Monday, August 6, 2018

Sermon Series - Dreams - Ezekiel 1


            There is a saying:  Without vision, the people perish.  This saying was an important part of my early youth and young adulthood in connection with the ministry and mission of my home church.  Each summer, we would journey up to rural Maine and would work on housing for low-income families.  It is very much like the Appalachian Service Project that many of our local churches participate in, and perhaps a possible mission trip in our future. 
            Without vision, the people perish.  Without dreams, without hope, without the potential for a better future what would give people meaning as they look into tomorrow?  Although I am not an expert on this, people appear to be unique in that we are able to think about tomorrow, to think about next week and next year, to think about how to take care of ourselves to ensure our survival in years ahead.  Other intelligent creatures, such as dolphins and elephants, don’t have a retirement plan.  They take each day as it comes, living within their community, seeking food and companionship.  They definitely understand fight or flight, knowing when danger is at hand and working together to protect each other especially their young. 
            Over the course of human history, people have learned that they need to think about the future, that the need to plan for the changing seasons, that they need to store food and create clothing and shelter to protect them from the elements.  And somewhere along the way, people also developed an understanding that as they think about the present and the future, as they live together in family units and greater community, that a presence greater than themselves is also involved in their lives.  Life became more than just food, family, sleep, but a sense of soul, a sense of a spiritualness to life, a sense of purpose that people are part of a divine plan, a sacred journey. 
            And so we have these unique stories within our scriptures, these dreams and visions of God speaking to humans through images embedded with deep meaning.  Dreams guiding people into a future of promise, of love, of healthy and whole community.  From Jacob’s dream of the ladder, to Joseph’s dream of greatness, to Daniel’s dream of future kingdoms, each dream happens in a specific time and place and marks a significant transition in the life of God’s people.   Jacob’s dream gives him the deep understanding that God is present with him, awakening him to the sense that he has a soul, that there is a sacred quality to life, and that his future offspring are a part of God’s plan for humanity.  Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel’s dream mark a transition in the life of the Hebrew people.  They are in exile, perhaps feeling abandoned by God, but through these dreams God sends a vision, a meaning, a purpose for God’s people to stay strong that if they are able to endure, for kingdoms later, their offspring will be a part of God’s eternal kingdom. 
Imagine, having to live into a dream that is not for you but for your great-great-great grandchildren.  That’s really tough for us to imagine in today’s world of instant gratification.  Maybe, just maybe I could engage in Pharaoh’s dream, seven years of abundance and seven years of famine.   Fourteen years is not so overwhelming as potentially four hundred years to hold onto hope, and at least seven of those fourteen years are going to be good.  Maybe that is part of the crisis churches are going through today, people have lost the sense of where we fit into God’s plan.  Where are we in the grand scheme of things?  What dream are we living into?  Do we feel like the seven years of scarcity, that a famine is in our land, and we are trying to wait it out until better days arrive?  Or are we like the people in Daniel’s time where the just is no hope for us but perhaps the future generations will be a part of God’s grace? 
So, enter in Ezekiel’s dream.  Ezekiel lives in the time of exile as well.  The great Temple in Jerusalem has been destroyed.  God’s home, God’s dwelling place is in ruins.  What must that have felt like for the faithful people.  The pain, the loss, the sense of spiritual death, the destruction of hope.  What kind of future would they have and where was their God, was God dead too?  People do not do well in exile.  People do not do well when their belief system is destroyed.  People do not do well when they are forced to live within a new culture.  Unfortunately, this has happened over and over and over again through human history.   Here in our own country, we are still trying to sort through the destruction placed upon the Native American people and the impact that slavery has had upon our nation. 
And so Ezekiel has this dream, a dream of heavenly nature.  His dream is every bit as descriptive and symbolic as Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel, with winged creatures each with four faces, faces of God’s creation: human, eagle, lion, and ox.  From the birds of the sky, to the domesticated animals for farming to the wild animals of hunting, appearing together in one heavenly being.  A dream filled with a wild storm of wind and lightning and fire, makes it almost sounds like Pentecost.  And then there is the appearance of the wheels, a wheel within a wheel, Ezekiel saw a wheel way up in the middle of the air.  Now in several cultures, the sun god rode a chariot across the sky each day, was Ezekiel connecting the sun god of the Babylonian people into his dream?  I’m not sure.  But whatever his vision, he saw a heavenly being sitting on a thrown, being honored and worshipped by the winged creatures.  Has Ezekiel had a glimpse of heaven? 
Ezekiel’s role as a prophet during exile is to keep the hope alive.  It is his job, his vocation, his calling to remind God’s people that God has not abandoned them, that just because the earthly Temple where God dwells is destroyed, God is not dead.  God has a heavenly Temple, a heavenly presence and God will continue to be present in the lives of God’s people.  In times of great distress, when earthly hope seems to be lost, people will seek the promise of a heavenly life, an eternal life, a life where God reigns.  Our scriptures are scattered with these promises that no longer shall there be tears, or loss or grief, that a time will come when God’s peace reigns. 
I sometimes wonder if that is the role of the church in today’s world, to be like Ezekiel the prophet, to keep the hope alive, to remind the world that God is not dead but still very much a part of our lives or this world and that God still has a purpose for us.   Just like people in exile, we live in a day and age where so many people have lost their vision and are in one way or another perishing.  This happens though addictions – drugs, alcohol, gambling, eating, and even with our phones.  People are connected to each other and yet feeling extremely lonely.  Suicide rates are up.  As we saw in Philadelphia, homeless people are often ignored and treated as if they are not anyone’s problem but their own.  Mental illness struggles can bring people into a stage of lost hope, as well as tragedies within one’s life.  So many people are looking out into this world and wondering where is God?  And God has blessed the world, blessed communities with the church, with faithful people still holding onto hope and love and forgiveness and grace, we are called to be the voice of the prophet the voice of hope for the future the voice of God to the people. 
And yes, even us, even if we feel lost and lonely and are asking where is God in all of this, even us, we are called to dream.  We are called to embrace the sacred and come together and create a vision for the future, a dream of God’s love to be born in this place.  We are called to look around our community, to listen to the places of hurt, and respond with a vision, a dream, a purpose for how God is calling us to connect to those places of hurt and loss.  And when it feels overwhelming or when we feel we don’t have the energy or insight to move forward, God meets us and reminds us that we are loved and feeds us through the sacrament of communion.   As we break bread and share the cup, we are reminded that God has never abandoned God’s people, that sacred dreams have moved God’s people forward in a new direction and that we too are called into the story of dreams, of God immersed futures, of God’s current presence here in our lives.  That we are fed to continue the story, to dream new dreams, to remind others that God and the church are still relevant in the world today. 

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