9/13/64

Scripture: Ezekiel 37: 1-14

Those of you who have attended high school choir concerts through the years have found some entertainment and amusement in a number called “Dry Bones” which the Lincoln high school choirs have sung upon occasion. It is sung in the mode of a Negro spiritual and is frequently embellished with sound effects. The number appears to have its reference to the 37th chapter of the book of Ezekiel, from which we have our Scripture reading taken today. The prophet, Ezekiel, may be hard reading until one remembers what he was doing, why he wrote in the way he did, and what kind of message he was trying to convey to his people.

The matters which Ezekiel had in mine were anything but “dry!” They had to do with spiritual life or death, hope or despair. The times were terrible for the children of Israel. Only a prophet like Ezekiel could stir them to any enthusiasm or hope. So what does he say? “The hand of the Lord -- set me down in the midst of the valley; it was full of bones --- and he said to me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’”

It was about 550 years before Jesus. The whole middle east was ruled by Babylon, a nation well known for its ruthless and barbaric policies. Before the Babylon conquest, the kingdom of Judah had fallen. And all her leaders, merchants, craftsmen and artisans had been systematically exiled. They had been taken and resettled all along the Euphrates river --- put where their services in slavery could be used, but kept too scattered to congregate together. The nation of Judah was dead. There was no more feeling of being a chosen people. They were conquered, scattered, rejected, hopeless. Into that abyss of hopelessness, Ezekiel came. He burned with a desire to help the spirits of his people to revive. But what could he do?

He must have brooded long over their state and what God intended now for them. At length he had a kind of vision. In this vision or mind image, he felt himself transported to a valley. Around him were heaps of bleached bones, as if they were left from some great battle fought long ago. Ezekiel felt that he was being asked: “Son of man, can these bones live? Son of man, is there any hope for Israel?” To this he could only reply, “Lord, you are the one who knows.” Then, in the prophetic words, the answer was given: “Yes! these dry bones shall live again. They shall be clothed with muscles and sinews and flesh. I will cause breath to enter into you, my spirit shall be in you, and your bones shall live.”

There had been times when Israel had lived and prospered. Here people multiplied and subdued the earth, became morally strong, and were unified against all enemies, felt the confidence of their unique status as a nation. There had been other times when Israel had verged on death as a people. This was one of those times in the history of that people. And Ezekiel was terrifically concerned to bring his people back from the brink of extinction. He told them about this vision that he had as a means of bringing them hope.

Many times in history, God’s people have verged upon spiritual death. There are those, today, who feel (and say) that the church, the people of God, is dying. There is concern over spiritual shallowness within our ranks. Congregations become divided over trivial matters and sometimes lack evidence of redeeming love.

There are some who say that the church is dead, or is dying. Dedicated communists willed the church’s death generations ago. However, it is evident that the church does not die by the will of her enemies. When they die, they die from causes within themselves. In many areas of Europe only a piteous minority pay very much attention to the church.

Here in the United States, a majority of people accept and claim affiliation with the church. But the acceptance of many is passive, with tolerance and a kind of paternal attitude. A generous number of folk pay the church lip service for an hour a week and relegate her to the back corners of life the rest of the time. Here or there someone echoes Karl Heim’s opinion that “The church is like a ship on whose deck festivities are still kept up and glorious music is heard, while deep below the waterline a leak has been sprung and the vessel is settling hourly lower though the pumps are manned day and night.” [Karl Heim, Christian Faith and Natural Science.]

The church in our nation has massive membership -- more than half the populace. But many Christians are appalled that she has no more power than she shows. How often does a church congregation show forth the marks of the Holy Spirit? Yet the church belongs to God. She is His people. Even if she should be faithless, yet He remains true. If God’s people will take the step of dedication, and will renounce the barrenness of all exterior forms and turn in sincerity to the Lord of life, He will mark them with His mark. He will knit together the dry bones of the people once again and give new life to the community of faith. He has done it before --- he has restored Israel more than once in history. He will do it with the later-day church when He finds His people ready for renewal by his Holy Spirit.

