I have been reading “Ask Yourself This” by Wendy Craig-Purcell. And in here she asks a simple question:
“What do you know for sure? Not what have you been told to believe, but what do you truly believe?”
Tag: breath of life
Meditation: Romans 6: 6-7, 14
We need to remember that each day we are “born anew”, we die to sin and rise to Christ in us, the hope of glory.
Because we are shown grace and mercy, we have the possibility of dying to whatever holds us back, and rising again renewed and full of life and light.
Matthew 5: 13-15
13 You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its savor, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. 14 You are the light of theworld. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a basket. Instead, they set it on a lampstand, and it gives light to everyone in the house
But until we actually recognize that living in the Presence of our Creator actually means shining forth every day as light in this world, we are only surviving, instead of thriving.
Sermon: Dry Bones
READINGS:
- Ezekiel 37: 1-14 – The Valley of Bones
- John 11: 1-45 – Lazarus
So, this morning we’ve heard the reading from Ezekiel: the Valley of Bones, and we’ve also heard the story of the raising of Lazarus. Given that they were long readings, my sermon this morning is going to be adequately short, because I know we don’t want a repeat of last week’s service where we kept you here for an extra half hour!
I am going to have a quick look at the Valley of Bones, which we are presented with in Ezekiel. Now, when you read Ezekiel, you don’t so much read it, as you do see it, it’s filled with imagery, like the song: “Ezekiel saw the wheel, way up in the middle of the air”? You know – that’s where the UFO people get their Biblical foundation for UFO’: the wheel in Ezekiel is said to be a UFO.
That aside, God was always telling Ezekiel to do really bizarre things, and the valley of the bones is one of those cases.
So, many sermons have been written the Valley of the Bones, using it to talk about Church revival, vision, purpose and passion ; and many more sermons regarding broken dreams, promises, relationships and reviving those broken parts of our lives! But this morning, I don’t want to illustrate or tell you which one to apply it to. I only want to give you some very basic lessons in how to apply it:
- First and foremost: It all starts with God, not us.
“The hand of the Lord was upon me, and He brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones.”
While I realise that the analogy is often made about our lives or our Church being a valley full of dry bones, there are special moments when God takes us to have a look at this and wants us to see if as such. And there’s a moment for God to act upon it, and if we try to do this in our own time and by our own strength, it’s very unlikely to work.
There’s an importance to listening and being open to the timing and vision that God has, not our own desperation of wanting to make things change. Are you open to God’s time and being where God wants you to be?
- Secondly: God gives Ezekiel a promise to believe in:
“Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.“
Have you had a promise from God in your life that you haven’t seen happen yet? Has God given you a vision of what God plans to do, that you’ve been waiting to see come into fruition and maybe you are tired of waiting? This is not a culture and a world where we understand “wait” very well. We want it, and we want it now, no matter what piece of our life it is. For us to be able to hang onto a promise of God in the tough times takes trust, or faith if you prefer. There are many promises and declarations throughout the Bible that we don’t even have to wait for new ones.
- Thirdly, there’s opening our mouths and declaring what we’ve been promised – the same way there is obedience in doing:
“So I prophesied as I had been commanded…”
It’s no good to just keep silent: how many of you have seen the studies with water or plants and the experiments with the power of words? What are you saying in your life?
- Then, we start to see results, but sometimes it’s not a full result, and there’s still more to be done – we can’t stop half way through.
“… and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them, but there was no breath in them.”
So, I had this promise from God, and I started declaring it as I believed I was supposed to, and God raised an army from a valley of dried bones, but there’s no life in it… Maybe the jobs not done yet!
- So, Ezekiel looks back to God, and God gives him new instructions:
“Then He said to me, “Prophesy…”
Do it again, but differently this time!
We live in a society where we are used to quick results, where satisfaction is immediate – where the internet should be at least 6 GB otherwise we have to wait more than 1 second for the browser to open and that’s just too long! But many times, in life, finding your passion or your vision – re-finding your passion when you’ve lost your way, when you’re burnt out and lackluster, takes much longer than just a moment! Often, there are many steps in the process.
- And remember to breathe!
“Prophesy to the breath. Prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.”
