Christ Lutheran Church, Staunton, VA
July 5, 2015
Tags: Ezekiel 2, Mark 6, Transitions, Evangelism
So They Will Know God...
[Sermon began with some transitions in the lives of congregation members. Omitted here.]
Transitions happen quite often in our lives. Some major transitions, like moving out of state. Some minor transitions. Some transitions whose significance you are not quite sure of at the time, like starting high school.
Our gospel lesson has a
couple of transitions. You hear how the hometown struggles with the
transition of Jesus from rabbi or religious teacher, to prophet. If
they cannot accept him as prophet how will they ever be able to
accept him as Son of God. You also have Jesus' disciples being sent
out on their own, without bread or money in their bag, or an extra
tunic just in case. They will be the ones casting out demons, and
anointing the sick and even healing them. They will trust in the generosity of people they have yet to meet to provide for them on their journey.
Transition. I want to
take just a minute as we prayerfully consider these transitions and
consider the book of Ezekiel. Our scripture this morning included a
small portion of the call of Ezekiel.
So far in our summer
scripture reading program we have had 4 or 5 days of reading Ezekiel.
Depending on today's reading you are somewhere around Chapter 7 or
9. Of those of you reading, how many are already tired of Ezekiel? One of my pastoral colleagues said of reading Ezekiel, "I guess you need to do it once."
Ezekiel begins with 24
Chapters of judgment, 24 chapters of doom followed by 24 chapter of support and hope. And even those first 9 chapter of supposed hope
involve oracles of doom against Israel's enemies, which we do not
read as all of that hopeful today. The oracles of hope or restoration
begin somewhere around Chapter 33 or 36. For those of you reading,
they will come. You will get there.
Today's passage from
Ezekiel offers just enough of a platform to proclaim the grace of God
to a stubborn people. Some times stubborn is a good thing,
occasionally. For example if you stubbornly persist in your reading
of Ezekiel, that is a good thing. But most of our stubbornness,
frankly works against God. When one stubbornly refuses to come to
worship in the Lord's house, or read the scripture, or to
thoughtfully examine one's behavior and identify what sins truly need
to be confessed. God sent Ezekiel to a stubborn people, not just
stubborn, but a nation of rebels living in a land of exile. God
will place words in Ezekiel's mouth and give him a message to
proclaim and many will not listen to him. [But,] But, eventually
they will know and come to realize that there has been a prophet
among them, a prophet of the most high God.
When they realize that,
they will know that God has not forgotten them. Ezekiel is bizarre,
but this bizarre prophet with his apocalyptic like imagery, and
visionary use of descriptive language stands as a reminder of the
love of God for his children.
The same can be said about
Nazareth, Jesus hometown, where he grew up and matured from a child
to a teenager to an adult. Eventually, they will know that there was
a prophet among them, and not only a prophet, but someone who loved
them unto death, and brought them into life. One day, some of them will realize just who Jesus is, and then they will know God and God's love.
The same can be said about
the disciples sent out in pairs to neighboring villages and homes.
Even those places where they shook the dust of their feet, one day
people in those villages might just realize that God sent to them an
ambassador of His love. And then they will know God.
The same is true with your
invitations to friends and neighbors to come to worship or to read
scripture or to be faithful or to believe in Christ and be baptized.
You invite them, not that they will respond right away. You will
invite them to be here next week. They may not come. You will lend
them a bible, or give them a bible, they may not open it this year.
They might not respond even when you are alive. You invite them
however, you encourage them, so that when they come to believe then they will know. When
they come to respond, their eyes will open and they will see in you that God has been with them all along. Then they will know that God has sent messengers to them all along and that God has loved them all along. Then they will know that God
has believed in them always, since that moment you first said a
Christian word in their hearing, since the moment they were born.
Ezekiel is worth reading,
stick with it, be persistent, a prophet among us even today.
Amen.
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