Reconnecting people

A sermon for Bramley St Peter, 26 March 2023

Readings: Ezekiel 37:1-11 / John 11:17-44

Ezekiel was a weird guy. Really weird. He was master of the ‘acted parable’, what we might now call ‘public protest’.  Think of Brian Haw who protested in a tent outside Parliament for nearly ten years, or Extinction Rebellion activists gluing themselves to motorways.  But that’s nothing to Ezekiel’s protests. For four years he said nothing but acted out the prophesises God gave him as a mime artist would. He lay, bound in ropes, on his left side for over a year to represent 390 years of rebellion against God.  During this time (in which he baked bread over cow dung) he had to act out the siege of Jerusalem using a model of the city so as to attract the attention of passers-by.  On another occasion he packed his bags and made as if to leave the city through a hole in the wall, as a sign that the walls of Jerusalem were about to be broken down. Such people disturb the complacency with which most of us meekly accept the injustices that we see around us, even when we know that people will suffer if they are not challenged.

This vision of the dry bones was different.  It was for Ezekiel’s benefit alone. Now if you think of skeletons as like the plastic ones you might see in a medical student’s room – all connected together, nice and clean and in an obvious human shape, that isn’t usually the case. 

Iron age skeleton

As a student I was once on an archaeological dig, finding nothing more interesting than bits of pottery, when one of my friends found  a complete skeleton. And here it is the remains of a young woman from the iron age.  Hard even to make out the individual bones after so long, and not even a human shape.  Can these bones live? You’re joking!

The vivid image that God showed to Ezekiel was to demonstrate that the people of Israel and Judah who had been exiled to Babylon were so disconnected, from each other and from their cultural roots and traditions, that they were like a pile of bones that couldn’t even be counted as distinct skeletons. As it says in the last verse: dried up, hope lost, completely cut off. Only the breath of God could reverse what had happened.

And it did. Bone came to bone, sinews and flesh and skin reappeared, and life was breathed back into them. Later in the same book we get the interpretation, as we read the prophecy that all the twelve tribes of Israel would be restored to the Holy Land, on a basis of equality under God once more.

In a word, God had shown Ezekiel that he, and he alone, can reconnect disconnected people to each other, to their land and to himself. And that’s my theme: disconnectedness, something which permeates our society today.  Another word for it, used by sociologists, is ‘desocialisation’. It includes the widespread problem of loneliness. I’ve used this quote before, but it’s worth repeating:

“When Andrew Smith died, nobody noticed. His flat, number 171, was at the end of the row on the second floor.  His body was discovered when a neighbour, someone he had never talked to, smelt something bad and phoned the police.  Andrew Smith had been dead for two months.  There were no details of his next of kin, no photos of his family, nothing in his flat to suggest he had any friends. He had nobody, and died lonely.”[1]

But there’s more to disconnectedness than the lonely individual.

Just this week we have heard the damning report of the institutional failings of the Police in London. The charge sheet of sins directed by Ezekiel against God’s people, includes many failings of our own society. It does not take much paraphrasing of the text of chapter 22 to read these charges as: dysfunctional families, injustice for immigrants, insufficient support for the poorest in society, sexual violence, a financial system that leads people into debt, and dishonesty in business.  Those charges can certainly be laid against Britain today.

But the charges also include a loss of a sense of what is holy, a failing that is not mentioned in the secular media and yet is at the root of our problems. There is undoubtedly a connection between society becoming more secular and the breakdown of communities. The word ‘religion’ ultimately means ‘connection’ – connection between people as well as between us and God. In the Going Deeper group this week Julia asked us what are the signs of disconnectedness in Bramley today. Some of the answers revolved around a lack of a sense of connection between one small neighbourhood and another, members of the same family not speaking to each other for years on end, and a sense of the injustice of mass movement of people by the council when estates were redeveloped fifty years ago – in the time of the grandparents of the people living there now. Here’s a quotation that isn’t about Bramley but could have been-
“I was in my home town walking down the main street looking in the shops – nobody knows anyone here. Then I remembered how this street used to be with family businesses and names on the shop fronts that never changed, where people spoke to each other … Always somebody spoke to me, knew my name”.[2]

Even within the church I see this problem of disconnectedness. In my job, I often talk to the Churchwarden of some small congregation that is really struggling to keep going, either financially or spiritually. They are so absorbed in their own local troubles that they cannot see the big picture, cannot relate even to the other churches in their own area, let alone the whole Diocese, Church of England or the universal church of billions of believers in Jesus.

