What do you see?

13th August 2008: Ezekiel 9:1-11 

Almost one hundred years ago two women died. On this day, in 1910, Florence Nightingale's life ended. On this day, in 1912, Octavia Hill gave up the ghost.

Both of these women had looked at the world as it was in their day, found it lacking, and set about changing things.

Florence had seen suffering people, and had taken to nursing. As her career progressed she saw more and more people suffering and dying. Famously, she went to the Crimea and worked tirelessly in some real hell holes. She spent time and effort investigating why these people were dying. When she could show that over crowding and insanitary conditions were causing more soldiers to die in hospitals than wounds inflicted by enemy action, she invested her efforts into getting hospitals designed differently and introduced professional training for nurses.

Octavia saw poor people with inadequate housing and no green spaces to enjoy. She campaigned about these issues and set up schemes for leasing good quality housing to those who had been living in slums. She was one of the founder members of what became the National Trust, with the aim of securing green spaces for everybody to be able to enjoy, regardless of whether or not they could pay for the privilege.

2,600 years and 1 week ago, a man was in a meeting of the Jewish elders in Babylon. The people of God had been taken into exile because of their unfaithfulness to God. Now God's prophet, Ezekiel, was in this DCC meeting, in this strange city, in this pagan country. Suddenly, he is caught up in a vision from God, and this vision is not a happy one. He is shown the temple in Jerusalem. The Temple is the house of God, built by their famous King Solomon, the centre of worship for the people of God. But in this holiest of places he sees the worship of false gods going on, for example, people worshipping the sun, a created thing, rather than God, the creator.

And this fills in the background for the reading we had this morning. The scene of destruction that we heard read about is God's response to the serious sin that people commit when they put other things in God's rightful place. When people value and worship things that are not God, more than they value God, there are dire consequences. Ezekiel is shown the world as it was in his day, and found it lacking, so he set about changing things. He cried out to God, asking God not to destroy all who remain of Israel, that is, not to bring an end to the people of God. And God hears this cry. The judgement is carried out against those who have stuck two fingers up at God, but God spares the faithful remnant. As the vision continues it ends with a promise of restoration, of God gathering up those who have remained faithful and bringing them home.

Today I've talked about three people. Two women who looked at the world found it lacking and set about changing it. One man who was shown the world, found it lacking and set about changing it.

What do we see when we look around the world about us? We know that there are some things that are lacking. We still see poverty, ill health and poor housing, that is one of the reasons that we are having this fund raising lunch today, supporting the work of the Mother's Union around the world in bringing these to an end. We want to change the world, to bring life and light to those dying in darkness.

What do we see when we look around the world about us? I think that we also see people who are worshipping things that aren't God. People who see things things that aren't God as more important than God. Perhaps even when we look in our own hearts we know that there are things or people that we love more than God. We are warned very clearly that that God is God and our worship of God must be faithful. As Ezekiel cried out to God in sorrow for his people, so we are to stand before God on behalf of our communities, confessing our sins and asking God for mercy.

We are also chosen and sent out to call others to worship, to centre their lives on God. In this way they will be released from the things that tie them up and we will bring life and light to those dying in darkness.

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