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. He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.” So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude. Then he said to me, “Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.’ Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act,” says the Lord.
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power." All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?" But others sneered and said, "They are filled with new wine." But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day. Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.'"
[Jesus said:] "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. You also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning. "I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. But now I am going to him who sent me; yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts. "Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because they do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned. I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you."
The Revised Common Lectionary is © Consultation on Common Texts. Texts are from the New Revised Standard Version of Holy Scripture, © 1989 by The Division of Christian.
I’ve just returned from three days with 458 people from our Northern California Nevada Conference of the United Church of Christ. The time we shared together centered largely concerns about the economic down turn and what this means to our conference and to our churches. We passed a resolution to stand for equality in marriage and in support of diversity tolerance trainings for schools.
We struggled with the severe obstacles we face as we seek to give our conference staff just salaries. We struggles with the obstacles that block all citizens from being treated fairly and justly in marriage as well as in their schools and wider communities. We struggled with the huge obstacles in getting health care for all citizens, quality schools for our kids and our teachers, and huge obstacles to getting as much protection for the average person that we give to the financial institutions. What does it Mean?
Bernice Powell Jackson, the North American President of our World Council of Churches brought us messages about living faithfully during these hard economic times. She reminded us that Dr. Martin Luther King preached these words On some positions, cowardice asks the question, is it expedient? And then expedience comes along and asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? Conscience asks the question, is it right?
There comes a time when one must take the position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but he must do it because conscience tells him it is right. (Martin Luther King, Jr., Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution, Sermon delivered on Passion Sunday, Mar. 31, 1968, in: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr., p. 268.)
Dr. King wasn’t talking simply about what is right for you the one thinking about what is right. He preached this to a congregation full of Christians. He was asking them to do what is right in Christ. He understood that it is the call of Jesus that teaches us that we care for the enemy. We stop war. We live treating all human beings as children of God. It is difficult. The obstacles are many. And in Christ we seek to live trusting the Spirit will give us what we need to overcome those obstacles.
And consider obstacles facing those we heard about in our scripture readings this morning.
From the Gospel, the disciples are about to face the very big obstacle of living without immediate conversation with Jesus. The writer of the Gospel is talking to disciples who have never meet Jesus. He tells them that even the first disciples didn’t have Jesus forever with them. He writes how Jesus promised that the Spirit would be with them. He reminds them that they have experienced this Spirit already and that this Spirit is able to be with them fully, even more fully than he could be with them in his mortal form. This Spirit would help them. This Spirit would inspire them that is in -spirit, as they faced the obstacles of living this faith in this life.
From the Acts of the Apostles we heard the story of the day of Pentecost. It was the feast of Pentecost. You need to know that Passover was the first harvest of the Barley and Pentecost 50 days later was the celebration of the end of the grain harvest and the drinking of the first fermented beverages. It was a big party in Jerusalem. Sure, you could come and make a religious pilgrimage but people came from everywhere for the party. That was when the believers were all together.
When the day of Pentecost came they were all gathered in one place. This was a powerful statement. They were all together. These believers of Jesus. They were not in separate hiding spots. They were not off in different towns. They were not at soccer practice, or on the golf course, or at a birthday party, or sleeping in. They were all gathered in one place. So often after a funeral or memorial service, I hear families talk about the gratitude they have when their entire family is there in that one place. They often complain that they need to make gathering together a priority that doesn’t require a death to fulfill. It continues to be true in all relationships. We need to be together if we are to maintain and grow in relationship.
These believers were together and they had the obstacle of trying to communicate with people of other languages this story of Jesus. The gift of tongues was not given to them because they had more or less faith than others. The gift was given to them because they needed it to tell the story of Jesus.
The Spirit gave this gift of tongues so that the story of this loving, inclusive, compassion centered God could be known to all people. This Spirit would not protect them from prison or torture. It would not make others believe the message against their will. The gift was simply the ability to speak, the rest would involve free choice.
The prophet Ezekiel had a huge obstacle as well. It was the worst of times. Jerusalem had been destroyed. Talk about your economic down turn! The people of Jerusalem did not believe that God would let such a thing happen. They saw the Northern Kingdom fall to the Assyrians but they in the Southern Kingdom somehow had figured that the north deserved it and that God was punishing them. Now, that they of the Southern Kingdom have been carried off to Babylon, now that they were the captives, it was a different story. They lost their faith. They said among themselves ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.’
God demanded the Ezekiel prophesy to them - that is to preach to them. When Ezekiel did and the bones came together and once they are in-spirited they come to life. So, says God, it will be with all of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up” but the word of God will build their bones and flesh once again. “ and our hope is lost” but God will breathe the Spirit into them and they will hope again. “ we are cut off completely.” but God says that God will restore them. Their obstacles will be over come.
On this Pentecost Sunday, we are mindful that one of the most critical steps to overcoming these obstacles is to speak. We may need to pray for the Spirit to give us the words. We will need to practice speaking and listening for the Spirit. And that Holy Spirit is here is with us is still moving in and among us. so that we may be the Beloved Community that Dr. King envisioned. He said:
"The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority." Martin Luther King, Jr., Strength to Love, 1963, page 47.
