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Ezekiel 37:1-14
| 08.06.2009, 15:31 | |
| Rev. Tatiana Cantarella Psalm 104:24-34, 35b; John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15; Acts 2:1-21; Ezekiel 37:1-14 Pentecost, June 7, 2009 Our celebration of the birth of the Church and giving of the Spirit brings us to a vision of prophet Ezekiel. It was one of the four visions given him as means of proclaiming God’s will to His people. First, there was the call vision through which God called him to be His mouthpiece to the people; then the vision of the corruption of the temple and its destruction; today’s vision of the valley of the dry bones and the vision of the restored land and the temple. Today we have before us a scene of a valley that is filled with bones. There are not just a few bones lying around; Ezekiel sees many very dry bones. We begin to ask questions: Where did these bones come from? Whose bones are they? And we do not have long to wait, for the text tells us that these bones are the whole house of Israel, and it has been destroyed. In order to understand this vision, we must understand the history of the Israelites. It was 1400 years since father Abraham. 800 years since Moses and the Red Sea. 400 years since King David became the great warrior king of the Jewish nation. And now, 400 years after these amazing events they are not doing so well. What happened? On Mount Sinai, the people entered into a covenant with Yahweh. Yahweh promised the people that if they were faithful, they would be put in a land where they would become a people and not just a band of slaves wandering in the wilderness. They would become the nation of Israel, the people of God. The people were not always faithful, but Yahweh delivered them into the land as promised. Eventually a king was placed on a throne. Over time, however, the people of Israel turned more and more away from their covenant with Yahweh. They were not worshipping God faithfully. They were not taking care of the widows and orphans around them. They were concerned with having more wealth, more power, and more stature. They have drifted very far from the faith of their grandparents, from the faith of Abraham, Moses, and David. Their kings have been lousy. Their armies have done even worse. And the faith of the people was thin. The people no longer defined themselves as the people of God, but as a nation and this nation did not last. It was destroyed; the people were sent into exile in a foreign land. The people cried out to God, their hope was lost, they felt like all was left are the pile of bones, like they were cut off completely from their roots. The people no longer know who they were; they have lost their identity as the people of God. Quite a humbling experience for God’s chosen people. The thing is they never really acted very chosen. How many chances do you give a chosen people to wise up? That’s what the whole of the Old Testament is all about – chances, God’s voice continuing to reinforce His plan, “I’m sending a savior from your race of people. The Messiah is coming. But people stop building towers to heaven! Stop the Sodom and Gomorrah perversions. Stop complaining about the manna in the desert. Listen to Moses. Stop seeking out witches for advice. Stop worshiping other gods.” Stop, stop, stop, until the chances were out. In Ezekiel 37, the picture is clear – their chances are gone. Ezekiel 37:1-2 – “The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry”. And that’s the nation that in the past won battles they were supposed to loose, the nation that was always the smallest and the weakest. Because if it wasn’t for great fires, gusts of wind, seas dividing themselves, and pillars of fire, they would never have won a battle. They used to be a living miracle. But without God, without the miracles, they became nothing more than dry bones. Not just dead bodies, but dry dry bones. That’s the picture Ezekiel sees of those who once were the special people. We may not see many similarities between ourselves and this valley of dry bones in Ezekiel’s vision. We have not been sent away from our native land in exile; we have not experienced the desolation that these people have faced. I do believe, however, that there are times when we, the church, are like the people of Israel, having lost our sense of identity. Once we’ve put our faith in Christ, which united us and we’ve testified and rejoiced in miracles he’s done in and through us. But much has changed since and we might have the same kind of thinking that many of the Jewish exiles had in Babylon, especially after the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. The fellowship in the church is no longer the same; the oneness that was once there is no longer. The unified purpose of showing Christ to the world is no longer there. The joy of fellowship is replaced with the resentment of “smaller fellowships” set against each other. Instead of “one heart” there are isolated attempts to do this and that, attempts that clash against one another causing resentment, offences, hurts and obstacles for people to come to God. Some no longer know where they belong, others wonder why they are still here and if there is any point being part of this Church. Much has changed and we are no longer the people we have been for years. No longer are we the church we’ve been for years. And we began feeling like the bones of the House of Israel. We feel dried up, hopeless and cut off completely from the root, and there seems to be no bright future. Why did the Spirit of God walk Ezekiel back and forth through those bones? Why hurt him by reminding that the people he was sent to warn were destroyed and no vaccination can cure this condition. Why do I bring such an unpleasant subject about the church’s possible drying up on a day when we should be joyfully celebrating the birthday of the Church? There is a good reason. God asked Ezekiel: “Can these bones live?” And he responded, “O Sovereign Lord, you alone know”. And he was right. God is in control here. Although the people of Israel have abandoned their covenant, God did not ignore them. God heard the cries of the people. God knew that they have been destroyed; they have been cut off. And God gives the people hope. He commands the prophet to speak to these bones and through the words of the prophet Ezekiel dry bones are made into bodies, covered with sinews and flesh. This, however, is not the most important thing that happens to these bones. Ezekiel calls upon to the wind – that is the Spirit - that blows on them and the people come back to life. They stand on their feet, a vast multitude. But God does not stop even with this life-giving breath; He speaks to the people and calls them “my people.” God uses covenant language. Even though these people have abandoned the covenant made on Mount Sinai, God promises to return them home; He wants to put His own spirit within them. For these people, their identity no longer lies in whether or not Israel is a nation. Their identity is one of a people who have been brought back to life by God. Everything is changed because of