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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