The text this morning is from the Prophet Ezekiel, the 37th chapter:
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. And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon 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 was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. And I looked, and behold, 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, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army. Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.’ Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord.”Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
I had chosen this text long before the news of this week had come. Historic Trinity, a beloved sister congregation, and mother congregation to Old Immanuel, burned to the ground. We don’t know the cause, we don’t know the reason, but we know the result: another church building toppled in the great history of the Church. I mean, when you think about it, there are very few congregations still existing throughout the history of the Church. There are really only two that I can think of, one being the church begun by the Ethiopian eunuch, whose story we heard a couple weeks ago (the Church is very vibrant there and has been for 2000 years), and the Church in Antioch, the place where we were first called Christians. Only in those two places has the Church persisted without issue.
And now, another church building has disappeared in Milwaukee, leaving only her bones behind, the stone edifice that has stood for 151 years. And it’s horrible. And it’s tragic. Catastrophic. And it doesn’t really matter. I know that’s hard to hear, and maybe it seems callous. But the reality is that our Lord promises that the gates of hell cannot prevail against His Church, what’s the worst a fire can do to a building? The congregation of saints at Trinity are still there for the moment, and even if they all must go elsewhere, they haven’t lost anything but their common place, they continue to have the promises of Christ, the promise that not one of them will fall from the Lord’s hand.
It reminds me of the hymn, Built on the Rock.
Built on the Rock the Church shall stand Even when steeples are falling. Crumbled have spires in ev'ry land; Bells still are chiming and calling, Calling the young and old to rest, But above all the soul distressed, Longing for rest everlasting.
Surely in temples made with hands God, the Most High, is not dwelling; High above earth His temple stands, All earthly temples excelling. Yet He who dwells in heav'n above Chooses to live with us in love, Making our bodies His temple.
We are God's house of living stones, Built for His own habitation. He through baptismal grace us owns Heirs of His wondrous salvation. Were we but two His name to tell, Yet He would deign with us to dwell, With all His grace and His favor.
Here stands the font before our eyes, Telling how God has received us; Th'altar recalls Christ's sacrifice And what His Supper here gives us. Here sound the Scriptures that proclaim Christ yesterday, today, the same, And evermore, our Redeemer.
Grant then, O God, Your will be done, That, when the church bells are ringing, Many in saving faith may come Where Christ His message is bringing: "I know mine own, My own know Me, You, not the world, My face shall see. My peace I leave with you. Amen."In the hymn, we are reminded of the fact that our Lord doesn’t just dwell in the pretty places, but He dwells where He has promised: wherever two or more are gathered in His name. And what does that mean? Well, where are two or more gathered in His name? In the Divine Service. When we are gathered together to hear His Word, remember our Baptism, and receive His Supper, there He is. The buildings may crumble around us, and they do; the congregation may move on, and they do; the people may suffer great persecutions unto death, and they do, but our Lord is good and faithful to bring Himself to His people wherever they may gather.
This is what Ezekiel, this morning, is beginning to learn, and it’s what the 3000 people baptized into the faith of Christ began to learn that Pentecost day. Though the bones of the saints lay bare, by the power of the Holy Spirit, by the command of Christ, sinews and flesh and skin and breath come back, and the people of God will be raised unto life everlasting. Ezekiel is taken out into the wilderness, into the scene of a great valley, filled with bones. I imagine it kind of like the entire floor of the valley was filled and even filling with bones, as if a hose were turned on in a bucket, but instead of water, skulls and femurs came out.
And as Ezekiel looked around, God spoke to him, asking if the bones could live again. When he answers, “O Lord God, You know,” Ezekiel isn’t hedging his bets; this is a common way of not only deferring to the power of God, but also answering, “Whatever you desire shall be done.” So God tells him to prophesy to them. Speak to them, tell them that they will live. And so, even though the bones have no ears to hear, by the power of the Lord, Ezekiel speaks to them to rise up, and the bones rattle and every bone becomes reconnected, knee bone connected to the thigh bone, thigh bone connected to the hip bone, hip bone connected to the back bone, back bone connected to the shoulder bone, shoulder bone connected to the neck bone, neck bone connected to the head bone... Now, hear the Word of the Lord. But even as they connected and flesh and skin came over them, the corpses were lifeless until God told Ezekiel to prophesy to the breath.
