“Spiritual elitism”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Wednesday, May 24, 2023
Ezekiel 11:14-25 (Forward p. 26) CEV p. 849
By almost any assessment, Ezekiel the prophet is ‘one strange bird’, with his visions of dry bones, wheels within a wheel a-turning and much else. Certainly, some of his visions are quite strange and quite hard to fathom or make sense of. However, the message in today’s passage is quite straightforward and quite understandable. He is addressing what I call ‘spiritual elitism.’
The Israelites who have either continued to live in Jerusalem or have been allowed to return there from their exile are ‘writing off’ everyone else, especially those who are still in exile in Babylon. No longer in ‘the holy city’ they were now on foreign soil, corrupted by its presence, and now unclean and God-forsaken. Only ‘they’, the ones in Jerusalem, were ‘above the pale’ and properly holy and righteous. Only ‘they’ were the recipients of God’s blessing and favour! Anyone else was ‘left out’.
Ezekiel saw things very differently. He saw the exiles as truly being God’s people, indeed as being the true Israel. This was evidenced by two things. Firstly, that God had been for them, during this long exile, their place of refuge and sanctuary. He promises to truly be with them where they are, so that they can truly and faithfully worship Him. (They don’t have to be in Jerusalem for this to happen. God will be present to them wherever they are.). And secondly, that, like the Hebrew people in slavery in Egypt, God would bring them out of that land into a new place, a new land, a land of their own. That was God’s solemn promise to these exiles. Their exile, their ‘desert experience’, would not last forever, and not because of their own innate goodness or merit, but simply as a gift from a gracious and loving God.
Moreover, Ezekiel prophecies that, in consequence to this amazing gift, their lives, their very natures, will be transformed. They will receive a new heart and a new spirit. Their stubbornness will be removed, and they will now be eager to be completely faithful to God. They will want to obey God and adhere to His laws and teachings. All of this, as we will later learn, can only come to pass through the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit.
But none of this is without consequence, without the necessity of a response on their part. They are to rid themselves of all idols, all obstacles that stand in the way to their more fully serving, obeying and worshipping God. This is not to say that God’s grace is dependent upon this action, only that they need to admit their need for God and His grace and be ready and able to receive it by repentance and faith.
So, how does this speak to us today? How does this apply? Well, to my way of thinking, ‘spiritual elitism’ still exists today—and in abundance! There are Christian denominations that insist that only their form of worship is what God wants and blesses, or only their form of church government, or their approach to the Scriptures, that all others are in some way lesser or deviant. And, along with this, there are some people, even within particular churches, that think that their opinion or agenda is right and proper while others are certainly ‘off the mark.’ And, if truth be told, don’t we all slip into this mode of thinking from time to time.
Here I am reminded of the old story. A man newly arrived in heaven is being shown around by St. Peter and is cautioned to be very quiet while passing a certain doorway. When asked why, Peter replies, “Oh, they’re the xx [fill in the denomination of choice] and they think they’re the only ones here.” Sad to say, that kind of spiritual elitism, that kind of spiritual pride, can affect all of us. Whereas Ezekiel tells us that God is here for all of us and will meet us and minister to us no matter where we are, as long as we will allow Him to do so. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Forward notes: I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them; I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, so that they may follow my statutes and keep my ordinances and obey them. Then they shall be my people, and I will be their God” (verses 19-20).
“The heart of stone/heart of flesh language is used more than once in Ezekiel’s prophetic narrative. That is important because Ezekiel was written by an exiled Judahite to his fellow exiles. Some parts of the book have familiar prophetic warnings, but there are also beautiful passages like this that express confidence in God’s ability to mend what has been broken. That includes the heart.
“When I think about the times in my life when I’ve been hard-hearted—cold, unfeeling, isolated—these moments are tied to deep hurt, the kind of pain that threatens my sense of self and my place in the world. It is natural for us to recoil and protect ourselves in the face of such threats. This urge to defend ourselves is almost a reflex, and when we are in that state, we are more likely to spread hurt to others. But there is hope: God is there to embrace and restore us and soften our hearts again.”
Moving Forward: “Ask God to tenderize your hardened heart.”