Devotional Messages

DEVOTIONAL MESSAGE
Ezekiel 37:7-10 – 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.  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.  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.”  I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude. (NRSV)

Many of you wore red on Sunday to celebrate Pentecost.  But even those who forgot still had your lungs with you, so it’s all good.  Fire is neither the only, nor even the most common manifestation of the Holy Spirit, after all.  God knows us better than that.  Though many people do enjoy playing with fire, all of us have to breathe, every day, all day.  And that is both a completely ordinary reality and a tremendous mystery.
We can have all our other parts in order, but without breath, we cannot live.  Likewise, within the church, we can have all the trappings of a community of faith, but without the Spirit, we cannot live.  The Spirit of God amongst us is both a holy mystery and a reality as close as our breathing.

I have often noticed, when sitting in the dentist’s chair, that I’m holding my breath.  Having someone poke about in my mouth makes me a little tense, and so I have to remind myself to breathe.  Churches also, in times of transition, can get tense and tend to hold their breath.  This is as unhealthy for congregations as it is for dental patients.

What would it look like for Vista La Mesa Christian Church to take a deep breath as we live into this Pentecost season? (Yes, most churches think it’s just one day, but at VLM it lasts until Installation Sunday at the end of June!)  What sort of life could that introduce into our shared flesh and bones?  What habits could we work on developing so that we remember to breathe, even when things are tense?  How can we tap into this great mystery that is as close as our breath?