Episode 202: October 13, 2024 - Re-Enchanting The Text - Part 3

Eternity Church PodCast

A Sunday morning sermon by Pastor Brett Deal. When our kids were little one, of our favorite movies to watch as a family was Enchanted. Like The Little Mermaid, it has memorable music and a compelling “fish out of water” story. There is a hilarious part of the film where Giselle (the cartoon protagonist who was pushed into the real world by an evil queen) is walking through Central Park with Philip, the unsuspecting lawyer who found her lost in the rain. In the middle of their conversation, not accustomed to the real world, she breaks out into song. Before Philip can stop her, hundreds of other park-goers join in! In her book, Re-Enchanting the Text, Cheryl Bridges Johns explains what she means when she refers to enchantment. “The word enchantment comes from the Latin verb cantare (to sing) preceded by the preposition in- (into): incantare… At its root, enchantment means the experience of ‘finding oneself in a song’ or ‘to sing into.’ An enchanted world is one in which there is harmony.” This exactly what we find in the movie: people who’ve become disenchanted by life and the rough and tumble existence of the world, re-enchanted by a person with a song to sing. For the Prophet Ezekiel, he doesn’t find himself in a park with dancing octogenarians and a mariachi band (seriously, go watch the movie). No, Ezekiel finds himself in a valley of dry bones (Ezekiel 37). And yet, in this place with God on a lifeless battlefield, Ezekiel finds himself re-enchanted. He spoke forth the prophetic word given to Him by God. Over and over again he says, “Thus says the Lord God” and watches in awe as bones are bound back to one another by sinew and skin. He marvels as wind sweeps into reborn lungs when, at the height of God’s resurrection music, the Lord reveals the meaning of this vision. This vision is for Ezekiel, yes, but it is also for all God’s exiled people. God is re-enchanting the Text. Through Ezekiel’s song, God is re-enchanting the Torah. Just as the first vision stirred our imaginations with the past and the Passover (Exodus 12), so this vision reminds us of God in the Garden bringing His image bearer's breathless body to life (Genesis 2.7). Beloved, what is the song God is singing over your life? How is He drawing you away from the cruel comfort of isolation into the re-animated joy of community? As a church, how is God calling us to sing together?