Encouraged and Emboldened

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On Pentecost (May 19th, 2024), Rev. Matt Sapp discusses the power of the Holy Spirit to breathe new life into people, using biblical references and real-life stories to illustrate the concept of being called back to life.

References & Credits

• The Vietnam pilot mentioned in the sermon is Barry McClenahan. The source material for his story is from an article on Baptist News Global entitled "A message for seminary graduates: What it means to be chosen"
• The Elizabeth from New York story is an old pastor’s story, a parable.
• The poem by T. S. Eliot is "The Hollow Men"
• The artwork for this episode and the associated worship guide are by Lesley Ann Hix-Tommey.

Chapters
00:00 Call to Worship
00:22 The Animating Force
06:32 Elizabeth from New York
11:14 Barry McClinahan: a helicopter pilot in Vietnam
12:42 The spirit of God
15:13 The Benediction

Ezekiel 37:1-14
The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" I said, "Sovereign Lord, you alone know." Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones and say to them, 'Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.'" So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin 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 it, 'This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.'" So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army. Then he said to me: "Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, 'Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.' Therefore prophesy and say to them: 'This is what the Sovereign Lord says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.'"

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[00:00:01] Katie Faison:

Each week, we gather here to praise and worship a god who loves us.   A god who we recognize on this Pentecost   Sunday   is in our presence   through the Holy Spirit today   and always.   Come. Let us worship God together.  

[00:00:23] Matt Sapp:

Message text this morning comes from Ezekiel Ezekiel chapter 37   verses 1 through 14. You'll find the passage printed on the back of your worship guide. I encourage you to follow along with me as I read sacred scripture out loud for us together.   The hand of the Lord was on me and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley. It was full of bones.   He led me back and forth among them and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley. Bones that were very dry.   He asked me, son of man can these bones live?   I said, sovereign Lord, you alone know.  

Then he said to me, prophesy to these bones and say to them, dry bones hear the word of the lord.   This is what the sovereign lord says to these bones,   I will make breath enter you and you will come to life.   I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin. I will put breath in you and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the lord.   So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise,   a rattling sound and the bones came together   bone to bone.  

I looked and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin 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 it, this is what the sovereign Lord says.   Come breath from the 4 winds and breathe into these slain that they may live.   So I prophesied as he commanded me and breath entered them. They came to life and stood up on their feet, a vast   army.   Then he said to me, son of man these bones are the people of Israel.   They say our bones are dried up and our hope is gone. We are cut off.   Therefore, prophesy and say to them, this is what the sovereign lord says,   my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them.  

I will bring you back to the land of Israel then you, my people, will know that I am the lord   when I open your graves and bring you up from them.   I will put my spirit in you and you will live.   And I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I, the lord, have spoken   and I have done it,   declares the lord.   On Pentecost, we remember that the spirit of God breathes new life into us.   That the spirit is the animating force behind everything   we do.   Ben Franklin once said that some people die at 25 and aren't buried until 75.   There are lots of us walking around who could maybe use some bringing back to life.  

Shakespeare wrote that heroes die but once, but cowards die a 1,000 deaths.   Little by little, the life inside us fades.   That we might be walking around back and forth to work each day,   laundry and bills and trips to the grocery store, but we're not alive inside like we used to be.   And what we want more than anything is for someone or something to come along and shake us up, rattle us around a little bit and breathe new life into us.   To call us back to adventure and excitement and hope and possibility.   Ezekiel speaks to people in a in a similar circumstance.  

People in exile   hold away from home waiting on a new call to a new hope, waiting to be called to life again.   T. S. Eliot in his poem, The Hollow Men, talks about the emptiness   inside us.   He says, we will not be remembered as as virtuous or peaceful nor as evil or violent. Not as good people or as bad people, but as hollow people.   Stuffed people.   Empty heads filled with   straw, scarecrows in the field as the wind blows by, people who have ceased to live.   He presents it as the worst kind of existence and it is, isn't it? This empty headed kind of meaningless   directionless existence.  

Shape without form, shade without color, a paralyzed force,   gesture without motion, Elliott writes.   Our voices but a dry whisper,   quiet and meaningless as wind in dry grass.   Until one day in desperation   with the prophet we call out, can these bones live?   Can these bones live again?   Come breath from the 4 winds and breathe into these bones that they might live.   On Pentecost, we remember   the spirit of God is the animating force that breathes new life into us.   This is the way the world ends, Elliott concludes his poem, not with a bang but a whimper.   And that was the real danger on Pentecost   50 days after Easter as that crowd gathered in Jerusalem.  

Even on the other side of resurrection,   that was the real danger that day. That the story of Jesus would end not with a bang but with a whimper.   Without the powerful presence of God to sustain it, the 1st century church didn't have a chance.   Without the powerful presence of God to sustain it, the 21st   century church   doesn't have a chance.   But on Pentecost, we remember   that the spirit comes to rattle our bones, to shake us awake,   to breathe new life.   One day, a priest in New Orleans at Saint Louis Cathedral,   right there on Jackson Square, right in the middle of the French Quarter, that great old church.  

One day, a priest at the cathedral got a call from a man in New York.   The man was a devout Catholic, a faithful believer, he said.   And the father of a daughter who had disappeared.   She'd run away with a boy.   He thought they were probably into drugs.   At first, the father said,   he and his daughter had kept in close touch. They talked regularly on the phone.   That the dad, each time they talked saying, you have to come home. This isn't good for you, he isn't good for you.   One day they'd talk, he said, and she'd be in Philadelphia. The next time they'd talk, she'd be in Virginia. Just a different place all the time. No job. No roots. Nowhere to stay. Just people on the move.   As time went by, the calls became less frequent.  

