through his head is -- "No way can these dead bones live."

So God makes the task a little harder. Not only does Ezekiel have to tell God whether or not he thinks these dead, dry bones can live, HE HAS TO SPEAK TO THEM! God tells him to.

God tells Ezekiel what to say, and just as promised, the bones connect up into full skeletons, flesh forms on them, and they live. That is how the Old Testament tells us about how much we depend upon God. God makes us and gives us life. God IS our life and our breath.

But what I want to know is, WHAT HAPPENED TO THOSE DRIED-UP BONES AFTER EZEKIEL WAS THROUGH TALKING TO THEM? The scriptures go right from God telling Ezekiel that these bones are Isarael and, “I will put My Spirit within you, and you will come to life, and I will place you on your own land. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken and done it,” to, “Take for yourself one stick and write on it, 'For Judah and for the sons of Israel, his companions'; then take another stick and write on it, 'For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim and all the house of Israel, his companions.'

What happened to the bones? We need to know. It’s important to know. this whole story can go any number of ways. When you start talking about bringing dead things to life, there are not many happy endings.

Look at Frankentstein, for example. Or, two of the scariest movies ever made are NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and DAWN OF THE DEAD. These are movies about zombies, or the living dead. These movies are so scary because in them, people die, and then they come back. They don't come back to LIFE, they just come back. They can't think, they can't reason, and they can't be any good to anybody.

In DAWN OF THE DEAD, the people keep coming back to a shopping mall, walking up and down, because that was all they knew how to do. Even though they were rotting and pieces of flesh were beginning to fall off them, they kept walking up and down in front of the stores and riding up and down on the escalators.

Is that what happened to the bones? Did they just get brought to life once, only to wander around, not dead, but certainly not alive? Or did something else happen?

One of the things we celebrate in the church is leaving behind the old self and finding a new identity, a new life, in Christ. We call this being born again. Often we hear being born again spoken of as if it occurs only once, but through the gift of the Holy Spirit, we may have faith that we are born anew every day, every minute of our lives.

As individuals we are continually being reborn, and as the Church we are continually being reborn. To keep that rebirth happening, we need New Blood. We need to be born again not just once, but thousands of times in a lifetime and even hundreds of times a day.

Remember I said, when people start bringing things to life, there aren’tmaby happy endings? The Bible is about the only place where returning to life ISN’T a horror story. If those dry bones just came to life once, it would HAVE BEEN a horror story. But with God there, alongside them, breathing the breath of life into them continuously, the story of Ezekiel in the valley of dry bones becomes one of the great, joyous miracles of the Bible.

The same thing goes for us. If the Holy Spirit has only found its way into our souls once -- long enough for us to join the church or get baptized or saved or whatever, then we are no more alive that those bones were before Ezekiel started talking to them.

For the church to be what Christ meant it to be, for it to be something other than a church of bleached skeleton, the Church of the Living Dead, we have to keep finding ways to make ourselves and the whole church NEW. We don’t do that just to keep things interesting, or to avoid getting bored with ourselves, but because to stop renewing and to stop growing is to die.

Thanks to the gift of the Holy Spirit, we look forward to the new life that comes into the church whenever people are inspired to join in the great family of the church. Trusting in God through Christ, and through the Holy Spirit means everything.

I spent a good chunk of Thursday afternoon at presbytery, and I tell you with thanks that Christ is the Christian's only true leader, not the pastor, not the session, not the presbytery, and not the denomination. Our loyalty to the church will only be of value if our first and true devotion is to Christ the Lord.

If the Holy Spirit is not with us during this hour, then we are not really worshipping; and if it is not with us at every turning point, in everything we do and say, guiding us and showing us the way forward, then we might as well not BOTHER TRYING to worship , because we are not a CHURCH!

But the Spirit IS upon us and we ARE a church. The gift of the Holy Spirit has been poured out upon us, and it cannot be refused, only ignored. And if from time to time we HAVE ignored the workings of the Holy Spirit within us, we need not dispair, because God seems to be in the business of second chances. If we missed the spirit the Last Time -- it will come again.

We talk about how we'd like every day to be Christmas, and every Sunday is little bit of Easter, and every Lord's supper is a little bit of Christ's passion, but the Pentecostals have the idea when they remind us that every Sunday -- every worship service for that matter -- is a little piece of Pentecost. "And God will put the Spirit within us, and we will come to life. Then we will know that the Lord, has spoken and done it."