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. (Ezekiel 37:1-14 NRSV)

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.” (Acts 2:1-13 NRSV)

***

This morning's reading from the Acts of the Apostles is one of my favorite passages of Scripture.

You good people know me pretty well by now.
Y'all know that I'm a pretty strange fella.
Y'all know that I sometimes see some weird things in the Bible--
I don't always see what you normal people see.
And, this morning, we've got an excellent example of just such a weird reading.
I can't help but find this passage funny.
It's hilarious, in fact.
Imagine it--
All these new Christians, filled with the power
of the Holy Spirit and speaking in foreign languages, are accused of being drunk!

Some who heard them marveled, and were amazed, at the mighty working of
God's glorious power--Just as you might expect.
But others, mocking them, said:

"They are filled with new wine!"

But--This is not the part that really cracks me up.
I'm sorry, but I just love Peter's response.

"These people are not drunk, as you suppose,
since it is only the third hour of the day."

Since it's only 9AM, these men can't be drunk!
The assumption is, of course, that if it were after the noon hour,
they could be drunk. But, no, they aren't drunk.
They're filled with the Holy Spirit. They're not filled with new wine,
They're filled with a new spirit.
They're not filled with spirits--spirituous liquors,
They're filled with the Holy Spirit of God.
The world cannot comprehend this spirit.
The world does not want to hear the Gospel Message
Which unlocks the chains of the powers and forces of darkness.
It misunderstands the power of the spirit of God,
thinking it to be insanity,
stupidity,
narrow mindedness,
or worse .

Well..... if it thinks we're drunk--and I hope it does--
Then let it.

Are we conforming to what the world thinks we should do, think, and believe?
Are we acting like "good, quiet" little Christians never speaking out,
always staying in our place,
keeping our faith to ourselves,
or are we being Spirit Filled Christians,
filled with the new wine of Jesus Christ?
We must be as crazy as loons
to believe in the Gospel of a crucified and risen Lord'

We must be drunk to believe in the changing,
the healing power, of the spirit of God.

Well--let's get drunk.
Drunk not on the wine this world has to offer, but
on the power of the Holy Spirit of God which brings life from death and meaning to life.

Would you pray with me?

Lord God, Almighty, move among us so that we, Thy people, may always feel and sense Thy divine power and presence; for we need to know that we are never alone. And speak to each and every one of us in such a way that we may hear, understand, and remember, give us words by which to mold an shape our living; for we confess to You that we need such words by which to live. For we pray in Thy Holy and Gracious Name. Amen.

When I was a just little boy, about 7 or 8 years old,
I used to love to watch horror movies.
Sitting in the dark,
with the TV set glowing brightly,
hypnotizing me,
I'd watch until the wee hours of the morning,
to see if the monster really would eat Manhattan,
or if the good scientist would figure out a way to blow up
the one eyed,
one horned,
flying purple people eater
and get the pretty girl at the end of the movie.
The plots were always the same,
many of the actors were also the same,
and, in the end, these films almost always managed to scare the wits out of the kids,
give 'em nightmares, vivid imaginations, and weird personalities.
It worked with me..... as most of you can attest.

I can remember staying up so late on saturday night,
that when I went the next morning to church
I'd fall asleep in the middle of the Sermon
and have to be jabbed awake so I could go take communion.
If only I had known, then, what I know now.....
that there are stories in the Bible that are
at least as spooky as any I'd watch on the Saturday Night late Show.
Take Ezekiel, for example.
If there is an Edgar Allen Poe of the Old Testament, he's it.
Ezekiel is just about my favorite of the Later Prophets.
He saw some of the weirdest things,
and experienced some of the strangest visions,
that even reading them send shivers up and down my spine.

Listen, again, to Chapter 37, which I read a few minutes ago.

[read text, slowly and dramatically]

A Valley full of dry bones.

"and there was a noise, and behold a rattling;
and the bones came together,
bone to bone.
And as I looked, there were sinews on them,
and skin had covered them;

but there was not breath in them,
no spirit,
no life."

Sounds like something you might see in Ghostbusters,
Nightmare on Elm Street IX,
or Night of the Living Dead.

I like to call this the "Bible Horror Picture Show,"
only it's not the power of the evil one who is bringing the bones back to life.

The valley of the dry bones
is brought back to life not for evil purposes,
but for Good.

The life,
the spirit which brings life from death,
and brings meaning to life,
is the Holy Spirit of God,
the third person of the Holy Trinity,
God.
The Valley of the dry bones,
according to the explanation found in verses 11-14, is Israel.
The dead bones are the bones of the dead, the separated Israel.
God was speaking, through Ezekiel, to the people of the Northern Kingdom
to the Ten Tribes of Israel,
telling them that their plight was not being ignored by God.

