A People in Exile

Ezekiel 11:14-25

I want to begin by saying that this sermon is does not originate with me. It comes from the notes I took a few years ago, when Rev. Chip Freed preached for the cabinet address at the East Ohio Annual Conference. The sermon is fitting, because in light of last week’s sermon, I have been asked why I think that we need to study the exiles and passages like Ezekiel’s Valley of Dry Bones.

Have you ever gone from exaltation to exile? There was a story in the New York Times a few years ago that illustrates this feeling. David Anderson was checking out the full score for Handle’s Messiah. However, an input error occurred, and the library was left with no record of where the music had gone. November came, and with it, many requests for the music. A frantic search was launched, but the music was not found. You can imagine Mr. Anderson’s shock upon returning the music. The head librarian, who was standing at the desk began to yell at the top of her lungs, “The Messiah is here, the Messiah is here. . .” A New York Times writer was at the library and witnessed the event. He wrote, “Everyone looked with great expectancy, but after a few moments, it was back to business as usual.”

The Prophet Ezekiel understood this experience. After the golden age of Israel, the nation was in spiritual decline. The Northern kingdom went into exile, while Judah, under the leadership of young King Josiah, underwent a revival. Ezekiel was a revival priest! Yet as quickly as it came, the revival left. Josiah was killed at the hand of the Egyptians, and after a few years of exaltation, it was back to business as usual. Idols, fruitless tradition, and spiritual decline replaced the religious fervor. Then came the exile at the hands of the armies of Babylon.

Have you ever experienced this journey from exaltation to exile? Maybe it occurred from the church house to the car, or from the weekend into the work week. The exile for the children of Israel was not only exile from a place, but also an exile in spirit. The nation felt defeated: God has left us, we are without hope, and we have lost our very identity. It was more than temporary homesickness, as the psalmist points out in the 137^th psalm, giving us a sense of what was going on: by the rivers of Babylon . . . we sat and wept. We hung up our harps. how could we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?

I think a strong case can be made that we as a church are a people in exile. Oh, I know we aren’t living in a foreign land, but just ponder the possibility with me for a few moments. Walter Brueggemann, the great scholar of the exiles lists six qualities of a people in exile. See if any of these apply.

1. They are a community of honest sadness over the loss of what used-to-be. The glory years are remembered and romanticized. We remember the best of those times and forget most of the bad. Have you ever caught yourself remembering back to the good old days of church? Or maybe for you, it is remembering one particular pastor who you wish were still here. And we say things like, “Oh, those were the days!”

2. They have lost the old family place. They have lost their distinctiveness. Some here today are here because the family church closed. For others, it is a sense of familiarity slipping away--what ever happened to all the old hymns, the old church traditions, even what we used to call Christian morality?

3. People in exile are keenly aware of the power of despair. They wonder if their efforts make any difference at all. Are we moving forward or just spinning our wheels. I was shocked when I read recently of a pastoral councilor when asked about the problem with clergy depression remarked, “What problem. Depression is a normal and expected condition in pastors today.”

4. They question the absence of God. Have you noticed how we conduct ourselves at conference, at meetings, even in our church as though we do not need the presence of God to validate our ministry? If we simply have the right techniques, the proper approach, the appropriate attitudes, a reasonable study, then we can fix it all on our own. I recently talked to a pastor who was brought in to “rebuild” and re-grow a declining church. After talking to him about it, he shared about the techniques, strategies, and human effort that was going to be used, but he never mentioned God. Does God have to show up before we can have church?!? I hope so. . .

5. Blame games, finger pointing, and a great quest to find out who’s at fault emerges in light of the current circumstances. This doesn’t happen in the church, does it? Ask someone why Sunday School is in decline across the United States, and you will hear about busy families, mass media, apathy, impotent programs, hurt feelings, youth sports leagues, and any number of other excuses. That is not to say that any and all of these might not be contributing factors. But we always seem to want to point a finger away from ourselves. The source of the problem must be outside the church, we reason, since we, as the body of Christ, are nearly perfect.

6. There is an intensified preoccupation with self and self-concern. What we need, hope for, and want become the central concerns. God’s will is always secondary. We pray, “Thy Will Be Done,” and then wait to see if it fits our plans. Why is it that people leave a church? Is it because they are concerned with reaching the unchurched in the mission fields, because they see their gifts and graces needed to help a struggling congregation do effective ministry, or because their own personal, ego-based needs have not been met. Do we come to church for us or for God?

