Living Into
Vision
Text: Ezekiel
37:1-14 and John 11:1-45
Aldersgate
1) Do we need a new vision?
a) I’ve been hearing a lot about vision recently
i)
The political
pundits are talking about vision
ii)
A company who just fired
iii) So not surprised I received email inviting me to a
workshop training clergy to be a visionary leader
(1) Go off for four days
(a) at resort some where in
(b) and help me come up with a vision for my church
(2) tempted to go so I can find out how I’m supposed
(a) to convince you that I’m on the fast track with God
(b) and am the only one can decide God’s vision for this
congregation
(3) some of our lay leaders happy to know that I’m not
going off on retreat to discern a new vision for this congregation
b) Last spring, we chose a different way to discern an
expression of God’s vision for Aldersgate
i)
Our vision: a beacon of God’s love radiating faith, hope, and joy …
everywhere!
ii)
Came out of a process
(1) Led by our lay leaders and council chair
(a) Invited input from congregation
(i) Through survey
(ii) One to ones
(iii) And small group discussion
(iv) Also included silent reflection as way of listening
to God
(2) This year’s Lenten study has helped me to see that
living into this vision is possible as we agree to live as disciples of Christ
(a) Through acts of compassion
(i) Feeding people
(ii) Visiting people who feel alone
(iii) Sharing with the poor
(b) And acts of justice
(i) Speaking out for legal rights for all people
(ii) Lifting up the needs of children who cannot advocate
for themselves
(c) acts of devotion
(i) prayer
(ii) home Bible study
(iii) personal reflection
(d) acts of worship
(i) public worship
(ii) preaching
(iii) receiving Holy communion
(3) We seek to radiate faith, hope, and joy here on
Sunday mornings, during the week, and out in our community and world
c)
Being aware of this current cultural focus on vision
led me to think about visionaries in God’s world as revealed in the Biblical
narrative
i)
in that world
the closest thing to a
ii)
and the visionaries are the prophet
iii) and they are usually trying to get the
d) I understand why we’re hearing this focus on vision
i)
Some times I get
discouraged by my personal life
(1) I’m concerned about my mom whose husband just died
and need to move out of her home of 30 years
(2) I worry about my kids and grand children
(3) I know my life is not perfect
(4) Is yours?
(5) Are you hopeful that your life will get better?
(6) Or do you need an infusion of vision and hope?
ii)
More often I get discouraged by national and global
news
(1) It seems our country is in trouble because of our
reliance on credit
(a) in a simplistic way I think that’s what the sub-prime
mortgage crisis is all about
(b) I know it’s more complicated
(c) But isn’t really about an over-reliance on credit
(2) The
(a) Seems to be never ending
(b) It’s consuming a lot of our country’s resources
(i) human life
(ii) dollars that could be used to address other problems
(iii) and we’re in that war because the world is far from
perfect
(c) I wish I had better news to talk about in terms of
our world situation
(i) But this reality is what we face in our daily lives
(ii) people through out the world struggle just to survive
iii) Maybe we all need a new vision?
e) The prophet Ezekiel offers a new vision
i)
These verses
(1) read by ______
(2) written to Jews trapped in Babylonian exile
(a) Far from home
(b) Feeling helpless
(c) And hopeless
(d) They were lost in a world they did not understand
ii)
They felt and acted like the dry bones
(1) They were very dry
(2) dried up and unable to live
(3) They had nothing of the power of life in them
(4) Is there a future for those who live and feel dead
iii) When we put Ezekiel’s vision in context
(1) Realize that it is not some magical reconstituting of
bones with flesh and sinew
(2) This is a metaphor for the way in which God breathes
new life into human beings
(a) This is not about a night of the living dead
(b) The “breath” that Ezekiel is told to prophecy to is
God’s Spirit
(c) It is a vision of the future when the people of God
will
(i) Be led by God
(ii) And return to their home
(d) it is a vision that brings hope, change, and
life
f)
Sometimes I feel
like those dry bones in that valley
i)
Looking for life
ii)
Seeking hope for the future
iii) When I get into these funks I start reading the Bible
and find that God offers a vision
(1) A world where the least are cared for
(a) Bible refers to widows, orphans, and the poor as “the
least of these”
(i) They had no power in the ancient world’s structure
(ii) So I think about those who have no power in our world
and reach out to them
(b) The Bible also teaches about hospitality to strangers
(i) Two reasons why I’m getting to know recent
immigrants, some of whom may be undocumented
1.
they have no power
2.
and they are strangers in a foreign land
(2) God offers a vision in scripture of a time where
“justice will roll down like water and righteousness (right-living) like an
ever-flowing stream”
(a) These words give me hope
(b) I long for that future
2) I’ve kind of been in one of those funks this past
week because season of Lent focuses our thoughts
a) on reality of human sin
i)
Would like to
avoid this word, sin
ii)
Thinking about greed, anger, violence, lethargy is
not encouraging
(1) This week in planning for services
(a) at
(b) this service
(c) and Wed. evening
(2) Began to wonder if talking too much about sin
(a) Yet its there
(i) If we do not talk about and name it
(ii) Then live in denial
(b) Sin is a part of our lives and leads to many of the
problems that we face
(i) Personally
(ii) Nationally
(iii) And globally
b) and (Sin reminds us) of our inability to enact God’s
vision of justice
i)
Lent also
focuses on our human inability to save ourselves from the reality of our sin
ii)
How can we alter the situation of our lives so that
it proves less devastating
iii) Sometimes feel hopeless to bring life into these
situations
(1) Will I ever change
(2) Will the world ever escape the grasp that sin has on
us
(a) Can these bones live, God asks
(b) “Only you know” the prophet answers
iv) Only God through grace can help
3) The good news lesson of Lazarus’ raising is a second
story of new life from death
a) Reflects the Ezekiel passage and calls into question
our definition of life and death
b) There is not much rejoicing in Lazarus’ raising
i)
Jesus has to
tell the people to go and remove his grave clothes
ii)
Yes some believed
(1) But no rejoicing
(2) and cheering for this marvelous feet
iii) And others went off to Pharisees
(1) Story led to calling of a council
(2) And Caiphas’ words,
(a) “Don’t you know anything? Can’t you see that it’s to our advantage that
the one man dies for the people rather than a whole nation be
destroyed?”
(b) unknowingly Caiphas
prophesied what was to happen
(c) and the crucifixion was set in motion
c)
John’s words telling the story of Lazarus’ raising
look forward to the death and raising of Jesus
i)
introduction of
Mary
(1) tells us that this passage was written down after
Jesus death
(2) but more important reminds that after Lazarus’
raising
(3) Mary anointed Jesus in preparation for his death
ii)
Jesus’ question “Where have you laid him?” reflected
in Mary’s words at Jesus’ tomb.
(1) First, she says “we do not know where they have laid
him.”
(2) More personally “I do not know where they have laid
him.”
d)
i)
Jesus offers new
life from death that is available to us right now
ii)
It is possible only because of God’s grace being
released into the world through his crucifixion
(1) We ought to be rejoicing
(2) That’s why we call it Good Friday
iii) this new life is not just something that happens when
we die
iv) it happens the moment we turn our lives over to God
v)
God raises up new creations in us
(1) We do not deserve this
(2) We have not earned this
(3) God does it because God loves you and has a vision
for your life.
(4) We can be these new creations
(5) We can lead lives that have less sin
(6) We can live into God’s grace and God’s vision for our
lives!
(7) Amen
(a) Is our prayer to God
(b) May it be so!
(c) Amen!