Most of you know, that the Hebrew word “rauch” refers to the “breath”, but also refers to “wind” and is another word for “spirit”. This one word has all these beautiful meanings that are all one and the same: It was the ruach of God that hovered over the waters at creation. It was the ruach of God that came into Adam and gave that clay life. It was the ruachof God that blew like a mighty wind at Pentecost. And it’s the ruach of God that Ezekiel asks to come and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.
When you breathe, remember you are breathing in the breath of God, his life-giving breath. The breeze that comes through these church windows: that’s the Spirit of God reaching out to touch you. That as you take a breath and you see wind, or you sense the Spirit within you, it’s all the same thing. How different our lives might be if we were conscious of breathing God in and out when we were outside.
For existence to become life, we need the breath of life – the Spirit to fill us. It’s not enough for us to have bones, or to build a skeleton from those bones. It’s not enough to cover those bones with sinew and muscles and skin! We need the breath of God that animates us, that causes us to truly live, and not just to be connected bones.
If we are not a Spirit-filled church, it’s not enough to have a clear vision, purpose and passion. We can have a structured leadership and a great organization, we can have ministries and teams that are all pulling together and working perfectly – but without the breath of God, we still won’t be able to get anything done.
FINAL ASIDE:
I want to leave you with this final thought regarding the breath of life (it’s from a sermon by Barbara Brown Taylor):
“If you have studied earth science, then you know that our gorgeous blue-green planet is wrapped in a protective veil that we call the atmosphere, which separates the air we breathe from the cold vacuum of outer space. Beneath this veil is all the air that ever was. No cosmic planet-cleaning company comes along every hundred years or so to suck out all the old air and pump in some new. The same ancient air just keeps recirculating. Which means that every time any of us breathes, we breathe stardust left over from the creation of the earth. We breathe brontosaurus breath and pterodactyl breath. We breathe air that has circulated through the rain forests of Kenya, and air that has turned yellow with sulphur over Mexico City. We breathe the same air that Plato breathed, and Mozart and Michelangelo, not to mention Hitler [or Stalin or Mao]. Every time we breathe, we take in what was once some baby’s first breath, or some dying person’s last. We take it in, we use it to live, and when we breathe out it carries some of us with it into the next person or tree or blue-tailed skink who uses it to live.”
Sunlight is said to be the best bleach and streetlamps the most effective police officers…
Lectionary Readings:
- Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
- Luke 1:46b-55
- 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-24
- John 1:6-8; 19-28
Growing up here in Panama, I went to Boarding School in Chame. As a child, after playing games or skating on the basketball court, we’d head back to our dorms, taking the shortest way back straight across the soccer field. Pitch dark – although probably only 7.30 or 8.00 p.m. Not something I wanted to do alone!
I remember (probably on more than one occasion), walking back across that field, and my friend Marion would let out a screech or scream and take off running, and I would scream and bolt for the buildings and the lights. In overtaking her I would notice she was doubled over with laughter, but that wouldn’t really sink in until I was safely standing, out of breath, on the porch under the lights. She’d eventually show up, still laughing. I was so predictable: waiting for those unseen snakes or ghouls or scary monsters to grab me out of the dark.
I’m not afraid of the dark, I’m just scared of what might be hiding in it.
Today I want to speak about the LIGHT.
Ever since mankind crawled out of the primordial slime, we’ve cried: “More light.”
Sunlight. Firelight. Candlelight. Torchlight. Neon, incandescent light that banishes the darkness from our caves, homes; lights that illuminate our roads, dangerous intersections and treacherous corners; and even lights that turn on when you open the door scaring the bogey man out from inside our refrigerators. Floodlights for our sports arenas. Tiny flashlights for those books we read under the covers when we’re supposed to be asleep.
Light is so much more than watts and foot-candles. Light is metaphor: knowledge and truth (the age of enlightenment); light is life and growth (photosynthesis, vitamin D); light is energy and force; and light is light.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.
The Pharisees said to him: “Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”
He said “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Make straight the way of the Lord.’”
This is our third week of Advent, our celebration of the birth of Jesus: the way, the truth and the life. The gospel of John starts with these words of Truth:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… Through Him all things were made… In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness…
Notice the connection with Genesis 1?
Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep… And God said, “Let there be light” and there was light. God saw that the light was good…
And to Genesis 3?
