Readings
for Easter Vigil:
Genesis 7:1-5; 8:6-18; 9:8-13
Exodus 14:10-15:1
Ezekiel 37:1-14
March 26, 2005
The
Rev. Karen Siegfriedt
The Rev. Mary B. Blessing
The Rev. Robert Hansen
St. Jude the Apostle Episcopal Church, Cupertino,
CA
How do we remain hopeful when darkness is all around us? How do we keep our faith "strong" in the face of adversity? How do we remember our past? One of the ways to remain hopeful and faithful is to recall God's saving acts throughout history. The Bible contains the story of God's saving acts. The Bible is actually a love story- a love story between God and God's people. To help us remember this story, the Prayer Book suggests a variety of passages from the Hebrew Scriptures to be read during the Easter Vigil. Tonight, three of these readings will be presented: The Story of the Flood from the book of Genesis, Israel's deliverance at the Red Sea from the book of Exodus, and The Valley of the Dry Bones from the book of Ezekiel. So let us now hear the record of God's saving deeds in history, how God saved his people in ages past; and let us pray that our God will bring each of us to the fullness of redemption.
How many floods have happened in the world since you have been born? Each year, millions of people are affected by thousands of floods that occur worldwide. Our news media reports only the most devastating floods that result in the enormous destruction of property, human life, and other creatures who share this planet with us. A flood is simply a term for too much water in the wrong place. Floods can be caused by hurricanes, by rain over an extended period of time, typhoons, tsunamis, or the bursting of a dam. Whatever the cause of a flood may be, the question is always the same: Why? Why did this happen?
In today's reading from the book of Genesis, we read the well-known mythological story of the great flood. Children know this story as Noah and his ark. This particular flood was so great that it covered an entire area of "the known world" at that time. Geologists say that about 5000 years ago, there was a great flood that destroyed the entire area of the Mesopotamian Valley. Perhaps the biblical authors were referring to this particular flood. However, what is important about this story is not the time, place, or meteorological details. What is important is "the why."
The people of ancient Israel often interpreted unusual or devastating natural events as "acts of God," imposed upon human kind either as a punishment or as a means of getting their attention. This is the interpretation offered in today's biblical account of the flood story. Human beings had become wicked. God wanted to cleanse the earth of such wickedness but did not want to entirely destroy the human race or the animal kingdom. So as the story goes, Noah (who was a righteous man), along with his family and other creatures, were spared destruction from the flood by being sequestered in a boat. This is one theological understanding of floods. Today, most of us have a more scientific understanding of floods and the created order.
Notice however, that this act of divine cleansing, did not wipe out human sin and wickedness. Did you know that one of the first things that happened after Noah and his family got settled was that one of Noah's sons engaged in an act of sexual misconduct? Divine capital punishment did not seem to accomplish much in cleansing the human heart. It certainly didn't work with Noah's generation, it didn't work with Moses' generation, and it doesn't seem to work with our generation either.
The hope underlying capital punishment of course, is that it will deter others from doing wrong, but it has a notoriously poor tract record! Perhaps that is why God put that rainbow in the sky after the flood. God knew he was in for the long haul. There is another interpretation of the Flood Story that goes beyond the destructive aspects of rains and floods. Notice that in this flood story, there is only a minimal description of the disaster itself. But there is a great deal of description about whom and what is being saved. Attention is centered on salvation rather than on judgment; on what God does to preserve creation and how God has promised never to allow the world to be destroyed by flooding again. So, tonight, we hear the story of the flood as one of God's saving acts in creation.
My understanding of God is, that God does not micromanage the universe. God has given creation freedom. It is this misuse of freedom that causes most of the pain and suffering in the world. God has given humans the freedom to go to war and to destroy, viruses the freedom to infect, cancer cells the freedom to reproduce, the sky the freedom to rain, and the earth- the freedom to tremble and release gases through earthquakes. God has also given us the freedom to love, to serve one another, and to establish a society based on justice, peace, and the dignity of every human being.
In a few moments, you will renew your baptismal covenant with God. As you go out into the world and face the painful consequences of misused freedom, remember your promise to resist evil, destruction, and the sinful desires that draw you from the love of God. Remember that capital punishment does not change the human heart or deter others from bad behavior. While you may not be able to prevent floods, there is so much you can do to relieve human suffering by seeking and serving Christ in all persons, loving our neighbor as ourselves.
Moses and the Israelites flee Pharaoh's army. They are led by God to cross impossible waters. They do not drown, they survive. Against all odds, they survive. They are free. Free from slavery, free from obedience to Pharaoh, free to live a new life. Free to go to a land they call their own. Free to worship the God they call their own.
The Exodus story is central to the religion of Israel. As Christians we find our roots in this story of freedom, freedom to worship One God. Freedom to keep the covenant God first made with Abraham, and renewed with Moses. Freedom to choose a renewal of this covenant formed in the life of Jesus Christ, who points to this One God.
Moses' story of the Exodus, fleeing Pharaoh, is not so much a story of an historical event as it is a story revealing the deep religious belief of the Hebrew people. It is a religious story that asserts a God who is intimately involved in the life of the world. It is the story of those who suffer oppression in any age. It is a story that bears witness to a God who offers safe passage to those who put their trust in Him. It is the story of those who put their hope in seeking freedom, freedom to follow the God of hope, no matter what the cost.
