Pentecost, 2012 Immanuel Chapel, Ezekiel 37:1-14
Vs1 the hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley, it was full of bones.
Acts 2:21 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
At the beginning of the service I gave you a heads up. You would be saying something that is both powerful and dangerous. Do you know the dangerous and powerful thing you said?
Yes, “Come, Holy Spirit, Come.” In connection with the Prayer of the Day, you responded, “Come, Holy Spirit, Come,” we did so repeatedly. We called for Jesus promised Helper, the Spirit of truth. It’s a dangerous thing to invite the Holy Spirit to come. We are playing with fire, “and …tongues as of fire appeared to (the disciples) and rested on each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.” Oh, yes, “Come, Holy Spirit, Come,” is a dangerous thing to say, we could be set on fire for the Lord. And we could get carried away. It’s the Holy Spirit who like the tornado blows where it wishes and catches us in its powerful grip and carries us where it will, not where you and I will, so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. Remember Philip who was directed to go to the Gaza road, where he met up with a man from Africa and he told the man the good news about Jesus. The Spirit was present at that scene in the word and in the water in which the Ethiopian was baptized. “And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away.” Philip found himself in Azotus. He went about preaching the gospel to all the towns through which he passed.
It’s also a powerful thing to say, “Come, Holy Spirit, Come.” At his ascension Jesus promised his disciples, “power from on high.” But this power from on high blew the disciples cover. It brought thousands of visitors from all over the Mediterranean world to their door step. The Spirit opened their mouths and they proclaimed with such fervor that some thought them drunk. But at the end of the day they baptized 3,000. Filled with the Spirit, look of whom they preached, Jesus that Galilean who had stirred up so much trouble, and who died the cursed death of crucifixion. Now Jesus is the one to whom Peter pointed, “Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Who can forget the angel’s word to Mary, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most high will overshadow you.”
This powerful and dangerous Spirit was poured out on us, giving us Christ’s cross - won salvation. Washing us clean of the dirt and dross of sin; rebirthing us by his grace making us inheritors of the hope of eternal life. But to be washed with the Spirit of Christ, has consequences. It puts us at odds with an increasing portion of our society. After Jesus baptism, the Holy Spirit drove him into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. When he came out declared that the Spirit of the Lord was upon him. He preached the Good News of the kingdom, to repent and believe in the Gospel. As thanks for his gospel message; as thanks for a life devoted to healing the sin and diseases of his countrymen, they put him on a cross, to die as an accursed criminal.
Therefore to call on the Spirit to come is both dangerous and powerful. In baptism we were drowned unto death in its waters. We have been resuscitated to a new life in which we are dead to sin and alive to the promptings of God in Christ Jesus, making the Spirit a power unequaled in our life. Our life was destroyed that the Lord might give us new life.
The Lord promised in Ezekiel 36 to give Israel a new heart and to put within them a new spirit. Then (you) will know that I am the Lord.” Their old heart needed to be destroyed in order that they restored to life with a new spirit.
So did we mean it when we invited, “Come, Holy Spirit, Come?” For when, the word of the Lord is unleashed, things can never be as they were, business as usual is not the order of the day. In the Sound of Music, Maria sang of a few of her favorite things. We all have our favorite things in the church. We expect the word of the Lord to commend and continue us in these favorite and familiar things.
Listen to Martin Luther, “In reality, the Word of God comes in opposition to our thinking and wishing. It does not let our thinking prevail, even in what is most sacred to us, but it destroys and uproots and scatters everything.” The word of God is in opposition to our thinking and wishes. Even that most sacred to us may be destroyed, uprooted and scattered. Those are powerful and dangerous words. They are the kind of words that could get a preacher in trouble. They could get a person declared an outlaw. They are the kinds of words which got our Lord crucified nearly 2,000 years ago. Walter Brueggeman preached a sermon called, “The threat of Life.” “The people in the gospel story could smell the danger in Jesus. They needed only sniff the air around him or notice the people who traveled with him to sense the threat. They had life arranged about the best way it could be. Jesus came into their midst as a threat of newness and deep change. He caused old things to drop off and die. He even dismissed some of what people most treasured.” Christ’s Spirit must destroy before it can bring new life.
When I read the opening words of the story of Ezekiel in the valley of the dry bones I had a sense of their power and danger. “The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley,” I thought, that’s me. I have a deep sense of the presence of the hand and Spirit of the Lord upon me. And I believe that it was the Spirit of the Lord who set me down in the middle Immanuel Lutheran Chapel. Now he is asking you and me, “Can Immanuel Lutheran Chapel live?” And I can only give Ezekiel’s answer, “Lord God, you know.” Will we listen to the Word of the Lord as the dry bones did? Will we be open to the leading of the Spirit which may ask us to give up a few of our favorite things? Are we willing to follow our Lord even if it means that we must abandon that which we most treasure or hold sacred?
People of Immanuel Chapel we have serious matters to discuss in the months ahead. How can we get out from under our debt? How can we manage to have a full time ministry when we can barely afford the one we have now? What will we look like in a year or two years? But we are Immanuel, whose name confesses that “God is with us.” Hear the word of the Lord that concludes our Old Testament lesson, “And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live…Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord.”
What was that dangerous and powerful thing we said earlier? “Come, Holy Spirit, Come.”
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