Bones and skeletons are obviously without life of any sort other than perhaps some patches of dry DNA and any other living organism that is using them for homes They tend to portray, obviously, an absence of living, of water but over and above that their very nature suggests a dryness and brittleness that is easy to break apart. Some bones are indeed brittle and easy to break and yet others are substantial enough to be able to give some one a hard knock should one so wish. Ezekiel is placed in a valley with innumerable dry bones from which God asks him to create life through the Spirit, which indeed he does (Ez. 37.1-14). In this passage God creates from a few bare bones, pardon the pun, life that is powered by God's breath as the first life was powered by God's breath a reminder that we are all made as a result of God's breath of life.
The 'church' as we know it has metamorphed from the bare bones of a few disciples hiding themselves away in a room in Jerusalem (Acts 2 and onwards) in to what it appears as an institution today. Like any living creature it has evolved through the ages changing and morphing from the original, perhaps, idyllic conceptions of humanity as a community to the extensive and often empiric organisation that it is today. As we read the beginning of that journey and dare I say not really the beginning of the church but of a community that bore witness to the gifts of God obtainable through grace and faith borne on the breath of God's Spirit, we are reminded that it is God's Spirit that motivates and changes the lives of those with faith. It is not a programmed beginning but rather the breath of God's Spirit in the community that brings about the change.
Both of these passages tell of great change in how we perceive God's presence and work. From Ezekiel's vision of dried bones to the growth of community out of fear and perhaps some reluctance to step out into the world. Change wrought by the passage of the Spirit in the lives of those that God guides and directs. A Spirit that is called a Spirit of truth by Christ (John 16.13). A truth which creates community out of nothing but dry bones in the desert and from a few huddled in fear. A truth which bleeds into society and shames those that would deny the basic justice of human love. For the community that is grown from the dryness of despair and fear is a community that is bound by the truth of good news proclaimed in the love of the other.
We unfortunately are not as open to change as those who were at the beginning. It is out of their fear and despair that a new way of life came about not out of our current place in society that of complacency. We are quite content with what society delivers for us and are de-sensitised to the cruelties of the world as we see them nightly on our newscasts or in our papers or on the internet. We do not understand the despair that face so many when we have the comforts of our own homes and friends around us who are not suffering. We fail those who are less fortunate from ourselves as we do not see their plight but rather jeer on the side-lines much as those that jeered at the first disciples as they proclaimed a new understanding in the community. It is not that we do not understand, it is not that we do not see but rather we do not open ourselves to the call of the Spirit into the world. If we look around the world it is only a very few that actually proclaim God's love in the midst of despair. In celebrating Pentecost we must celebrate the Spirit of truth and love in our lives that calls us to give up our fears so that we can so God's love to the world.
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