And so it was, leaping forward several hundred years, that Jesus came to Bethany, to a community mourning one of its leading men. I just want you to pause for a minute and think where you are in this story of the raising of Lazarus.  So often we imagine ourselves in the Gospel stories as in the position of a film crew, next to or in front of Jesus and watching his every move, or as his disciples stood behind him.  But it’s unlikely we can identify as Jesus, the one fully in control of the situation. Maybe you’re more like Martha – ever the organised one, coping with grief by being active, going out looking for Jesus as soon as word arrives that he’s on his way, and begging him to act.  Or perhaps you’re more like Mary, spiritually aware and seeing the need for healing all around, but confused and inconsolable, desperate to be reconnected to the brother she loved.  Or maybe even like Lazarus.  Remember – he was the other side of this solid tombstone, bound in strips of cloth, perhaps already awake, but wondering where he was, unable to move or communicate with those outside.  Totally lacking in power and control. Like many people today. Do you identify with Lazarus?

As a church we have adopted the mission statement of ‘revealing God’s love in Bramley’. We chose that because we are the fortunate ones, who know that God is here, and that he does love us. We as Christians know we are connected to each other and to God by meeting regularly together, reading the same Bible, saying the same prayers, breaking the communion bread and declaring ourselves to be parts of one body.  But few people outside the church community feel that way any more, which is why we are compelled by the love of God to reveal this marvellous truth to those around us.

Through Ezekiel, God reconnected the bones as a symbol of the scattered people of Israel being reconnected to each other and to the promised land. Jesus in Bethany reconnected Lazarus to his sisters as a symbol of us all being reconnected to God, both before and after death. We live in a time when many people feel disconnected from society in the many ways I have described, and God calls us to share in his work of reconnecting people with each other and with him.

So, if you feel like a disconnected bone, ask Jesus to breath his Holy Spirit into you, to reconnect you with the body and bring you back to fullness of life.  If you are confused like Mary about all that’s going on and weeping inside for whoever or whatever is missing from your life, ask Jesus the consoler to reconnect you with his love,  and share it with others.  If you are like activists Martha and Ezekiel, ask God to give you the gifts to bring about his Kingdom and reconnect people through your activities. And if you, like Lazarus, feel there is no way out of whatever entombs you, remember – Lazarus’s tombstone was rolled away, as was the stone that held Jesus in his tomb at Easter. God’s power is sufficient to roll yours way too.  Can these bones live? Yes they can! Amen!

[roll away stone!]


[1] A. Leve, Sunday Times, 2/9/2007, quoted by M. Fforde in “Desocialisation”, 2009.

[2] R Weatherill, “Cultural collapse”, 1994, quoted by Fforde p.166.

The Bible in a Year – 14 June

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

14 June. Ezekiel chapter 46-48

Much of these last chapters of Ezekiel is the same sort of material found in the book of Leviticus, suggesting that they were written at the same time (although some people, including whoever produced the Bible reading plan that I am following, insist that all the “books of Moses” were written in his day).

 

I have little interest in the regulations concerning sacrifices of animals (chapter 46). But the first part of chapter 47 is more interesting as Ezekiel has a vision of water flowing to from the Temple towards the East (i.e. perhaps towards Babylon – remember all these last chapters are said to be a vision he had while still living there).  The water gets deeper as it flows along, and nourishes trees “whose leaves are for healing”. This is very similar to the vision of the New Jerusalem that St John saw in his Revelation. Perhaps what is meant is that the presence of God in the holy city will bring healing to the rest of the world – an idea which makes sense in later Christian understanding of the Church taking the place of Jerusalem, and Christ’s presence being made known throughout the world through the Church.

 

The reallocation of land to the tribes in chapters 47/48 is strictly equal – inequalities had arisen over the centuries but the return from exile would be a chance to start again with a fair allocation.  No longer is the land east of the Jordan counted as part of Israel, so the tribes that had lived there would now have an equal width strip between the Mediterranean and the Jordan Valley along with the rest.  But Judah and Benjamin would have land closest to Jerusalem, as before.

Thus ends the book of Ezekiel. Tomorrow, Hosea.

 

 

 

The Bible in a Year – 12-13 June.

