Can These Bones Live?

Pentecost Day B - May 19, 2024

Rev Sarah Colvin

Blessed Feast of the Pentecost!

It is popular, and accurate, to refer to Pentecost as the Birthday of the church.  We have moved from the post resurrection stories in early Easter, to the statements in John’s Gospel before Jesus’ death which explain the death and resurrection in later Eastertide, to now Pentecost.  [What is that expression you see sometimes on social media, “I was today years old when I learned… so, I learned this year, that Pentecost is considered still part of Easter.  And then the Sundays after Pentecost are their own thing. Maybe I knew that, but it crystallized this week.]  So, Pentecost is actually the last Sunday of Easter and part of the Easter season, and with it is the arrival of the Spirit, or better said, our celebration of the arrival of the Spirit, and the speaking in many languages in which all can be miraculously understood. However, the day or the Feast of the Pentecost is far more than the birthday of the church.  

We live in a time as Heather Havrilesky writes in her book, What if this were Enough that “as the planet heats to a low simmer and ominous images of polar bears swimming in circles make us feel like the universe’s most reckless zookeepers; admonishments to embrace optimism and cheer and “greatness” are more vehement than ever…” And although depression and anxiety have achieved some degree of cultural acceptance for many of us, “curmudgeonly remarks, high-strung habits and skepticism once merely meant you were a certain type of person, negative but relatively harmless… but these days ‘grouchiness’ is often encountered as a condition for which you require intervention: a prescription, more meditation, more self-care….”   In a nutshell, we have much to face that is depressing or just wrong and our culture artificially wants us happy, and we listen to the world. And just where does that leave us with church? Where does church fit in this picture?

Well, if we hold that the day or the Feast of the Pentecost is far more than the birthday of the church - then instead, this is the reenactment of YHWH's promise for a rebirth of those of us who are dry bones in a valley filled to the brim with dry bones. The dryness of the bones emphasizes the desolation of the people and the miracle which will be brought by Yahweh in bringing life to this people in desolation. The people who previously would have been feeling deserted by God, with no hope for the future, but instead are being reassured that God has the power to resurrect them.  We too are given this hope.  Most of us would not necessarily equate our perspective with theirs, with a as feeling of desolation, although many may feel spiritually dry, perhaps particularly with the uncertainty of the looming election, the worries of climate change, the pressure of the call for justice ….

So what do we have to be happy about?  Where is the joy? How is the desolation lifted, what miracle will Yahweh bring to life for the people?   Where and how do we find joy? 

Joy is found in community.  And Hope is found in God. God can remake what is marvelous – witness the resurrection – God can give joy in community – witness the languages in Acts. 

This is always good news, but I think this is particularly good news for this particular church. 

The whims of congregational growth and decline has been the subject for study quite some time.  But we are not held hostage by studies.  Personally, I think any congregation can thrive if they become a place where people can sense God’s renewing Spirit at work.  This very thing is what we are.  People in the broader church, we clergy folk, we talk about our churches, and when people ask me about All Saints Sharon Chapel, I can honestly say there is a core group of people who attend who believe in the power of the Spirit, and others sense this, visitors and occasional attenders. I can honestly say that although numbers may be down compared to before the pandemic, All Saints Sharon Chapel does not feel like a dying church.  It feels like a church that has had its knees knocked out from itself. But the people of All Saints know who we are.  We are able to dream dreams, and that is not what a dying church does. If God can raise the valley of dry bones, God can surely take a church that has had its knees knocked out from under it and help it STAND again.

This is a place where people can sense God’s renewing Spirit at work. The building is currently our albatross hanging around our necks, but we are beginning to re-start the cultivation of the Spirit’s presence through the practices that have characterized Christian discipleship throughout the centuries--- I don’t need to tell you how, but I will: through prayer, through study of scripture, through service, through fellowship and through worship.  Every aspect of this is maybe different now than it has been in different iterations of this church, but as disciples, as followers of Jesus, we have hope and joy in community, because we all know that together we are community and with togetherness comes joy.  You may have noticed that happiness can be an individual event, but true joy is found in community, and one could argue it is found most extensively in the beloved community.

So, we can ask ourselves:  

Can these bones live? Can All Saints Sharon Chapel live?

Only, only if our heads and our hearts are on fire.  There is too much at stake to allow us to drift complacently into a dying church.  We have too much love of the Triune God and for each other for that to come to pass.                                                                                                                                                                                                                

The God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, the great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make us perfect in every good work to do his will, working in us that which is well pleasing in his sight.  Amen.