Day 650 - Believe Because I AM

A sermon delivered at Northside Presbyterian Church, Chattanooga, Tennessee, Sept. 21, 2014

OT reading: Ezekiel 37:1-14

NT Reading: John 14:1-11

This sermon explores the message in the text of the sixth “I Am” saying of Jesus, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” In searching for a useful Old Testament passage that is complementary, I decided upon Ezekiel who is often associated with John, though usually in more apocalyptic texts such as the Revelation of John of Patmos. Rather than reading the biblical passages and then preaching, I am going to incorporate the readings in my sermon.

Ezekiel was a priest whose tenure was completely in the early days of the Babylonian captivity. We do not have a complete historical record of the Hebrew captivity outside the Scriptures, (and the scriptural record bears evidence of redaction¹). We know that Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon decimated Israel and scattered the Hebrews throughout the Mediterranean. We know that Israel rebelled against Babylon and Babylon dealt ruthlessly with the rebellion. Babylon killed the rulers and rebels and probably many of the priests who supported the rebellion and took the elite of Hebrew society back to Babylon where they became part of Babylonian society leaving the poor behind. The prophet Jeremiah in contradiction to Ezekiel urged the captives to people to intermarry, to enter into heart of economy, but to hold on to their beliefs and pray for the welfare of their captors because there they will find their own welfare.

Prophet Ezekiel was a priest of the Temple called by God to be the Guardian of faith. He had a priestly interest the former way of life.  The whole people of Israel had been totally, and indefinitely cut off from God, No Temple, no nation, no hope for profit from being God's chosen people. The religious Hebrews lamented this total desolation, the absence of their God who promised them a land and led them out of Egypt but God called Ezekiel to prophesy to his people about the woes of the present and the future of Israel.

God possesses Ezekiel and gives him frightening visions about Israel’s plight. Today, Ezekiel is swept up by the LORD God, the giver and taker of life, and set down into a desert valley… This is the story of a valley of bones and God’s steadfast promise to the house of Israel.

Hear the words of the Lord in Ezekiel 37:1-14

1  The hand of the LORD came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones.  2 He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. 

Consider this image. Human bones are unclean to Hebrews. Scattering bones on the land desecrates the land. It is said when Josiah instituted the reforms in Judah before Babylon that he went into north country where people worshiped in high places and scattered bones to desecrate these high places so they would worship in the Temple. This valley of bones signifies total destruction. This is not a nice place.

The Hebrew text uses powerful words. This valley is not just full of bones, it is fully packed with an innumerable number of bones.

This is not a valley full of recently killed soldiers, the bones are dry…, not just dry but very dry, desiccated like the stereotyped cattle skull in the desert of an old western movie. This uncountable number of bones has been sitting in the hot sun for so long they are bleached white and as the saying goes, “bone dry…” My Hebrew instructor in seminary, Professor E. Carson Brisson,  imagined us standing with Ezekiel in the hot sun looking at these dry bones in the silence of death, hearing the buzzing of a solitary fly futilely looking for some bit of flesh to lay an egg for a maggot. There was none… the bones are very dry. Ezekiel continued in verse 3:

3 He, ( the Almighty Lord who is the giver and taker of life) said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered (the only way I could, with humility and deference), “O Lord GOD, you know...”  4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. 5 Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live.  6 I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know… that I am the LORD.”

7   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.  8 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…

There was no breath in them. Do you recall Genesis 1:2, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters; and Gen. 2:7 then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being? The Hebrews would remember these words as Ezekiel prophesied.

Ezekiel continues, 9 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.” 10 I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet… a vast multitude.

The Lord anticipates that the Hebrews’ reaction will be consternation or disbelief. The lay Hebrews, enjoying their economic success in Babylonian culture will say, “Ezekiel, you are a mad man, what does this story have to do with anything?”  The religious leaders will not be able to stop their weeping and lament over the loss of their soul such as Psalm 137 (Read the hymn “By the Babylonian Rivers, p246 The Presbyterian Hymnal (1990) )

We know this because Ezekiel continues, v11   Then he said to me, “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.’ 12 Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel.  13 And you shall know that I am the LORD when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people.  14 I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken and will act,” says the LORD.

