Can These Dry Bones Live?

Ezekiel 37, Acts 2

Watch on YouTube

How many of you like the wind?[1]

It’s not my favorite.

So why don’t we just get rid of it?

What would the world be like without any wind?

No hurricanes or tornadoes. That would be nice. But also, no storms, and no weather, either.

The wet places would get wetter and the dry places would get drier because there’d be no wind to move storms around. Hot places would get hotter and cold places would get colder. Also, no ocean currents.

Trees, flowers, grasses would be concentrated in certain areas since there would be no wind to spread their seeds around, and no storms to bring them water, so they’d only live near existing water.[2]

[3]

There would be no sailboats. Would we even be here without sailboats? Some of us would and some of us wouldn’t, since the wind powered the sailing ships that brought European explorers to the Americas.

If there were no wind, maybe we’d all be Catholic, since it was the wind that stopped the ships of the Spanish armada from attacking England in the 16^th century. The Spanish were Catholic, and England had just become a Protestant nation. If the Spanish had been able to attack and win, England would have been Catholic.

Actually, with the succession of kings and queens, England did eventually become Catholic again, but a mighty wind helped William of Orange across the English Channel in the 17^th century. He took over England, and once again England became a protestant nation. Since the wind helped the protestants, that wind (and the one that stopped the armada) became known as the Protestant Wind.[4]

There are probably other ways the lack of wind would make life different.

On Pentecost, Acts tells us that it wasn’t actually wind, but a noise that sounded like a rushing wind, so if there were no wind, then we’d need a different analogy to describe the sound.

But what if we didn’t need an analogy at all. What if Pentecost never happened?

Pentecost is the name of a special feast day that Israel already celebrated, but the reason Christians celebrate Pentecost is that the Holy Spirit was poured out on all the disciples who were gathered together in prayer that day.

But what if the Holy Spirit never came?

The disciples were waiting because Jesus had told them to wait. In Acts 1:4-5, Jesus told them,“Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift he promised, as I told you before.John baptized with water, but in just a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

If the Holy Spirit never came, would they have kept waiting and eventually given up? The Holy Spirit gave them the courage to go out and tell everyone about Jesus, even though they might get murdered like Jesus did, but without the Holy Spirit, maybe their fear would have stopped them from telling about Jesus at all.

Even if they did tell, without the Holy Spirit enabling them to speak in all the different languages of all the people who were visiting Jerusalem that day for the feast of Pentecost, would the good news about Jesus have ever made it out of Jerusalem?

Come to think of it, what if we didn’t have the Holy Spirit at all?

The Holy Spirit is the one who enables us to have faith, and helps us see and understand God and Jesus.
The Holy Spirit guides us through life, and fills our hearts with love and joy.
The Holy Spirit gives us wisdom, comfort, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self control.
The Holy Spirit helps us pray, and prays for us with groaning when we can’t find the words to pray.

The Hebrew word that means spirit is Ruah. The same word is used in Genesis when God breathes life into the humans. Ruah means spirit and breath and life, so if we didn’t have the Holy Spirit, we’d be like the valley of dry bones in the vision the prophet Ezekiel describes in chapter 37:

The Lord took hold of me, and I was carried away by the Spirit of the Lord to a valley filled with bones. ²He led me all around among the bones that covered the valley floor. They were scattered everywhere across the ground and were completely dried out. ³Then he asked me, “Son of man, can these bones become living people again?” (Ezekiel 37:1-3)

[5]Without the Holy Spirit, the Ruah, the breath of life…well…

What happens when we stop breathing?

We’d. Be. Dead.

But God did breathe the spirit of life into us, and the Holy Spirit did come and fill the disciples, and enable them to speak in all the different languages of all the people who were in town for the feast of Pentecost.