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

12-13 June. Ezekiel chapters 42-45

The vision that Ezekiel is given of a future temple is completed, first the building, then the purpose of its chambers is given, and then the glory of God is seen returning to the new Temple, just as in a previous vision Ezekiel had seen it departing. In this, God was promising a new start for his people.  Their ancestors’ sin had finally driven the presence of God away from them, but he would return to start a new relationship with them.

 

But this is still very much a priestly understanding of worship, all about sacrifice by priests on behalf of the people.   It was not yet a revelation of the New Covenant that Jesus brought.  So the presence of God is followed by the erection of a huge altar, chapter 44 defines who can be a priest and what their responsibilities would be, and chapter 45 includes instructions for where they would live and for offerings and festivals, just as found in the book of Leviticus. There would have been no point (to the understanding of the Jews of his day) in offering sacrifice until God’s presence was there.  Religion should never consist only of ritual for its own sake; any ritual should only serve to honour the presence of God and bring people into his presence.

 

 

 

The Bible in a Year – 11 June

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

11 June. Ezekiel chapters 38-41

Chapters 38-39 are totally unexpected after what came before, and seem out of place here. Just as Ezekiel has started describing God’s favour to the Israelites and promising them peace and security, here comes a prophecy of a future invasion by “Gog” against their unprotected towns and villages.   The Israelites would win, however, and God’s punishment would be on Gog.  So, unexpectedly, we are back to an older understanding of God pitting one country against another and judging whole peoples rather than individuals.

 

At the beginning of Chapter 40 Ezekiel is transported in the Spirit to Jerusalem for a second time (the first such experience, described in chapters 8-11, was to reveal the future destruction of the city). As I explained then [1 June], such experience of physical transportation from one place to another as a part of extreme spiritual experience is not unique in religious writings.   From here to chapter 45, Ezekiel is given a vision of a future temple.  Chapters 40-41 are concerned with the overall dimensions of the walls, gates and the buildings within the courtyard.

 

Although the basic concept of outer and inner courts, nave and “most holy place” are familiar both from Solomon’s earlier temple and in later Christian church plans, the description of this structure is not that of the temple that was actually built in the following generations under Nehemiah.  Depending on which websites you look at (Jewish or Christian) and on your understanding (if any) of the “Millennium” referred to by some Christians, it might have been a vision for how that temple should have been built, or for an actual physical temple that will, someday, be built, or it may be an allegory of some kind.  The latter view is taken by this website  which does include a helpful 3-D illustration of Ezekiel’s vision.

 

 

 

 

The Bible in a Year – 10 June

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

10 June. Ezekiel chapters 35-37

Ezekiel 36:26 is one of the most quoted verses from this book: “A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh”. Its prime meaning is usually taken as being that in future people would no longer live selfishly, and regard Gods commandments as onerous and to be avoided, but would willingly embrace a new and loving relationship with God and welcome his laws as rules for living well.  The context is the restoration of Israel as a nation on its own land, which occupies the rest of this book.

 

Chapter 37 is equally well known for its vision of the dry bones of the dead which God restored to life and breathed his spirit into them.  The promise that God would “open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people” (37:12) could possibly be seen as a belief in reincarnation, but such a belief is not found elsewhere in the Bible, so is much more likely to be a way of saying that Israel would be re-founded as a kingdom. In fact the last section of the chapter makes it clear that this would happen, and that the former division of Israel and Judah would be healed, and they would be one nation again.

 

The Bible in a Year – 9 June

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

9 June. Ezekiel chapters 32-34

Chapter 32 continues the woe against Egypt, but with a new dimension in verses 20-32. Here Ezekiel pictures Sheol (or “the Pit”), the land of the dead – not “hell” as we imagine it but the shady underworld where the spirits of the dead live on.  And the picture is of all the warriors from many nations across many centuries, all cast down unceremoniously into the “uttermost parts of the pit”.  This is apparently as a punishment, all for the same offence: “they spread terror in the land of the living”.  Today’s Islamist terrorists who think they are going to some kind of paradise as glorious martyrs would be better reading this, for their fate will be the same – no glory, only the “shame” of “lying with the uncircumcised” (and by implication not in God’s favour).

