The Narrow Gate

Welcome to the continuation of my blog, post-seminary. Ministry and evangelism have brought me back home to Chattanooga. I welcome your company on my journey.

The original blog, Down In Mississippi, shared stories from 2008 and 2009 of the hope and determination of people in the face of disaster wrought by the hurricanes Rita and Katrina in 2005, of work done primarily by volunteers from churches across America and with financial support of many aid agencies and private donations and the Church. My Mississippi posts really ended with the post of August 16, 2009. Much work, especially for the neediest, remained undone after the denominational church pulled out. Such is the nature of institutions. The world still needs your hands for a hand up. I commend to you my seven stories, Down in Mississippi I -VII, at the bottom of this page and the blog posts. They describe an experience of grace.



Monday, September 22, 2014

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)

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