The father worried about his daughter more and more. Most of the time he had no idea where she was. Couldn't even tell you what state she was in.   So he spent his nights laying awake,   worrying,   wondering.   Yesterday, he said to the priest, I got a call from one of her friends   who thought she was in New Orleans now.   The dad said to the priest, I don't know anyone in New Orleans.   And I didn't know what else to do.   I don't know who else to call,   so I'm calling you.   I don't know what you can do, but her name is Elizabeth.   If you ever run across a girl from New York named Elizabeth, would you tell her to call her dad?  

That he misses her and loves her very much.   The priest said, New Orleans is a big city.   And unfortunately, there are lots of stray young people like your daughter here.   But I'll keep your daughter in mind.   Give me your phone number just in case.   When the priest hung up the phone something about the way the father had spoken deeply touched him. So he decided he would do something.   He made up a flyer.   The flyer said in big big letters across the top, wanted   Elizabeth from New York   by a father who loves you and wants to know that you're okay.   Meet me at the cathedral at 5 o'clock next Tuesday and we can call your father together, the rest of the flyers said. Signed father O'Reilly.  

Father O'Reilly, the priest made thousands of those flyers.   He got people to help him and and they placed those flyers all over town on on every lamppost, on every street corner, in every shop window.   The days passed until Tuesday arrived.   The priest, not expecting to find the girl, nonetheless   walked over to the front sanctuary doors and unlocked them and turned the lights on, just in case.   Just before 5, father O'Reilly quit what he was doing in his office and headed over to the sanctuary across the street.   He walked out the door and headed down the sidewalk and around the corner toward the front entrance of the church. And as he did so he looked up to see hordes of people   streaming into the cathedral.  

He had to step into the street to get around them as he hurried toward the door.   The sidewalk was filled with young women, 50, 75, a100 of them or more.   And when the priest opened the door, he discovered even more people sitting in the pews just waiting.   Young women with flyers ripped from lampposts and shop windows and street corners.   Some of them were named Elizabeth   or Lizzie or Eliza or Beth.   Some were from New York, Buffalo, and Long Island, and Albany.   But mostly, it was Susan's and Anna's and Sally's and Rachel's   from San Francisco and Chicago and Detroit and Atlanta.  

All there just hoping beyond hope that it was their father looking for them.   That it was their father who loved them enough to call them back to life   again.   We think we're the only ones waiting,   wanting, desperately hoping to be chased after, sought for, called back to life, but we're not.   In Ezekiel's vision, it's a vast army that needs bringing back to life.   Barry McClenahan was a helicopter pilot in Vietnam.   He flew important missions, rescuing soldiers and delivering medical supplies.   One night while he was deployed, a a fight broke out in the officer's club at their Vietnam base after   too many drinks and and Barry got involved in it.  

They hold everyone involved in the fight off to a makeshift   brig out in the South Asian jungle. It was just a huge metal shipping container like you would find on a container ship. They've taken the big doors that swing open off the end away and put metal bars in it to make a a makeshift jail.   After a long uncomfortable night in the brig, Barry was roused the next morning by the sound of his commanding officer's booming voice. McClenahan,   he shouted,   speaking   guard hesitated and resisted, the commanding officer said,   When the guard hesitated and resisted, the commanding officer said, he needed him right away to fly an important mission.  

Then Barry heard the words of his commanding officer that struck his soul then and remain with him even to this day.   He might have belonged to you last night,   but this morning he belongs to me.   The arrival of the Holy Spirit is God chasing after us one more time and saying, you belong   to me.   The spirit of God arrives at Pentecost   to shake us up and rattle us around, to to blow through our lives, to set us on fire, to set us free.   To be human is to be   mortal and wayward and corruptible and and sinful. It's to be led astray and to wander off track.   It's to be lost and alone in New Orleans. It's to be drunk and disorderly in Vietnam. It's to be scarecrows in the field with wind blowing right through us,   dying a 1,000 little deaths in a 1,000 different ways. It is to be people who are dead and dying inside and   out. Dry bones in desert valleys.  

That is part of our experience.   But it is not the whole   of our experience.   To be human is also to be people who are restored and redeemed and resurrected,   called back to life in the mysterious and wonderful power and presence of God.   Back to life from apathy. Back to life from routine. Back to life from weariness. Back to life from mistake after mistake after mistake,   dry bones can be snapped back together   again.   Sinew upon bone   and flesh upon sinew   and skin upon flesh   and the breath of life to animate it all.   To animate us all   again.  

The spirit of God is the animating force that calls each of us back to life.   You might have belonged to someone else last night,   but this morning you were God's.   Let's pray together.   God who breathes new life into us,   we are grateful for the powerful presence of your Holy Spirit.   Not just that comes to blow through our world, but that comes to fill our lives.   A spirit that makes us holy   and a spirit that makes us whole.   May that be true in each of us today.   We offer our prayer in Jesus' name.   Amen.  

[00:15:14] Steve Cothran:

Graduates,   don't you dare let this be the last time you come to church for the next 4 years.   Whether that's this church or wherever you are, you need the community, the encouragement,   the fellowship of God's that only God's family   provides   to kindle the spirit   that may burn in you. And so receive this   Jewish   benediction blessing   combined with one that you   may recognize as well.   No matter where you go or don't go,   no matter what you accomplish or don't   accomplish, no matter what you do   or who you become,   we will always   love you   for who you are,   beloved children of God.  

And we will always,   always be present in your lives.   So may the God who makes all things holy and whole make you   holy and whole.   Amen.