So here we find Ezekiel, a disenfranchised temple priest. What good is a priest without a temple? The temple is thousands of miles away, and Ezekiel is feeling worthless. Yet God showed up and declares “I want you to be my prophet to the exiles.” Megan McKenna writes, “Ezekiel was called to generate confidence in a people empties of life and breath fresh air into a people who had been crushed by history.” Oh Please, Bishop, appoint me!

What does God have to say to the exiles?

1. The first incredible word is that God goes with us into exile. God is our sanctuary in exile. Consider the Great Commission -- go into all the world. The last verse of that passage says Lo I am with you ALWAYS even to the end of the age. God does not live in a house of stone, but in the hearts and lives of believers. God joins us in our times of exile and we find that we don’t go to a place to experience God, but in God we find our place.

You see, like Israel, we sometimes think God’s in trouble. God is not in trouble. He doesn’t need our help to change the world. God does not need the vote of our council or PPRC to bless whomever God wants to bless whenever God wants to bless them. God has a lock on the position of Creator of the Universe and Author and Finisher of our faith. . .

Yet God allows us to participate if we are willing. He goes into exile with us, for in exile, we can minister the love of Christ to others who are lost in exile.

2. The second great truth God speaks through Ezekiel to the exiles is that if God is in exile with us, he can show us the way out of it! So don’t be afraid, Joseph, when your brothers stuff you down a well. I am with you. I’ll get you home. And David, when the odds are stacked against you and you have to face a giant with a bit of rag and five stones, don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Daniel, don’t worry about the lion’s roar; Shadrech, Meshach, and Abednego, don’t fret when Nebuchadnezzar throws you into the fiery furnace. . .Paul don’t be disheartened when you get thrown in jail for your preaching. I am with you, and I’ll bring you out! Brothers and sisters in Christ, when you are in the depths of despair, don’t lose hope. The Psalmist wrote “even though I go through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil. . .for you are WITH ME.” God is with you, and He will bring you out!

How does God bring us out? It is not an outward activity, but an inward reality. God said to Ezekiel, I will give you a NEW HEART. Not just how we feel, but who we are. To the Hebrew people, the heart was the very center of your being and who you are. God says I’m going to give you a new heart. The way out isn’t cosmetic surgery. It isn’t a tummy tuck or a facelift -- it’s transplant surgery. God is not interested in just adjusting our activities, God is seeking to adjust our identities. God compares us to a house, and we often think God is just going to make us into a cute little cottage, but the reality is God’s building a palace and he intends to live there himself.

This is the real problem in the church. We want to make minor adjustments and revisions. We want to fix things. If we fix it they will come. Church it isn’t about what we do, but about who WE are. Kirbyjon Caldwell says, the number one reason people don’t come to church is because of those who do! If that’s true, then the only way to get those people in is to allow God to change those we already have. God says I’ll take your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

Our heart of stone is first our inability to let go. For it is not by anything we do that we get this heart of flesh. It is not by any work we do that God transforms us. Rather, to receive this new heart, there is much that must be taken way. God will not take it, though, until we are willing to let it go. The second part of the heart of stone is our lack of passion. What happened to the passion in the church? Are we having a difficult time singing the Lord’s song in a foreign land? One secular writer visited a church where the congregation began the service singing “The Joy of the Lord is my Strength.” The writer’s only comment was, “Somebody needed to notify their faces.” Another story told of a church that had no children. Then a young family joined. Suddenly the services became noisy. So the elders of the church came to the pastor and said, “You need to tell them to keep their kids quiet!” So not wanting to offend the family, the pastor decided to address it in his weekly children’s chat message. Looking at those three small faces, the pastor asked, “Children, why should we be quiet during church?” The youngest looked up and said, “It’s because the people are sleeping.” What has happened to our enthusiasm? The story is told of Tony Campolo going to a meeting in a large city. His meeting was on 80th floor. And as he looked around the elevator, he saw a bunch of businessmen in their three-piece suits, looking like some of our congregations. So he said, “Lets sing.” And here’s the crazy part -- they did. He got off the elevator and was followed off by a famous CEO. Tony looked at him and said, “Are you going to the meeting on this floor?” “No,” the man replied. “My meeting is down a couple of floors. I just wanted to finish the song.” Church, God did the hard part for us through Christ on the cross. We just have to finish the song.

And as we close, I want you to see the results. What happens when we get this new heart? The glory of the Lord ascends from us. That is simply AMAZING. Every other biblical witness shows the glory of the Lord descending from heaven, but when we find the joy of God and allow Him to give us a new heart, then God is here with us. His glory is housed within US!

Friends we may be a people in exile, but with God, we can find our way out. All we need it to allow God to give us a new heart.