Last week, we heard of God's promise to return to and restore the Temple in Jerusalem. However, God's work of restoration does not end with the Temple. Instead, the Temple is a kind of epicenter of God's restorative work. The return of God's presence to Jerusalem brings life and health to the entire land. The final chapters of Ezekiel go on to describe the restoration of the priesthood, feasts, sacrifices, the city, and the entire land of Israel.
As a part of that restoration, Ezekiel 47 narrates for us the last of Ezekiel's guided tour like visions. Ezekiel's guide takes him back to the door of the Temple where Ezekiel sees water trickling out from underneath the threshold of the Temple. From there, we are told several of the properties of this babbling brook which indicate to us its supernatural character. This small stream of water turns so as to avoid the altar then continues on outside of the Temple complex. It flows directly east, the same direction from which Yahweh had come to return to to the Temple. It seems the flow of this stream is not determined by geographical factors. In fact, as it flows further east, its get deeper and deeper despite there being no mention of any tributaries flowing into it. What started as a trickle eventually turns into a rushing river which flows through the desert region of the Arabah and runs into the Dead Sea. We are told that this sea, so full of salt that almost nothing can survive in it, will be "healed" by this river which flows from the Temple, its densely salted water turned fresh so that it will teem with life. We are told it will be a place for "the spreading of nets" from Engedi to Enelgaim. While the location of these two ancient towns is not absolutely certain, it is thought that Engedi was on the western shore of the Dead Sea and Enelgaim was on the southereastern shore, meaning that the entire Dead Sea will be good for fishing. However, we are told in v.11 that the swamps and marshes will be left as salt water presumably so that there will still be a source of salt in the area for seasoning and preserving food. On both sides of the river are an abundance of fruit trees which remarkably are never out of season. Their leaves do not wither and they bear fruit every month of the year. Furthermore, their leaves will have healing properties.
Clearly, this vision Ezekiel sees goes well beyond a promise for Israel's historical return from exile. It is a promise not only that Israel will be restored to its land but that the land itself will be restored and renewed in a dramatic, other-worldly kind of way. As Ezekiel has made clear in his other prophecies of restoration, a simple return from political captivity is not enough; a cleansing, renewing work of God that frees from the captivity of sin is needed to keep his people from falling back into their same old sins. They need to be sprinkled with clean water and given a new heart and a new Spirit. These dry bones need the breathe of God to raise them to new life. A new creation is needed.
John picks up this idea in Revelation 22 as he describes the new creation which God is going to bring about. In this new creation, there is no need of a temple since God dwells directly among his people. So John sees this river issuing out not from the Temple but from the throne of God and the Lamb. This river flows down the middle street of the new Jerusalem and the tree of life grows on either side of it yielding its twelve fruits twelve months of the year. The leaves of this tree are for healing as well but not only for Israel but for all the nations. What Ezekiel saw as God's promise to make Israel new, John sees as a promise to heal all peoples and all of creation.
Showing posts with label Ezekiel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ezekiel. Show all posts
Monday, October 25, 2010
Monday, October 18, 2010
The Promised Temple
Over the course of Ezekiel's prophetic writings, we have been shown the full gamut of Israel's ugliness and sin. In chapter 8, we heard of Israel's worship of other gods and Israel's complete lack of trust in Yahweh. Chapter 16 described Israel as an unfaithful whore, actively pursuing everyone except the God who rescued her. It is all of this sin and unfaithfulness which causes the glory of the Lord to depart from the Temple in chapter 10. God is driven out of his own home by the filth of his people's idolatry. As a result, in chapter 1, Ezekiel sees God not in the Temple in Jerusalem but in his chariot-throne on the banks of the Chebar Canal in Babylon. Much of Ezekiel's writings portray Israel as a sinful and forsaken people.
But in the later chapters of the book, we are reminded that even Israel immense sins are not beyond God's healing power. In chapter 36, God proclaimed that he would restore those in captivity to their homeland and make them clean for the sake of his own reputation. In Ezekiel 37, God gives Ezekiel a vision of an army of dry bones coming to life, a promise of the life that God is about to breathe into this dead people.
Chapter 43 is the climax of these prophecies of restoration. In the opening verses of this chapter, we hear that God is returning to his Temple. Ezekiel sees the same vision of God that he saw on the banks of the Chebar except now the Spirit of the Lord is approaching the Temple from the east, away from Babylon and back to Jerusalem. The Temple will once again be God's throne and God's footstool. His permanent dwelling will once again be with his people.
But the final chapters of Ezekiel are not only about Yahweh's return to the Temple. It is about the restoration of the Temple itself and all that restoration symbolizes. When Ezekiel sees this vision of the Temple and God's return to it, there is no Temple. It has been destroyed in the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem. Chapter 43 comes in the midst of several chapters which meticulously describe every aspect of this new Temple, much like the meticulous description of the old Temple in earlier parts of the Old Testament. However, whereas those earlier descriptions served as instruction, this description is one of promise. There are no commands to build this Temple that is envisioned. Indeed, there is no opportunity to build since those receiving the vision are still in exile. Instead, Ezekiel is simply told to convey the vision to the people of Israel, in all of its detail oriented glory, so that "they may be ashamed of their sins." Strangely, the designs of this building plan are also God's design for his people's repentance. This building will stand as a physical reminder of God's faithfulness which can only remind Israel of all of its own unfaithfulness.
Of course, the New Testament writers will repeatedly use the Temple as a metaphor for the Church. Whereas in the past God's Spirit had dwelt in a building, the Church believed that Spirit which also empowered Jesus now dwells in Jesus' followers making the Church God's new temple. Ezekiel's vision is especially apt for our understanding of ourselves as the Temple since it is a blueprint for a promised building that can not yet be completed. Likewise, the Church is to be a kind of blueprint for the new creation, God's final restoration of all things. Undoubtedly, contemplating this final vision of God's restoration will remind us of all the ways that we fall short. Nevertheless, we are also called to be a physical reminder of God's faithfulness and the promise of restoration which God intends to fulfill.
But in the later chapters of the book, we are reminded that even Israel immense sins are not beyond God's healing power. In chapter 36, God proclaimed that he would restore those in captivity to their homeland and make them clean for the sake of his own reputation. In Ezekiel 37, God gives Ezekiel a vision of an army of dry bones coming to life, a promise of the life that God is about to breathe into this dead people.
Chapter 43 is the climax of these prophecies of restoration. In the opening verses of this chapter, we hear that God is returning to his Temple. Ezekiel sees the same vision of God that he saw on the banks of the Chebar except now the Spirit of the Lord is approaching the Temple from the east, away from Babylon and back to Jerusalem. The Temple will once again be God's throne and God's footstool. His permanent dwelling will once again be with his people.
But the final chapters of Ezekiel are not only about Yahweh's return to the Temple. It is about the restoration of the Temple itself and all that restoration symbolizes. When Ezekiel sees this vision of the Temple and God's return to it, there is no Temple. It has been destroyed in the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem. Chapter 43 comes in the midst of several chapters which meticulously describe every aspect of this new Temple, much like the meticulous description of the old Temple in earlier parts of the Old Testament. However, whereas those earlier descriptions served as instruction, this description is one of promise. There are no commands to build this Temple that is envisioned. Indeed, there is no opportunity to build since those receiving the vision are still in exile. Instead, Ezekiel is simply told to convey the vision to the people of Israel, in all of its detail oriented glory, so that "they may be ashamed of their sins." Strangely, the designs of this building plan are also God's design for his people's repentance. This building will stand as a physical reminder of God's faithfulness which can only remind Israel of all of its own unfaithfulness.
