Dry bones. A valley of dry bones.

We aren= t told what valley, but I imagine it might very well have been the valley of Jezreel, in northern Israel, between Mt. Carmel and Mt. Tabor, overlooked by Megiddo in the West and Nazareth in the East.

A lush landscape that was also the primary north/south highway in Israel, fought over for millennia. Jezreel, the sight of many of Israel= s largest battles. It was a place of life and a place of death for the Israelites. The Israelites were primarily guerrilla fighters, sticking to the hills, engaging in hit and run attacks. Those were the tactics that worked well for them. Whenever they were drawn out onto a plain for a large, confrontational battle, they usually lost. A valley of dry bones speaks of a massive defeat, total destruction, to the Israelites.

This vision came to Ezekiel sometime after 597 BCE. That was the year the Babylonians, the superpower of the day, conquered the nation of Israel, destroyed the city of Jerusalem, laid waste to the land, carried off the leading citizens, including the priest Ezekiel, into captivity, and left only the poorest of the poor in the land. Thus the people of Israel, all those in captivity, felt like disconnected, dry bones. They no longer had homes to which they could return; no longer had a nation or a city waiting for them; no longer had a king to lead them; no longer had a temple in which to worship; they no longer seemed to have a God who cared about them. They seemed totally cut off C from their past, from their future, from their lives, from their God. They feel disconnected and dried up. Wasting away and going nowhere fast.

Into that vision then comes the jarring question, A O Mortal, can these bones live?@

Is there a breeze of hope that might again stir the dust of our past and waft new hope into an unknown future? Can the Spirit of God again be breathed into an inanimate object and bring it to life? Can a situation which seems hopeless be transformed and turned into a situation filled with life and possibility?

That was the situation facing the first followers of Jesus on that first Pentecost. Surely they must have felt like dried bones? They had left everything behind, their old lives, for the sake of a dream, a vision of a new world to follow Jesus. Only to have that vision and hope shattered by his death and burial. Sure, something amazing happened with the resurrection. But then they had to go through a new separation as Jesus left them to return to God= s side. By the day of Pentecost their world had been totally turned topsy-turvy so that they were surely not quite certain what was up and what was down. In such a state they were ready for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. They were now ready for God to work in them in amazing ways. By that point they were ready to relinquish all illusions of control, get out of the way and allow the power of God free rein with their lives.

This is the most difficult message for us to grasp and internalize.

Too often we present the Christian life as something that we do, something that we think or feel. We talk about our search for God, our commitment to Christ, our attempts to get close to God.

Yet in the Bible the story runs the other way.

Over and over again the story is about God searching for us.

From the very beginning in the Garden of Eden, through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Moses, over and over again it is not a record of people looking for God but of God busting into their lives and turning them upside down. Finally, in Jesus, God breaks into our world in a most amazing way, becoming one of us, attempting to get close to us, demonstrating complete and total commitment to the human cause. As is said in scripture: A We love because God first loved us.@

Ezekiel did not create this story of the valley of dry bones.

It was a vision given to him. When God asks if these bones can live Ezekiel responds, A God, you know.@ In other words, A I don= t have a clue. But you have brought me here and you, God of the universe, Creator of all life, you must know the answer, so you tell me.@ So God proceeds to show Ezekiel, by telling him to prophesy to these bones and to the wind, which Ezekiel does and low and behold the end result is living, breathing bodies.

God then tells Ezekiel it is not just some parlor trick.

No, this is all about the people of Israel who are feeling hopeless, purposeless, despairing, at loose ends, all dried up. God= s message for them is this: A I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live.@

That is always God= s message to God= s people.

When we are at the end of our ropes; when we feel totally lost and despairing; when we feel there is no hope for the future; when we have tried everything we can and nothing seems to work C God says, A I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live.@

The people of Israel survived their period of exile.

The followers of Jesus survived his crucifixion, death, burial.

They survived his leaving them.

God put God= s spirit within them, and they lived.

Pentecost is not simply the church= s birthday; it is the church= s day of power. On that day God came to a frightened and discouraged community of believers and delivered the power to live up to what Jesus said and did. God= s power is now the church= s power.

One of the things we struggle with in this church, [and we are not unique in this regard these days] is believing in ourselves and in God at work in us. We struggle to accept the possibility that God can and will use us as channels of God= s Spirit and power in the world.

How so? Like many of our brother and sister churches today, we are not quite sure we have the right business model (in the church we call them mission statements or vision statements) for growing and being successful. We keep looking at churches around us that seem to be growing, that seem to have crowds of people, especially younger people with children and teenagers, plenty of money, and successful programs and we think we must be doing something wrong.

In the business world, success comes from collecting data, analyzing it according to well thought-out formulas, and using it to develop, implement and evaluate winning strategies. Companies achieve their goals largely on the strength, intelligence and foresight of their leaders.

God does not need to show up for them to accomplish their plans and purposes.

But that is not the way it has worked, historically, with the people of God. In the pages of the Bible we get a very different model of how the church is to operate. Success there does not depend on a person= s brilliance, adherence to the latest best practices or ability to master ingenious strategies. It depends on God C on being empowered by the Holy Spirit. So often the people we meet in scripture are failures. Many appear to be inconsequential and insignificant.

The secret of their success is their radical reliance on God and their faithfulness in following God= s lead.

Obviously, this does not have to be an either/or.

One can study scripture and business. All truth is God= s truth.

But the important question is about our foundation. Where do we begin in our search for the faithful way to be the people of God and the followers of Jesus? We must begin with the witness and wisdom of the Bible, the source for the stories of God= s activity in the world and of Jesus= teachings and life.

Then we must ask ourselves simple, yet important questions:

How is God shaping our lives and our church today?

What is God doing in our lives and our church that only God can do? What can we do to prepare ourselves personally, and our church, to receive the power and gifts of God= s Holy Spirit?

Pentecost was dramatic stuff!

That young church was a remarkable phenomenon.

Not many of its members were educated folks.

Most were as ordinary as ordinary comes. They were people whose capacities had seemed limited, whose charisma and influence appeared minuscule. They were severely limited persons, yet the Spirit of God flooded into their lives, renewed and enlarged them, gave them gifts and talents and capabilities so that they became tremendously fruitful servants to the glory of God in the service of humanity.

The key was their openness to new possibilities. Stuffy, flat-footed Peter and the other disciples let their inner child out, and let the winds of the Spirit play through their lives. They lost control and allowed the Spirit to dance into their lives in an experience they would never be able to describe in a way that others could understand. You had to be there! If Peter and the rest of the folks at that first Pentecost party should somehow materialize in our church on Sunday morning C and if they should act now the way they acted then C how would we respond? Would we call the police on these wackos? Or would we get up and dance and celebrate with them, joining the party?

The opposite of love is not hate, but fear C fear of allowing others and fear of allowing God to love us. That makes us vulnerable and is scary.

But true love can= t happen C true faith can= t happen C true joy can= t happen C Pentecost can= t happen until C we are ready to take the risk. Until we let go and let God.

Mortal, can these bones live?

O God, you know!

I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live.

That is what God says to you, and to you, and to you, and to Christ Congregational Church, to all of us.

Let= s take the risk and let the Spirit in.

Real life, amazing life, powerful life, is sure to follow.