 

Chapter 33 contains several important principles. Firstly there is the reminder to Ezekiel (whose mouth is about to be opened to speak his prophecies aloud for the first time) that as a prophet he is like a watchman who is obliged to sound a warning when he sees danger, and will be held to account when he fails to do so.   Then, there is the principle (not obvious in the woes and condemnations that have preceded it) that what matters to God is what people actually do now, and not what they say they will do, or their previous behaviour.  To those who think of God as only punishing sin, it is important to understand this: “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from their ways and live” (33).  At the end of the chapter Ezekiel is told that the people who love to come and hear him speak will in fact mostly not obey the message that he brings – something that all preachers and those who call for change in society are all too aware of.

 

Chapter 34 is one of the key passages of the Old Testament, picturing God as the good shepherd who would look after his sheep.  It is a wonderful picture of a god who cares for each person’s individual needs and wants them to leave in peace. In doing so, though, it is his duty as a shepherd to stop the stronger sheep from bullying and taking advantage of the weaker ones, and to distinguish between sheep and goats.  He also has to step in personally when those whom he has appointed as acting shepherds (the priests and Levites) have failed in their duty and acted selfishly with no care for the sheep. Jesus must have had this passage in mind when he told the parable of the sheep and goats Matthew 25) and also when he described himself as the “good shepherd” (John 10:11) – by implication saying he is taking over control from the religious leaders who had failed their people. No wonder they start to seek to get rid of him after that.

 

The Bible in a Year – 8 June

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

8 June. Ezekiel chapters 26-31

Chapters 26-28 are an extended prophecy against the cities of Tyre and Sidon – the cities of the Phoenecians, long enemies of Israel and differing from them in being a seagoing nation (whereas the Israelites never were known as sailors, and seem to have regarded the sea as inherently evil).  The great sin of the Phoenecians, it seems, was pride.  They had become rich through trading with many other nations, and thought that they were superior to all other peoples, and had no need of God.  Indeed they are charged her with thinking of themselves as gods (28:2-6) – the ultimate sin.  As St Paul famously wrote  “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil” (1 Timothy 6:10). We could think of examples today – for instance those who would “make America great again” when in fact only humility before God, rather than national pride, can truly bring about such an outcome.

 

In chapters 29-31 the Lord’s judgement is turned southwards towards Egypt.  For the sins of idolatry and pride (pictured as claiming that the river Nile which brought fertility to the land was their own creation) they too would be brought low, as Assyria had been.  In fact the land of Egypt was to be made uninhabitable for forty years (29:11), perhaps echoing the forty years in which Israel had been condemned to live in the wilderness after leaving Egypt) and would never become a world power again.  That has indeed come to pass – Egypt which once was the leading culture of the near east for many centuries has never again risen to such prominence.

 

In between these two extended judgements is a short but positive affirmation of the settled future that God had in mind for Israel after dealing with all the other nations around them (28:25-26).  Sometimes a short work of affirmation is all it takes to boost someone’s self-esteem, whereas criticism often has to be repeated at length before it is accepted.

 

The Bible in a Year – 7 June

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

7 June. Ezekiel chapters 24-25

It is easy to forget, reading through this book of prophecies, that since the end of chapter 3 Ezekiel had been silenced by God.  That was in the fifth year of his exile, and it is now the ninth. For four years he has been hearing the voice of God but has had to act out his prophecies like a mime artist.  Only on the day that a messenger would come from Jerusalem bearing news of its final destruction, as his unspoken allegories had predicted, would his mouth be opened so that he could speak again.

There is a parallel in the Bible in the story of Zechariah, a priest who received an angelic message that he would be the father of a prophet called Jehohanan (known to us as John the Baptist).   He too was stricken dumb until the day of the boy’s naming and circumcision ceremony, after his wife had announced that their son would bear that name.   It seems that sometimes, those who are given a revelation from God (whether the good news of the birth of a prophet, or the bad news of the destruction of a city) have to remain silent until the appropriate time.  It is enough to be aware that God is planning something, and best to leave him to it rather than tell everyone.

 

There are times in our own lives when we have to keep secrets, too.  A confidence shared, a commercial secret accidentally seen at work, something overheard on a bus.  There may be a temptation to seek a financial reward or manipulate a relationship with this information, or just to gossip. But St James had strong words to say about our speech: “no one can tame the tongue—a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so” (James 3:8-10).