Of course, the New Testament writers will repeatedly use the Temple as a metaphor for the Church. Whereas in the past God's Spirit had dwelt in a building, the Church believed that Spirit which also empowered Jesus now dwells in Jesus' followers making the Church God's new temple. Ezekiel's vision is especially apt for our understanding of ourselves as the Temple since it is a blueprint for a promised building that can not yet be completed. Likewise, the Church is to be a kind of blueprint for the new creation, God's final restoration of all things. Undoubtedly, contemplating this final vision of God's restoration will remind us of all the ways that we fall short. Nevertheless, we are also called to be a physical reminder of God's faithfulness and the promise of restoration which God intends to fulfill.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Preaching in Death Valley
And he said to me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" and I answered, "O Lord God, you know." Then he said to me, prophesy over these bones and say to them, "O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord." - Ezekiel 37:3-4God called Ezekiel to do a lot of absurd things. This one takes the cake. At least the strange sign-acts for which God commissioned Ezekiel were in front of people who could see, hear, and have some chance, however small, to respond. Not so here. Here Ezekiel stands to preach the message he has been given by God but instead of a congregation of willing and responsive listeners, Ezekiel finds that his figurative pulpit has been placed in front of a bunch of skeletons. And he is commanded to preach to these skeletons as if they were living people. "O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord." At least there will be no complaints about the length of the sermon.
What preacher, at least on some rare occasion, hasn't felt like they were doing what Ezekiel does here? What preacher hasn't at some time or another felt like they were speaking to a congregation as lifeless as a valley of dry bones? At some point we've all felt like our sermons were addressed to spiritual zombies who carry on as if they were alive but whose attitudes and actions say "Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off." (Of course, some of our own sermons and spiritual practices are themselves responsible for turning them into zombies but that's a post for another day.)
This is not some underhanded, back door way to complain about the spiritual failures of my own congregation. This blog post is not a reflection on some current frustration with my own church people. In fact, this is a bit easier to write this week because this past Sunday was one of the most alive and responsive services we have had since I've been the pastor here. This is not to say that we don't have our own spiritual deadness. It is simply to say that I will confront that deadness on Sunday morning when I preach and in our continued life together as a community of faith rather than in a blog post.
The point is, that as pastors, God has called us to prophesy to these dry bones of a people and as we do God asks us the same question which he asked Ezekiel and which is already running through our own minds. Is it really possible that these dry bones can live? Is this preaching, all this ministry doing any good? I've said the same things over and over again and not only has nothing changed but it doesn't even seem like they've heard what I've said.
Like Ezekiel, we are probably hesitant to give an unambiguous answer. Can these dead church people be made alive again? Well God, only you know the answer to that question (...but I have my own opinions on the matter). Then comes the command that demands trust: "Prophesy over these bones...". Keep preaching. Don't let the spiritual deadness of your audience prevent you from proclaiming. Even to dry bones continue to say "Hear the word of the Lord". This is all Ezekiel is called to. It is not his task to make alive what is dead. It is his task to be obedient in proclaiming the word of the Lord, even in the valley of death where it appears there is no one able to hear.
When we preach to those dry bones over and over again, it is tempting to bring our puppet strings; to find something that will make these skeletons dance and play; to use anything we can find that will make those dry bones look and feel more alive. At least then we would have the illusion of having an audience worthy of our preaching. But inasmuch as we become puppeteers rather than prophets we reveal what we really believe about that question that God asks us. "No Lord, I don't believe that you can make alive what is dead so I will do my best to give death the appearance of life."
But then, probably when we least expect it, probably when we've become so accustomed to the deadness that it doesn't even feel strange to preach to skeletons anymore, perhaps when we've began to feel like enough of a skeleton ourselves that we no longer have the strength to hold up the marionette, then the bones begin to rattle together and the breath of God floods in from every direction and there is suddenly life where there once was not. We are reminded that if we will keep proclaiming as we've been commanded then God is more than able to raise up an army of an audience to hear his word. To continue to prophesy in the valley of dry bones is an act of trust that says to our God "I believe these bones can live again".
Monday, October 4, 2010
Can These Bones Live?
Defeat, death, and decay are the colors of darkness that fill Ezekiel's vision in chapter 37. There has been a battle in this valley but the victors have long since moved on leaving the bones of the dead and defeated behind to rot. In fact, by the time Ezekiel sees them, they are done rotting. These bones are dry. Their defeat so long past, so complete, so utterly irreversible, that there are not even remnants of flesh on these bones. They belong to an army not only defeated but also seemingly forgotten, their sacrifice unappreciated, as they are left for the birds to pick clean and the elements to smooth over until one day they will be erased completely, no memory of them left on the earth.
In the midst of this yawning abyss, an absurd question is asked; "Can these bones live?". A question so absurd that even Ezekiel seems hesitant to offer as an answer what he can only hope. Instead, he throws the question back to the questioner; "Lord, you know." And so God begins the work of reversing the utterly irreversible, breathing life where there was once death.
It is not until after the vision is complete that the identity of these bones is revealed. One might have concluded easily enough that these were the bones of those who lost their lives defending Jerusalem against the Babylonians onslaught. But v.11 tells us otherwise. "Then he said to me: "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, 'Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.'" It is those who have survived that see themselves as dry bones. This is a vision for those whose bodies are alive but whose situation is so defeated and hopeless that they feel like nothing more than dry bones. This is a vision for the living dead.
For the exiles in Babylon, this is a promise that they will one day return home. Their exile is not endless; their destruction is not complete. But it is also more than that. It is a demonstration to Israel concerning the kind of God that they serve; the kind of God who reverses the irreversible, the kind of God who can rattle dry bones to life; the kind of God who raises the crucified.
Often we find ourselves asking the same question of ourselves, our churches, and our world; "Can these dry bones live?" Can those who seem dead to all spiritual counsel ever be spiritually alive? Can the old, aching bodies that have served Christ for so long still render faithfulness to their Lord? Can those who have suffered immeasurable loss ever be made whole? Can a church which has declined in number for two decades be made alive again? Can a world so full of death and sin ever know life and peace?
Can God raise the dead? Everything hinges on this. If the answer is no, then we are to be pitied more than all people. But if the answer is yes...
In the midst of this yawning abyss, an absurd question is asked; "Can these bones live?". A question so absurd that even Ezekiel seems hesitant to offer as an answer what he can only hope. Instead, he throws the question back to the questioner; "Lord, you know." And so God begins the work of reversing the utterly irreversible, breathing life where there was once death.
It is not until after the vision is complete that the identity of these bones is revealed. One might have concluded easily enough that these were the bones of those who lost their lives defending Jerusalem against the Babylonians onslaught. But v.11 tells us otherwise. "Then he said to me: "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, 'Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.'" It is those who have survived that see themselves as dry bones. This is a vision for those whose bodies are alive but whose situation is so defeated and hopeless that they feel like nothing more than dry bones. This is a vision for the living dead.