God still knew them,
still cared about them,
and would bring them back to life through the power of the Holy Spirit.

And the Church,
which is the new Israel,
has received this promise too.

Look around you,
at the world outside,
and the Church within.
The last time I was with you, two weeks ago,
we saw the state this nation has sunk to as illustrated in a poll
which stated that 91% of Americans lie regularly
and 7% of all Americans would commit murder for money.
This nation, the secular world around us, is the valley of the dry bones.

The Churches' of this nation, are caught in this valley, too.
As most of you know, I don't like to speak much about denominations.
In a minute we will sing that the
"Church's one foundation is Jesus Christ Her Lord."
Our One Foundation is Jesus Christ.
The different denominations which fill this land don't have different foundations.
There is one Foundation--Jesus Christ.
The denominations are, rather, to be understood as different expressions,
different flavors of the Christian Faith.
As Ice Cream has many different flavors,
and some people like Strawberry, others like Peach, Vanilla, or Chocolate;
So also Christianity has different flavors,
and some people are Presbyterians, others are Baptists, Catholics,
Lutherans,
Episcopalians,
Orthodox,
even Methodists.
The Church's One Foundation,
Jesus Christ her Lord,
doesn't care about the flavor--
not really--
just so long as you're Ice Cream,
just so long as You're Christian,
Just so long as the one sure and true foundation upon which the Church is Built
is Jesus Christ, Our Lord.

We Methodists have shared this vision for many years.
We are in the forefront of the push for Christian unity upon that one foundation.
And, yet, we Methodists have been in the forefront of yet another push--
one which has lead the Church of Jesus Christ into spiritual starvation.
We're not alone in this push.
All the Churches have been at fault, in one way or another.

The Church, according to the world, is dying.
We're already bones, lying in the field, although perhaps not quite dry.
The Spirit has been lost, as we have lost our way.

The Baptists fight amongst themselves over issues
which really have no basis in fact--
They all believe in the Bible as Authoritative for life and faith,
But some want to make this book the one foundation,
And not Jesus Christ.

And we Methodists--we fight over many theological and social issues.
We are only now returning to our historic Doctrinal Standards,
the Articles of Religion,
which lift Scripture as primary for Theological thought, life and Faith.
Yet, we are still loosing members nation-wide like crazy
while, at the same time, we're forecasting
a massive shortage of clergy by the turn of the century.
The Church, like the nation, is a valley of dead and dying bones.
I wish this were a horror movie.
I wish this were the late show, and not reality .

Our Church's popular catch phrase has been "Catch the Spirit."
But we've let it slip through our fingers.
There are ministers who are afraid to preach about the power of the Holy Spirit.
There are ministers who are afraid of proclaiming
the need for the presence of the Spirit within people's lives.
There are ministers who refuse to accept that we've, by-in-large, lost the spirit--
And that we're the reason this nation is in such a sorry state.
I am not one of those ministers.
We must, all Church's everywhere,
we must all "Catch the Spirit" again.
Indeed, we must be caught by the Spirit again.

Ezekiel 37 tells us it is possible.
God asked Ezekiel,
"Son of man, can these bones live?"
If God asked some Methodists this question,
some might say "O Lord, thou knowest--no."

But God's Word is true, clear, and the sure Foundation.
Jesus Christ promised us a helper,
an advocate,
Jesus promised to send us the Holy Spirit,
the third person of the Trinity.
And he did.
On the first Pentecost Sunday, so very long ago,
God's Holy Spirit came down and into the hearts of those first Christians,
and the Church was born.
Today, the same promise is true.
The Spirit of God is here, now, and the promise
of Christ is still in effect.

A few minutes ago,
at the opening of the service,
we sang a wonderful Hymn, one of my favorite Hymns,
“God of Grace and God of Glory.”

Harry Emerson Fosdick,

who wrote this Hymn,
was perhaps one of the greatest preachers of the first half of this century.
Sunday after Sunday, for over 20 years,
he filled the pulpit of Riverside Church in New York City,

Preaching the Word of God,
Preaching about God's grace,
God's presence,
God's love,
God's power,
God's spirit.
Did you hear the words of that hymn we sang?
It's No. 577 in your hymnal.
“God of Grace and God of Glory,
on thy people pour thy power.....
for the living of these days.”

This is the Pentecost message.
It is this power of God,
The indwelling power and presence of the Holy Spirit,
that can, indeed, save us from week resignation.
The Holy Spirit can and will resurrect the dead bones,
and give them back their life and meaning for that life.
May the Holy Spirit of God resurrect you,
this Pentecost Sunday,
provide life for your dead, tired, worn out bones,
and give your living meaning,
purpose,
and joy.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
--Amen