Given In To Liven’
Text: Ezekiel 37:1-14 and John 9:18-41
Aldersgate UMC
a. Imagine you were the prophet Ezekiel, set down in
midst of dry human bones
i.
Required to pass
through dry bones
ii.
Really gruesome
b. Too much like Night of the Living Dead or
Frankenstein
II.
But this
scripture is not a horror film, it’s metaphorical language for a very real
experience
a. Symbolism suggests people of
b. Context of prophecy is Mesopotamian exile
c. Prophet taken to a plain
i.
suggesting a
battle field
ii.
perhaps calling
to mind the siege that led to
d. Book of Ezekiel spans a time of siege before exile to
the period of exile
i.
this chapter of
the prophecy spoken during the exile
ii.
raises the question: Do people living in exile, separated
from home and land have a future?
e. For those in exile
i.
the temple
destroyed
ii.
transported
miles form
iii.
in their minds
God was back in
iv.
separated from
promised land and home of God, Yahweh was not with them in
f.
even so, prophet
assured God’s people of God’s abiding presence with them
g. Can the power for life override the power for death?
h. God says yes
i.
God has power to
make life happen
III.
Even
though not a horror story, I can “Feel the eerie quality of that walk through
the debris of human failure.”
a. What does God do with our human failures? With our
brokenness?
b. Each week – taken, blessed, broken, given
c. This morning we need to talk about flow
d. Tendency to stay in one place
i.
Only recognizing
blessedness
ii.
Stuck in
brokenness
iii.
Healing comes
through giving
e. Need presence of spirit to sustain us through process
IV.
Seen it
over and over again, people come to new life by being given to others
a. Christopher Reeves
i.
Wanted to die
ii.
Love of family
kept him clinging to life
iii.
Giving himself
for other with paralysis healed him a way we do not usually think of
b. Adrienne
i.
Thought she
would be destroyed by death of her only son
ii.
Community of
faith supported her
iii.
Now she is a
pastor and preacher, helping others facing the same kind of loss that God has
led her though and helped her to heal from
V.
Ezekiel’s
focus is on the power of community to function
a. In the gathered community, we see the power of God’s
homecoming and restoration.
b. Consider how God is made visible in
i.
Support groups
for grief, cancer, mental illness
ii.
When people walk
with each other
c. I’ve read about Native American culture of the plains
Indians where giving gifts to new people was a way of the community
i.
Each gift aided
in the survival of the recipient
ii.
And helps the
community to survive and prosper
iii.
For they ensures
each ones ability to participate
d. The more we give, the more we get back
i.
Monetary
ii.
Time
iii.
Ourselves
1. gift of being
2. to walk with and be with another
VI.
Share
title decided on before discovered rabbinic teaching
a. Bones are dry, very dry,
they have no life, no power left in them How can they live? Will they live?
b. Rabbinic teaching of this text states that when the
bones are dry the suggestion is that they are without the marrow that allows
for life
c. The marrow is replaced according to Jewish teaching
through good deeds
i.
Does it make you
feel good to do a good deed?
ii.
but in text not
just the marrow, good deeds that restore,
d. life also needs the breath of the Spirit
VII.
So many
people stop before being given, block out the breath, the gift of the holy
Spirit
a. For example, blind man’s parents
b. Gospel is continuation of last week’s healing miracle
c. Offending fact – born from birth – leads to
questioning parents
i.
They recognize
the politics of the question
ii.
Choose not to get
involved
iii.
“Yes, isn’t it wonderful! Our son, blind at birth, has now been
healed. He can see! What a miracle!”
iv.
stay dead to
Spirit
v.
no risk, stay
safe
VIII.
But not
the blind man, he receives the gift of the spirit
a. Pharisees’ plan backfires
i.
their demanding questions push him forward in
faith
ii.
the healed man
is more open, he grows
iii.
recognizes Jesus
1. a prophet
2. a man of God
3. then Son of Man
b. How does he get to faith?
i.
Abandoned by
family
ii.
Rejected by
religion
iii.
Excommunicated
from heritage and home
iv.
Jesus seeks him
out, offers possibility of faith
c. Jesus reorients his relationship with knowledge by
raising the question of faith
IX.
When happened
for you? When did you get re-oriented to
knowledge and discover faith? Not when were you baptized or confirmed? When did you finally get it?
a. For me as young mother
i.
God reoriented
my relationship with knowledge by raising question of faith
b. Always admired people of faith
i.
Church always
part of my life, so knew many people
1. Mr. Cecil Brown
2. Dorothy Wilson
3. Miss Covel
4. Allen and Delores Broyles
ii.
But my desire for knowledge and logical
thought got in the way of faith in my life
c. through mystery of child birth, God reoriented my
relationship with knowledge and moved me to faith
i.
believed in God
ii.
J.C.
iii.
H.S.
d. Over years through giving myself to daughters and
spouse, came to know that
i.
God holds me as
God’s beloved child
ii.
God loves me as
a unique human being
iii.
God accepts all
that I offer as more than good enough, even if the world doesn’t
e. And the remarkable thing is that I know
i.
God loves you as
the beloved, as well.
ii.
Right now, God
is sitting beside you, encouraging you to give yourself in this life
iii.
For the marrow
in our bones is renewed and strengthened through the good deeds of giving
ourselves to others
iv.
Through the
breath of God, the Holy Spirit we are given in to liven.’
v.
Amen. So be it.