Second Sermon from the Molehill March 26, 2023

Welcome everyone! The short and the tall, the young and the old.  I’m pretty sure that at almost 86, I’m one of the oldest here.  While that does not make me the wisest, I’ve had enough experiences of the Holy Spirit to keep these dry old bones dancing and praising the Lord. And today’s Old Testament reading happens to be about dry bones.  I can’t get that song out of my head, but I’ll spare you my off-key singing. Whether we take this particular Scripture literally or not, it challenges us to recognize and accept the power of the Spirit of God to renew us, to give us new life, and empower us to share that life.  Is that happening in our lives?  Is it happening in our church?  I know from personal experience that it can.  And I believe it is right now, right here.  We have already begun to recognize the power of prayer.  We have become a praying church.  We are also a caring church.  We tend to be an intellectual church, seeking through knowledge to understand.  And that’s a good thing. But it can only take us so far, because the power of the Spirit of God cannot be understood by our human minds. Though we don’t realize it, we do limit the Holy Spirit within us.  I think it’s because we are afraid of our emotions. We all like order and control. But while I dance with joy when I witness the Glory of God in nature, science, and human love and even used to tease Pastor Bill that I was going to dance during worship, I have managed to restrain myself from doing that. While the Holy Spirit can transform and stretch us with amazing power and sheer mind-blowing joy, it does not violate who we are.  Don’t fear opening both your hearts and your minds to the Spirit of God both within and around you.  Notice coincidences.  They are not random. God is in the timing.  Listen to the Spirit in your lives. Let the Spirit of God within you free you to rejoice and empower you in ways far beyond your understanding.  I can personally testify that the Spirit can stop us in our tracks when our emotions tempt us to sin. I think we all sin most often by not listening to what God is calling us to do. The Spirit can give us wisdom and courage and the capacity for loving even those different from us. The Spirit can heal us physically, mentally, and spiritually.  I’ve both witnessed and experienced all of those. But the Spirit of God is NOT for personal gain or fame.  And believe me, God has many ways of keeping us humble. Right now the Spirit of God is trying to renew the whole Body of Christ, not just the Presbyterian part of it, because God is calling the Body of Christ to renew the earth. And we can only do that through the power of the Holy Spirit within us.