Sunday, July 7, 2024
Seventh Sunday after Pentecost
St. Luke Lutheran Church; Albuquerque, NM
Ezekiel 2:1-5
He [the VOICE] said to me: “O mortal, stand up on your feet, and I will speak with you.” 2 And when he spoke to me, a spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and I heard him speaking to me. 3 He said to me, “Mortal, I am sending you to the people of Israel, to a nation of rebels who have rebelled against me; they and their ancestors have transgressed against me to this very day. 4 The descendants are impudent and stubborn. I am sending you to them, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God.’ 5 Whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house), they shall know that there has been a prophet among them.
(The following two paragraphs are not included in the Lectionary, but are essential to the Story.)
6 And you, O mortal, do not be afraid of them, and do not be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns surround you and you live among scorpions; do not be afraid of their words, and do not be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house. 7 You shall speak my words to them, whether they hear or refuse to hear, for they are a rebellious house.
8 “But you, mortal, hear what I say to you; do not be rebellious like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you.” 9 I looked, and a hand was stretched out to me, and a written scroll was in it. 10 He spread it before me; it had writing on the front and on the back, and written on it were words of lamentation and mourning and woe.
I should explain the Sermon Title. It was the month of July in 1972. I had just arrived as the Associate Pastor here at St. Luke’s. In those days there were three services, all on Sunday morning, all quite full of people. I was to preach at one of the upcoming Sundays and so I studied and prepared from the appointed text. About Thursday, the office secretary whose name was Helen, came into my office and asked, “What is your Sermon Title?”
“Title?” I replied, “I’ve never been good at Titles. Let’s just leave that part blank.”
“We can’t do that,” stated Helen emphatically. You must have a title for your Sermon.”
So, I said, “How about God’s Mighty Word, Preached with Power and Conviction?”
She lifted her secretary eyebrows and went back to her office and typed that into the mimeograph stencil. And so it was.
Two weeks later, the scene repeated itself. “Well, what’s the title?”
“Let’s just use the one we had two weeks ago, it seemed to work well.” She never asked again.
But in the last couple of decades of Ministry, I began to entitle my Sermons, with the result that sometimes the title actually had some faint bit of meaning to what I had to say. So, I emailed Angie (the Secretary) and told her to use what you see before you, “God’s Mighty Word, Preached with Power and Conviction.”
As my sainted Great-Grandfather would have said (as I was constantly reminded by my Grandfather) “Ve shall zee.”
+ + +
Actually, it’s a good title for this Sermon, because that is precisely what we find taking place in the First Reading this morning the words of a 6th Century BCE Prophet in Israel whose name in Hebrew is יחזקאל(Ye-chez-kel) Ezekiel in English. The name means “God strengthens.”
We meet יחזקאל (Ye-chez-kel) in this Second Chapter which follows of course Chapter One. And in Chapter One the Prophet has a vision which is the prelude to his call to Proclaim God’s Mighty Word with Power and Conviction that comes in our reading.
I can summarize Chapter One with a song:
Ezekiel saw the wheel
Way up in the middle of the air
Ezekiel saw the wheel
Way in the middle of the air
And the little wheel run by faith
And the big wheel run by the grace of God
A wheel in a wheel
Way in the middle of the air.
I first learned this Spiritual under the teaching of my Mother who was also my Elementary Music Teacher when I was in Grade school. She loved Spirituals. But at the time I must admit (1) I had no idea what a Spiritual really was — a song sung by people of another Exile, African men and women and children forced from their homes to live and work in America as slaves; and (2) I only knew that Ezekiel was someone important in Church because paging through the Bible in the pew one Sunday during a Sermon for which I had no understanding, I saw the name.
Ezekiel is the Prophet of the Exile.
From about the year 598 BCE to 538 is the time in history called “The Babylonian Exile”. It refers to not just one or two, but maybe several deportations of the Judean people from Jerusalem to Babylon 900 miles away. We know this area currently as central Iraq). It’s a complicated political history, with the rule of Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian King, who defeated the Assyrians, and then defeated the Egyptian Pharaoh, and pretty much took command of the whole area of the Middle East which included Judea and the Jewish people. In 597 BCE Judah revolted against Nebuchadnezzar with the result that he sacked Jerusalem and took the leading citizens to Babylon, including יחזקאל. And while among the first group of Exiles in Babylon, he continued to write and speak, to prophesy, speaking not only judgment but ultimately hope to the exiles in that foreign land.
Back in Judea, things got worse. The puppet king Zedekiah refused to surrender to Babylon and revolted in 587 BCE hoping that Egypt would provide aid and assistance. That never materialized. Zedekiah’s sons were killed, he himself was blinded and taken in chains to Babylon and Jerusalem was destroyed — the Temple was burned.
You can read all about this (and you should) — I highly recommend you read the prophet Ezekiel. My personal suggestion is to read it in the translation provided by the eminent Eugene Peterson (of blessed memory) in his version of the Bible called The Message. Because — Peterson’s language is so engaging that you will remember more than if you attempted to read it in some other version of the Bible.