In other words, “You will know me by my works.” Remember that as we fast forward to the time of John sometime after the Jewish revolt against Rome in 70 CE. Rome totally destroyed the temple and executed the leaders of the rebellion and their families. We know after Rome came Alexander the Great, and then after his death, the persecutions of his blood-thirsty generals, and Islam followed not long afterwards… right up to the present day Israel remains mostly a secular nation in turmoil and beset on all sides. Where is this breath of the Lord God? What does John tell us?

John’s Gospel is unusual compared to the other Gospels where Jesus tries to keep his true identity secret. From the beginning of John’s Gospel we are told who and what Jesus is; the cosmic Redeemer. Scholarly evidence suggests that John wrote sometime after the destruction of the Temple. He was likely a Jewish Christian who worshipped the synagogue until he and his people were expelled as apostates for belief in Jesus as our Redeemer. Much like his contemporary Qumran congregation John lived in a community under attack. John saw the world in opposites of Heaven and Earth... of light and darkness…truth and lie…life and death.

John’s message is similar to Ezekiel’s; God is the one who gives life and death. God has sent Jesus as his emissary to proclaim the final salvation Ezekiel talks about, not just for the House of Israel but also for all Abraham’s people of the world. It all boils down not to sin and repentance but into faith.

Here John’s words,  John 14:1-11

1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself,… so that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And you know the way to the place where I am going…” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you know me, you will know my Father also… From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me…; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves.

Ezekiel and John have given us a message that invites us to fast-forward to the church of today.

Many pastors would say our hearts ARE troubled and our Church is in turmoil. They can present a compelling argument that our main street Protestantism is swallowed up in desolation by a secular world that diminishes its values, dulls its mind, and shrinks its membership. We see charismatic denominations that fan emotion but offer little in true guidance for Christian living. An editorial in the Chattanooga Times Free Press yesterday said a majority of members of some of the denominations think you can help people but you don’t need to have any compassion for them… That is why we have no homelessness and no hunger in the world and everyone has access to good medical care… ”We don’t need compassion to help…” They have forgotten the core of the greatest two commandments, “Love the Lord with all your heart and might, and love your neighbor as your love yourself" (Matthew 22:35-40, Mark 12:28-34, Luke 10:25-37). Many today  ignore that message as irrelevant as did the successful captives in Babylon.

We can point to many examples where the world has inserted its values into the congregation. The most obvious example is Hitler who sent a letter to the compliant German church telling them that they should understand their role is to promote the social order the government says is best for its people. 

Hitler is an extreme, but many denominations have turned this on its head by telling the government it should treat its citizens according to their own credo as if you can force people to be religious. Certainly humble believers don’t agree all the time about what doing the right thing entails. We argue constantly. 

To validate this claim, one only has to look at the arguments over same-sex marriages, end-of-life choices, abortion, how much we should help those who are in need, how we should support or reject war or war by surrogacy. I could point to the paralysis of our own elected representatives... the people we vote for to decide what the good thing is and do it, yet they are paralyzed into inaction by argument.

Other pastors and leaders would say we need to simply keep on doing what we are doing just away we always have. We will have the last say...or rather, God will have the last say…

I don’t want to engage in argument about these things today because they are powerful and difficult choices for faithful, discerning Christians that do not have easy answers. I do want to say that these issues are a smoke screen that hides the real question, are we spiritually dead, are we dry bones cut off from the Lord?

It’s easy to think apocalyptically.  Ezekiel certainly did.  Ezekiel tells us God intended his message to be clear so that the Hebrews understood. “These bones are the whole House of Israel. I am going to open up your graves. I will put my spirit within you and you shall live and I will place you on your own soil then you shall know I, the Lord, have spoken and will act….” In short, “You will believe by what you see.”

According to John, what did Jesus say to the whole House of Israel and to us, the whole host of Abraham’s descendants?... 

Jesus voiced in different words the same promise God gave the House of Israel through Ezekiel: “Don’t let your hearts be troubled, Believe in God and believe also in me… I will come again and take you home.” I am the way Home. Follow me. I am the truth, I speak for the Father. I am the life eternally. Come to me and you will know the father because you will have seen, come and be a child at play. Home again, not on this painful earth but in God’s house. Do not let your hearts be troubled. If you do not believe in me, believe because of the works. Amen.

references

1.  J. Maxwell Miller and John H. Hayes, A History of Ancient Israel and Judah, 2cd edition, Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, p 439-540 (2006)

Day 636 - There is No Place for Part Time Passion

A sermon delivered at Northside Presbyterian Church, Chattanooga, TN, Sept. 7, 2014 

OT reading: Exodus16:1-4, 13-20

NT Reading: John 6:31-35, 41-51

Like many congregations, Presbyterians love a good feast. I use the word “feast” because eating is a necessity of living. A feast is almost always an occasion of joy and celebration over a meal. I think Jesus regularly engaged people at a meal because he was drawing on the underlying theological connection between physical and spiritual sustenance.

