Br. David Vryhof Ezekiel 37:21-28 Psalm 85 During the time I served the community as its Novice Guardian, I often encouraged the newer brothers to articulate their vision of monastic life. I asked them to reflect on why they had come to the monastery, what it was they hoped to become here, what principles and values they treasured in their hearts that life in this community might help them realize. It was that vision, I believed, that would keep them going when times were tough. It’s important to have a vision that sets out for us a clear direction and focus for our lives. “Where there is no vision,” the author of the book of Proverbs reminds us, “the people perish.” (Proverbs 29:18, KJV) The prophet Ezekiel lays out such a vision in the passage we heard read today. It is a vision of a restored Israel, in which a divided people are brought together by God as one nation and people. God cleanses them from their sin and removes idols from among them so that they can become a consecrated people under one Shepherd, God’s servant David. In this vision, they live in the land forever, in a covenant of peace with God. “I will be their God,” God promises, “and they shall be my people.” And there are times when the vision becomes reality, when Israel lives in union with God and in restored fellowship one with another; but there are also times when this vision unravels, when they prove unfaithful towards God, when God withdraws the blessings they have been promised. Then, like the psalmist in Psalm 85, they need to ask God to restore them again: “Lord, you were favorable to your land; you restored the fortunes of Jacob. You forgave the iniquity of your people; you pardoned all their sin. . . . Restore us again, O God of our salvation, and put away your indignation toward us. . . . Will you not revive us again, so that your people may rejoice in you? Show us your steadfast love, O Lord, and grant us your salvation.” (vv. 1-2, 4, 6-7, NRSV) It is important for us to have a vision, but it’s also important that that vision be renewed and restored from time to time, especially when the vision seems to be unraveling before our eyes and we find ourselves calling out to God for help and for hope. What is the vision that inspires you and gives you hope? What is the vision that propels you forward with confidence into the future? Perhaps it is the vision of a God who loves you unconditionally and who has promised never to leave you. Perhaps it is the vision of life eternal, the new life that is promised to us in this world and that continues forever. Perhaps it is the vision of a Savior who knows our human weakness and our struggles and who offers to save us, not only from our sins, but from our blindness and our foolishness and our self-centeredness. Whatever our vision is – of God, of the human communities of which we are a part, of ourselves – we will from time to time need this vision to be restored, through prayer, through the support and encouragement of others, through the grace of God that permeates this world and the next. Our vision may need not only to be restored, but also to be extended. Is our God too small? Is it difficult to imagine a God who is greater than the problems we face in this world? If we have lost sight of the God who can unite divided peoples, who can gather us under the protection of peace, who can be our God in every trouble or difficulty . . . If we have lost sight of this God, we need to lift up our hearts once more and ask God to restore our vision and renew our hope. Cling to the vision. Keep it always before you. Renew and strengthen it whenever it falters or fails. And remember always that “where there is no vision, the people perish.”