[We met Peterson a bit ago in the Liturgy in the second responsive reading of verses 1-4 from Psalm 123.]
Ezekiel hears a voice. It is God’s voice. It is the voice of אֲדֹנָי אֱלֹהִים (or as Peterson has it in The Message “God, the Master”).
God sends Ezekiel to speak to the people of Israel “a rebellious nation if ever there was one.” “They’re a hard case” says God, “and they’re defiant.” “But,” says God, the Master even though living among them is like finding scorpions in your bed, your job is to speak to them — because they will at least know that a prophet has come among them.” And then God gives Ezekiel a scroll to eat, and on the scroll are words of lamentation and doom.
And in the next chapter Ezekiel does eat the scroll and it tastes like honey. And so Ezekiel speaks.
[I have a friend who when I mentioned this text, said that it always reminded him of what follows in the Gospel of John. He sees Ezekiel who is called “mortal one” or “Son of man”as a foreshadowing of Jesus. And in the beginning of John’s Gospel of course, is the Word becoming flesh; the Word is Jesus — and in the Eucharistic meal we dine upon that Word, which is often judging and revealing of our mistakes and sins, but is also full of hope and promise and ultimately forgiveness and love — and that tastes as good as honey.]1
But it is not all sweet, these words. The book of Ezekiel is complex, full of images, allegories, angry judgments against false faith (Peterson translates this as “no-god-idols”) and of course wheels within wheels with wings and eyes. The first 24 chapters are written before the complete fall of Jerusalem — they speak doom and gloom. Chapters 25-32 are prophesies against foreign nations. Chapter 33 to 40 is all about restoration. And the final 8 chapters are a blueprint for what a restored Israel will look like, as well as a blueprint for the rebuilt Temple.
There are significant themes in this Prophet:
Israel has not been faithful, thus the Exile has happened. God is not only displeased, God is angry, full of wrath. But (and it’s a big word in Ezekiel; it’s a big word in God) BUT God still loves the people. “You will be my people, and I will be your God.” God says, “I am forgiving not because of my own feelings, but because I love you. I do not desire the death of an evil person, but that there should be repentance and — life!
Read Chapter 17 to find a summary of the entire Babylonian Exile.
Read Chapter 18 to find why people who bully are not only unfaithful, they are evil.
Read Chapter 20 to have a summary of the Exodus from Egypt.
Read Chapters 21-23 and learn that God does not keep a list; God judges according to the way one lives (the way a people live).
Chapter 22: “Your politicians are like wolves prowling and killing and rapaciously taking whatever they want.” “Preachers cover up for the politicians!” says God through Ezekiel and then “Outsiders are kicked around at will; with no access to justice.”
It is astounding and revealing how much Ezekiel speaks to us in our time. That is what happens when we bring our ancient stories of faith into our midst, into the congregation, into worship — they come to life. This morning Ezekiel comes to life, here and now.
Within that same chapter God, the Master through Ezekiel speaks to remind the people (and just so us) that the ritual of worship, the speaking of good words does not mean anything if one does not put those words into action. We hear the Word, and then we must DO the Word, we must live the Word — and if we don’t then the Word dies and so do we.
The word “Mass” as the description of the worship life of Word and Eucharist comes to us from when the liturgy was in Latin; at the end now we say something like, “Go in Peace, Serve the Lord.” In Latin it was: Ite, Missa Est. Literally “GO, it is the sending (Missa) you are sent.”
You see, God, the Master through Ezekiel keeps insisting that there is no such thing as the separation of secular and sacred — I can be this loving while I worship, but I can be this much a scoundrel while I’m talking with my life partner. No, it is insisted, it’s all sacred. Everything, everywhere, all the time, sacred consecrated holy. I need to remember that the next time I become grumpy and un-righteous. God is always present. God always sees us.
Nothing is faithful unless the people (we) are responsible, everywhere, all the time. The ELCA slogan might then be “God’s Work, Our RESPONSIBLE Hands!” Why not?
Chapter 34 is of particular interest: Because the leaders of Israel have been such bad shepherds, God says, “Now I will be Shepherd and you will be my flock, and I will care for you and tend you and protect you and watch over you and feed you.”
It is obvious that Jesus knew this part of the prophet well, one has only to read the Gospel of John, where Jesus is the good shepherd (El Buen Pastor).
And of course Ezekiel Chapter 37 is The Valley of Dry Bones — the vision where Israel, good as dead, only a pile of bones, comes to life, renewed, restored. That vision is also for us dried up, hopeless, lost of vision, full of despair and anger.
Forgiveness, not condemnation; Hope, not Despair; Love, not Anger; Life, not death.
Let me conclude by reading what Peterson says in summary of the Prophet:
“We’re given the strength and the ability to respond to others not for what we can get out of them, but for what we can give to them. As we do that, we learn what it is to live in a community where we have spiritual mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters — where others are treated as individuals, immensely interesting, endlessly exciting, and eternally valuable.”
Go home and read Ezekiel!
And let us say: Amen.
1Thank you John Batiuchok, friend and fellow-resident in La Secoya, our Retirement Community.
Nota(ble) Be(n)e 