SUNDAY MORNING SERVICE 20th May, 2001.

It's not been a week of good news, has it?
The HIV/AIDS statistics still rising
over 300 people have now died in Ireland ...
over a quarter of deaths of young men are from suicide
What do we think of that? Where is a living hope?
And of course what about Bertie Aherne's relationship with Celia Larkin?
As I have sought to lead you in our prayers
it is a sensitive matter with many dimensions.
We need a clear understanding that marriage is to be honoured by all
compassion towards those whose marriages are broken
and are in 'second relationships' understanding both that we are called to make
and live out moral judgements
and we are to avoid self righteous condemnation
gracious and courageous witness by Christiansto truths which are no longer fashionable,
i.e. that some lifestyles are preferable to other, that God does judge all immoral behaviour
in the strong feelings stirred by this issue, for people to consider
what is driving them. Do they have the blessing of God on their lives?
Is there a false freedom? A condemning legalism?
a modelling of the approach of Jesus, love for people without compromise of standards

But may I share with you not a sense of despair
but a call to arms in the spiritual battle?
It is clear that Ireland is no longer a Christian society:
traditional & biblical Christian values are being set aside
for what is alleged to be tolerant, pluralistic and liberal.
Maybe Ireland never was a truly Christian society.
People may have subscribed to one thing outwardly
but lived another way privately.
But do you see what is happening?
To affirm marriage, to express concern at the public example set by our leaders
is to invite condemnation
as being judgmental, narrow minded, discourteous, hypocritical.
We need to be well awake, and keeping very close to Jesus Christ
so that we may indeed model his example and love people
without compromising God's standards.

Maybe we have not arrived at the stage of the valley of dry bones
a picture of Israel in exile, abandoned by God
but we are surely in the condition described in the book of Judges
when everyone did what was right in his own eyes:
we are in a time of an a la carte religion, the pick and mix morality.
The problem with that approach is that some of those choices
may actually be unhealthy and poisonous.
Why not partake of the set menu prepared by a loving heavenly Father?
That is what is predicted in Ezekiel 36.26-27
'I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you;
I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
And I will put my Spirit in you
and move you to follow my decrees and to be careful to keep my laws.'
We not only know what we should do, how we should live
we are made able by the Holy Spirit to live the way we should.
But if we don't
we are not far away from the kind of desolation pictured in Ezekiel 37
when we will be in a spiritual and moral desert
when life will be without a sense of right and wrong,
without God and without hope
Ezekiel 37 presents us with a vision of desolation and despair.
The valley with bones lying around, maybe the scene of a defeat for Israel
represents the spiritual condition of God's rebellious people;
'a graveyard existence in the kingdom of death'. (D Lennon)
But when all is dead and hopeless, God is the author of new life
Ezekiel is asked a question
which seems stupid to anyone who does not believe in God
3 "Son of man, can these bones live?"
The unbeliever and the person given over to despair says:
No, dead bones don't come back to life
Ezekiel gives the only wise answer "O Sovereign LORD, you alone know."'
He is not over confident: he does not predict a miracle
He does not claim that he can give life to dead bones
but wisely he leaves the matter in God's hands.

And the Lord brings life to the bones in two stages
First, Ezekiel is to 'Prophesy to these bones'
He is to say to them, `Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD!
He is to say to them that the Lord will put flesh on these bones
and breathe his spirit into them and they will live and know that he is the Lord
Ezekiel does as he is told and there takes place what is described so vividly in the old Negro spiritual
'the knee bones are attached to the thigh bones ...'

But something else is needed:
bones become skeletons, skeletons become corpses,
but something needs to happen for the corpses to become living people.
Ezekiel is told to "Prophesy to the breath;
Come from the four winds, O breath,
and breathe into these slain, that they may live.'

What does this mean for us?
We need to address the dead and arid situations around us and in us
prophesying to the bones in the name of the Lord
but we also need to address the Spirit.
we need to ask for God to come and move in the situation
to breathe new hope and life.
We might possibly stick some bones together and make a skeleton
synthesise some flesh and make a dead body
but only God can give life
only God can restore what has been cut off.
That was the cry of the whole house of Israel. In v 11
`Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.'
But God the Father of our Lord Jesus is a God of resurrection and restoration
(and is there any other who can do as much?)

That is what Nicodemus needed to hear in John c 3:
this powerful, thoughtful man comes to discuss religious matters with Jesus.

"Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him."
But Jesus will not discuss miracles or accept even these positive words. Nicodemus needs to hear what he and every human being needs.
"I tell you the truth,
no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."
Jesus then speaks of the need for a spiritual new birth
and he uses a picture which reminds us of Ezekiel 37' 8

"The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound,
but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.
So it is with everyone born of the Spirit." '

Nicodemus still does not understand, religious teacher though he is.
Jesus concludes by speaking in terms of faith
'Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert,
so the Son of Man must be lifted up,
15 that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,
that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. '

To believe, to place our trust in, that is our response
to bring the new birth, that is not something in our control
any more than our original births were in our control
it is the work of the wind the breath
that gives new life into otherwise dead bodies.

The Bible describes our state as death, even though we still have biological life
without Christ we are disconnected heaps of dry bones

In Ephesians 2 (1-6) Paul writes about how dead we are outside of Jesus Christ
'you were dead in your transgressions and sins
All of us also lived among them at one time,
gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature
and following its desires and thoughts.
Like the rest we were by nature children of wrath.
But God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive together with Christ
even when we were dead in transgressions -
it is by grace you have been saved.'

You see, it is no use to pride yourself on your broad minded tolerance
any more than it is to rely on a joyless restrictive rule keeping.
This is not something we can endlessly discuss and debate.
The answer does not lie in some human insight.
We all need a new life
which is found by believing in Jesus
and desiring that the breath and the wind of the Spirit will come upon us.
Lord, we see signs of the desert around us and in us.
Much that happens today grieves us
but there is little point in just saying it's wrong
We need to show a better way to live
we need your law living in our hearts by your spirit
we need the character of Christ himself
his love his purity

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him
so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit