Sermon Ezekiel 37:1-14 What Will God Do?

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Presbyterian Churches
Sermon Ezekiel 37:1-14 What Will God Do?
April 10, 2011

So far this Lent we have been on a journey from slavery to promise. We have seen that God is there with us whenever we hit the potholes along the way. We have also seen that if we honestly confess our sins and turn to God, God will forgive us and we will never lose God's love. Today we will see that sometimes there are deep chasms on the side of the road from slavery to sin to promised blessings, and we can literally lose our lives if we fall down one of these. But remarkably God will be there to put us back together again when we do fall. Let's pray.

“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)
Ezekiel 37:1-14 NRS Ezekiel 37:1 The hand of the LORD came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. 3 He said to me, "Mortal, can these bones live?" I answered, "O Lord GOD, you know." 4 Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. 5 Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. 6 I will lay sinews on 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." 7 So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. 8 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. 9 Then he said to me, "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." 10 I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude. 11 Then he said to me, "Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, 'Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.' 12 Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. 14 I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken and will act, says the LORD."

A couple of years ago there was a major fire in the San Gabriel mountains just north of Los Angeles. Two experienced firefighters found themselves in a dangerous situation while battling the fire on a narrow mountain road. These mountains are a third higher then the Appalachians to our west. If you drive off one of these mountain road you would plunge thousands of feet. The firefighters took refuge in their truck and then attempted to back down one of these roads. In the smoke and confusion they drove off the road and plunged to their deaths.

This image of falling into a fiery place is the image we have of hell. This past week I have been thinking a lot about hell. This is something that I do not recommend. Thinking about hell is a terribly depressing thing to do. But I got thinking about hell while I was visiting some of our shut ins at a nursing home in Salisbury. I was walking out of a room when a woman from across the hall asked me if I was Luella's son. I said “no, I am her pastor.” And immediately she wanted to talk with me. It wasn't really a conversation. It was more like a warning. She asked me if I had ever read the book 23 Minutes in Hell. I admitted that I had not read it even though an elder had handed me a copy months ago and I just let it sit on the table all that time. I didn't really want to read about hell. She told me that I had too because it was important for my soul. So I went home and read it and began thinking about hell.

This book is a first hand account of an experience someone had of what he thought was hell. I have no doubt that he truly experienced this. It seems like a revelation from God warning us to repent. And God certainly could reveal hell to us in this way if God wanted too. But to see if it is of the Holy Spirit or not the test is always: How consistent is it with scripture? So, let's look at what the Bible says about hell.

The Hebrew of the Old Testament has a word that refers to the dark, mysterious place people
go to when they die. It means grave or pit. That word is “Sheol” or the Greek equivalent “Hades”. Jesus used another Hebrew word that people in the first century would have understood. That word is “Gehenna”. There was an actual Gehenna, or Henna Valley, near Jerusalem in Jesus' time. It was the garbage dump. Fires burned there continuously. Dead animals would be taken there. The poor people who could not afford a proper burial would be taken there. Anything you didn't want any more would go to Gehenna.

Remember that God created us, and God blesses us richly so that we can be a blessing for others. But the tragedy of humanity is that some of us choose to reject these blessings. God loves us dearly. But for those who turn their back on God it means to live an unblessed life which is like living in a place like Gehenna. Jesus warned us that disobedience of God's will shall lead us into this awful place.

Hell could be experienced on earth. We could live in our own Gehennas. It is the consequence of sinful behavior, our own or someone else's. We lose the blessings God has already given us. Think of people addicted to drugs and alcohol. Consider women who have been beaten and sexually abused by their fathers and husbands. And what must if be like to raise children with severe disabilities. Hell is a reality for many.

And what about those whose evil works go unpunished in their lifetime? What about the Hitler's of this world who died without ever receiving the punishment due. The church has always taught that God's justice requires that the evil done here on earth that goes unpunished must be punished in the afterlife. So we are all warned that disobedience today can lead to hell tomorrow.

So who goes to hell? Wouldn't we all like to know. What we do know it that our souls: our thoughts and dreams, our beliefs and memories, our talents and skills are all preserved by God until the day of resurrection when our souls will be reunited with our bodies in God's new creation. Some believe that our souls will sleep through this intermediate stage not conscious of what is happening around them. Others believe that God loves us so much that all of our souls will enjoy the bliss of heaven. But most believe that our souls will be conscious during this time experiencing the reality around them, and God's love is such that some must endure the fires of hell as a refining fire.

Rob Bell, the pastor of Mars Hill Church in Grand Rapids Michigan has written a controversial book about who goes to hell. He criticizes churches that tell people that God will send them to hell if they don't believe what that church believes. Picture this conversation. A couple of Christians have entered the home of a non-believer. They tell this person about a loving God who created all there is. They talk about God's blessings. But then they say something like this: “If you don't believe as we do and ten minutes from now you die then our God will torment you in hell for eternity.” What would you think about a God like that? Does God really save just the few who happen to join the right church and have the right beliefs and then condemn all the others to hell? That's what many churches believe. But Bell criticizes this because it distorts our view of a loving and compassionate God who blesses us richly and wants, really wants, all of us in heaven.

Commenting on Bell's book, Dr Richard Mouw, President of Fuller Seminary, talked about something he calls “generous orthodoxy”. He said that this is where we ask the question: “Is God stingy or generous concerning entrance into heaven?” To answer this question Mouw suggests that we apply two principles from our Reformed tradition. The first Reformed principle is that people who disagree with each other about theology can both go to heaven. So if I believe that infants should be baptized, and the Baptist pastor down the street believes that only mature believers should be baptized, even though we disagree with each other we can both go to heaven. So just because we disagree with how someone else believes in Jesus that is not a reason to conclude that that other person is going to hell. The second Reformed principle is that there will be a significant amount of mystery concerning who gets into heaven and who goes to hell. We have to remember that God's blessings are not necessarily shut off for those we think should lose them. We don't really know who God allows in heaven and who goes to hell. So we must reserve judgment about who is or is not going to hell and let God decide.

So how does God deal with those who go to hell. We know that the people of Sodom and Gomorrah certainly went to hell. Sin was rampant in those cities and God's punishment was warranted. Sodom and Gomorrah have been used as examples for thousands of years to show people that God will act swiftly and decisively. But listen to what the Prophet Ezekiel heard from God concerning Sodom and Gomorrah. “I will restore their fortunes, the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters” (Ezekiel 16:53), and “ As for your sisters, Sodom and her daughters shall return to their former state (Ezekiel 16:55). So we see that our God does not punish us forever. Forgiveness is always offered through salvation in Jesus Christ.

And this brings us to today's scripture from Ezekiel. In it we see the true end of humanity. Yes when we dies our bodies with go back to dust and our souls will experience an intermediate state of either heaven or hell. Eventually our souls will be reunited with our resurrected bodies in God's new creation here on earth. Resurrection, not hell, is what we celebrate at Easter. Listen to these words of God spoken to the prophet Ezekiel:

Ezekiel 36:22-28 2 Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. 23 I will sanctify my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them; and the nations shall know that I am the LORD, says the Lord GOD, when through you I display my holiness before their eyes. 24 I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the countries, and bring you into your own land. 25 I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances. 28 Then you shall live in the land that I gave to your ancestors; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.

Thanks be to God. Amen.