13 June 2005 Devotion for Today "Departing Glory" Ezekiel 10:18-22

13 June 2005 Devotion for Today “Departing Glory”  Ezekiel 10:18-22

           

            One winter as I was attending Spurgeon’s College I arrived on early on a Sunday morning.  But it was too early to check in.  I was very tired after making a transatlantic flight, but it was Sunday and I wanted to attend a church service.  The only problem was that I needed to bring my suitcase because there was no where to leave it since I could not get into the campus.  I hopped a red double-decked bus and made my way to a certain community in the south of London where a famous Baptist preacher had once preached a hundred or so years before.  I was hoping that my visit in this particular house of worship I might receive some sort of impression of him.  I was wrong.  The ushers, seeing that I was carrying a suitcase, gave me a rough time of it as I tried to enter the building.  I suppose I must have appeared to them as a homeless person.  They would not allow me to leave my luggage in an unused room, so I left it in the vestibule and sat down in the almost empty auditorium.  The great expanse was built to seat some four to five thousand people, but there were only about a hundred or so people spread thinly around the room- most of them elderly people.  I sat down in a row by myself- no one came up to me, no one sat near me, no one even personally greeted me.  I was filled with awkwardness and uneasiness- halfway between trying to convince myself that the situation might just get better or perhaps I better try to leave before the service begins.  I elected to stay for fear my retreat would be noticed and I should be placed in a more awkward position than I was already in.  The minister came in- dignified, in a long black robe as the stodgy worship leader announced the beginning of the service.  A pipe organ blasted away some tunes that I did not know.  After a few oratorio prayers and more hymns, the minister cleared his throat and began to speak.  He did not preach, rather began to lecture on the effects of post-modernism on our world and that post-modernism was the reason why the church was so discouraged.  I can’t even recall if he had read a Scripture text.  After the message, the service abruptly ended without so much as a benedictory prayer- I scarcely knew when the service had ended.  I left the building as inconspicuously as I tried to enter and very disappointed.  People were chatting away by the front steps but no one said anything to me- not “have a nice day, kiss my foot, or anything.”  I retreated down the steps and made my way to the first bus I could find back to the campus at the College.

            Reflecting on that situation taught me much about my own ministry.  I resolved then and there never to allow such a situation to happen to anyone else if I could help it.  The large edifice of the building was a monument to the famous preacher whom I am quite certain would have felt as I did had he had been present that day.  But the worse tragedy, greater than my own feelings of awkwardness, was the overwhelming sense that God had decided to visit another church that morning.  He simply was not there.

            I had no trouble identifying the feelings of the prophet Ezekiel in Ezekiel 10.  As one reads this prophecy, it is not difficult to sense the utter dread and sadness as the glory of the Lord’s departure is depicted in this chapter:

^“18 Then the glory of the LORD departed from over the threshold of the temple and stopped above the cherubim. ¹⁹ While I watched, the cherubim spread their wings and rose from the ground, and as they went, the wheels went with them. They stopped at the entrance to the east gate of the LORD's house, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them.  ²⁰ These were the living creatures I had seen beneath the God of Israel by the Kebar River, and I realized that they were cherubim. ²¹ Each had four faces and four wings, and under their wings was what looked like the hands of a man. ²² Their faces had the same appearance as those I had seen by the Kebar River. Each one went straight ahead.”  Ezekiel 10:18-22

            Why was God’s glory gone?  Because the people had no more room for Him in their hearts.  Post-modernism has nothing to do with it.  I thought about that when no one spoke to me that morning.  People do not make room in their hearts for others when no room is made for the Lord.  At that point they are more interested in themselves, and will make room for God only when it suits them or when it is convenient.  When God is not wanted or needed, His glory departs.  He is not going to sit around aimlessly feeling ignored or rejected.   He refused to put Himself in that situation.  He has better things to do.

            Do not let the glory of God leave you or your place of worship.  Make room in your heart for God today!  Have a blessed day.

Rev. Jeffery C. Russell
Salem Baptist Church
Elizabeth City, NC
jefferyrussell@earthlink.net

 

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