Jesus draws on ancient Old Testament Jewish heritage to make this point in John. Even though I read the preceding four verses, you likely would have recalled the story of manna in the Exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt. Jesus clearly explains God not Moses gave the hungry and angry Hebrews the bread from heaven in the desert.

God provided manna to the Israelites in the desert, implicitly demanding faith that God will sustain them by providing manna only sufficient for the day. If it was gathered to keep for tomorrow to sell or use, it rotted. Those who had little had enough, and those who had much not too much. Jesus differentiates himself from manna in the desert in in our Gospel reading. In verse 49; the Israelites ate the manna but they died. Jesus is the sufficient, living bread of life sent by God.

Many times we are tempted to focus entirely on the first and last verses of this passage in John, making it a gate-keeping passage: by one’s own will, you have to accept Jesus as your Savior to get into heaven. After all, verse 35 does says, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” And verse 51 says, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

But good Presbyterians read and attend to the intervening verses, particularly 44 and 45:  No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.” This scripture says only God calls us to Jesus and provides by grace for our complete sustenance.

However if we do not read those two verses carefully, we will miss the main point. God calls the people through the door of our congregations. They are seeking fellowship, the Holy Spirit and a life without end. They are our responsibility. Mark makes it clear when he quotes Jesus saying “Feed my sheep.” We are supposed to feed them spiritually, emotionally and physically. When God calls a person to walk through our open door it is to feast with us celebrating the gift of life.

What makes it such a tragedy to turn this passage into one about gatekeeping is we usually decide the message needs further amplification. The next step is making a list of the things you have to exhibit in your behavior and belief to “prove” you are a Christian, although we usually mean to prove you are a Baptist, a Methodist, a Catholic or a Pentecostal, or a Presbyterian. (We only baptize by immersion (or sprinkling), communion must be a service with wine, if you drink alcohol you are risking damnation, there must be a foot washing service, one sin is worse than another, etc.)

Have you ever come across a person who feels like they have such a perfectly exact view of what it means to be a Christian that they are ready to tell you at the drop of a hat whether you are going to Heaven or Hell?  I know a person around town who will stand up and quote the Leviticus holiness code and the passage in 1 Corinthians that says no wrongdoers will make into heaven, especially fornicators, adulterers, sodomites. He actually had the audacity to say none of those kinds of people are in his congregation. He said if sinners were in his congregation, the congregation would let them know they are not welcome to worship there. I asked about spouses who argue, people who swear and take the Lord’s name in vain, those who are jealous or envious of other people’s wealth, appearance or friendship with the pastor, the ones who pocket the extra quarter the vending machine pops out, but the fellow just got mad at me.

Finding people with this attitude should not surprise me. After all, last year we saw an example on the UTC campus plastered all over local and national TV news and in the newspaper. I’m talking about the poor woman who stood in the quad loudly spewing venomous condemnation to passing students that they were lesbians or homosexuals on the highway to hell.

My first though about her was, “Who put her in a position to judge what is in another’s heart? Is she trying to drive away people from the church or welcome them in? I’m sure very few students saw her as a light on the hill beckoning the seekers of the Spirit to come to her congregation.”

Perhaps these examples should not have surprised me because I can recall sitting in my little Baptist congregation in Rome, GA as a young boy. I remember listening to the deacons plan their action of how to close down the service if an African-American tried to enter the building to worship, though the word they used was not African-American.

Perhaps I should not have been surprised since I can recall a session meeting in San Diego laced with a profane tirade by the associate pastor’s wife no less, directed at an elder on the other side of an employment dispute. Every member of the session including the interim pastor just sat as she cursed; their silence affirming her profanity.

I asked a group University of Tennessee at Chattanooga students over a meal at Hope 808 to write on a piece of paper whether or not they attended a congregational worship service or found comfort in one. Their answers shouldn’t have surprised me.

One student wrote, “I hated going to church the few times I did growing up because I felt very judged and every time I went I felt unwelcome. The church ought to be a place to go to make a person feel better about themselves and being a Christian, but nobody seems ever to practice what they preach. God is about love and acceptance and most places I’ve been do not give this vibe.”

