THE SPIRIT OF LIFE
Ezekiel 37:1-14
 Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.  Our text for this Pentecost Sunday, is recorded in the book of Ezekiel, chapter 37, verses 1 through 14, particularly these words:  “The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the midst of the valley; it was full of bones.  And he said to me, ‘Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.”  So I prophesied as I was commanded:  and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great host.”  This is our text.
 In the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, dear Christian friends.  In order to understand our text for today, and also to understand just why this particular Old Testament text was chosen for Pentecost Sunday, you have to know little bit of the Hebrew Language.   
 Sometimes, one word can have several different meanings — and that is the case here.  The Hebrew word translated as “Spirit” — also means “wind” and “breath.”  If you look over the text for today, you will notice that the words Spirit, breath, and wind appear 11 times — 7 times in the middle paragraph alone.  All 11 words in the Hebrew language are the same root word.
 God had given a vision to His prophet Ezekiel — God took Ezekiel to a valley that was full of old, dry bones.  Ezekiel even notes in our text that “These bones were very dry.” which indicates that the persons to whom these bones belonged had been dead for a long, long time.  And God said that these bones were His special chosen people Israel.  God said that the Children of Israel had given up hope, they thought that they were dead, and cut off from God.  So the vision which Ezekiel has of these old dried bones returning to life, was a vision of hope and of encouragement, to the children of Israel — and it is also a message of assurance and comfort to you and to me today.
 Let’s look for a minute at the meaning of today’s text in the context of the Children of Israel to whom Ezekiel was speaking.  And the disciples on that first Pentecost Day.  And to you and me in our day and time.
 The children of Israel felt like old dried bones.  Our text tells us — “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel.  Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost, and we are clean cut off.’”  But God had a promise of hope for these Children of Israel through the vision to Ezekiel.  Those dried bones would have muscles added back to them, and then over the muscles God would put flesh, and over the flesh would come skin.  God was going to rebuild the People of Israel — he was going to restore them to their rightful place as living people of God.  As he promise in the text, “I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land.”
 To people in exile who felt hopeless, God was giving a promise and restoring their hope.  And it was the Spirit of God that was to rebuild that hope.  God said clearly in the text, “I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live.”  God’s Spirit would give life to the Children of Israel who felt that they were dead.
 And what about the disciples of Jesus just before Pentecost?  It was now 50 days after Jesus had risen from the dead.  In 40 of those days they had talked with the savior, they had listened to him as he further explained the prophecies of the Old Testament which dealt with why he had to be crucified, and how he would be raised to new life on the third day.  But then, Jesus had left them — he had ascended into heaven right before their eyes — and now they were alone again.  So they had done as he had said they should — they went back to Jerusalem to wait for something that Jesus had called the “Comforter”.
 To the casual observer — it would probably have seemed that the disciples were hopeless at this point.  Maybe they felt like a pile of dried bones.  Their Rabbi/Leader/Savior had left them — The authorities were still after them — It had only been just a little more than a month, so the rumor must have still been circulating that they had stolen the body of Jesus from the grave –  And so not only were they in that upper room waiting for the “Comforter” to come — they were also there probably still hiding from the Jews!
 But as God “breathed” on them with his Holy Spirit, as those tongues of fire settled on their heads, they came alive.  They went into the crowded streets of Jerusalem proclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  They told about the marvelous works of God in languages that they had never known before.  Peter, the man who denied Jesus 3 times to a very small crowd around a court-yard fire — now preaches a very powerful sermon in the city streets of Jerusalem, — and 3,000 people joined with Peter and the Disciples in the Christian faith that day.  3,000 people dead in sin — became alive in Jesus Christ that day!!  Wherever the Spirit of God is — there is life!!
 But what about you and me, today?  What does this text say to us?  Are we just a valley filled with dead, dry bones?  Or are we like the disciples — locked up by ourselves in some small room where we can protect ourselves from the world around us?  Are we hopeless?  Have we given up?  Have we reached a point where we think God cannot forgive us?  Have we reached a point where we fell that our problems are too great for anyone — even God — to handle?  Do we feel that we are tired of life and living, because it seems that everything goes wrong, or that life is just passing us by?  IF you answered “Yes” to any of these questions — then you need the message of hope which God gave to Ezekiel to prophesy to the Children of Israel.  “I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land.”  God has promised to give His Holy Spirit to all those who are His own.  We received the Holy Spirit into our lives as we were born again through the washing of Holy Baptism.  The Spirit is within you right now — giving to you, LIFE.
 It is the Holy Spirit working within you which calls, enlightens, sanctifies, and keeps you in the one true faith.  It is the Holy Spirit working within you right now which directs your life as you serve God and your fellow man with good works.  It is the Holy Spirit working through the means of Grace — through Word and Sacrament — who strengthens you and directs you in your life as a child of God.  It is the Holy Spirit who gives you life — as a child of God, through faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. And it is the Holy Spirit working faith in your heart to trust in the mansion that Jesus is preparing for you in Eternal life.
 In the book of Genesis we read that after God had formed Adam out of the dust of the Ground — “He breathed into him the breath of life and man became a living soul.”  Remember what we said at the beginning of this sermon — the Hebrew word for breath and Spirit are the same.  And so that sentence could just as correctly be translated, “God breathed into Adam the “Spirit” of life.”  Without God the Holy Spirit — we could not have life — because the Bible is clear, “No one can say that Jesus is Lord, But by the Holy Spirit.”  But indeed we have life because God’s Spirit dwells with us:  Calling us by the Gospel, enlightening us with his gifts, and sanctifying us in the one true faith — even as he calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth! 
 May the Holy Spirit continue this good work in you, unto life eternal.  Amen.
 May the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.  Amen.