The question is being asked: “What is the church?” The church is the people of God. This is not to say that God is selective and that He has a lot of favorites. All people are of His creation and it seems certain that He has a care for all of the creation and creatures. But some know more certainty of His fatherly care and their dependence upon Him. They have thoughtfully and prayerfully dedicated themselves -- their lives and their substance and their service -- to His will and ways. They may not be in complete consonance at to what His will is for all people. But they are dedicated to Him in their own understanding of His ways.

There is a sense in which every person’s relationship is a private, personal, individual affair. But there is another sense in which it is certainly a community affair. The church is the people of God; it is also the community of God. One way of defining the church has been, through many ages, to speak of it as the Body of Christ. There was a short time, no more than 30 to 35 years, when Christ appeared in the body of Jesus here upon earth. The resurrected, continuing Christ has not continued in such a human body in the centuries since. But His spirit is very much alive. Mostly, it is perceived in the lives of his people --- “Christian” folk; “Christ” people. His church is made up of those who have been baptized into it; confirmed in its faith and fellowship; self-dedicated to his service. Christ’s only hands are ours, offered to do his bidding; Christ’s only feet are ours offered to carry his word and message; Christ’s lips are ours offered to speak the truth in his name. We are seldom competent or sufficiently dedicated to be Christ’s alone by ourselves. But, offering our best selves in the Christian church, we can become, together, the body of Christ in very truth. When the church is truly the church, it is the community in which Christ continues to live. And that, in humility and with daring dedication, we purpose to be!

If we define the church simply as an assembly of individuals committed to certain projects and believing certain creedal positions, we have not differentiated it very much from the Kiwanis, Rotary club, or the Masons or other fraternal orders. They, too, are committed to certain projects and believe in certain things.

Do we not come closer to the true nature of the church when we perceive it as the people who have a common existence in Christ? She is not only a collection of individuals; she is one body of many believers bound together into a unity of spirit with God.

The great mark of the church is love --- love of its people for each other and love for God. “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, that you love one another,” says our Lord. [John 13: 35]. The Bible speaks of those in the church as being members of each other in a sense almost as intimate as the hand, the foot, the eye, the nose and the mouth are all part of one physical body. Thus we symbolize one Being, with Christ as the mind and personality, and us people as the neck, the trunk, the arms --- all of the one body, can there be a closer relationship than this?

It can, conversely, be said with some assurance, that where the people are not of one spirit, united in love, the church has not yet come to fruition. There are many religious individuals; there are many religious organizations. But the church emerges when the individuals and organizations are bound up in the unity of love. It is the nature of our calling that we find spiritual depth, the peace and confidence of Christ, and personal fulfillment, not solely alone, but within the people of God, as the body of Christ. As the people of God, the church is a community filled by God. We are possessed of Him. We should always be listening for His leading. He is not aloof from us at some great distance, but is present here and always! It is silly and short-sighted to think that we can plan without Him. In the church there exists much more than the sum of its individual members --- 790 or so in our case, here in First Congregational Church of Wisconsin Rapids; for in the church there exists that overwhelming “extra” dimension of deity.

First Congregational Church is more than an institution. It is not a building on the corner of 2nd Street South at Birch. That is only its house, its headquarters. First Congregational Church is out in the world with its people. It is present where a mother bandages a sore finger and fills the cookie jar; it is where a father bends over his desk or bench; it is where a salesman meets his client; it is where a boy is playing ball; it is wherever its people go in whatever they do. It is not a place where people retire for weekly spiritual refreshment. The weekly refreshment is that in our Christian fellowship which sends us out into our world of work and influence to serve in the spirit of Christ. How else can Christ be known except through the people who are his body?

Jesus, in the flesh upon earth, went regularly to the synagogue, as his custom was. He was thoroughly familiar with the worship, the religious tradition, the teaching, the scriptures of his church. But he did not, in his young adult maturity, set up shop in a synagogue on the corner of Main Street, and invite nice people to come in. He literally walked his life away taking the good news to people; into the homes of Pharisees, to the dwellings of grafters, to people at work with their fishing or planting, by wells, on street corners, in the market place. Are not his people to be bearers of the good news wherever they go --- wherever we go today?

Are we primarily interested in competing, church against church, for large membership rolls and impressive statistics, outdoing each other in providing benefits? Or do we consider the obligations of membership, the duty of faith, the acceptance of crucifixion itself?