Another student answered, “I’ve generally found that organized religion tends to be hypocritical, close-minded and unable to compromise with differing views. I no longer find myself gaining anything from attending church.”

The more I read these answers the more I wondered, “What would they find if they walked into our congregation, or our homes? Would they hear and see Christian compassion and joy at work?  As Dave wondered a few weeks ago, will they find our doors opened wide? Will they hear our hymns down on Tremont St. and come to find the Spirit moving in us?

Or, would they see us as the hypocritical Pharisee in Matthew standing on the corner praying loudly, “Thank the Lord I am not like these people who judge and condemn like the street preacher does"?… We all have feet of clay.

As soured as these students are on the church, they are still seeking this living bread of life. They, and for that matter, every member of the congregation and every visitor with us should not be surprised to find hypocrisy, sin and error in a congregation because the church is a hospital for sinners... But how can that discovery be a positive experience?

The only way that can be a positive experience for them is to find every person in the congregation working as hard as possible to forge a sanctified life that drives hypocrisy, sin and error further and further from daily habit. Being a Christian can be hard work.

It is not a positive experience to see members so mad at each other that they refuse to talk because they do not like what the person said or did, or did not do. It is not a positive experience to hear former members of this congregation tell them they left because it seemed the pastor and folks were more interested in fighting than worshiping and glorifying God.

If they do encounter those attitudes in us, it is because we have forgotten that (v 44, 45) “No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; ... It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.” Church School teachers, choir members, elders, pastors, ministers (*remember we are all ministers) should hear these words, “And they shall be taught by God’ and know the words are directed at us….Why?...Because we walk in the world as Christ’s representative as a person and as a congregation. We are called to duty to teach by word and example on behalf of God. Think about it.

No visitor should be surprised ever to discover that the members and leaders of the congregation embrace this obligation to acknowledge our flaws and to work visibly to mend wounds. They should see us reaching out to reach out to those who have left us hurt, and living in the Spirit of grace.

I received twenty responses to my questions out of thirty students.  It really came home to me as I read these words of John preparing this sermon that most of those twenty students are not anti-religious but are hungry for a relationship to God. God is calling them.

They say their earlier congregations made them feel judged, separated them from God rather than drew them nearer to God, but the irony is that they felt free enough to explain why they did not find comfort in a congregation or have a reason to attend church while they were sitting at a dinner table at Hope 808, the UTC Presbyterian student mission house. Whether Muslim, Hindu, Protestant, Catholic, Jew, atheist or just searching, thanks to the support of the PC(USA) congregations of East Tennessee, a hundred or so students have discovered a place where they are welcomed and not judged. They come because they can expect a smile, fellowship and meal. They come because there is always an ear of a pastor or elder to hear their worries and concerns. Most importantly, it is a place that they can hear God’s call if they listen carefully enough.

Their responses say a lot about why PC(USA) congregations in Chattanooga have decreased 75% since 1980, about why most of our congregations now have between thirty and a hundred or so members with an average age over 60, and why mainline denominations are shrinking worldwide. We are chasing people away, or even worse, we seem irrelevant to them. These students, however, are also a glimmer of hope for what happens when we hold true to our duty to God.

Two responses capture the essence of our duty: (1)“I have generally found organized religion to be hypocritical, closed-minded and unable to compromise with differing views,” - we can do something about thiat; and (2) “I’ve been to churches looking for one that moves with the Holy Spirit and the full Gospel. I cannot say why I have not been able to be consistent with a church yet, but I know the Lord will provide one in due time...” “but I know the Lord will provide one in due time.”…

Don’t be surprised but overjoyed to hear, “…but I know the Lord will provide one in due time,” rather be confident that not just the students, but every person who graces our door will find the Holy Spirit working here at Northside.

We are the real street preachers, like it or not. We have a big sign on our back, “Look at me, I am a Christian, model my behavior.”

 When we realize there is no such thing as part time passion in a Christian life that walks humbly in the world as Christ’s representative, people will come to us.

Remember these words of Jesus, “…they shall all be taught by God” and of the student,  “I know the Lord will provide one in due time.”

Everyone the Lord brings to us should find and enjoy an abundant, everlasting life. Be sure every stranger knows there is a way home and that it can be found right here in our house.  Do this for them and do it for yourself, and you will find a smile upon God’s face. Amen.