The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
I want to start today by quickly reviewing the dichotomy of light versus darkness, in all its metaphors. Take a moment to reflect on these contrasts. What images come to mind as I read these words of Light and Darkness?
Doubt Anxiety Nightmares Despair London winter Dimness Depression Fear Tiredness Lethargy Captivity Blindness Haunted Sickness Grief Sadness Deception Heavy-hearted Addicted Imprisoned Contaminated Hatred Ignorance Consumed Hungry Famine
Faith Peace Courage Energy Dreams Freedom Hope Health Sunshine Sight Brightness Pleasant Contentedness Truth Joy Happiness Light-heartedness Free spirit Pure Love Knowledge Rejuvenated Plenty Satisfied
Light is a force and energy, whereas darkness is merely the absence of this force and energy. So, when the Bible says that God is LIGHT, what are the author’s trying to communicate to us? It doesn’t say that God is LIKE light, or God is “surrounded by” light, or “God has a great big electric generator so He can sit in the spotlight”, it says “God IS light”.
Light is the essence of God – the same way that man is flesh and blood. This light is self-existent, God possesses this power in and of Himself. It has no external source. God is pure light, not diluted or mixed in any way with evil, hatred, untruth, ignorance or hostility. God is light is not a theoretical assertion about the nature of God, but a statement that drives us to the heart of what God is like: God is pure light.
God is the source of all living things. God is truth and enlightenment.
If we briefly look at some of man’s encounters with God in the Bible, we can see a little better this Light and its many meanings.
Think of Moses’ first encounter with God: the burning bush. The bush was on fire, but was not consumed by the flames. God has his full attention – but didn’t have to destroy anything in order to do so.
The children of Israel got a glimpse of the glory of God at Mount Sinai:
under his feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire, clear as the sky itself… but the cloud covered the mountain, and the glory of God looked like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain.
This was all a little much for the children of Israel, especially when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with a radiant face, and they were afraid to come near him. A little like Jesus’ transfiguration on the mountain with Moses and Elijah. A bright cloud enveloped them… and when Peter, James & John heard the voice, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified.
On the other hand, think now of David, and his beautiful psalms. Here we find at least three metaphors:
- Picture God “clothed in garments of light”, symbolising the One who is pure, righteous and holy (there is no dirtiness, nothing to taint or contaminate God).
- God’s revelation through spoken and written word gives light: “Thy Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”; offering moral guidance and direction for how to live.
- Light symbolises also salvation: “God is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”
Or how about Isaiah:
The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the LORD shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory.
Did you ever notice that most of the prophets start with “The word of the Lord came to…”, except for Ezekiel. Have you noticed Ezekiel’s spaceship?
I looked and I saw a windstorm coming out of the north – an immense cloud with flashing lightening and surrounded by brilliant light. The centre of the fire looked like glowing metal, and in the fire was what looked like four living creatures (with faces and wings – each of the four had the face of a man, the face of a lion, the face of an ox and the face of an eagle) – so it didn’t matter which way they were facing, they were always facing forward. The appearance of the living creatures was like burning coals of fire or like torches. Fire moved back and forth among the creatures; it was bright and lightening flashed out of it. The creatures sped back and forth like flashes of lightening.
Spread out above the heads of the living creatures was what looked like an expanse, sparkling like ice, and awesome… Then there came a voice… Above the expanse over their heads was what looked like a throne of sapphire, and high above on the throne was a figure like that of a man. I saw that from what appeared to be his waist up he looked like glowing metal, as if full of fire, and that from there down he looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded him. Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him.
This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. When I saw it, I fell facedown…
I’m somewhat relieved I haven’t had THAT encounter with God! And then sent out to preach against the injustice and evil of man…
And what about Paul? While breathing out murderous threats against the disciples, on the road to Damascus suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him, sending him to the ground. When he got up and opened his eyes, he couldn’t see. And for three days he was blind. Three days to sit in quiet and solitude, and meditate on the meaning of his life. Three days to sit and think about what he’d been shown when he saw the light. Three days to wonder if the light was going to be the last thing he ever saw.