For the exiles in Babylon, this is a promise that they will one day return home. Their exile is not endless; their destruction is not complete. But it is also more than that. It is a demonstration to Israel concerning the kind of God that they serve; the kind of God who reverses the irreversible, the kind of God who can rattle dry bones to life; the kind of God who raises the crucified.
Often we find ourselves asking the same question of ourselves, our churches, and our world; "Can these dry bones live?" Can those who seem dead to all spiritual counsel ever be spiritually alive? Can the old, aching bodies that have served Christ for so long still render faithfulness to their Lord? Can those who have suffered immeasurable loss ever be made whole? Can a church which has declined in number for two decades be made alive again? Can a world so full of death and sin ever know life and peace?
Can God raise the dead? Everything hinges on this. If the answer is no, then we are to be pitied more than all people. But if the answer is yes...
Monday, September 27, 2010
God's PR Team
God has a PR problem.
As God's chosen people, Israel was to represent to the world the God who delivered them from slavery. Instead of revealing himself to all people, God had chosen to reveal himself specifically to one group of people, one nation, Israel. In turn, the Israelites were supposed to be a kingdom of priests, a holy nation, revealing God to all the other peoples of the earth through the holy, distinctive way of life to which God had called them. Israel was, in essence, God's public relations team.
However, one of the major themes of the book of Ezekiel is how badly the people of Israel failed in this PR task. God's chosen people have badly misrepresented Yahweh to the nations with their syncretism and idolatry which is so severe that Ezekiel describes his own people as a prostitute who gives herself out to everyone but her husband. As a result, God's name has been profaned among the nations. Instead of Israel bringing honor and glory to Yahweh, they have tarnished God's reputation, bringing shame upon the name of the God that they serve.
Anyone else who found themselves in this position would simply find new representation. Any celebrity or politician would quickly fire their agent or campaign manager if they couldn't do any better than this. And, in a way, that is what God does too... for a time. God does allow Israel to be taken into exile because of their unfaithful representation of him. Israel has to know that God will not tolerate his name being dragged through the mud in this way. But even this is only for a time.
In Ezekiel 36, God promises to bring back the people who have misrepresented him so badly. However, God makes abundantly clear in this passage that he is not doing this for their sake but for his own. Having failed so badly at their task, there is nothing that Israel could do to deserve God hiring them as his representatives once again. There is nothing that Israel can offer God. Instead, God says that he will deliver his people once again so that God himself will be honored and vindicated, so that his holiness will be known. God is doing this so that all the nations will know that God does not abandon his people and that God is powerful enough to save, even more powerful than the mightiest nations on earth.
However, God also will not allow these people to represent him as they are. He will not deliver them back into their old land which he gave them just so that they can go back to their old prostituting ways. No, God promises to cleanse his people and make them holy (even though they have not asked God to do this, of course, how could such an unholy people make such a holy request in the first place). God even says that he will perform a heart transplant, replacing their heart of stone with a heart of flesh. God is going to give this people his own Spirit so they will follow his Law and live the life God had always called them to live. This is the only way for the perpetual cycle of sin to be broken; to have God's own Spirit at work within us.
As Christians, we believe that this promise has been fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. We believe that the Spirit of God resided in Jesus, empowering his life and ministry, and that this same Spirit was poured out upon his followers, the Church, the New Israel. We believe that even though God knows our often whorish ways, he continues to call human beings to be his representatives in the world. God calls us to be made clean and to allow his Spirit to work in us so that we might truly represent him in all of his holiness.
Of course, we also know that all too often God still has a PR problem today. So many people claim the title "Christian" and by doing so claim to represent God in their thoughts, words, and deeds. But somehow none of those thoughts, words, or actions seem to look much like Jesus and so God's name ends up being dragged through the mud once again. Perhaps at the root of all this is our forgetting that what God does in us is not primarily about us but about God. We shouldn't think for a minute that this is for our sake, for our happiness, for our own self-fulfillment. After all Jesus taught that our first request in any prayer is for God's reputation to be honored; "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name...". We have been called to honor God in all that we do and it is for that task that God says he will make us clean, give is a new heart, and place his very own Spirit within us.
As God's chosen people, Israel was to represent to the world the God who delivered them from slavery. Instead of revealing himself to all people, God had chosen to reveal himself specifically to one group of people, one nation, Israel. In turn, the Israelites were supposed to be a kingdom of priests, a holy nation, revealing God to all the other peoples of the earth through the holy, distinctive way of life to which God had called them. Israel was, in essence, God's public relations team.
However, one of the major themes of the book of Ezekiel is how badly the people of Israel failed in this PR task. God's chosen people have badly misrepresented Yahweh to the nations with their syncretism and idolatry which is so severe that Ezekiel describes his own people as a prostitute who gives herself out to everyone but her husband. As a result, God's name has been profaned among the nations. Instead of Israel bringing honor and glory to Yahweh, they have tarnished God's reputation, bringing shame upon the name of the God that they serve.
Anyone else who found themselves in this position would simply find new representation. Any celebrity or politician would quickly fire their agent or campaign manager if they couldn't do any better than this. And, in a way, that is what God does too... for a time. God does allow Israel to be taken into exile because of their unfaithful representation of him. Israel has to know that God will not tolerate his name being dragged through the mud in this way. But even this is only for a time.
In Ezekiel 36, God promises to bring back the people who have misrepresented him so badly. However, God makes abundantly clear in this passage that he is not doing this for their sake but for his own. Having failed so badly at their task, there is nothing that Israel could do to deserve God hiring them as his representatives once again. There is nothing that Israel can offer God. Instead, God says that he will deliver his people once again so that God himself will be honored and vindicated, so that his holiness will be known. God is doing this so that all the nations will know that God does not abandon his people and that God is powerful enough to save, even more powerful than the mightiest nations on earth.
However, God also will not allow these people to represent him as they are. He will not deliver them back into their old land which he gave them just so that they can go back to their old prostituting ways. No, God promises to cleanse his people and make them holy (even though they have not asked God to do this, of course, how could such an unholy people make such a holy request in the first place). God even says that he will perform a heart transplant, replacing their heart of stone with a heart of flesh. God is going to give this people his own Spirit so they will follow his Law and live the life God had always called them to live. This is the only way for the perpetual cycle of sin to be broken; to have God's own Spirit at work within us.
As Christians, we believe that this promise has been fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. We believe that the Spirit of God resided in Jesus, empowering his life and ministry, and that this same Spirit was poured out upon his followers, the Church, the New Israel. We believe that even though God knows our often whorish ways, he continues to call human beings to be his representatives in the world. God calls us to be made clean and to allow his Spirit to work in us so that we might truly represent him in all of his holiness.
Of course, we also know that all too often God still has a PR problem today. So many people claim the title "Christian" and by doing so claim to represent God in their thoughts, words, and deeds. But somehow none of those thoughts, words, or actions seem to look much like Jesus and so God's name ends up being dragged through the mud once again. Perhaps at the root of all this is our forgetting that what God does in us is not primarily about us but about God. We shouldn't think for a minute that this is for our sake, for our happiness, for our own self-fulfillment. After all Jesus taught that our first request in any prayer is for God's reputation to be honored; "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name...". We have been called to honor God in all that we do and it is for that task that God says he will make us clean, give is a new heart, and place his very own Spirit within us.