The church of Christ does have a mission. She is sent into the world as a redemptive fellowship. Our commander has spoken: “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every living creature.” [Mark 16: 15]. The gospel is the message of God’s love and abundant life. All about us are people living in spiritual hell, alone, miserable, ingrown, lost. To them, whether they be neighbor next door, living four streets over, located in the next city, moving in and out of the next state, carrying on their struggle in some other country, the gospel of hope and renewal of soul -- of salvation -- comes from Christian church people -- or it doesn’t come. We do not need to consult statistics. I doubt that Jesus or his apostles spent much time with that in the days of their ministry to people. There is a seething unrest in our society. The marks of sin are on our society, in our homes, in all our lives; and we can not escape. It is the same world into which God thrust his son, Jesus, years ago.

We can not hide from our prophetic duty. When we attempt to withdraw from the sordidness of life, God will have none of our attempted escape. For His message must still be borne, by Christ’s disciples, to where people live and sin and die.

Our churches are full of respectable, and amiable, people. We -- most of us -- are quite willing to be Christ’s followers the first half of the way (that of getting ourselves comforted and assured and saved.) The second half of the way -- that of proclaiming the gospel of assurance and salvation to all others --- is not nearly so appealing to most of us.

The philosopher, William James, has remarked that, in some, religion exists as a dull habit; in others as an acute fever. It is those who have a fever of concern, flinging themselves into the mission of the church with all the passion of a glorious discovery and the energy of dedicated lives, that open the way of God’s redemption for the world.

God’s people are sent into the dark and turbulent world to be a redemptive community. Among us should be such depth of love that the hate-filled person may be naturally drawn to the Christ in us, and once with us be cleaned in spirit and filled by God who dwells among us. We need to be continually converted from the evil of our way and the sin of our society. And we must do our part in appealing for the conversion of all others having the same need.

Now, if our meditation on this need, and our reflection on the inadequacy of the church, the shortcomings of our own church, and our own unprofitableness as servants of Christ, leads us to some proper breast-beating, let us not be blind to some of the accomplishments of the church which are heartening and to which we can add our good intention and effort. The President of the United Church of Christ, the Rev. Dr. Ben Herbster, tells us plenty about the needs and shortcomings of our United Church of Christ -- and he would be remiss if he failed to do so. But, in the last issue of United Church Herald, he lists a number of things which he puts under the heading “What is right with the church.” And that is good, too. Here are a few of them.

1. An Asian Christian, about to address the directors of the Board for World Ministries told its chief executive: “You are the most advanced board of any in the world in planning for joint action for mission.” That, good friends, is the foreign mission board of our own United Church of Christ, and one of our own church members serves in membership on that board.

2. The Board of Homeland Ministries continues to pioneer in new ways to minister to America today. One example is the initiation of a church in a Baltimore shopping area.

3. 40% of our churches have, thus far, declared that their membership is open to all, without regard to race, color or ethnic background.

4. Our church denomination, led by efforts of the council for Church and Ministry, has experienced, over the past 9 years, the greatest percentage of increase in seminary students of any major Protestant denomination. It is estimated that we now have 1800 students “In care of Association” as a first step in preparation for the ministry.

5. Most of our church leaders in our denomination are so convinced of the rightness of our course that they can welcome criticism from others, and be critical of themselves. (Only unsure people have to be defensive.).

6. Our churches have had enough concern for the plight of elderly retired ministers living on inadequate pensions, to raise nearly $200,000 through the Christmas Fund for assistance to these pensioners.

And so on through a list of nearly two dozen items, he lists some things that are right with the church.

Here in Wisconsin Rapids, we are bending a major effort to get the work of this church housed in decent new, modernized surroundings. And, at this time, that is right. At the same time, let us continue our effort to be the church in a true Christian spirit of loyalty to it, of devotion to Christian service, of dedication to God’s will as we are able to feel His will.

A major theme of our church school curriculum this year is an invitation to be, more faithfully and knowingly, God’s own people; learning to be “God’s own people,” living in His world. We are not to be spiritual dry bones in a valley -- but flesh and breath. For, in the words of a phrase of our Statement of Faith, God “calls us into His church to accept the cost and joy of discipleship.”

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Delivered in Wisconsin Rapids, September 13, 1964.