This morning in the Gospel we hear of how people were astounded when they heard Jesus speak. People wondered where Jesus was getting the stuff he was spreading? Where was the wisdom coming from? Where did the power to perform miracles, to heal, and cast our demons come from? Isn’t this the carpenter’s son?
People
took offense at what Jesus was saying and doing. Jesus words to them, “Prophets
are not without honour, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and
in their own house.”
Prophets
- The four weeks of July have Hebrew scripture readings that introduce to us four
prophets: Ezekiel, Amos, Jeremiah, Elisha. Each week we will learn about the
prophet, his message, and the importance of both on our lives today.
Ezekiel
– means ‘strength of God.’
Ezekiel
was a 30 year old priest in Jerusalem in the 6th century BCE. It was
a time of empire building for surrounding nations, Egypt to the South, Babylon
to the North. In this power struggle, Ezekiel, along with other elite from
Jerusalem, were deported to Babylon when the Babylonians captured the city in
597. Other than being in a foreign land, the deported lived a good life: having
homes, jobs, the freedom of religion, the allowance to welcome guests, and the ability
to accumulate wealth. Life was more than comfortable.
Five
years into this exile, Ezekiel was called by God to be prophet, to speak to the
exiled people now comfortable in Babylon. This makes Ezekiel a unique prophet.
He is the only one to be called as prophet while living outside the land of
Israel/Judah.
Theologically
Ezekiel was a traditional Zionist emphasizing God’s favour of Jerusalem as THE
Holy City, Temple centred, with Davidic kingship in place. Frequent repetition
of important words and phrases teach us that for Ezekiel mortals, humans, by
nature are rebellious and separated from God by generational accumulation of this
rebellion and sin. Peoples and individuals drift away from God. This said, Ezekiel
has God where God always is, with God’s people – whether in deportation, exile,
occupation, or homecoming. God continually pursued the people in an effort to lessen
the separation. Ezekiel’s prophesies included phrases like: for the sake of my
holy name; and, so that you/they will know that I am the Lord.
A
critic moment for Ezekiel was destruction of the Temple, after this, his theology was no
longer rooted to a restored Zion in earthly terms but, rather, an apocalyptic restoration
extended into the eschaton.
The
message is much like that of other prophets. The book of Ezekiel is presented
with: oracles of doom against Judah and Jerusalem; oracles against neighbouring
nations – and after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem- oracles of
promise, hope and restoration of the new Jerusalem.
Typical
prophet… until you read the book. Ezekiel was/is not everyone’s cup of tea. Ezekiel
was edgy, a creative; and eccentric. Today I can imagine Ezekiel on TikTok, an
influencer, with people tuning in to see what off-the-wall thing he would do or
say next.
In
the medium of his day, he spoke and wrote with a vast array of literary forms -
metaphors, mythic poetry, visions, signs, allegories, oracles, denunciations, and legal arguments. He used language and image of the extreme to capture in small
part God’s sovereignty, holiness, and mystery. His prophecy was dependent upon experienced
psychic or spiritual oddities: trances, ecstasy, clairvoyance, catatonic stupor,
struck dumb as in mute, and teleportation.
Bernhard
Anderson professor emeritus at Princeton wrote, “Ezekiel insisted that Yahweh
would have to effect a radical change in human nature if the people were to be
a covenant people. Israel’s ‘heart’ (mind, will) must be transformed, a change in
the people’s inner disposition must occur, so that a new lifestyle would be
possible.”
Bernhard
assesses well the voice of Ezekiel and in so doing expresses why it is we
continue to read prophetic texts today.
Coming
to worship, learning about God, experiencing God – knowing God- are we not
opening ourselves, our human nature, to be radically changed so that we might
live as covenant people? By being here this morning, are we not offering our
heart, mind, and will to be transformed? In some way, do we hope that our inner
disposition is changed so that a new lifestyle is possible?
St.
Augustine in his work, Confessions, writes that sin is ‘disordered love.’
We sin, as individuals and as a people, when we have our loves out of order. The
order of loves is the same order that prophets like Ezekiel held to in the Law
and covenant: Love of God, love of neighbour, love of creatures. Prophets are
needed when a group of people have their loves out of order.
Consider
our world. Individuals and peoples have their loves out of order. Every day we
are surrounded and influenced in world views that put material things before creation;
amassing resources over commonwealth; nationalism before global citizenship. While
power runs amuck, social systems deteriorate, and people are exiled world events
demonstrate disordered love.
In
turbulent times, prophets come as a catalyst between God and despair,
encouraging people to repent – to reevaluate and reorder their loves and thus
their lifestyles. The prophets speak words that lead to restoration, a change
in people and a peoples' heart, mind, and will to respond to God by reordering
loves, so as to live lives according to God’s vision of flourishing and justice.
The
problem is that mortals, to use Ezekiel’s words, don’t like to be told that
their loves are messed up. People are defensive, impudent, and stubborn. In
Jesus’ day we are told that the people took offense at Jesus’ words.
Hope
for me comes in the gathering of God’s people. Ezekiel was by the river, an ancient place were people gathered for prayer, when
God called him to prophesy. We come and gather around a baptism font – a river –
and I wonder whom God is calling to prophesy? Through the waters of baptism the
Holy Spirit comes among us and works in and through us. Each week we return to
this place our hearts, minds, and wills are once again offered and open to
change--- inviting God to reorder our loves, to remind us the order of love:
Love God, love neighbour, love creation; and the restoration of God’s kindom
will follow.
We
are called as a people – together we prophesy- we bear testimony to the love of
God. It is on all of us to speak to the order of love, if we truly want the
world to be a different place. It is on us to remind people to turn from self-serving
loves; to reorder their lives; and to do it by word and deed.
You
can do it as an eccentric sort of prophet like Ezekiel or better yet, use the
gifts you have been given – be genuine, be you; and by word and deed live a
life of order love: love of God, love of neighbour, love of creation.
I
am sending you to them, and you shall say to them, “Thus says the Lord God.” Whether
they hear or refuse to hear, … they shall know that there has been a prophet
among them. -Ezek. 2: 5
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