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Acts 2:1-4 Ezekiel 37:1-14
1When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
1The 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. 2He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. 3He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” 4Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. 5Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. 6I 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.” 7So 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. 8I 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. 9Then 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.” 10I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude. 11Then 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.’ 12Therefore 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. 13And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. 14I 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.
As tempted as I am to again quote from the Sports Section of the newspaper, I’m afraid I shall have to refrain. Pity. Inside the last two inside pages of that section where my favorite writer’s daily column appears, profound insights surrounding the antics of the Almighty have again appeared. Oh well. This week you will have to read them for yourselves. The great delight of my week was to learn that our esteemed Former Attorney General chooses that very same column to read daily. Throughout the week I pondered daily as I read our favorite-column-in-common as to what dear Talis’ reflections might be as I read 9 Chickweed Lane. Somehow, over a cup of tea, I know I shall discover the answer to my ponderings.
Ah, the insanity of humanity: Chatter, chatter everywhere, and not a thought to think. Earth in disrepair, pushed closer, closer to the brink. Is evil rampant? Suffering beyond understanding? Is it different? Growing? Expanding? The student of history will know the only changes are in magnitude and technological intensity. Suffering no doubt is immense for our generation, but it has also been immense for generation after generation. As beautiful as the Creation is, the suffering of the Created has always been. Always been. Outrages written by the sages throughout the ages have graced sacred pages passing on to us the crazinesses which humanity faces. How difficult it is to make sense of all around us, even now, even in the spectacular abundance of creational beauty surrounding us in this little corner of the world. Even in the paradise we call home, spirits are crushed, dreams out of reach, realities of confusion and pain haunt all too many. Perhaps you are not the ones of whom I think. For many in the world, life really does stink. And not of their own choosing. Random acts of nature. Evils all too willing to raise their ugly heads within humanity. Like a tsunami crossing the accepted boundaries of land and sea without a warning, but yet, so devastating, waves of undeserved suffering drown the human spirit. It is into life’s tsunamis we are called. I am called. You are called. We are called.
Long ago, a vision visited a man. A people who for a thousand years had known they had been called by the Almighty God found themselves at the very, very end. Slaves liberated from Egypt; an inspired leader Moses; a generation living in the wilderness coming to an understanding of who they were – coming to an understanding of who the Almighty God was; building a new life in a new land; developing an identity as a people and as a nation; torn apart by war among themselves; torn even farther apart by invasions by two major powers; and after a thousand years of understanding their identity as a people chosen by God, only a remnant remained three hundred miles across a hostile desert. Captive; away from home. It was the last of the last. The end had come. The end.
But then the dreamer dreamed. A vision was granted. Initially a vision of hopelessness. In a valley, dry bones. Not just dead bodies. Bones. Dry bones. Just a relic of the past – life that once was – a past left unburied, picked apart by scavengers, slowly turning to dust. In a present of little hope, a vision of a past which was long past dead. Then the Word from the Almighty God: “Can these bones live?” What could Ezekiel say? How could he know? His words: “O Lord God, you know.” The Almighty God told Ezekiel to prophesy over the dead, dead bones. (To prophesy is to speak the Word of God.) Ezekiel spoke the Word of God. The Breath of God entered – entered into the dry, dead bones – the Breath of God entered. And there was life. Our minds are drawn back to the beginning of Creation in the poetic opening words of Genesis: In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while the breath of God swept over the face of the waters. The Breath of God. The Spirit of God. The Wind of God. Ruah in Hebrew. Pneuma in Greek. The Breath, the Spirit, the Wind. Moving unseen, invisible, but very present. Life-giving; bringing to life. The Breath of Life breathed into the Creation. From the very beginning, God was. In Ezekiel’s vision of recreation, God was.
The word in the Old Testament Hebrew is Ruah: Breath. Wind. Spirit. The word in the New Testament Greek is Pneuma: Breath. Wind. Spirit. Across the formless void as Creation was coming into being, Ruah swept over the face of the waters. Life was called into being. Among a remnant in exile in Babylon, at the end, the extinction of a people, the extinction of a faith, the extinction of a calling, Ruah swept over the dead, dead, dry bones. Life was called into being.
Weeks after the crucified death of Jesus. Disciples. Followers. Faithful. Friends.
Gathered in a room, wondering what in the world to do next. This time the language changes to New Testament Greek: Pneuma. A Mighty Wind blew into that room. Souls numb brought to life. God’s Spirit was about bringing life. Life to the Creation. Life to the few who loved Jesus, locked into a room in Jerusalem, trying to make sense of it all: Life.
The Ruah of God. The Pneuma of God. Wind. Breath. Spirit. Is it just history to be read about in the sacred pages of our Bibles? In an age which prides itself in great technological and intellectual advancement, is God’s Spirit just a distant memory of the past? In a culture confused by the dualistic heresy of those obsessed with a greater deity called God and a lesser deity called Satan, is God’s Spirit just a figment of our imaginations? In a culture confused by the ponderings of bizarre notions of some so-called religious leaders who speculate about the sexual orientation of the lesser-deity they obsess about, is God’s Spirit still moving? In a culture which considers faith in God an irrelevant waste of time, is God’s Spirit real?
Many really don’t give a damn. Others who do, insist that the Almighty God really does not like us. We are told over and over again that the Almighty God is a terrible judge who requires us to walk an impossible tight-rope, conforming to their flawed views of morality and strange views of spirituality, essentially telling us that really, God does not like us and unless we perform flawlessly on the tight-ropes of life and faith, that the Almighty God will send us into the greedy hands of their lesser-god – the evil god of torment – to eternally punish us for our failings. What kind of warped religion have they created? God is a God of life. God is a God of love. God is a God who gives a damn about the struggles and the pains and the hurts of life. The Almighty God is a God of life, breathing across the void of Creation to bring life. The Lord God is a God of compassionate Love who can hear the suffering cry of an enslaved people, leading them into a new life: a Promised Land. The Almighty is a God who cares about the broken and the lost and the hurting – the dead, dead, dry bones – lifeless bones – those with no hope at all – and Ruah – the Breath of God blows – even over those dry, hopeless bones – life. New life. Hope. A future. And to the few in an Upper Room. The Mighty Wind of God filled the room. Life. New life. And even now. Long, long after the time of the disciples, with much dubious history as a Church – even with the heretical filling our newspapers with their bizarre concepts of the faith – does the Almighty God give up and walk away from it all? Does the Almighty God really hate us? Absolutely not! God is about life. Bringing life to the broken, with souls feeling as dead as dry bones. The Spirit of God is about Love and about life. God whispers. God breathes. God moves across the void. And those who know, hear the rustling of the wind, feel the breath, listen to the whisper. God has not gone away. God does not give up. God does not hate us. God is not offended by our screw-ups. The Forgiving God is about life and love and compassion and wholeness and reconciliation. The Almighty God is on the move, with us or without us. So, listen and be moved. God is good. God is Love. And don’t let the heretics tell you otherwise. Amen.