God’s Spirit that was now in those once dead bones. That is the whole point of this incredible story – not some questionable theory of resurrection from the dead but the restoration of dying exiles to new life in their original homeland! It’s a vision of the life-giving power of God. It’s all about God’s spirit giving life where new life seems absolutely impossible. To those whose existence had become a form of living death, new horizons of hope were revealed with power. Like the people of Israel, we too must learn that our identity does not need to be wrapped up in the things and circumstances of the world. Our identity as the Church of Christ should not be defined by worldly relationships of power plays, arguments who is on the right and who is on the wrong, who is the insider and who is the outsider, who started the argument or who has what hidden motives. And though it seems that all our attempts to have a better community were unsuccessful, we are not hopeless; we are not completely cut-off from the root. We must realize that like a new spirit was put into the people of Israel, God wants to put a new spirit within us. God wants to give us an identity that comes from being a part of the people of God. What does that mean for us, then? As the people were put back into their land, they were no longer a nation, they had to redefine their covenant with God, had to realize that this meant more than having a king on the throne of a nation. No longer would their covenant be based on what the world deemed important, but realizing that they were meant primarily for worshipping and serving God. The same breaking down of false identity and nationalistic boundaries happened also on the day of Pentecost. What God was doing by pouring out His spirit on those ordinary people who believed in Him was breaking down all the barriers of nationalism, individualism, suspicion and fear. Just like the vision in Ezekiel, the day of Pentecost was also all about restoration, recreation and even of reconciliation. This is the same for us today. We all are a people of God and that defines who we are. Our identity comes from a God who wants to have relationship with us, who wants to place God’s own spirit within us, and to give us new kind of life. Knowing this and having our identity as the people of God should change the way that we look at our lives, and at the way we look at others and treat others! If you want a closed club where no one disturbs how you like things to be done, or a national club where other cultures disturb us and thus are not allowed, then you are either in a wrong place or you forgot who we are as the church. For the Church is the reign of Jesus the Nazarene Who died to give life to all peoples and poured out His Spirit and gave the gift of different languages on that first day of Pentecost. The more diverse the church is – the more, I believe, it reflects what the Kingdom of God is like. And so, the valley of dead bones is like the church that seems to live, does this and that but in truth has no life! But God is asking us also, “can these bones live?” And I hope we have faith to say with Ezekiel, “only You know, Lord. With you all things are possible”. And may be those things that divide us and leave us as the “dry and cut off bones” of the body of God’s people are not insurmountable. May be we can be restored, we can be reconciled to each other and to God, and we can be recreated and resurrected into the kind of community, family, people that God desires us to be. But it will take more than just speaking to our brokenness, more than just commanding restoration and reconciliation; more than just saying new life is possible. It requires the breath of God moving in and among the bones; it needs the spirit of God infusing us with new life, moving us to better ways of living and being. Restoration is possible but true restoration will only occur when the spirit of God moves and is put within our community and our circumstances that need it. Then we shall live and we shall know that “I, the Lord have spoken and will acts” (14). I am sure we all say and have many times said ‘amen’ to that. But why do death, despair, dryness, pain and hurt seem so strong anyway? Why does nothing seem to change? For the same reason I think, we need not turn our eyes away from the gruesome vision of the valley full of dry bones and see ourselves in there. Death is strong because sin is very ugly but we seem to underestimate the power of sin. We allow our hurts to hurt others, we allow ourselves to say things that break up fellowship, we allow ourselves to say destructive things behind other people’s backs, we allow ourselves to do sinful things as long as nobody will know or challenge us about it. We refuse to forgive and we are too proud for forgive. We are tolerant to all that sin because we do not realize how ugly and destructive it is. But God sets before us today a vision of the valley full of dry bones, many of which are those of ourselves and of our brothers and sisters in Christ. Many of our lives are long dry and spiritually dead, and we wonder why no such wonderful miracles that others testify to are happening in our lives, in our church? I believe it’s because we underestimate the destructiveness of sin that we tolerate in our life, relationships and in our church. God hates sin so much not because he loves to punish but because sin damages beauty, kills life and destroys unity. And yet, God’s answer is consistently the same. Without the Spirit of God we are nothing but the pile of dead bones, the walking dead, as ugly, if we could see into our own hearts, as those dead walking in horror movies. But God wants to fill us with His Spirit, so that we become truly alive, so that things that mattered – our personal hurts, preferences, dislikes, prejudices – will not matter anymore. But that through His Spirit we would be defined by being the people of God. So, what do we do today? We need to have what those disciples had on that day of Pentecost, a longing to experience the visitation of God’s Spirit, a desire to pray “come, Holy Spirit, come with all the power, come from the four winds!” One wind will not do, come from all four sides. Our heart is so filled with all sorts of evil and sin, much of which we are not even willing to admit, Spirit, break them all down. Are you willing today to have the Holy Spirit as He wills to come? “Let him come as a north wind, cold and cutting, or as a south wind, sweet and melting” (Spurgeon). He can come unexpectedly upon you in this place right now, during these few minutes that remain. There is much in you that would shut Him out. But don’t be afraid of the Holy Spirit. He can charm you to Christ and He can drive you to Him. Let Him enter your heart right now! Let us let Him into our community today, let Him change us as the people, cleanse us from sin, break down the walls of resentment and hatred and pain and offence and fill us with Himself. Let us give Him freedom to reign in us, forgive us, give us power to forgive and move one as the one people of God. | |
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