The Hebrew word for breath also means Spirit, as in the Holy Spirit. This is the same breath that was breathed into the nostrils of Adam when he was brought to life from the clay. This is the same breath that hovered over the face of the deep waters before the world was created. It is the same breath that descends like a dove upon Jesus at His Baptism. It is the same breath that descends upon the Apostles as flames of fire and enables them to speak in languages unknown to them previously.
The breath of God is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God. He is a singular person in the Godhead, not just a power or an emanation, but a person as much as the Father or the Son. And as Ezekiel prophesies, the Spirit fills each of these bodies with the very same life-giving power that was given to Adam, raising them, not from the clay, but from the dust of death. There they stood, a great army.
And the Lord said to Ezekiel, this is the whole house of Israel, cut off from the land of their promise, sent into exile, taken away, slaughtered, killed, murdered, destroyed. Yet, the promise of the Lord remains for them, that God shall open their graves and bring them into everlasting life. He shall bring them up, breathing life into them yet again that they would see He is the Lord forever. What has this all to do with Pentecost and Historic Trinity?
On Pentecost, it is the same Spirit given to the Apostles that keeps you and your body safe in Jesus Christ until the day of His coming. It is the same Spirit that gave the Apostles the ability to speak to people from all backgrounds and nationalities that will preserve your flesh. You hear the Gospel in English today because the Apostles spoke by the power of the Spirit, not just in their native Aramaic, not just in their natural Greek, but in Latin, Parthian, Egyptian, Arabic, and others. The Gospel is to be preached to all people in all languages, and it is the power of the Spirit that enables it. That same Spirit that gives the ability for the Gospel to be spoken to all people in all languages is the same Spirit that indwells us in our Baptism, joining with us that we might be children of God. And so we are.
By the way, if you don’t think this Gospel in all languages is a big deal, think about our biggest competitors: Islam and the Roman Catholic Church. In Islam, they believe the truth of the Koran can only be fully comprehended and given in Arabic. You must speak that language or you’ll never fully be a part of it. In the Roman Catholic Church, until relatively recently, from about 384 until the early 1900s, you could only have the Church services done in Latin otherwise you could be expelled from the Church (some were even burned as heretics). Yet, by the power of the Spirit, you can hear the Gospel for you in your language with your understanding so that you might have the promise that you are of the House of Israel forever, an inheritor of the promise of everlasting life, to be raised from the dead, to stand before the Lord with new life that will never end.
And it the same for the saints of Historic Trinity, as it is for the saints at SPI. You are inheritors of the same promise. Whether it is by German that you hear the Word of God, or whether it is in English when the whole congregation switched languages for the purpose of evangelism, the promise of God is for you. And you know that because you can hear it in your ears. God is able to raise the dead from those who cannot hear for they have no ears. But, you, now, have ears to hear, and empowered by the Holy Spirit, may hear, want to hear, love to hear, that Christ Jesus, the Son of God, lived and died for your salvation, that He was raised for your justification, and that He is ascended to the right hand of the Father that He might bring the gift of His salvation to you week after week, day after day, minute after minute.
It doesn’t matter if your church is burned down to its bones, it doesn’t matter if your body is burned down to its bones, Christ shall raise you, you, and the whole Church, His bride, His beloved, from the dead, that you might live forever. And honestly, I kind of wonder myself if it will be that our Lord will restore all that is beautiful in the world to come, including Historic Trinity, its altar, its organ, its artwork, just as He will restore the beloved people of Historic Trinity, just as He will restore the saints of SPI, you, to life forever in Christ. And so He shall. The Spirit is with you now, in your ears and in your hearts, to preserve you until that day when Christ returns to raise you from the dead. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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