Monday, September 20, 2010
The Watchman
The beginning of Ezekiel 33 reiterates an idea found earlier in the book in chapter 3; that Ezekiel is a watchman for Israel. The watchmen was like a military scout, the ancient version of an early warning device. It was the watchman's job to be on the lookout for an approaching enemy. If an army was approaching, the watchman was to sound the alarm so that the people would have enough time to get inside the city walls before the enemy was at hand. Obviously, many lives depended on the attentiveness of the watchman. If he failed to carry out his duties responsibly, it could cost a lot of people their lives. On the other hand, if for some strange reason the inhabitants of the city were to ignore the warning of the watchman and then died as a result, this would not be the watchman's fault since everyone had the choice whether or not they would heed the watchman's call.
The watchman is indeed an apt metaphor for Ezekiel's role within his community and the role of any prophet in any community really. In Ezekiel's context, the very real, literal army of the Babylonians has already come and carried Ezekiel and many of his fellow Israelites into exile. Nevertheless, Ezekiel's role as watchman continues even within the exiled community, warning those around him of the consequences of unfaithfulness to God. But like the watchman, it is only Ezekiel's job to warn. He has no power to enforce the warning. As long as Ezekiel issues his prophetic warning then he has done his job and it is up to those who hear the warning to respond accordingly.
As a pastor, this is one of the responsibilities I hold within this community of faith and it is one of the most difficult of those responsibilities. Especially in a culture where someone can easily find another church to attend if they don't like what you have to say, it seems almost impossible to speak words of warning like these in a way that is edifying and beneficial when someone is on the wrong path. Perhaps what is worse though is the powerlessness I have felt when I have uttered those words of warning. Such words are difficult enough when they actually lead to repentance but so often they actually lead to rejection and strife. While I continue to pray that God will give me wisdom and humility in these matters, I have also began to learn the truth that not everyone heeds the watchman's warning. Often we must simply speak the truth in love and leave the rest up to God.
Of course, it is not only my responsibility. The entirety of the Church has a prophetic role to play and therefore it is a task left to all of us to speak words of truthfulness and warning to our brothers and sisters in Christ. We are called to be watchmen to each other, reproving each other when we are not living up to the holy life to which we have been called. It is my prayer that God will give us the courage to speak what needs to be spoken and the wisdom and humility to speak it well.
The watchman is indeed an apt metaphor for Ezekiel's role within his community and the role of any prophet in any community really. In Ezekiel's context, the very real, literal army of the Babylonians has already come and carried Ezekiel and many of his fellow Israelites into exile. Nevertheless, Ezekiel's role as watchman continues even within the exiled community, warning those around him of the consequences of unfaithfulness to God. But like the watchman, it is only Ezekiel's job to warn. He has no power to enforce the warning. As long as Ezekiel issues his prophetic warning then he has done his job and it is up to those who hear the warning to respond accordingly.
As a pastor, this is one of the responsibilities I hold within this community of faith and it is one of the most difficult of those responsibilities. Especially in a culture where someone can easily find another church to attend if they don't like what you have to say, it seems almost impossible to speak words of warning like these in a way that is edifying and beneficial when someone is on the wrong path. Perhaps what is worse though is the powerlessness I have felt when I have uttered those words of warning. Such words are difficult enough when they actually lead to repentance but so often they actually lead to rejection and strife. While I continue to pray that God will give me wisdom and humility in these matters, I have also began to learn the truth that not everyone heeds the watchman's warning. Often we must simply speak the truth in love and leave the rest up to God.
Of course, it is not only my responsibility. The entirety of the Church has a prophetic role to play and therefore it is a task left to all of us to speak words of truthfulness and warning to our brothers and sisters in Christ. We are called to be watchmen to each other, reproving each other when we are not living up to the holy life to which we have been called. It is my prayer that God will give us the courage to speak what needs to be spoken and the wisdom and humility to speak it well.
Monday, September 13, 2010
The Whore
Ezekiel 16 is the "R" rated version of Israel's story. It speaks of the city of Jerusalem as a baby girl who had been left for dead, unwanted and abandoned to the elements. But God sees this poor child, cleans it up and cares for it. Then when the child has grown into a sexually mature woman, God enters into covenant relationship with her, binding himself to her as a husband to a wife. This woman is given everything; fine clothes, jewelry, fine food. God says through Ezekiel that her beauty was made perfect and she rose to be a queen.
But then, instead of being gracious to God, her husband, for all he had done for her, saving her very life and give her everything she had, she began to trust in her own beauty. She thought that somehow she had been deserving of all this instead of recognizing it for what it was; pure gift. So she begins to attract other men by her beauty. The very gifts that had been given to her, the fine clothes and jewelry, are now used as tools of her prostitution. She spread her legs open to anyone who passed by her. Her whoring became so shameless that even the women of godless, pagan nations were shocked and embarrassed by it. In fact, God says that she was worse than a prostitute because at least a prostitute receives payment for her act but her lust was so insatiable that she began paying others to be their prostitute!
This is the story of God's chosen people from God's perspective. Israel had been nothing. God called Abraham to be the father of this nation before there was any nation of which to speak. And even once there was a group of people known as the Hebrews, they were poor, powerless slaves in Egypt; a child wallowing in its own blood abandoned to die at the hands of the world's cruelty. It is that helpless, meaningless people with whom God chose to work. God entered into covenant relationship with those slaves, binding himself to them at Mt. Sinai. He made them into a mighty kingdom adorned with all the finest clothes, jewels, and foods the world had to offer. And then somewhere along the way, Israel forgot what it had been. Amidst all the gold and jewels, the wealth and power, it was easy to forget about the nothingness Israel had once been. It was easy to forget that all of these things were sheer grace. And so Israel began to depend on its own might and strength; its military and political alliances, rather than trusting in God. Israel not only began to worship the gods of other nations. It became so desperate for allies that it began to pay other nations for the privilege of being their servants. The little baby which God had rescued had become the whore who embraced anyone but her rescuer.
Of course, Israel's story is our story...and that's a particularly difficult pill to swallow because it is to say that we are a collective whore or at the very least that there are whorish elements to our story. We, too, were once a people who had nothing to offer to God. We were wallowing in our own sin, left to succumb to its evil power. But God rescued us, cleaned us up, cared for us, entered into covenant relationship with us and as if that weren't enough he lavishly blesses us on top of all that. But somehow all that blessing seems to go to our heads. Somehow we begin to think that we are deserving of it, that we have done something to earn it. We forget what we were before God found us. We forget that this is all sheer grace. And so we begin to take the very gifts that God has given us and we use them to satisfy our own lusts, whatever those might be. We begin whoring ourselves out to the latest church growth method or the current political sensibility or the newest self-help book or whatever it is that will take our money, our time, and our attention. We will embrace everyone and everything except for the one whose embrace we truly need, the one who rescued us from our filth and made us his own.
And we shouldn't make the mistake of thinking that God will simply ignore or tolerate our whorish ways. God says that Jerusalem will be stripped naked before her lovers (Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon) and that they will take her fine clothes and jewels and tear down her houses of prostitution and then hack her into pieces with a sword. God uses Babylon to destroy Jerusalem and carry its inhabitants into captivity.