 

 

The Bible in a Year – 6 June

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

6 June. Ezekiel chapters 21-23

This is where Ezekiel’s prophecies turn really nasty.  In summary, chapter 21 is a pair of prophecies, poetic in form but certainly not pleasant in content, against Judah; 22 a more specific list of the sins of Judah and its leaders; and 23 another allegory (like earlier ones, but even more graphic) of Israel and Judah as prostitutes in their dealings with other nations. In one sense there is nothing new here, it is his consistent message, but now with added sex and violence (in fact if I were to quote some of these verses of the Bible, which probably do not appear in any lectionary for public reading, this blog would be blocked by content filters).

 

Is all this irrelevant to us in 21st century Britain? Unfortunately not.  These words read shockingly just days after a terrorist knife attack in a part of London that I know well: “A sword for great slaughter, it surrounds them; therefore hearts fail and many stumble. … Attack to the right! Engage to the left! – wherever your edge is directed.” (21:14-16)

 

The charge sheet of sins directed against God’s people, which are the cause of the violence of the sword that they are about to experience, includes many failings of our own society. It does not take much paraphrasing of the text of 22:6-12 to read these charges as: dysfunctional families, injustice for immigrants, insufficient support for the poorest in society, sexual violence, a financial system that leads people into debt, and dishonesty in business.  Those charges can certainly be laid against Britain today.

 

But the charges also include a loss of a sense of what is holy (26), a failing that is not mentioned in the secular media and yet is at the root of the problem. There is undoubtedly a connection between the secularisation of society and the breakdown of communities. The word ‘religion’ ultimately means ‘connection’ – connection between people as well as between us and God.

 

Is there any link between these failings in our society and the terrorism that afflicts us?  I would say yes, but not in any simplistic sense.  Our problems, like our sins, are connected increasingly with those of the world as a whole, but that does not mean that the sins of individuals have nothing to do with it. Much of Ezekiel’s prophecies are directed at nations, and the whole sweep of Old Testament history is the story of the rise and fall of kingdoms, yet the previous chapters have made it clear that sin is the fault of individual persons, and God’s judgement is also on them as individuals. This whole question of guilt and punishment is a complex one.

 

What holds it together is a sense that everything that happens, however horrible, is in some way part of God’s plan. But again, this is not to be taken simplistically.  Christianity has no sense of fatalism – “the will of God” does not mean that we have no choice.  On the contrary, none of these prophecies limits the fundamental human freedom to choose good or evil, a choice we see played out in the Bible from beginning to end. There is always a call to repent, always an opportunity to receive God’s forgiveness and love as an individual, always the option of playing a smaller or larger part in the redemption of the world rather than its condemnation.

The Bible in a Year – 5 June

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

5 June. Ezekiel chapters 18-20

A couple of days ago [link] I mentioned that Ezekiel’s message was directed against individual, rather than communal sin. In Chapter 18 that principle is taken further, and the idiom (common in English too) “like mother, like daughter” does not apply when it comes to God’s judgement of individuals.  I am guilty neither for my parents’ sin, nor my children’s.  Nor can I blame them for my own sin or expect them to suffer for it.  The simple and universal principle is, “if you sin you will die.  If you are good you will live”.  Neither is an unchangeable outcome: sinners can repent and live, while even normally good people can commit sins that lead to death.

 

In this sense, “die” and “live” obviously cannot refer to mere physical death, for everyone does die, and one of life’s apparent injustices is that evil people do not necessarily die younger or live less successful lives than holy people.  No, what is meant is spiritual life and death, in the same sense that Jesus later claimed that anyone who believed in him would be “born again”. This means having an acceptable relationship with God in this life, free from guilt and open to his blessings, and which will lead to happiness in the life to come (whatever that may be).

 

After a “lamentation” (song of mourning) in chapter 19, In chapter 20 Ezekiel returns to the principle of each generation being responsible for itself, as he confronts the leaders of the exiles with their nation’s history. It is one of repeatedly wasting God’s promises, missing the opportunities for right and holy living, and turning away to idols.  But time after time, God’s anger against one generation is replaced by his compassion for the next – provided they will do right.  And in this generation to which he speaks, will they do right?  Will they accept the opportunity they are about to be given to return to Jerusalem and live as God’s people were intended to do, starting from scratch?  More importantly, what will our generation here and now do?  And going back to the previous lesson about the responsibility lying with individuals rather than whole communities, what are you or I going to do with the opportunities given to each of us to return to God and live his way? The responsibility is ours.