“Rattle Me Bones” (Ezekiel 37:1-14)

I imagine that the latest school shooting at Santa Fe High School near Galveston, Texas caught your attention on Friday.  I know that it caught my attention.  Ten people were shot and killed.  It was unnerving . . . unnerving as it seems that these school shootings are coming more and more often into the news.  It was the second school shooting that week . . . the tenth shooting since the February 14th shooting that took place in Parkland, Florida . . . and it is 220th shooting since the Columbine High School shooting in April of 1999.  There have been 16 school shootings in 2018 and we are not even halfway through the year.  Such reality rattles me bones.

And, it ought to be rattling all our bones.

Rattles me bones is slang for when something or someone upsets you in such a manner that you cannot contain yourself.  It is something that shakes you to the core of who you are as a person . . . something that upsets the apple cart . . . makes you see things differently . . .  something that makes you want to change.  With the shooting on Friday, something within me was rattled . . . there is something wrong, something wrong with our society . . . with humanity that such random violence is happening day after day in the world that you and I live in.  It is unnerving . . . it rattles me bones.

I think someone or something is knocking on the door of my soul . . . attempting to get my attention.  I have a pretty good idea of who or what it might be . . . it is the Spirit.  The Spirit of God is knocking the door of my soul . . . rattling the handle . . . wanting my attention.  Wanting to turn my attention to how far it seems that we . . . as the children of God . . . are drifting away from that love that draws us to God and one another.  Drifting away from Jesus’ command to love one another . . . God’s desire.  I think that the Spirit is trying to rattle me bones.

And, that is okay.  That is the task of the Holy Spirit . . . to rattle a few bones.  It is also okay because I am not the first to be rattled by the Spirit’s movement.  In our reading this morning, the prophet Ezekiel shares a dream with the exiled people of Israel.  In that dream God points him to a valley that is strewn with bones from a huge battle . . . bones, dry bones, for as far as the eyes can see.  Then God asks Ezekiel, “Son of man, can these bones live?”  Ezekiel feigns ignorance to the Lord’s question.  To which God tells Ezekiel to do as he is told and watch . . .

Well, Ezekiel does as he is told.  He begins to prophesy to those dry bones . . . and soon “there was a noise, a rattling sound,and the bones came together, bone to bone . . . tendons and flesh appeared . . . skin covered them.”  But there was no life in any of it.  So, God told him to keep prophesying, and as he was doing this the Lord spoke: “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.”  The winds blew and life entered the bodies of what once were nothing but piles of dry bones.

Now all of this was to let Ezekiel know that God would revive, restore, and bring new life into the exiled children of God . . . a message of hope that he was to share with the children of God.  In the rattling of bones there was a sign of hope . . . a sign of new life . . . new beginnings.  The Spirit would move among them.  God tells them: “I will put my Spirit in you and you will live . . .”

Of course we know this came to be . . . we have the book that tells the story.  We know that God brings to life those who are exiled . . . returns them to their homeland . . . blesses them, once again, as God’s children.  We also know that it worked . . . it worked for a little while before they slipped back into old habits.

Old habits are hard to kick.  The children of God were still struggling with old habits when we get to the story of Jesus.  Jesus comes along to let the people know that they are still not getting it right . . . still not living up to what God desires.  He also comes to show them the way . . . a better way.  Through the words that he preaches and teaches, Jesus extols the people to a better way.  Through the way that he lives his life and the actions that he takes, he shows the people a better way.  He tries . . . but, remember, old habits are tough to break.

In the end it doesn’t seem as if he succeeds . . . in the end it seems as that which he hopes to change ends up killing him.  Yet his words echo through the people in their fear and silence . . . believe!  Believe!  Believe that life can come to dry bones.  Believe because the Spirit will bring life!  Believe!

Which brings us to today.  The story of today is found in the second chapter of the Book of Acts . . . the Day of Pentecost.  The day in which the wind blew through the believers . . . blowing and rattling their bones.  The writer tells us: “Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting . . . all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:2-4)  They were rattled.  In their rattling there was a change . . . a new way of seeing things . . . a new understanding . . . there was new life.

That is the task of the Holy Spirit . . . to rattle me bones.  That is the job of the Holy Spirit to shake the faithful to the roots of their faith . . . to challenge their understanding of what it means to be faithful . . . to prod them in how they live their lives in the love of God and for one another.  It is the role of the Holy Spirit to upset us and prod us towards change . . . towards changing our lives in how we love God and one another.  That is what the Holy Spirit does . . . it rattles me bones.  It does this for all of God’s children . . . for you and for me.

Sometimes it is a swift and powerful move that knocks us down . . . sort of like the Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus; but, more often than not, it is a more subtle way that just wears on us.  Like, school shootings . . . each and every time there is a school shooting . . . 220--at least ten a year--since 1999.  Each one rattles our bones . . . unnerves us . . . upsets us.  The Spirit is knocking . . . are we answering the door?

The Spirit moves around us and through us to bring us closer to God’s will . . . to have a deeper and more intimate relationship with God and with one another.  The Spirit’s presence in our lives is not to provide us with a warm feeling; no, it is to prompt us . . . to prod us . . . towards living our lives as Jesus lived his.  The Spirit moves us to action.  The action of love.  God knows we need more action towards love.

On this day of Pentecost we are reminded of the power of the Spirit within our lives.  I know that we have all felt the Spirit’s presence in our lives.  In those moments when we are shook in the news of the world around us . . . in those moments when we witness that which upsets us . . . in those moments when we know that this is not the way God wants or intends for life to be played out.  Sometimes the Spirit is going to kick in the door to our souls, but more often than not the Spirit is going to keep gently knocking until we let it in to change us.

On this Pentecost Day, may the Spirit move among us . . . may it whisper or maybe even shout in our ears . . . may it open our hearts to its prodding . . . and, may it move us to live our lives more and more like Jesus each and every day.  May we listen to the Spirit in our lives for we are a people blessed.  Amen.