As serious as this punishment is, we also know that it is not the end of the story. Despite all of Israel's unfaithfulness, God restores this broken child once again. Despite all of our unfaithfulness, God can restore us as well. It will mean that we have to humble ourselves and openly bare all of our sin and shame. But if we will confess and cease our whorish ways, then there is forgiveness, cleansing, and transformation even for us.
But then, instead of being gracious to God, her husband, for all he had done for her, saving her very life and give her everything she had, she began to trust in her own beauty. She thought that somehow she had been deserving of all this instead of recognizing it for what it was; pure gift. So she begins to attract other men by her beauty. The very gifts that had been given to her, the fine clothes and jewelry, are now used as tools of her prostitution. She spread her legs open to anyone who passed by her. Her whoring became so shameless that even the women of godless, pagan nations were shocked and embarrassed by it. In fact, God says that she was worse than a prostitute because at least a prostitute receives payment for her act but her lust was so insatiable that she began paying others to be their prostitute!
This is the story of God's chosen people from God's perspective. Israel had been nothing. God called Abraham to be the father of this nation before there was any nation of which to speak. And even once there was a group of people known as the Hebrews, they were poor, powerless slaves in Egypt; a child wallowing in its own blood abandoned to die at the hands of the world's cruelty. It is that helpless, meaningless people with whom God chose to work. God entered into covenant relationship with those slaves, binding himself to them at Mt. Sinai. He made them into a mighty kingdom adorned with all the finest clothes, jewels, and foods the world had to offer. And then somewhere along the way, Israel forgot what it had been. Amidst all the gold and jewels, the wealth and power, it was easy to forget about the nothingness Israel had once been. It was easy to forget that all of these things were sheer grace. And so Israel began to depend on its own might and strength; its military and political alliances, rather than trusting in God. Israel not only began to worship the gods of other nations. It became so desperate for allies that it began to pay other nations for the privilege of being their servants. The little baby which God had rescued had become the whore who embraced anyone but her rescuer.
Of course, Israel's story is our story...and that's a particularly difficult pill to swallow because it is to say that we are a collective whore or at the very least that there are whorish elements to our story. We, too, were once a people who had nothing to offer to God. We were wallowing in our own sin, left to succumb to its evil power. But God rescued us, cleaned us up, cared for us, entered into covenant relationship with us and as if that weren't enough he lavishly blesses us on top of all that. But somehow all that blessing seems to go to our heads. Somehow we begin to think that we are deserving of it, that we have done something to earn it. We forget what we were before God found us. We forget that this is all sheer grace. And so we begin to take the very gifts that God has given us and we use them to satisfy our own lusts, whatever those might be. We begin whoring ourselves out to the latest church growth method or the current political sensibility or the newest self-help book or whatever it is that will take our money, our time, and our attention. We will embrace everyone and everything except for the one whose embrace we truly need, the one who rescued us from our filth and made us his own.
And we shouldn't make the mistake of thinking that God will simply ignore or tolerate our whorish ways. God says that Jerusalem will be stripped naked before her lovers (Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon) and that they will take her fine clothes and jewels and tear down her houses of prostitution and then hack her into pieces with a sword. God uses Babylon to destroy Jerusalem and carry its inhabitants into captivity.
As serious as this punishment is, we also know that it is not the end of the story. Despite all of Israel's unfaithfulness, God restores this broken child once again. Despite all of our unfaithfulness, God can restore us as well. It will mean that we have to humble ourselves and openly bare all of our sin and shame. But if we will confess and cease our whorish ways, then there is forgiveness, cleansing, and transformation even for us.
Monday, August 30, 2010
God Chooses Exile
The Temple represented God's presence with Israel. It was God's house. It was the place where Yahweh's glory dwelt. And yet, from before the Temple's existence, God had promised/warned David that he would not be bound to a building. In Ezekiel 10, God makes good on that promise.
Ezekiel 10 is just part of a whole vision that is recorded in chapters 8-11. That vision begins with the tour of Israel's idolatry which we saw in last week's sermon text. It is those idolatries and abominations which drive Yahweh out of the Temple. Ezekiel essentially paints a picture for us of God stepping out of his house and into his chariot. It is the same chariot which Ezekiel saw in the opening vision of his book on the Chebar canal in Babylon. In this vision, God is communicating to Ezekiel that he is leaving Jerusalem in order to be with the captives in Babylon.
Here is a God who would rather dwell in exile than be surrounded by sin, a God who would rather be homeless than have his house filled with idols. Of course, this should come as no surprise for us who believe that this God is revealed in Jesus Christ; the one who said "foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." In Jesus is the God who chooses the exile of crucifixion over the comforts of earthly power and bondage to sin.
Are we a church that chooses exile over sin, homelessness over idolatry? Of course, we would like to succumb to the happy delusion that we don't have to make this choice, that we can have the kingdom without the cross. But for us to identify sin in all of its ugliness and refuse to participate in it will almost certainly mark us out as an odd sort of people, a people whom the dominant culture will quickly disown just as our savior was despised and rejected. To choose the way of Jesus in this world is almost certainly to choose an exilic existence...but one which leads to true freedom for it is an exile in which God dwells.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Happy is a Yuppy Word
Ezekiel 8 is a kind of tour of Israel's idolatry and syncretism.
While sitting with the elders of Judah in his house in Babylon, Ezekiel is shown a vision of those who are still in Jerusalem. The first is some vague vision of an "image of jealousy" outside the north gate of the Temple complex. It's not clear what this image is exactly but we are told it is an abomination which threatens to drive God away from his sanctuary.
The next stop on the tour is a hole in the wall which Ezekiel is commanded to dig through. When he does, he sees images of "creeping things" and "loathsome beasts" having been engraved on the Temple wall, precisely the kind of images that God had forbid Israel to worship. Meanwhile, seventy of the elders of Israel are offering incense before these images. This could well have been an imitation of some kind of Egyptian religious ritual in hopes that the gods of Egypt (who at times had been a political ally of Israel's against Babylon) might save Israel from destruction by Babylon. Whether this is specifically Egyptian in nature or not, it is made very clear that these rituals exhibit a lack of trust in Yahweh since the elders say "The Lord does not see us, the Lord has forsaken the land."
But Egyptians gods are not enough of an idolatry for Israel. In the next few verses, Ezekiel sees a vision of women "weeping for Tammuz". Tammuz was an Assyrian God of vegetation who was thought to have died every dry season and only to be resurrected every year when the vegetation returned and begin to blossom and bud with new life. It was a rite of Tammuz worship to weep for him every dry season when he died. Add Assyrian religion to Israel's eclectic worship.
Finally, Ezekiel is brought into the inner court of the Temple between the porch and the altar. There are a group of twenty-five men gathered there worshiping. Surely in this mostly holy of places at least these men will be worshiping Yahweh? No, they have literally turned their backs on God, facing away from the Temple to worship the rising sun in the east.
As a result, God promises to act in his wrath and to not have pity. In the past God has heard the cries of Israel when they have cried out to God for mercy but this time he promises that he will not. Chapter nine begins by saying that God cried into Ezekiel's ears "Bring near the executioners of the city...". God is about to put a stop to this.
As I read Ezekiel 8, I pondered what our idols, our acts of syncretism might be. Of course, the obvious things came to mind: money, status, power, politics, nationalism, etc. These are all things that too often we give more importance, more glory, more worship to than we give to God. But then I ran across this blog post which perhaps states it best.
