Worship Wars : Dry Bones

To watch the video version of this sermon, click the link here.

Hello and welcome back to another week here on Making Waves! I’m glad that you have chosen to join us once again as we dive into our roots of worship and what it means to truly worship God. If you haven’t read or viewed last week’s sermon, I would encourage doing so, but if not, then I will briefly summarize.

We discussed last week about the war on worship and how we should be addressing it. When we focus so much on the carpet color, the food we bring in the church, or the genre of music within the service, we miss the truer, and much deeper, meaning that God hopes we are able to derive from the act of worship. We discovered last week that worship, in and of itself, is not about us. Instead, worship has far more to do with God and what God is doing in us.

This week, we are going to piggyback slightly on one of the ideas that we touched on in last week’s sermon, but, before we get any deeper into this thing… let’s dive into the Word. We’ll be reading from the NRSV in the Gospel of John, chapter 3, verses 1 through 8. I invite you either follow along below or look up this passage in your personal Biblical translation or paraphrase.

3 1 Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. 2 He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” 3 Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. 6 What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ 8 The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

-John 3:1-8 (NRSV)

Will you join me in prayer? Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts together today be acceptable in Your sight, O God, for You are our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

One night, the prolific Austrian composer Franz Joseph Haydn was present at the Vienna Music Hall, where one of his well-beloved works, “The Creation,” was being performed. He was a bit advanced in age and was too weak to stand or walk, so he was confined to a wheelchair.  As the oratorio moved forward, the audience, too, was moved with tremendous emotion. When the passage "And there was light!" was reached, the chorus and orchestra burst forth in such power that the crowd could no longer restrain its enthusiasm.

The vast assembly rose in spontaneous applause, cheering on the orchestra and the composer for their work on the piece. Haydn struggled to stand and motioned for silence. When the crowd died down, he extended his hand and pointed towards heaven, then said, "No, no, not from me, but from thence comes all!" Having given the glory and praise to the Creator, he fell back into his chair exhausted.

Have you ever had a moment in your life where you truly knew that God was in control? If you are a performer or artist, perhaps you have found that, like Haydn, you could never have created what you did without the inspiration of the greatest of Creators. Maybe you had just the right words for someone who turned to you for hope, then later had no clue where those words came from. Some of you may recall a few months ago whenever I was reading a passage of scripture during the service and had to stop dead in my tracks, because the passage I was reading wasn’t at all what I had originally selected - instead, it was much better.

Sometimes we take a step back in life and look at the work that God has done and is doing in our lives and we find that many of the trials and challenges and blessings that we endure are riddled with God throughout them. Every ounce of strength we didn’t know that we had, every moment of patience that you give beyond your wit’s end, every joy is likely inspired by or given by God when we truly take a look at it.

We certainly aren’t the first to notice this, and we likely all know where this has it’s roots, even if we haven’t put two and two together yet. Perhaps some scripture will help remind us of where this sense of God comes from…

“1 1 In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, 2 the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.”

-Genesis 1:1-2

“37 1 The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. 3 He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” 4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. 5 Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. 6 I will lay sinews on 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.”

7 So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. 8 I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. 9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” 10 I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.”

-Ezekiel 37:1-10

“ 20 19 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” 22 When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” “

-John 20:19-23

“2 1 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.”

-Acts 2:1-4

All of these scripture, along with the scripture from above with Nicodemus have a character in common. Did you notice who it was? In the Old Testament, it is referred to as the “ruach” or the wind of God. In the New Testament, it’s given the title of “pnuema” or the spirit of God. What we are talking about here is the “Holy Spirit.” You’ve likely heard it before and maybe you’ve heard of it by several different names, but the Holy Spirit plays a huge factor in our worship experience.

Whenever we are baptized, we are given the gift of the Holy Spirit. Much like when the dove descends upon Jesus in His holy baptism, so too does the Spirit of God descend upon us and enter into our hearts.

