Ezekiel 10 & 11 (181112)

HG notes NB no notes for 25th. Listen to Neil and mull over the reading. I’m still hoping to preach on Ez 12/13 and 14-16 before Christmas.

Welcome: What sports were you in at School and were you the first to be picked? Or Films – can you think of any where there’s a sudden twist that you didn’t see coming?

Worship: try Psalm 96

Word: 1. Read 10 & 11. 2. Did the preacher say anything you remembered? 3. What gets you excited about ch10? 4. How many senses does Ezekiel’s vision touch on? 5. Why didn’t I want to unpack the symbolism of the cherubim? 6. Where or how might we catch glimpses of God? 7. Trace the movement (10.3,4, 15, 16, 18, 19, 11.1, 22, 23) 8. What are the cures to any relationship that is slowly growing more distant? Esp a relationship with God? 9. Why do the Exiles think that they’re the losers? (11.2,3 + 11.15 might help). Vs 16& 17 is the sudden twist. 10. What does it mean to have a heart of flesh? 11. How do I get one? How do I keep it?

Works: start to pray about who you could invite to a Christmas service. There’s going to be lots of them! */*/*/*/*/*/*/*/

And the Angel of the Lord said unto them Behold I bring you tidings of great joy which shall be for all people. And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly hosts singing!

Is there any part of you that says What did that look like, sound like, feel like? Luke doesn’t give us enough. Ezekiel gives us too much!

In Ezekiel’s vision - These aren’t angels they’re cherubim, Ezekiel is really keen for you to pick up a sense of the awesome reality of what he saw and how it felt.

You’re hoping that I’m going to explain these creatures and say ah they have 4 faces – lion, bull, eagle, a man’s – so that means a bull for strength and fertility, a lion for authority, an eagle meaning these creatures can see a long way – you’re hoping for some explanation of the symbolic creatures – but I can’t really do that and I don’t think it’s what Ezekiel is worried about , I think he’s just keen to describe what it is that he saw – “under the wings of the cherubim could be seen what looked like human hands” – the detail we have – there’s chatter and banter going on because during this he overhears others referring to this enormous divine wheelchair as the ‘whirling wheels’.

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What these creatures do tell us is that God is so much bigger than merely ‘my God’ - we see a God who loves creating and has created these unbelievably fabulous beings and we know nothing about them!

We need glimpses of glory. We spend so much of our time alone and feeling alone in our worries – we need the Church and home groups and serving on rotas– we need each other – we need to plough on with prayer and bible reading and worship even when it feels tough, we need to look out for little answers to prayer – little moments that say to us: You’re not alone. God is with us.

We don’t tend to get overwhelming visions like Ezekiel, but we do see God at work and we need to make a note of them. It is hugely exciting.

If you can try to step back a bit from this picture of the glory of God – I don’t want you to step back to far – I want you to feel the heat and the visceral heaviness of the glory of God. And I want you to see that it touches the earth, that it is here, that it moves.

Step back a little and we see that at this point the divine throne of God is in , in the temple, the house of God and then we see that it is on the move. Slowly but surely the glory moves away. From the inner court, to the threshold, to the entrance of the east gate and then finally away from the temple and out from the city to the Mount of Olives.

You know those films where you can see something awful happening – a horror movie perhaps – Don’t go in that room! And slowly the person turns the handle and slowly opens the door and the dramatic tension builds And the music builds the tension! Maybe they’ll get murdered who knows!

If you’re a Soap Opera watcher - you will have seen certain marriages, relationships come under strain and he says the wrong thing and she interprets it even worse and now they’re not speaking and now one is sleeping on the downstairs sofa – and you’re watching this and saying IF only you could make up, if only you could forgive, if only you could see that you’re simply damaging your relationship with your husband your wife. It’s obvious to us as we watch the movie. And it’s horrible and it’s sad.

This is what’s going on. The ancient Israelites in Jerusalem (and that phrase is important) they have been taking God for granted for so long, they have ceased to see the beauty and glory of God, they have ceased to be worried about God and what God wants – they have turned their back on God and now they don’t notice God packing up and leaving.