We may be in little danger of bowing down to Egyptian or Assyrian gods in our churches but there can be little doubt that most of us have mixed our faith in God with a gospel of self-fulfillment and self-centeredness which is really no gospel at all. For the most part, those other idols of money, politics, etc are probably just extensions of of our belief that we have an "inalienable right" to the "pursuit of happiness". But what course does that pursuit take when it meets the shadow of the cross? We should make no mistake: God wants to slay any part of us that still submits to our own happiness as if it were a god. Images of slaughter like those contained in Ezekiel 9 are surely disturbing... perhaps they will disturb us enough to wake us up from our own happy, idolatrous sleep.
While sitting with the elders of Judah in his house in Babylon, Ezekiel is shown a vision of those who are still in Jerusalem. The first is some vague vision of an "image of jealousy" outside the north gate of the Temple complex. It's not clear what this image is exactly but we are told it is an abomination which threatens to drive God away from his sanctuary.
The next stop on the tour is a hole in the wall which Ezekiel is commanded to dig through. When he does, he sees images of "creeping things" and "loathsome beasts" having been engraved on the Temple wall, precisely the kind of images that God had forbid Israel to worship. Meanwhile, seventy of the elders of Israel are offering incense before these images. This could well have been an imitation of some kind of Egyptian religious ritual in hopes that the gods of Egypt (who at times had been a political ally of Israel's against Babylon) might save Israel from destruction by Babylon. Whether this is specifically Egyptian in nature or not, it is made very clear that these rituals exhibit a lack of trust in Yahweh since the elders say "The Lord does not see us, the Lord has forsaken the land."
But Egyptians gods are not enough of an idolatry for Israel. In the next few verses, Ezekiel sees a vision of women "weeping for Tammuz". Tammuz was an Assyrian God of vegetation who was thought to have died every dry season and only to be resurrected every year when the vegetation returned and begin to blossom and bud with new life. It was a rite of Tammuz worship to weep for him every dry season when he died. Add Assyrian religion to Israel's eclectic worship.
Finally, Ezekiel is brought into the inner court of the Temple between the porch and the altar. There are a group of twenty-five men gathered there worshiping. Surely in this mostly holy of places at least these men will be worshiping Yahweh? No, they have literally turned their backs on God, facing away from the Temple to worship the rising sun in the east.
As a result, God promises to act in his wrath and to not have pity. In the past God has heard the cries of Israel when they have cried out to God for mercy but this time he promises that he will not. Chapter nine begins by saying that God cried into Ezekiel's ears "Bring near the executioners of the city...". God is about to put a stop to this.
As I read Ezekiel 8, I pondered what our idols, our acts of syncretism might be. Of course, the obvious things came to mind: money, status, power, politics, nationalism, etc. These are all things that too often we give more importance, more glory, more worship to than we give to God. But then I ran across this blog post which perhaps states it best.
We may be in little danger of bowing down to Egyptian or Assyrian gods in our churches but there can be little doubt that most of us have mixed our faith in God with a gospel of self-fulfillment and self-centeredness which is really no gospel at all. For the most part, those other idols of money, politics, etc are probably just extensions of of our belief that we have an "inalienable right" to the "pursuit of happiness". But what course does that pursuit take when it meets the shadow of the cross? We should make no mistake: God wants to slay any part of us that still submits to our own happiness as if it were a god. Images of slaughter like those contained in Ezekiel 9 are surely disturbing... perhaps they will disturb us enough to wake us up from our own happy, idolatrous sleep.
Monday, August 16, 2010
More Than Words
In Ezekiel 4, God commands Ezekiel to prophesy without saying a word. Instead of speaking, Ezekiel is to carry out a series of symbolic acts that represent the siege which God through Babylon is about to bring upon Jerusalem. He is commanded to take a brick and draw the city of Jerusalem on it and then build a miniature battlefield around it. Then he is commanded to lay on his left side for 390 days to represent the 390 years of Israel's exile and then on his right side for another 40 days to represent the exile of Judah. But in all these instructions there are no instructions to speak.
Most of us have heard our whole lives that "actions speak louder than words" but I think that in reality that slogan takes much more patience, trust, and perseverance than most of us are willing to commit. At some point in those 430 days, as Ezekiel lay there watching the same people pass by as he had for so many days before, people who had now seen him lay there for so many days that they didn't even bother to mock him any more, he must have wondered what the point of all this was. No one was repenting of their sin. No one was consulting Ezekiel about what words had come from God. Wasn't this a waste of God's time as well as Ezekiel's? Wouldn't another sermon about the wrath and judgment to come be just as effectual as laying here doing nothing? Nevertheless, God commands and Ezekiel obeys.
It's not that words aren't important. Ezekiel will do a whole lot of speaking before the book that bares his name comes to an end. But Jesus washing the disciples' feet, healing the sick, turning over the tables of the money changers, sharing the passover meal with the disciples, all say something that mere words can not.
This is a prophetic tradition in which we, the Church, find our feet firmly planted. We too are called not only to prophetic speech but also to prophetic acts, not least of which are things like baptism and communion. At times, the water, wafer, and wine may seem plain, ordinary, and ineffectual things. They may seem powerless to affect any real change in our world. They may seem about as meaningful as laying on our side for 430 days. And yet, our constant gathering around a broken and bloodied Lord says something that no sermon can speak.
Most of us have heard our whole lives that "actions speak louder than words" but I think that in reality that slogan takes much more patience, trust, and perseverance than most of us are willing to commit. At some point in those 430 days, as Ezekiel lay there watching the same people pass by as he had for so many days before, people who had now seen him lay there for so many days that they didn't even bother to mock him any more, he must have wondered what the point of all this was. No one was repenting of their sin. No one was consulting Ezekiel about what words had come from God. Wasn't this a waste of God's time as well as Ezekiel's? Wouldn't another sermon about the wrath and judgment to come be just as effectual as laying here doing nothing? Nevertheless, God commands and Ezekiel obeys.
It's not that words aren't important. Ezekiel will do a whole lot of speaking before the book that bares his name comes to an end. But Jesus washing the disciples' feet, healing the sick, turning over the tables of the money changers, sharing the passover meal with the disciples, all say something that mere words can not.
This is a prophetic tradition in which we, the Church, find our feet firmly planted. We too are called not only to prophetic speech but also to prophetic acts, not least of which are things like baptism and communion. At times, the water, wafer, and wine may seem plain, ordinary, and ineffectual things. They may seem powerless to affect any real change in our world. They may seem about as meaningful as laying on our side for 430 days. And yet, our constant gathering around a broken and bloodied Lord says something that no sermon can speak.
Monday, August 2, 2010
A Prophet Among Them
We are a results obsessed culture. How much money will it make? How fast will it go? How much change will it affect? These are the questions we ask. They're not bad questions. They drive us toward success as it is typically defined.
The Church has taken much of this cultural obsession upon itself. How many people can we get into church? How efficient is this program? How much of a difference are we making in our community? Even in the Church these are not entirely bad questions. There must be a place for evaluating our methods. The problem comes when we equate success with the production of certain results instead of equating it with faithfulness.