Perhaps you know people who have fled a life of oppression, who found freedom and new life in a new land. You do not have to look very far to find such people. They are our neighbors, they are our friends, they are our family.
Just across the street at De Anza College, some of the "Lost Boys of Sudan" found freedom right here in Santa Clara County. Do you know the story of the "Lost Boys of Sudan"? Relief workers in Africa named them "Lost Boys" after Peter Pan's lost boys, who clung together to avoid a hostile adult world. In the late 1980's in their native Sudan, Africa, these boys, many Anglicans, were out in fields herding cattle when Muslim government armies attacked their villages, killing their parents, and stealing their sisters.
An estimated 80,000 orphaned boys from age 7-12 were left to fight or flee. They banned together as best they could and fled first to Ethiopia--traveling hundreds of miles on foot across desserts, many starving to death, or dying in the sub-Saharan heat, or killed by wild animals in the wilderness. Those who made it to Ethiopia fled back to Sudan when Ethiopia's civil war put them in danger. After only a few months back in Sudan they had to flee again, finally settling south in Kenya for refuge. All the while, they were chased by government led armies, shooting, and threatening them.
At one point, as they reached the River Gilo, they had to make a choice: to attempt to swim across the treacherous river filled with crocodiles, or suffer death or enslavement at the hands of the military. Says one boy, Daniel, "Hundreds of boys were on the banks of an overflowing river, crying. They needed help, but there was nobody to help." Daniel saw the river's current suck one friend under water to his death, while 2 other friends were "cut to pieces" by a crocodile that pulled their bodies below "water filled with blood." Hit in the foot by a militia bullet, he knew that to retreat would be sudden death.
By some miracle, or by the grace of God's inner guidance, Daniel and thousands more, made the choice to risk the river and made it safely to the other side. Of the original 80,000 boys, only about 40,000 made it safely to refugee camps. Some of these were chosen to come to the United States and other countries, where thousands of these "lost boys" found freedom. Freedom to attend universities, freedom to worship their God, freedom to find new life in a new land, as Moses found freedom in a new land.
So, here is this visionary priest and prophet, Ezekiel, whose ministry took place mostly in Babylon from about 593 to 571 B.C.E., among the deported and exiled Israelites. There is some learned thought, though, that he stayed on in Palestine and preached there until the fall of Jerusalem in 587. The name Ezekiel means "God is strong," but he must have been disheartened is he watched the Israelites be overcome and exiled. But, somehow, he heard the Lord's promise: "I will put my Spirit within you and you will come to life, and I will place you on your own land. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken and done it,' declares the Lord" (Ez. 37:14).
Ezekiel's teaching centers on inner conversion: men must achieve a new heart and a new spirit, or rather, God will bestow 'another', a 'new' heart, and infuse a 'new' spirit. Ezekiel is getting pretty near to the theology of grace later developed by St. John and St. Paul. In this vision we just heard read (are about to hear read) Ezekiel is placed in this dry, dusty valley. No life or hope resided in that desolate place. Yet the Spirit of the Lord had breathed life into those bones, and now before Ezekiel stood an army of men. They were alive! In this valley of death, the Lord brought life, and through this miracle of the Lord's power, Ezekiel understood that the Lord had great plans for the nation of Judah.
Hope was rare during this era of Judah's history. Ezekiel himself must have felt as desolate and useless as the piles of bones that had lain before him in his vision. Babylon had invaded and conquered the Holy City of Jerusalem, almost destroying the nation of Yahweh. The strategy of the Babylonian army was simple and brilliant: deport and scatter the conquered peoples so that there could be no regrouping or retaliation. Communities were torn asunder, families were separated, and even the temple was destroyed.
As Ezekiel sat on the banks of the Chebar River in Babylon, he must have pondered God's will for Judah and when, in that vision, when God brought Ezekiel to the valley, the miracle of life was before him. Where there were only bones, there was now flesh. And in those restored, silent bodies, the Lord breathed life. He could do the same with Judah. He would take the spiritually dead, scattered nation and, by His might, bring it back to life. And, here we are in our valley, our Silicon Valley. This too can be, for some, a dry and dusty place that can sap the life from bodies. There are some who may find themselves feeling disappointed, depressed, desperate, disheartened, disillusioned, or even feeling as if parts of them are dead. Their valley of dry bones may represent a great loss: a failed relationship, an illness that consumes them, or a circumstance which is beyond their control. Trials will come throughout their life which seem impossible to overcome. But Jesus said, "In the world you have tribulation, but courage; I have overcome the world' (John 16:33).
There is life in the valley. The same God who breathed life into the old, dry bones sustains us today. He is able to infuse us with new life and hope. He is able to make a new creation out of us and restore hopes and dreams. He is able to take our valleys of pain and defeat and fill them with victory. To be mighty in spirit is not to live a perfect, trial-free life. It is to face our trials with the knowledge that the Lord is mighty to save and able to bring life where there was only death.
Ezekiel was astounded by his miraculous vision, and he believed the Lord would do as He promised. When we're in the valley, hope may seem far away. But God is there for us, and God can
| Updated 4/11/05 |
|