5/23/21 - The Festival of Pentecost - Ezekiel 37:1-14 - Dry Bones, Hear the Word of the Lord!

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The Festival of Pentecost

God’s Old Testament people celebrated the gathering of the harvest at the Festival of Weeks. On the fiftieth day, God sent the promised Counselor on the day we call “Pentecost” This day marked the birthday of the New Testament Church and celebrates the harvest of souls won by the Son and gathered by his servants empowered by his Spirit. Pentecost is the third great festival of the Church and has been commemorated since at least 217 A.D. The Church dresses in red to remind us of the tongues of fire that marked the Spirit’s gift and the blood of the martyrs which was the seed of the Church.


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First Lesson: Ezekiel 37:1-14
The breath of God is active and life-giving. How and where is he active in giving life? Where the Word is proclaimed exactly as he gave it. Ezekiel preaches only what God told him to preach, even when preaching to dry bones. The whole of humanity is nothing but dry bones until God breathes his Word on them. He does it still when and where his Word is proclaimed and not apart from it. To say that the Spirit is active and to say that his Word is powerful is to say the same thing. He breathed at creation and brought all things into existence. He breathes in the gospel and conquered our spiritual death, bringing us to Jesus and Jesus to us. On the last day he will breathe again and wake all the dead and take us to be with God in heaven forever. We are entering the Half Year of the Church: Where should we expect to experience the breath of God? Nowhere else than where his Word is that is in the church as she breathes his Word in all its truth and purity! Everywhere else God sees only bones that stay dry and dead! And what then should be the passion, the all consuming concern of the church? Nothing else but the life-giving breath of God that creates and sustains her.

Second Lesson: Acts 2:1-21
The breath of God is both violent and gentle. Its violence is in the mighty wind. It is in the signs and wonders that he will speak into being to accompany the end of the age, prefigured by the mighty wind on this day. His violent breath however does not create faith. It creates curiosity this day, and one day will inspire dread in those who have not listened to his gentle voice in the gospel. It is when he breathes words through his apostles and prophets that he is most mighty for us. For then he creates faith which calls on the Name of the Lord, the Savior. That is the Spirit’s real work and glory, bringing us to trust in Jesus for our salvation. Fear is gone and replaced with joyful confidence wrought by the Spirit in the gospel. Therefore, breathe on us, O Breath of God, that we may see Jesus and long for his coming again; pour on us your Spirit that we may be faithful to the Word he speaks while we wait!

Gospel: John 14:25-27
The Spirit comes forth from the Father and the Son. He is the Paraclete, the one called to be at our side. He is the breath of God whose holy work makes us holy by teaching us his Word and thus bringing Christ to us and us to Christ. In revealing Christ he brings forgiveness and eternal life, all that Christ has won for us. For when he reminds us of what Christ said and did for us, Christ comes to impart peace with God and with our own conscience. As St. Bernard said, the Word is the kiss of God on the lips of the soul. Therefore we fearlessly face what is ahead, for we face it with the Father’s gift of the Spirit and with the Spirit’s gift of the Christ’s continuing presence.


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