Ezekiel 2 tells us of Ezekiel's prophetic call, his ordination to be the mouthpiece of God. We might think that with a specific call from the mighty God of the universe there might come some guarantee of results; something along the lines of "as long as you proclaim the message I have given you everyone will listen to you." Instead, v.4-5 read
This is the mission of the Church - to be God's prophet among the peoples of the world. We must live and speak in a way that proclaims the good news of Christ's victory regardless of whether or not there is anyone willing to listen. This doesn't mean that the guy on the corner with a bull-horn is justified in his evangelistic approach. After all, he may be speaking the right words but his method of proclamation is not a faithful representation of Christ. It does mean that we continue (or begin) to do the right things, to live the life we are called to as a church even when it doesn't cause our church to grow. Ezekiel is told that even as he is surrounded by thistles and thorns and sits on scorpions he is to have no fear but is to continue to proclaim the message he has been given.
Of course, proclaiming the message faithfully presumes that we know the message. As a part of Ezekiel's call, he is commanded to eat a scroll given to him by God (which we can safely assume contains the message which God is calling Ezekiel to proclaim). Ezekiel must do more than simply read the scroll. He must devour it, ingest it, internalize it. God's message has to become a part of Ezekiel himself.
So how much time have you spent devouring the good news over the last week or so? How much have you studied Scripture? How much time have you spent listening to God? Whether you do the traditional "read your Bible and pray every day" or you get more creative with spiritual disciplines doesn't really matter. Are you devouring the word? Are you so hungry for God that his message is inside you, that it has become a part of who you are? Only when we commit ourselves to eating the book that God has given us will the people of the world know that there is a prophet among them.
The Church has taken much of this cultural obsession upon itself. How many people can we get into church? How efficient is this program? How much of a difference are we making in our community? Even in the Church these are not entirely bad questions. There must be a place for evaluating our methods. The problem comes when we equate success with the production of certain results instead of equating it with faithfulness.
Ezekiel 2 tells us of Ezekiel's prophetic call, his ordination to be the mouthpiece of God. We might think that with a specific call from the mighty God of the universe there might come some guarantee of results; something along the lines of "as long as you proclaim the message I have given you everyone will listen to you." Instead, v.4-5 read
"I am sending you to them who are stubborn and obstinate children and you shall say to them, 'Thus says the Lord God.' As for them, whether they listen or not - for they are a rebellious people - they will know that a prophet has been among them."God gives Ezekiel no guarantees. The people might listen or they might not. Making them listen is not up to Ezekiel. Ezekiel's mission is not to manufacture results. It is only to proclaim the message that he has been given regardless of what happens. And God says that if Ezekiel will do that then regardless of whether or not the people respond they will at least know that God's prophet has been among them.
This is the mission of the Church - to be God's prophet among the peoples of the world. We must live and speak in a way that proclaims the good news of Christ's victory regardless of whether or not there is anyone willing to listen. This doesn't mean that the guy on the corner with a bull-horn is justified in his evangelistic approach. After all, he may be speaking the right words but his method of proclamation is not a faithful representation of Christ. It does mean that we continue (or begin) to do the right things, to live the life we are called to as a church even when it doesn't cause our church to grow. Ezekiel is told that even as he is surrounded by thistles and thorns and sits on scorpions he is to have no fear but is to continue to proclaim the message he has been given.
Of course, proclaiming the message faithfully presumes that we know the message. As a part of Ezekiel's call, he is commanded to eat a scroll given to him by God (which we can safely assume contains the message which God is calling Ezekiel to proclaim). Ezekiel must do more than simply read the scroll. He must devour it, ingest it, internalize it. God's message has to become a part of Ezekiel himself.
So how much time have you spent devouring the good news over the last week or so? How much have you studied Scripture? How much time have you spent listening to God? Whether you do the traditional "read your Bible and pray every day" or you get more creative with spiritual disciplines doesn't really matter. Are you devouring the word? Are you so hungry for God that his message is inside you, that it has become a part of who you are? Only when we commit ourselves to eating the book that God has given us will the people of the world know that there is a prophet among them.
Monday, July 19, 2010
The Gravity of the God-Man
One of the greatest discoveries of the modern age is that of the nature of gravity. Of course, all human beings throughout history have been familiar with the effects of gravity since anyone could drop an object and observe that it fell to the ground. However, it took Isaac Newton (building on the work of several others before him) to recognize that gravity didn't just apply to things on earth but to the earth itself and all the heavenly bodies. He discovered that there was a mathematical relationship that existed in the movements of the planets which was directly related to the mass of each body; the more mass an object had, the more attractional force or pull it exerted on other bodies around it. Einstein would later discover that this "pull" was actually a curvature of space; that is, that extremely massive objects like the sun actually curved the space around them in such a way that it caused smaller objects (the planets) to "fall" towards it. This curving of space created by the sun's enormous mass is what keeps the planets in their orderly orbit instead of shooting off into space. Or to put it another way, we might say (in a scientifically imprecise way) that it is the "weight" of the sun which holds our solar system in place.
The final verse of Ezekiel 1 includes this summary statement: "Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord." The entire first chapter of Ezekiel is a description of Ezekiel's vision of God. Ezekiel begins by describing a storm cloud filled with fire. In the cloud, Ezekiel sees four strange but magnificent creatures. These creatures are somehow connected to wheels which turn out to be the chariot for God's throne. All of the strangeness of this vision is meant to convey "the glory of the Lord".
Glory is one of those words we see in our English Bibles so often that we forget what it means. How do you define glory? The Hebrew word here is kabod. It is most often translated glory but it also carries the connotation of being large or weighty. That is, God's glory is his weightiness, his massiveness, his gravity. This not unlike how we might use these words in English. We might say that a politician carries great political weight or we might talk about how very charismatic leaders have a certain gravity about them in that they seem to have the ability to draw people into their sphere of influence.
Ezekiel 1 is a reminder of the gravity of God. It is a reminder that this God who rides on his mighty chariot is a force to be reckoned with; a force so powerful that every other body in the universe is influenced by his movement. Indeed, were it not for the glory and power of this God, the universe would fall apart and cease to be. Even the king of Babylon, whose powerful armies have brought God's people into exile, is subject to the glorious gravity of this God.
But in the midst of all this massive, mighty, and weighty transcendence and glory we find something surprisingly inglorious. Ezekiel's vision has been building to a crescendo. First, we saw the mighty beasts and then the chariot they escort and then the throne of God on the chariot. Now we have come to the part of the vision where we expect to see God himself. Surely, with such mighty creatures to escort his chariot, God will be depicted as something greater still; some ten headed warrior creature that is unfathomable and indescribable. Instead, Ezekiel sees "a figure with the appearance of a man". To be sure, it is no ordinary man. This man has the appearance of fire and glowing metal. But a man nevertheless.
This is a reminder that for all God's glory and transcendence, for all God's wholly-otherness from us, this God is still for us, connected to us, inseparably like us in some way because God created us to be that way. "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." Not only did God create us in his image but God took on our flesh to redeem us. While I don't imagine that Ezekiel had Jesus in mind when he saw this "figure with the appearance of a man", it is nearly impossible for us as Christians today not to thnk of Jesus when we here Ezekiel's depiction of God. And we should, for this God in his mighty chariot is the man who was nailed to a cross. The God whose gravity holds the unverse in place is the man whose death curves the space of our spiritual reality so that we would be drawn to God and no longer sinfully bent in on ourselves. The gravity of God is most perfectly revealed in the humility and weakness of Jesus Christ.
