Thus Says the Lord God!

 

Ezekiel isn't a prophet we hear from very often in worship, but on this 6th Sunday After Pentecost, in the Year of Mark, a piece of Ezekiel's earliest vision is our First Reading.  It is found in 2:1-5.  Preceding this text is the description of an awesome throne room with "something that seemed like a human form" seated on the throne. (1:26).  In the presence of this glorious one, Ezekiel falls on his face, and the words we have are the first instructions given to the prophet.  It will be the preacher's task to bring these instructions to bear upon the listeners as well.

(The following questions have been developed to ferret out the function of the Word in the text, a central concern of Law and Gospel preachers.  These questions are not meant to be exhaustive, but are best used with other fine sets of questions available to exegetes.  For more on this method and on Law and Gospel preaching, see my brief guide, Afflicting the Comfortable, Comforting the Afflicted, available from wipfandstock.com or amazon.)

1.  How does the Word function in the text?  The Word functions as a summons to the prophet, but there is more here.  Clearly the summons to preach to a rebellious people functions as Law, revealing the need for the Israelites to repent.

2.  How is the Word not functioning in the text?  There is no word of Gospel here.  One could perhaps find Gospel in the fact that God is yet sending a prophet to these rebels, so perhaps God's forbearance is in evidence here, but that would be the only good news present.

3.  With whom are you identifying in the text?  The Word is addressed to a rebellious people. "Thus says the Lord God" comes to the people, and so I must identify with these rebels.

4.  What, if any, call to obedience is there in this text?  The summons to the prophet is definitely a call to obedience.  The call to repentance, implied by the text, is not.  This is a call to faith.

5.  What Law/Gospel couplet is suggested by this text?  The most obvious couplet is from the text itself:  refusing to hear/hearing God's Word.

6.  Exegetical work:  A few verses later in this chapter, the voice from the throne room gives Ezekiel the words he will speak in a scroll.  On this scroll are words of "lamentation and mourning and woe." (2:10) This is an important detail.  It indicates that God takes no pleasure in afflicting God's people.  This is a hard word.  It must be spoken, but it is spoken in love.  John Taylor, in his commentary, parses the description of Ezekiel's hearers:  "The people are further described as impudent and stubborn (4, RSV; lit. 'hard of face and firm of heart').  The first phrase suggests the shameless attitude of the [one] who will not lower his [or her] gaze, but prefers to brazen it out; the second describes the stubborn, unyielding will that refuses point-blank to give way even when found guilty."  (Tyndale OT Commentaries, Ezekiel, p. 61-62).  St. Jerome, in his writing, says that "it is a mark of great mercy that God sends [Ezekiel] to such as these and that [God] does not despair of their salvation."  (Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, OT, vol. XIII, p. 17).  

7.  Consider the insights of the pioneers of the New Homiletic?  Eugene Lowry often said that the task of the sermon was to move listeners from disequilibrium to equilibrium.  It will be an important task to find that equilibrium in this unsettling text.  

Blessings on your proclamation!