Scripture: Ezekiel 8: 1-13
Sermon: Coram Deo – Living Before God
Topics: public, private, dark, secret, privacy
Preached: October 18, 2020
Rev. Mike Abma
Preamble: It is good to remember that the exile to Babylon didn’t happen all at once. It happened over time, at least a decade.
Ezekiel occurs mainly within that decade time frame.
Ezekiel was one of the first to be shipped off to Babylon.
In chapters 1-7, Ezekiel is mainly alone.
Now, in chapter 8, he is with other exiles – the elders of Judah.
They are sitting around, having coffee,
wondering what was happening back home in Jerusalem,
a city that had not yet been destroyed;
They were wondering what was happening in the Temple,
a Temple which still stood.
They were wondering whether things were getting better.
It is at this time that Ezekiel has another vision.
It is a vision that takes Ezekiel to Jerusalem to see for himself what was happening.
God gives Ezekiel this vision
so that he and others will know why God’s glory was about to leave Jerusalem – next week’s theme.
But now for our passage,
Which has 3 parts:
* An introduction to the Vision 1-4
* A view of the Public Sins 5-6
* A view of the Private sins 7-13, which will be our focus this morning, especially verse 12.
VISION
1 In the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house, with the elders of Judah sitting before me, the hand of the Lord God fell upon me there. 2 I looked, and there was a figure that looked like a human being; below what appeared to be its loins it was fire, and above the loins it was like the appearance of brightness, like gleaming amber. 3 It stretched out the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of my head; and the spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven, and brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the gateway of the inner court that faces north, to the seat of the image of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy. 4 And the glory of the God of Israel was there, like the vision that I had seen in the valley.
PUBLIC SINS
5 Then God said to me, “O mortal, lift up your eyes now in the direction of the north.” So I lifted up my eyes toward the north, and there, north of the altar gate, in the entrance, was this image of jealousy. 6 He said to me, “Mortal, do you see what they are doing, the great abominations that the house of Israel are committing here, to drive me far from my sanctuary? Yet you will see still greater abominations.”
SECRET SINS
7 And he brought me to the entrance of the (temple) court; I looked, and there was a hole in the wall. 8 Then he said to me, “Mortal, dig through the wall”; and when I dug through the wall, there was an entrance. 9He said to me, “Go in, and see the vile abominations that they are committing here.” 10 So I went in and looked; there, portrayed on the wall all around, were all kinds of creeping things, and loathsome animals, and all the idols of the house of Israel. 11 Before them stood seventy of the elders of the house of Israel, with Jaazaniah son of Shaphan standing among them. Each had his censer in his hand, and the fragrant cloud of incense was ascending. 12 Then he said to me, “Mortal, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in his room of images? For they say, ‘The Lord does not see us, the Lord has forsaken the land.’” 13 He said also to me, “You will see still greater abominations that they are committing.”
This is the Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
INTRODUCTION
Ezekiel is given another vision.
In this vision, he gets to see what God sees.
He is able to travel in a vision from Babylon to Jerusalem, 1700 miles,
to see what is really happening in Jerusalem,
to see both her public sins and her private sins.
This morning we will focus on the private sins that Ezekiel is able to see,
the things going on behind closed doors;
the things done in the dark.
It is a rather dramatic reading about Ezekiel
digging a hole in the Temple courtyard wall,
and coming upon 70 Elders and Jaazaniah – no doubt a reference to the Sanhedrin, the leaders of the people, and the High Priest.
They all have incense burners in their hands.
They look like they are doing religious things.
But really, they are doing creepy things.
They are doing them in the dark.
They are each doing them in their own little rooms,
each with their own little tableau of images.
Clearly they knew that what they were doing was “Wrong.”
But they did it anyway.
Why?
Well, they give basically two excuses:
1. God couldn’t see what they were doing;
2. and God didn’t care what they were doing, because God was gone.
SECRET SINS
We have in this passage one of the most graphic Biblical descriptions
of the secret sins that are done in the dark.
These are sins being done by people who were supposed to be leaders.
This raises the whole painful topic of trusted leaders,
religious leaders,
church leaders,
who have preached one thing on Sundays,
and who have acted a totally different way on Mondays.
Leaders who have resisted accountability.
Leaders who have betrayed and abused trust.
Over the years, there have been times when I have been called in to help churches in those situations – never easy, never pretty. I remember one situation where the pastor and the congregation were not getting along.
The congregation was concerned that
the pastor never seemed to visit anyone, ever.
He spent all day in his office with the door shut.
The pastor said that he had lots of work to do.
He said he needed all that time to work on his sermons.
The congregation just didn’t understand the pressures he faced.
To this, the congregation wondered, “Can’t you do at least a little more pastoring?”
I was part of a mediation team.
As time went forward, things came to light.
The secrets of this pastor’s computer usage
and internet searches were revealed,
and it turned out…..
Okay, let me stop here just for a moment,
because I imagine your mind is already racing ahead to fill in the blank.
Did this pastor have a pornography addiction?