The final verse of Ezekiel 1 includes this summary statement: "Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord." The entire first chapter of Ezekiel is a description of Ezekiel's vision of God. Ezekiel begins by describing a storm cloud filled with fire. In the cloud, Ezekiel sees four strange but magnificent creatures. These creatures are somehow connected to wheels which turn out to be the chariot for God's throne. All of the strangeness of this vision is meant to convey "the glory of the Lord".
Glory is one of those words we see in our English Bibles so often that we forget what it means. How do you define glory? The Hebrew word here is kabod. It is most often translated glory but it also carries the connotation of being large or weighty. That is, God's glory is his weightiness, his massiveness, his gravity. This not unlike how we might use these words in English. We might say that a politician carries great political weight or we might talk about how very charismatic leaders have a certain gravity about them in that they seem to have the ability to draw people into their sphere of influence.
Ezekiel 1 is a reminder of the gravity of God. It is a reminder that this God who rides on his mighty chariot is a force to be reckoned with; a force so powerful that every other body in the universe is influenced by his movement. Indeed, were it not for the glory and power of this God, the universe would fall apart and cease to be. Even the king of Babylon, whose powerful armies have brought God's people into exile, is subject to the glorious gravity of this God.
But in the midst of all this massive, mighty, and weighty transcendence and glory we find something surprisingly inglorious. Ezekiel's vision has been building to a crescendo. First, we saw the mighty beasts and then the chariot they escort and then the throne of God on the chariot. Now we have come to the part of the vision where we expect to see God himself. Surely, with such mighty creatures to escort his chariot, God will be depicted as something greater still; some ten headed warrior creature that is unfathomable and indescribable. Instead, Ezekiel sees "a figure with the appearance of a man". To be sure, it is no ordinary man. This man has the appearance of fire and glowing metal. But a man nevertheless.
This is a reminder that for all God's glory and transcendence, for all God's wholly-otherness from us, this God is still for us, connected to us, inseparably like us in some way because God created us to be that way. "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." Not only did God create us in his image but God took on our flesh to redeem us. While I don't imagine that Ezekiel had Jesus in mind when he saw this "figure with the appearance of a man", it is nearly impossible for us as Christians today not to thnk of Jesus when we here Ezekiel's depiction of God. And we should, for this God in his mighty chariot is the man who was nailed to a cross. The God whose gravity holds the unverse in place is the man whose death curves the space of our spiritual reality so that we would be drawn to God and no longer sinfully bent in on ourselves. The gravity of God is most perfectly revealed in the humility and weakness of Jesus Christ.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Where God Shows Up
I often wonder what it is like for our soldiers in Iraq. These soldiers are so far away from home in a part of the world completely unlike anything they have known before. They are away from their family and friends. And with the things that go on in any war zone it must, at times, seem like hell on earth. I have to imagine that at least some of the time they must feel like they are in a place where there is no God. It must have felt something like this for Ezekiel and his fellow exiles as well.
Ezekiel is a weird book. So weird, in fact, that some have speculated that Ezekiel suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or something like it. Some scholars have speculated that the trauma of exile made Ezekiel see and do some very odd things. Whether we agree with that assessment or not, it at least speaks to just how odd Ezekiel was in his prophecy. So its no surprise that in chapter 1 of Ezekiel we read about a very strange vision. We hear about a storm cloud that resembles fire and glowing metal and out of the storm cloud comes four strange creatures, each with the face of a man, an eagle, a lion, and a bull. These creatures also have wings on their human shaped bodies while they have the appearance of bronze and the ability to dart back and forth like bolts of lightning. The spirit of these creatures is also somehow connected to the wheels which accompany each of them. As we will hear more about next week, above these creatures is God seated on his throne.
While these all sounds very strange to us, this kind of vision was actually somewhat typical in the ancient near east. There are numerous examples of ancient artwork in which a nation’s god or king is depicted is just this way. The king or god’s throne is held up and carried by magnificent creatures as a way of representing that king or god’s importance and honor. It will not do to have your god ride around in a regular old chariot. To really convey the honor and transcendence of your god, he needs other-worldly beings to chauffeur him around. Ezekiel’s very strange vision is really no different, it speaks to the honor, glory, and transcendence of the God of Israel. The magnificence of this vision is meant to convey the magnificence of the God who is seen in the vision.
But in all this other-worldly magnificence, what is probably most significant for our understanding of this vision is something as boring, mundane, and unmagnificent as a bit of geography. We hear in the opening verse of Ezekiel that this vision takes place on the banks of the river Chebar in Babylon. I mentioned before that the situation of Ezekiel and the exiles might have been something like that of our soldiers, only it was probably really much worse if you can imagine that. Ezekiel and his fellow exiles were taken against their will to this godless foreign land after watching their home be destroyed never knowing if they would return In fact, to get a sense of the anger and grief of these exiles, all you have to do is read Psalm 137. This Psalm tells of exiles who sit on the banks of Babylon’s river, grieving the loss of their homeland. And at the end of the Psalm we hear these grieving exiles say “O daughter of Babylon, you devastated one, how blessed will be the one who repays you with the recompense with which you have repaid us. How blessed will be the one who seizes and dashes your little ones against the rocks.” The pain of these exiles runs so deep that they are calling blessed the one who will have the opportunity to take the Babylonians babies and throw them against rocks. There can be no doubt that these exiles find themselves in a lonely, painful, and seemingly God-forsaken place.
And that is why it is significant that Ezekiel has this vision on the banks of the Chebar River. Ezekiel does not have this vision in the safety and security of his homeland. He does not have this vision in the sacred space of the Temple. Instead, in the very place where the exiles sat and wept for their homeland, in the very place that the exiles wished that the babies of their captors would have their heads dashed against the rocks, in the darkest place Israel had ever known, Ezekiel saw God.
Not only did Ezekiel see God but this God has got wheels! Ezekiel sees God seated on a chariot. As any teenager can tell you, wheels represent mobility, freedom, access to a whole new world. Their meaning is no different here. Ezekiel’s vision of God seated on a chariot means that God is not bound to the Temple in Israel. God did not die when Israel was defeated. God did not cease to be present with Israel simply because the Temple had been destroyed. Because this God is free to roam wherever he likes, free to go wherever he pleases, and he chooses to go to places like God-forsaken Babylon. God chooses to meet us at the river banks where we have shed our most painful tears. God makes a habit of showing up where we least expect him.
During assembly this week, Kay and Lindell Browning, our missionaries to the Eastern Mediterranean region spoke about their time in the Middle East. Lindell spoke about how much he loved the nation of Iraq (modern day Babylon) and he talked about how God was working there and in countries like Yemen (even though there are only two house churches) and Turkey (where its 99% population of Muslims regularly persecute Christians). Even in these seemingly God-forsaken countries, God is at work.
The question for us is not whether or not God is at work, the question is whether or not we have the eyes to see that God is present where we least expect – on the banks of the Chebar River, in modern day Iraq, and in those dark and painful places in our own lives.
Even in those dark, dirty, dangerous, disreputable places in our own town - those places that good church folk like ourselves would never be found – God is present and at work even there and he is calling us to be a part of that work with him. Our God is not limited by our church building or any building. I wonder what would happen if the same could be said about God’s people?
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