And Ezekiel did prophesy to that valley of dry bones and say what God told him to say:

‘Dry bones, listen to the word of the Lord! ⁵This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Look! I am going to put breath into you and make you live again! ⁶… I will put breath into you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’” (Ezekiel 37:4-6)

Why did God do this? Ezekiel was a prophet when Israel was in exile in Babylon. God sent Ezekiel so that the people in exile would know that God had not abandoned them, and that God was still at work in the world and in them.

Why did the Holy Spirit come on Pentecost with a sound like a mighty wind and a vision like tongues of fire? So that the disciples and all the people would know that God had not abandoned them and that God was still at work in the world and in them.

Why do we still celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit today? Because God still breathes new life into us, even in this world that sometimes seems to be so full of death.

It’s the promise God makes through Ezekiel:

[6]Ezekiel 37:14 God says, “I will put my spirit in you and you will live.”

And it’s the promise God makes through Joel, the prophet that Peter quotes in his explanation to the people gathered on Pentecost who think maybe the disciples are drunk.

Joel says:

“In the last days,” God says,
    “I will pour out my Spirit upon all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy.
    Your young men will see visions,
    and your old men will dream dreams.” (Acts 2:17)

The Holy Spirit enables us to prophesy, which means not only to tell about the future, but also simply to tell about God. Whenever we are inspired to share God’s goodness, God’s love and grace, to reflect God’s glory to the world, we prophesy.

On his last night with the disciples, as described in the Gospel of John, Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would come and be our advocate, our comforter, our parakeet. (Or if you prefer the British term, our budgie.) No, just kidding. Not a parakeet. The Greek word is paraclete. (John 15:26 et al)

Maybe you think this part is for the birds…but we do use a dove to symbolize the Holy Spirit, because when Jesus was baptized, the gospels tell us that the Holy Spirit descended like a dove.

Does that mean that the Holy Spirit is a bird?

Or that the Holy Spirit moves like a bird?

It might be significant that the scripture says dove and not…say…a pelican that descends like a cannonball into the water to grab fish…or a hawk that descends with great speed and claws extended to grab mice or rabbits or whatever they plan to have for dinner that night.

But I digress.

Whichever kind of bird you prefer to think of when you think of the Holy Spirit, may it remind us all that the Holy Spirit is our advocate, the one who comes alongside us and helps us to love God and love our neighbor. The Holy Spirit encourages us and reminds us that even if we feel like we’re in exile, as we sometimes do, that God has not abandoned us and God is still at work in us and in the world.

Jesus told the disciples, “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. ²⁷You also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning.

But what if nobody ever told us that God loves us and that the Holy Spirit is with us to help us and to guide us? Or, worse yet, what if somebody told us that God doesn’t love us because we’re unacceptable to God? And what if there are people who disagree, who could be advocates for those who have been cast out or exiled or made to feel unloved and unwanted, but they’re too afraid to speak up?

We saw this playing out this past week when Chief’s kicker Harrison Butker gave the commencement speech at Benedictine College. In his speech he made some sexist and anti-LGBTQ remarks[7] that have stirred up lots of controversy. The Benedictine Sisters spoke out. They posted a statement of rebuttal, advocating for the people who were targeted by Butker’s comments. The sisters said, “We want to be known as an inclusive, welcoming community…”[8]

Bishop Michael Curry also gave a commencement speech this week. He told the graduates at Kenyon College that his dad had told him, “You’re not on this Earth just to consume oxygen”. In this vein, he implored the graduates to “Go and change the world” by doing it their way.[9]

We do have the Holy Spirit, and we are all called to change the world. As we seek to follow Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit, may this poem by Rev. Sarah Speed be a blessing to us all.

A Blessing for the Seekers

Blessed are you who turn your face up to the sky,

who open your arms to feel the wind,

who notice all the things that we should notice.

Blessed are you who are fluent in wonder

and familiar with awe.

Blessed are you who, even now, dream dreams,

who have not lost hope,

who swear the glass is still half-full.

Blessed are you who plant trees

and sing the harmony,

who tell the children how this world can be magic.