So, you may be thinking, how does this all relate to worship, preacher? Shouldn’t this just be a sermon on the Holy Spirit? Well, while there is certainly enough information out there to do a year-long series on the Holy Spirit, we are talking about the Holy Spirit because of what it does within us during worship. As I had mentioned earlier, when worship happens, it’s very little actually about us. More than anything, it’s about God and what God is doing within and through us. The Holy Spirit is the conduit by which God works through us.

And what exactly is the Spirit doing during worship? Maybe you’ve felt it before and simply never realized it or were never able to put it into words. There seem to be two major events that can happen through the Holy Spirit during worship, both of which we can find in the scriptures listed above.

Take, for our first example, the passage from Ezekiel that we read earlier. We are taken to this vivid landscape of Ezekiel looking over the valley of dried up bones. Bones that have been licked clean of any semblance of life left in them. Bones that have been around so long that they are dried to the core; they lack any marrow or blood within them. Bones that have been so far from God for so long that they serve no purpose. Bones that come to church and don’t hear the message. Bones that have disagreed with the preacher so many times that one day they just stopped attending church. Bones that have argued for so long on Facebook that they have forgotten what they are arguing for any more. Bones that are so wrapped up in the politics of a situation, that they have forgotten that people are even involved. These bones that are as far from God as they can be. Bones that are sinful, broken, beaten down and they feel like there is nothing that they can do to possibly come back to life. They have been dead for so long and have been so far from God and have done things that, “Man, preacher, if only you knew what they’d done;” these bones that believe there is nothing they can possibly do to live again.

And what does God do?

He breathes the breath of life upon these bones, He sends His Holy Spirit upon them and it washes over the bones and brings them back to life. The Holy Spirit takes these old dry bones and gives them grace.

We see it again in the Gospel of John and the book of Acts, the disciples and the early Christians receive God in worship. First, in worship we receive the very glory of God, we see it in the Word, we hear it in the choir or the hymns or the praise band, we experience it in the words of the preacher.

Then, once we’ve seen the glory of God and received God, we uncontrollably pass it forward in a moment of praise. Think of it just like our very breath. During worship, we breathe in and we receive God, and then we breathe out and we praise God. It’s a cyclical rhythm of grace. God designs that we live our lives in worship. Not just in the hour on Sunday morning, but also in the day-to-day moments of life.

The Israelites focused a great deal on names and, there is one name we say quite often today that wouldn’t have even been uttered back in those days. It’s a name of God that you may have said before, but spelled a little differently “Y H W H.” You’ve likely seen it with vowels included for pronunciation “Yahweh.” It directly translates to “I Am Who I Am,” but, in fact, it was rarely every pronounced by the Israelite people. This name was instead replaced by the word “adonai” or “adonay” whenever it was read from the Torah.

Like I mentioned a moment ago, it was unlikely that anyone would try to vocally produce this name, because it was so holy that you couldn’t say the name of God. But, in truth, the people were saying the name of God constantly. These letters (יהוה) are a symbol of the very breath that we breathe. Phonetically, each letter is pronounced “yah,” “hey,” “wah,” “hey.” If you’ll humble yourself and try to say those four letter out loud without putting any energy in your voice, you’ll hear a familiar rhythm: breathing.

If you’ve been to my study at Pelham UMC, then you’ve likely seen this word, but not in the English iteration. I have a hand painted piece that I created as a reminder of God on my wall that shows the shadow of a cross with the Hebrew consonants יהוה inside of it. I have this on my wall as a reminder of two things: 1) remember to breathe and take life joyfully and then 2) remember that God is in our every breath. Every breath that we breathe is a moment where we are worshipping God and saying His holiest name.

Hopefully, you’ve all been breathing during this reading. Remember, then, that the breath you are breathing right now are utterances of God’s name. Even if you didn’t know it, you are honoring God’s glory by simply breathing. As you breath in, take in the gift of life. Remember the glory of the Lord and His blessing of this breath. And then as you breathe out, think of it as exhaling praise to God. Take in Grace, let out Praise. I can’t think of a more wonderful way to live a life of praise than to worship God with our very breath.