The Sunday of Pentecost

“Mortal, can these bones live?”  I believe that this is it.  Not only my favorite story in that big book, but probably my favorite question in all of Scripture.  “Mortal, can these bones live?”  I mean I know things change, and I might tell you something different a week from now… but probably not.  Because, since I was a child this vision from the Prophet Ezekiel has always spooked me. I don’t quite know why, but I looked up the definition of spooky and got a list synonyms: eerie, sinister, weird, unearthly, mysterious… This scene has all the good makings of that pivotal point in any good thriller.  And I love a good thriller… don’t you?
It’s exciting, captivating, this vision is so vivid, so descriptive that you can picture yourself right there, in the place of Ezekiel.  Imagine it… In a dream like state you are taken away from your bed, and dropped from the heavens into the middle of this desert valley.  It’s full of bones, human, bones in piles as far as you can see, going up the sides of the valley, touching that blood red sky with the Sun beating down upon you.  Who knows why these bones are here, but you can see that they have been here for quite some time.  They have been bleached white from the sun.  They are very dry, brittle. 
Now all the sudden, God, standing right next to you asks the most ridiculous question. “Mortal, can these bones live?” My immediate response, “No.  First off these are bones, furthermore we’ve even established that they are ‘very dry bones.’”  But Ezekiel remembers who he is talking to, God. The God of creation, the God of rejuvenation, the God of LIFE.  So he says what we all say when we are utterly stumped.  “God knows”
God looks at you with a grim smile, “Okay then, Mr. Prophet. Prophesy to the dry bones.” In other words, do what you were born to do, speak to them, tell them the Truth. What we call in the Bible Belt “The Gospel Truth.” God’s Truth.”  “O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.  I will cause breath to enter you and you shall live, I will connect you with muscle, I will give you flesh and lay upon you skin…” And as you speak the valley begins to rattle and the bones begin to move, and muscle, flesh, and skin come upon them.  But there was no life in them.
God looks at you again, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal.  Say to the the breath, ‘breath upon these slain that they may live.” And as you prophesy, as you speak the truth to the Spirit in your midst, the winds whip and encircle the valley and the people come to life, and before you stands a great multitude. 
Now as Ezekiel stood there in awe of what he had just done through the power of his voice and God spoke once more, “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.’  Therefor prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: I am going to open 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!”
Today is Pentecost Sunday.  Today is the day we celebrate the birth of the church, through the story of acts, that giving of the Holy Spirit to the disciples.  It then leads them forth to build this great institution that we call the church!  …That was nearly two thousand years ago.  And things have changed quite a bit since then.  Now we seem to live in a world that is distancing itself from the religious establishments.  Many claim they have no use for the Church in their lives.  Further we are living in a country that seems to have lost its principles. I imagine out of fear; we have excluded the other.  We have a failure to act on difficult issues, even at cost of 10 children here, 17 children there.  We have fought for a “me first” mentality, further exacerbating our alienation from one another.  We now believe that individualism is to be valued more than the power of community. More than ever, we spend most waking moments isolated in our homes, or even when we are out in the midst of one another, we stay glued behind our own phones.
My friends, as the world would say, we sit this morning in a dying institution.  Living in a country that has lost its way.  In a society that looks deeper into the digital screen in their hands rather than the life right in front of them.  So, I believe, it is about time we ask ourselves, “O mortal, can these bones live?  Can the church, can our country, can our society live?
This question must be asked.  I imagine it has already been asked in your life.  Can this relationship with my child, can this business, can my marriage, can these, my bones, live?  …It’s interesting that in asking this question, God used the phrase, “Mortal” for Ezekiel.  Mortal acknowledges that we are a being facing death, that we will die.  Ideals will die, institutions, countries, businesses, marriages will die.  And some should, as is the natural order of progress, change, life.  No one should stay in a marriage where abuse runs ramped.  But it should always be asked: Can it live? Should it live? Does it bring unique value, otherwise not seen? Are people urning for it?  Does it live deep within their hearts, only without name and without voice?  And if it does, if the answer to these questions is yes, undoubtably yes, Then we, like Ezekiel, must prophesy!
My friends, I am convinced that we at Mediator, have something of immense value.  I am convinced that there are people outside of us that have an absence in the depths of their heart.  Perhaps, it is so foreign that they don’t even have a name for it, perhaps because that name has been so misused and abused in their past. But they are urning for it.  I call it a “Community inflamed by the Spirit,” because that is what we are.  That is what we can offer.  That is our gift to a world that’s says, “Our bones are dried up, our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.”
The world needs to be reminded that there is nothing that can separate us from the Love of God. That, as Michael Curry said to the royal couple yesterday, the world is meant to run on Love.  They need to be told that these bones can live! Joyfully, abundantly, live!  And so we must prophesy.  We must prophesy inclusion, we must prophesy community, we must prophesy this unconditional love, and unfailing hope!  What is to stop us, from being that spark that ignites the flame of the Holy Spirit. 
You have been placed in a valley… what do you do?