And yet, without light, none of us can see. Our eyes are useless in the pitch dark. Our sense of hearing and smell and taste and touch are unaffected by the darkness – but take away the light, and we are all blind. We need the reflection of light off objects to be able to see them. Light = sight.
You know, and I know, we each need that encounter with the LIGHT.
Some of us will find that light burning within us, but like the burning bush, this light doesn’t consume us. It is the Light that sends us out to rescue those who are prisoners or slaves, whether they are addicts, those imprisoned by poverty, those bound by depression or those just in need of love. This light from within feeds itself and gives us energy and light, but it doesn’t destroy us. It is the light of life! The light of the Spirit! The light of joy and giving! This is the Light that we are called to share with our fellow man. Don’t hide this light under a bushel. We are not to be mirrors of this light – this light is meant to burn inside each of us!
Some of us will fall on our faces, before the purity and power of the LIGHT, and simply worship. And when we walk away, after being in God’s presence you will be radiant, transfigured. Perhaps scary for others to see, but we will be RADIANT.
Some of us need to walk in the light, as David did: the light that guides each footstep and guides our path. We all need the words of truth.
Others will find in the Light that place of safety and security, the salvation that they so desperately need. The light that lifts them out of depression or addiction. The light that sets them free.
Some of us may be in that place where it seems that there is no light from the sun, and then we will hear, as Isaiah did “the LORD will be an everlasting light”.
Others of us will need to see the supernatural, like Ezekiel. That light that takes our breath away – and when it’s done, empowers and emblazons us to stand up and speak out against the injustices in the world. That takes us to fight for the 13 million people in the Horn of Africa that are starving because of the drought; the drive and motivation to face the starving refugees of Somalia; the motivation to stand up in “occupy” and say I disagree with the financial powers that be, “this is wrong”; or whatever message is laid on our hearts regarding the injustices and inequality in this world.
We need that Light that moves us to pray for the family in England of the man who after losing his job went home and shot his wife and daughter and 2 other children and then turned the gun on himself, leaving 2 orphaned children in the hospital to deal with the horror of the future without a father or mother or sister. And yet others will be called to minister directly to the grieving.
Some of us need that jolt of lightening like Paul, that stops us in our tracks, and makes us take time out from our endeavours and goals and plans, and the rat-race we call life, to make us rethink the direction that our life is heading in.
But more than anything, ALL of us need to be plugged into the LIGHT, the energy, the life-force. We are all like stand-alone computers, that until we are plugged in to the electricity, we can’t do anything, and unless we’re connected to the network, there’s a limit to how much information or data we can access. We all need to be plugged in and connected.
We read in first John 1: 5-7
This is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you: God is Light; in Him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with Him, yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus… purifies us from all sin.
I ask each of you to take a moment right now, before we go on with this service, to meditate on what God’s Spirit reveals to you. How are you called to respond this Christmas season?
Some of us will be called, like Isaiah to proclaim:
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because I have been anointed by the LIGHT; the LIGHT has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; To proclaim the year of the LIGHT’s favour… to comfort all who mourn; … to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. For the LIGHT loves justice, and hates robbery and wrongdoing; the LIGHT will faithfully give them their recompense. … I will greatly rejoice in the LIGHT, my whole being shall exult in my God; for the LIGHT has clothed me with the garments of salvation, and covered me with the robe of righteousness… For as the earth brings forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the LIGHT will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.
Others, will, like Mary proclaim:
My soul magnifies the Lord, my LIGHT, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for the LIGHT has looked with favor on the lowliness of this servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me… His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; the LIGHT and TRUTH has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. The Mighty One has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; the LIGHT has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. The Mighty One has helped his servant … in remembrance of His mercy.
And finally, from Paul we are reminded:
Rejoice always; Pray without ceasing; Give thanks in ALL circumstances, knowing that this is the LIGHT’s will for you. Don’t quench or put out the Spirit of Light by allowing darkness to take hold in your life; Do not despise the words of the prophets, but test everything that you are told and hold fast to what is good and true; abstaining from every form of evil. And know that the God of peace Himself will sanctify you entirely; that your spirit and soul will be kept sound and blameless, no matter what happens or how crazy this world gets. Because the one who is call THE LIGHT has called you, and the LIGHT is faithful and true, and will do this.
Divine Presence: Letting the Infinite flow in my life 