Visions of God
A Devotional in
Remembrance of 9/11
by Safiyah Fosua, Guest Preacher
Safiyah Fosua is the director of
invitational preaching ministries for the General Board of Discipleship of the
Preview devotional books by Safiyah Fosua
Jesus
and Prayer Mother
Wit: 365 Meditations for African-American Women
Ezekiel 1:1 In the
thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was
among the exiles by the river Chebar, the heavens
were opened, and I saw visions of God. 2
On the fifth day of the month (It was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin), 3 the word of Yahweh came to the priest
Ezekiel, son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar;
and the hand of Yahweh was on him there.
In the
fourth month
On the
fifth day
Of the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin.
Have you ever endured
an event so distressing that it restarted your clock?
Something
such as . . .
The
year that the basement flooded?
Or
the year that our family lost the farm?
Notice that the prophet
did not use Jewish names for the month — Abib or Shebat. Nor did he reckon time from the year of the Exodus
as his ancestors frequently had done. Something had happened in the lives of
Ezekiel and his people that forced him to employ a new numbering system tied to
an event that had stopped time and started it all over for him and for his
people.
In the
fourth month
On the
fifth day
Of the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin.
Have you ever been
forced to go through a situation so intense that it made you forget all the
other years that had faithfully marched ahead in your life? Or that made you
forget your heritage? Or even the year you were born?
In the
fourth month
On the
fifth day
Of the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin.
What kind of event has
the capacity to restart a person's historical clock? Perhaps your memories
include the year of the big World War or the year that the stock market
crashed. Maybe, for you, your clock hovers around the year that all the planes
in
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What was it that reset
Ezekiel's clock? Ezekiel was one of the exiles from the Babylonian deportation.
The Babylonians exiled the people of
Ezekiel had been
carried away with his king. Since that time, he had been counting the days.
In the
fourth month
On the
fifth day
Of the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin.
Have you ever been in
a situation where you were just counting the days?
Perhaps some of you
can remember being without water. I am not talking about two days without water
because the pipes froze in winter. I am talking about being without water
because something, somewhere (about which you will never receive an explanation)
has happened and the water main is off — again. I can remember, as a
missionary, being without water for hours that frequently stretched into days.
By the third day without water, you have emptied most of the pots and barrels
that you normally use to store water for such occasions. By the sixth day, you
find yourself leaving a little water in the basin when you wash your hands —
just in case you need it later. All along, you have been using any wastewater
from the dishes or the bucket bath that you had to share with another person to
flush the toilet. By the seventh day, it is not uncommon to go begging to your
missionary neighbors or to hit the streets looking to hire the services of a
water truck, while secretly hoping it comes after the driver has been paid. By
the tenth day, when the water finally comes, you are dirty, exhausted, and
frighteningly conditioned to being without water.
Ezekiel was counting
the days!
In the
fourth month
On the
fifth day
Of the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin.
Ezekiel was among the
exiles by the River Chebar. Scholars are not
unanimous about its location. Some think it may have been the Habor, one of the major rivers in
In this context, the
despairing words of Psalm 137 become even more painful to hear:
By the rivers of
there we sat down
and there we wept
when we remembered
On the willows there
we hung up our
harps.
For there our captors
asked us for
songs,
and our tormentors
asked for mirth, saying,
"Sing us one of the songs of
How could we sing the Lord's song
in a foreign land?
(Psalm 137:1-4, NRSV)
In a sense, their
lament was a song. They were singing the blues. As a child, I often thought of
the blues as misery set to music. The blues singer frequently took an
unspeakable situation, the chords of which resonated in many hearts, and made
music. Somehow it seemed that the melodic telling and retelling of these
offenses made them more bearable. Perhaps the offenses listed in Psalm 137
became more bearable with each telling. The mood however, was clear; the people
bemoaned their condition.
What songs do you sing
to bemoan a bad situation? I am told that in the
Ezekiel's testimony is
encouraging: "I was among the exiles by the river Chebar
(or the Chebar canal) and I SAW THE LORD!" In
the same place that others sang laments, Ezekiel saw visions from God. Was he
crazy, or was he insightful? Brazilian author Rubem Alves has suggested that faith is daring to dance to the
melody of the future. Ezekiel danced to visions of God in the midst of the most
trouble anyone he knew had ever experienced. Notice that in the worst possible
time, he saw the most fantastic vision that perhaps anyone had ever seen.
His vision started
with a cloud and brightness and a glowing fire.
They were familiar with the cloud by day and the fire that glowed by
night in the exodus.
A stormy wind came out
of the north (Ezekiel 1:4).
We are familiar with
wind and fire from the Day of Pentecost. Ezekiel saw one of the most fantastic creatures
that anyone had ever seen. It had straight legs with smooth feet like a calf's.
The creature had a human form and four faces, each one of them different. There
were wings and hands and movement — by the Spirit. Can't you see Ezekiel
struggling to share this vision with his friends and with any who would listen?
And then they moved!
And this side of its
face looked like an eagle's!!
And did I tell you
they had wings?
We live in a world
that is hungry for visions of God. We have just endured the worst tragedy that
our country has ever seen. Americans have endured something so terrible that it
reset our clocks — 9-1-1. Since then, everything in our immediate world has
been shaken. How can we see God in the midst of our pain? Helen Keller once
said the most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight but no
vision. What vision is God offering to us in these post-9/11 years? What vision
do we have to share with others?
May I suggest that the
present condition of the world is either the worst thing that has ever happened
here or the greatest opportunity that the church has ever had?
On the eleventh of
September 2001, I was putting on my shoes when the world changed. I saw the
live telecast of the second plane flying into the
As we plan for
ministry in these post-9/11 years, may I suggest that our task goes beyond that
of dealing with the domino effects that continue to touch the lives of our
parishioners? Reflecting upon the spontaneous reaction of our
In the
fourth month
On the
fifth day
Of the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin.
In the first year
after the WTC towers came tumbling down . . .
In the year that the
stock markets began to fail and many of our daughters and sons were unemployed
. . .
In
the years after 9/11 . . .
To restate an earlier
observation, 9/11 was a great tragedy; yet it continues to present unbelievable
opportunities for the church. What shall we do?
Will we hang our harps
by the willows, substituting laments for praises?
Or will we work to
offer the world a fresh vision of God?
Amen.
Copyright © 2002 The
General Board of Discipleship. Used with permission.