Did he spend inordinate amounts of time with online gaming?
Did he spend hours binge watching shows on Netflix?
What was he doing?
All these are reasonable guesses, because we have heard these kinds of sad stories before.
But in this particular case, it turned out the pastor was spending 30-40 hours a week on his stock portfolio. He was, in a word, addicted to playing the market.
We live in an age, and at a time, when we are all more vulnerable to this type of secret sin. So many of us not only live alone, but we also work alone.
We know that the internet provides a universe of dark and disturbing images.
During this pandemic, it is no surprise
that online pornography use is up;
online gaming and gambling is up;
binge watching is up.
But what the internet provides is not the only place of vulnerability.
During this pandemic other things up too:
* excessive drinking
* drug and opioid use
* domestic violence.
Unfortunately, these are all things done behind closed doors,
things done in the dark, done often alone,
and they are all on the rise.
EXCUSE ONE
Our passage gives 2 excuses for secret sins:
1. The Lord does not see us
2. The Lord has forsaken us.
Let me take the 2nd excuse first – the Lord has forsaken us.
The sad truth is that so many of our secret sins
arise out of a sense of despair, even disappointment with God.
We begin to see the world and our lives as meaningless,
God seems distant to us,
so we turn to other things for comfort,
for pleasure
for distraction.
We convince ourselves that we are not hurting anyone.
All the while, we remain blind to how corrosive
these unhealthy habits are
to our relationship with God,
to our relationship with others,
and even to our relationship with ourselves.
These kinds of habits empty us, rather than fill us.
They drain us, rather than deepen us.
EXCUSE TWO
The second Excuse is that “The Lord does not see us.”
Let me put this in a more modern way —
“What we do in private is none of God’s business.”
Let me first say a word about Privacy.
Privacy is important in a society.
Respecting a person’s privacy is one clear way
we respect both the mystery of another person
and the modesty of another person.
As Christians, we should always respect the privacy of another person.[1]
However, there is no privacy before God.
God is God.
God knows our coming and our going.
God knows when we rise and when we rest.
As Psalm 139 says so clearly, there is no escaping the presence of God.
We all live Coram Deo – a Latin phrase
that means we all live before the presence of God.
CORAM DEO
Unlike what you might think,
living Coram Deo
is a comfort, it is an encouragement, and it is a liberating reality.
First, living Coram Deo is a comfort.
God is the Divine parent who refuses to let us out of his sight.
He gives us full freedom to live as we choose to live,
and yet, he is always near.
He never neglects us, even if we neglect him.
Second, living Coram Deo is a great encouragement.
It is simply a human truth that we live better lives when someone is
watching us or when we believe someone is watching us.
They have done lots of experiments on this phenomenon.[2]
All it takes is a picture or a painting of someone looking at us to improve
our behavior.
We all want to deepen our character –
to be people who do the right thing
even when no other human being is watching.
Living Coram Deo encourages us to become our best selves.
And lastly, living Coram Deo is not oppressive.
It is actually liberating.
Let me tell you why.
The sad truth is that everyone has secret sins. Everyone.
As a pastor, I know this professionally.
As a very fallible human being, I know this personally.
Everyone has secret sins,
and we all live with the fear
that our sins will be exposed,
that we will be shamed,
that we will be ridiculed,
that we will be seen and treated as worthless nobodies.
Here is the thing that we must ALWAYS remember:
We are loved and accepted
not because of what we have done for God.
We are loved and accepted
because of what God has done for us.
And what has God done for us?
God has already walked down this road of shame on our behalf.
In Jesus Christ,
We see God willing to be shamed,
willing to be ridiculed,
willing to be seen and treated as a worthless nobody,
All so that we might never be forsaken.
All so that we might always be loved and accepted.
All so that we might see in Jesus the true glory of God:
The glorious depth of his love;
The glorious strength of his grace;
The glorious breadth of his mercy.
When we say we are living our lives Coram Deo,
that is before the presence of God,
we are saying we are living freed from the power of sin,
even our secret sins.
We are saying we are living in the glorious presence of
this loving, gracious, and merciful God.
CONCLUSION
People of God,
remember to live your lives Coram Deo,
before God.
Will our secret sins threaten to undo us?
Yes, but Christ’s grace is stronger than our sins.
Will we, at times, find ourselves in that dark place yet again?
Yes, but Christ’s light is greater than any darkness.
The gospel truth is that
while we were still sinners
Christ died for us.
In the end,
only His love can save us.
In the end,
only His grace can pull us out of the darkness
and into his Marvelous Light.
And that is who we are: Children of the Light.
May we begin each day,
and end each night
with this prayer:
O Lord, Be Thou My Vision
by day or by night
waking or sleeping
Thy presence my light.
Amen
PRAYER
Dear Lord,
Be near us at our weakest moments.
Be present at our darkest times.
Be there to lift us when we fall,
and to love us when we fail.
Be our vision,
Our wisdom
Our treasure
Now and always. Amen
0 Comments