This vision that started out so beautifully is becoming one of those slow motion horror moments. Nooooo Don’t go! And you’re thinking IF I were to see God like that in Barcombe, I would never leave the Church, I’d sleep here and move in! I would give my time and my tithe for a peep of what Ezekiel saw!

What we are seeing in Ezekiel is slow motion form of judgement. When it finally falls it will fall hard and suddenly. But at the moment …. We very often don’t notice when our faith starts to get choked, we drift away, come off some rotas, we’re a bit busy and money is tight, and the bible is really weird anyway and maybe I just want to go ahead and have some me- time – away from God, I want to do what I want to do – and we don’t notice that we have begun to smother our own faith.

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God brings justice on ancient Jerusalem because they have turned their back on God and run after other things to fill their spiritual holes, they have become corrupt and wicked and mean.

They didn’t wake up one morning and think, let’s trying being mean for a change. It just happened slowly. Society drifted away.

St Augustine described Hell as the absence of God. And that’s what we see here. God is leaving.

Where is God going? He is headed East out of Jerusalem – the glory is coming to to where the Exiles are living.

Do you remember being the last to be picked for a team at school? No doubt some of you were Alpha Males and Alpha Females and got to do all the picking, but the rest of us had that awful feeling of being picked last or second to last.

In 596bc there was the first invasion of Jerusalem and lots of people like Daniel and Ezekiel were dragged off into Exile, dragged off as slaves and refugees to live in Babylon. Those people felt that they were picked out for punishment.

The Remnant who stayed in Jerusalem heaved a sigh of relief and said Well that wasn’t so bad at least we didn’t get punished, we’ll carry on as we are. The people who got taken away – they’re the losers, God must not have liked them and so he banished them from His special chosen City and Temple.

Those of us who got to stay well - “the City is a pot and we are the meat in it” – it’s a phrase meaning – we’re now the big cheese! We’re the important chosen ones – God still likes us – not only can we carry on as we were but really we ought to make the most of this moment, capitalise on the injustice, seize land and property if we can.

So during Ezekiel’s vision he see Pelatiah son of die and Ezekielk falls face down and he disagrees with God’s policy and he says Will you destroy the remnant of . We are the losers, those in Jerusalem are the winners – they are the Remnant they are the people who will build the new Jerusalem, the new community of God, they are the hope for the future – those people in Jerusalem. Not us Exiles living far away. We’re the forgotten people, written off.

It’s pretty extreme but I wonder if you know anything of what I’m talking about. Where you feel that life is unfair and you have been left behind and God doesn’t like you and you feel unloved, a loser.

But bless him, Ezekiel still cares for Jerusalem – his blessed home and the beautiful temple – he knows he will never see it again but he still prays for God to bless them. That’s pretty big of Ezekiel.

He cries out ‘Lord will you destroy the remnant? Will destroy the last bits of hope? The few people who still live in Jerusalem?’

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And God says – You don’t get it do you? You think that they are the special chosen ones, that they are the remnant? You are the Remnant, you are the hope, you are the people that I will gather together and bring back here and you will rebuild a new Jerusalem and you will be my people and I will be your God and then you will know that I am the Lord.

This is the most astonishing twist - you’ve seen those films where suddenly the good guy is the bad guy and the bad guy is the good guy. Suddenly the losers are declared the winners.

People with no hope are told that they are the hope for the future. People who feel forgotten find that they are remembered, by God.

This would be a great point to end my sermon. The sudden twist of goodnews.

But God goes one step further. Clearly the old plan isn’t working, God tells you what to do, you do it. That plan doesn’t seem to be working. God says we’re going to try something new. A Reboot, a Restart, I’m going to take away your hearts of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

God is going to help us, change us from within, a heart operation – something that will change our way of thinking , our priorities, what we think life is all about, what we value, how we live, how we love.

It will be called the New Covenant, a new relationship. That’s going to need a Messiah, a Saviour, it’s going to need a whole choir of angels. The people forgotten living in darkness are going to see a great light. And His name is Jesus. Amen.

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