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now this story from Ezekiel is one that most of us have heard for a very long time. We make up songs about it. It's kind of funny if you think about it, we do silly art

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projects in sunday school and yet this is not a silly story. This is a profound story. It is a profound miracle. God takes Ezekiel out to the valley by the hand of God in the spirit

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of God and sets him down to see the dry bones. Now these dry bones to the Hebrew here er are not simply the remains of a battle. Those who had been slain. No, the dry

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bones means something much deeper. If you recall the hebrew tradition was to put a dead body in the tomb until the flesh completely rotted away. Then the dry bones were collected and put in the actuary.

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It was often marked as to who was in that assure very whose bones it was the final resting place if you will. And so these dry bones do not simply represent the aftermath of battle. These dry

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bones are desolation, permanent exile. The end of the line and God asks the prophet mortal, can these bones live? The word he uses for mortal is Ben Adam, son of Man. It is

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often translated. It clearly harkens back to genesis the creation story. And what we're hearing is this mortal that God has created is now being posed. The question can these bones live? God is forming the

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question and the prophet answers? And it's hard to know how Ezekiel might have actually intoned this answer. Was he trying to deflect or was he being humble or was he afraid? But he says, God

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, you know, I don't have to tell you . Surely you're not asking me immortal. Such questions we hear that in Ezekiel response. Mhm. So God, having gotten no answer from Ezekiel in turn

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gives Ezekiel no answer, but rather a command to action, prophecy. Question and action. There's no answer there. I think sometimes when we pray, we get too focused on the answer, we go

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to God asking questions, expecting an answer. And so it's reflected in our language. We ask questions . Does God answer prayers? There's answer. We hear it in other words, discernment. We try

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to discern the will of God. We try to discern the mind of christ many in this sanctuary are trying to discern a call or perhaps a call to a new ministry. All of those phrases expect God

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to answer. It's as though we want God to whisper in our ear the right answer so we can get it down on the test, but that's not what God does here. God poses the question and

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then commands action. It is not so much an answer as an invitation to participate in whatever it is that God is doing in the world. God invites Ezekiel to participate and so the prophet of Az he

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says thus says the Lord Coe mar Adonai, the clarion call of the prophet and while he is prophesying God acts bone to bone, sinew, flesh, skin, resurrection has begun. It is God who

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is acting while the prophet prophecies, but resurrection is not complete. God says prophecy to the breath to the wind. The word used here is rely, it is used 10 times in this passage and it

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has almost every conceivable meaning in hebrew. It is the spirit of God. It is the breath of God, it is the wind from the four corners of the earth. It is the breath of life

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in each human being. And so God acts as the prophecy goes on and restores the community. The holy Spirit Rua brings the community together. Each individual is restored but the community is restored and it was

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vast. And then in a most unusual twist, God explains this miracle as an allegory so far. In the passage, everything we've seen has been in past tense. Now we shift to the only present

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tense phrase in the entire passage mortal. These bones are the whole house of Israel. They say our bones are dried up and our hope is lost, we are cut off completely. And what then does

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God do again? Gives the command to action prophecy . And as the prophet is told to prophesy, we now switch to all future tense. God's promise of action. God's commitment to the community. God's

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keeping of God's promises and covenants, Oh my people , I will put my spirit within you and you shall live and I will place you on your own soil. We might even say on a firm footing

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, but the people say our bones are dried up , Our hope is lost. You know, that sounds an awful lot like what I hear around the P. C. U. S. A.

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In too many places today. People speak of budget shortfalls and staff cuts arguments between one particular mission and another department. We hear words of declining membership. One blogger wrote that having done the calculation of how

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much we declined last year in 18 years, if we declined by the same amount, will all be gone. We have shrinking congregations. Of our 10,000 congregations, 55:00 have fewer than 100 members of that

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group. The average size is 75 and only 60% of them have installed pastoral leadership. Our mid councils are disappearing and falling apart. We have 171 presbyteries , only 70 have an installed executive president, or

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the other 101 either have only a clerk, a vacancy, a transitional, a temporary or they've eliminated the position altogether. Our seminaries are telling our students , you better not plan on church like it used

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to be, you better be thinking about a different kind of ministry, you better learn how to be a tent maker, you better figure out where that coffee shop is or where that pool hall is.

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Not. That coffee shops in pool halls aren't good places for ministry, but you better figure out a different form of church because we're not having church like we used to have church. I know I heard

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it, I was one of those seminarians, but I don't really buy that. I do not understand how we can preach the transformative word of jesus christ , in who all things are new and then plan

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to decline. We cannot expect decline when we worship the Lord of New life. It doesn't make sense . So let me talk to you a little bit about that budget shortfalls. P. C. U

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. S. A. A corporation. We're not broke. I realize this is news. We have $550 million of assets and no debt whatsoever. We're not broke. What we lack is prophetic vision and

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the ability to set priorities. The declining membership. I don't think so either. The models that we're building at the board of pensions now suggests that we're going to bottom out around a million to 50 to

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a million four and in about 10 to 12 years we will begin growing again. Are shrinking congregations. Yes, it's true. We have small congregations and many of those are not going to grow again.

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But that's not the real story. I don't think on the one hand, we have new worshipping communities like Broad Street ministries in philadelphia. Broad Street is incorporated as a 501 C3. It's not a congregation

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, But it's run by teaching elders of the Presbyterian Church. It brings in thousands of volunteers who served 2800 of our homeless neighbors with mailboxes and food and clothing, medical screening and art therapy. It attracts

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over 100 on Sunday afternoons for worship and half again , as many for Bible study on Wednesday night. And yet, I don't think it has one member . We've got to come up with new ways to

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understand what ministry is and as a denomination, we've got to come up with new ways to support those ministries. Mhm. And what about that big group in the middle, that traditional form of church,

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if you ask, not what's happening to our congregations , But if you say, where do presbyterians worship on sunday morning? You get a very different answer . 70% of us attend Congregations of greater than 150

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that meet in a sanctuary that have installed pastoral leadership and a budget that essentially balances that form of church is not going away, although I will tell you it is shifting to the sun belt, like many

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other things in America, But it's not going away . In fact, last year of the 25 largest Uh congregations in our denomination, 17 grew in size . The average growth rate of those 17 was 2.7

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, If that is where you feel cold, that is still a legitimate and important choice. But God asks us, can these bones live? Can this denomination flourish at the board of pensions? We wanted

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to expand the solution set? And so we set aside answers for a while and we began to ask questions we ask, not whom do we serve, but who might we serve? And it turns out

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that who might we serve was 20 times larger than who we do serve. And that has led to dramatic action. And over the next 12-24 months we will be rolling out new benefits and new designs that

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we believe will enliven the body in profound ways. And so the question is, what question is God troubling you with? What question is God asking you that bothers you? And what action might it suggest

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on your part? Abraham Heschel, wise rabbi and brilliant scholar says a prophet is a person who feels fiercely God has thrust a burden on the prophet soul . God is asking a question, Paul two Speaks

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of Prophecy. Those who prophesy speak to other people for their up building and encouragement and consolation. It is for the building up of the church. So brothers and sisters prophecy to the dry bones and God

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promises life prophecy and the Holy Spirit restores community prophecy about the questions with which God has burdened your soul . Are you ready to be a profit? Are you ready to build the church, Komara deny.

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Thus, says the Lord prophecy, because God has promised to act in the name of the father and