Second Presbyterian Church

"You Shall Know That I Am The Lord"
June 8, 2003

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Sermons Homepage » Sermons for 2003 » Sermons for June 2003

Pentecost Sunday, Year B
by The Rev. Daniel E. Hale, D. Min.

• Ezekiel 37: 1-14
• Acts 2: 1-21
• John 15: 26-27

Bones! Dry bones! Is that an image of death or what? There is little that can portray the sense of, not just death, but lifeless-ness like bones. And we are not talking about just any bone; we are talking about DRY bones. You can picture in your mind the valley, described in Ezekiel, as a place that would look a lot like Death Valley, CA. That hot dry desert where the temperature rises above 100 degrees and where you expect to see skulls of ox or cattle that could not make the crossing.

Bones! Dry bones! Is that an image of death or what? The image was more than a desert scene that was lacking moisture. The valley of dry bones is the image of a battlefield in which the bodies of the soldiers killed were left unburied. They were left to be cleaned and picked over by the ravens, vultures and other wild beasts. It is an image of utter humiliation - death without burial.

Judah was in exile. The army of Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed Jerusalem. It fell in 587 B. C. The skilled people and the royal families were taken away into exile. As a nation Judah had ceased to exist. As a nation Judah was dead. The throne of David, that was supposed to have lasted forever, was gone. The people of Judah had always believed that the LORD would preserve the nation of Judah. They had always assumed that the Lord would ultimately protect Jerusalem from being conquered. Their belief was shattered. Their hope had disappeared.

So, it was to a "hope-shattered" and despairing people who had been forced into an exile that Ezekiel spoke. They referred to themselves as "dry bones," a term for describing the impossibility of restoration.

Now, Ezekiel had this vision and it was a powerful vision in that it is one of four times in the Book of Ezekiel that refers to the fact that the hand of the LORD was upon him. And the Lord took him to this valley, which had all these dry bones. And the LORD asked Ezekiel, "Son of Man, can these bones live?" Ezekiel answered, "O Lord GOD, you know." I'm not sure how to take Ezekiel's answer. Whatever his tone of voice was would have made a difference in how his reply was meant. It could have been an expression of ignorance. It could have been like the times when we are asked a question and the answer we give is, "heaven only knows." Translation, "I don't know."

Or it could have been a more positive, expression of Faith, more like, "God knows (of course, because He is God)!"

Then an amazing thing happens in the vision. Ezekiel is told to prophecy to the bones. He prophecies and the bones, with a great rattling noise, come together and form sinews, flesh and become whole bodies, but without life. Ezekiel prophesied again and the winds from the four corners of the earth come and breathe life into the bodies and they stand up and it is a huge multitude! In keeping with it being a battlefield, it was a huge army."

Then Ezekiel described the LORD's message from the vision. Israel, the LORD's people had been describing themselves as dried up bones and in a state of utter hopelessness. They had been conquered and exiled and all that they had was gone. The nation of Israel no longer existed. The temple and its sacrificial cult had stopped, and they now lived in a foreign country far away from home. It must have felt like the LORD had either deserted them or that He was defeated by the gods of the Babylonians.

Ezekiel's message was a message of hope. It was a message of hope that far exceeded the boundaries of what people could hope for. The hopelessness of The People of Israel made sense. It WAS a hopeless situation! But the limits of hope for humankind are NOT the limits of hope for the LORD! God has no limits! God can make hopeless situations hopeful. He can cause the rocks to become sons of Abraham, if He so chooses! The LORD is NOT limited by boundaries of our hopelessness!

And that brings us to today. What is our future here at Second? When we look at the demographics and the human data we could become discouraged. We are a congregation that is less than half the size that we were thirty years ago. It is a helpless feeling, because we are located in a city that has also shrunk significantly in wealth and population. And we have witnessed most of the churches around us shrinking and struggling to stay alive. If our hope is based upon turning our situation around by just our human effort, then I believe that we are making a serious mistake. Why? Because we, as the people of God - as part of the Body of Christ, are specifically told NOT to place our trust in the material future! We are specifically told NOT to try to save our lives. On the contrary, we are told that if we really want to live then we must be willing to lay down our lives for the sake of Jesus Christ and the Gospel (note Mark 8: 34-38). This is as true for us as a congregation as it is for us as individuals!

You see, our hope is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. Our hope is in the LORD who can take a valley full of death and create life. Our hope is in the LORD who opens the grave and brings forth resurrected life! Our hope is in Jesus Christ, our Savior, who rose from the dead!

Today is Pentecost Sunday. Today we celebrate the beginning of the Church that went out and shared the Good News of Jesus Christ, first in Judea, then throughout the known world. It is a story of tremendous transformation. The disciples were all together praying, as Jesus had commanded them, when suddenly the Holy Spirit descended upon them with the roar of a mighty wind! If it had happened today, someone would surely say it sounded just like a freight train! Tongues of fire rested upon the top of everybody's head. And then these disciples that had cowered in fear got up and began proclaiming the Mighty Acts of God and they proclaimed it in all the different languages of the Diaspora!

I believe that that kind of divine, transforming power is also available to us. Second Presbyterian Church's future is not ultimately dependent upon the demographics of our surrounding area. Our future depends upon our willingness to pray for, to wait for, and to follow the will of our Lord Jesus Christ for our congregation. Right now the human demographics are not great. Neither were they very good for the Exiled People of Israel. Neither were they very good for the band of Jesus' disciples after Jesus had been executed. We are NOT dependent upon human demographics; we ARE dependent upon Divine will, and Divine Word, and Divine Spirit. And when we attune ourselves with GOD's future for us - watch out! We could possibly hear a great rattlin' noise and find ourselves becoming a great multitude of human followers for Jesus Christ! Oh how wonderful that will be!