The Unheeded Voice

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

November 23, 2014

The Unheeded Voice

Selected Texts from Ezekiel

The book of the prophet Ezekiel cranks, rumbles, and

whirrs its way into our imaginations

right from the very first chapter.

It is a long book,

a difficult book,

filled with wild imagery,

and angry, punishing words from God

spoken through the prophet.

It is not at all surprising that most preachers

veer wide of the book.

The Lectionary that splits up the books of the Bible

and spreads them out over three year’s worth of Sundays

treads lightly through the pages of Ezekiel.

Of course, most of us know the story of

the Valley of the Dry Bones,

the story many of us learned

through the old gospel song.

But otherwise the ecumenical team

that created the Lectionary

were probably uncertain as to what to do with

Ezekiel’s harsh words,

and even more, the imagery, often bizarre,

beyond our ability to picture in our minds,

let alone make sense of:

“As I looked, a stormy wind came out of the north:

a great cloud with brightness around it

and fire flashing forth continually;

and in the middle of the fire,

something like gleaming amber.

In the middle of it was something like

four living creatures.”

Much of Ezekiel’s imagery reappears in

the Book of Revelation;

John clearly found inspiration in the pages of Ezekiel,

as well as from other prophets.

In fact, most of the imagery in Revelation

has antecedents in other books of the Bible,

and especially the book of Ezekiel.

At first, Ezekiel would appear to be just one more

in a long line of reluctant prophets,

men called to speak God’s word to God’s children.

It was a job no one wanted:

Not Moses,

not Amos,

not Jeremiah,

and not Ezekiel.

Yet Ezekiel did it,

took on a thankless job,

a job that surely won him no friends.

After all, who would want to listen to

someone preaching, “Thus says the Lord God,

I will let loose my anger upon you,

I will judge you according to your ways,

I will punish you for your abominations.

My eye will not spare you,

I will have no pity.”

It is a hard book to read;

Our Wednesday Bible Study class

has been learning just that

as we work our way through

the pages of the book.

The time was almost 600 years before

the birth of our Lord.

The Babylonian army invaded Israel from the north

and proceeded to lay waste the country,

sacking, looting, destroying, burning.

And then they took the people into exile,

all the people, including Ezekiel,

into exile along the shores of the river Chebar,

a tributary of the Euphrates.

There Ezekiel was called by God to serve him,

serve him by speaking for him,

by being his prophet to his

rebellious, disobedient children.

The call story is rich in imagery,

with Ezekiel told to eat a scroll

with God’s words upon it,

eat the scroll to take in God’s words,

and then having eaten it,

probably metaphorically rather than literally,

he was instructed by God,

“[Now] Go to the house of Israel

and speak my very words to them.”

God knew, even as he sent Ezekiel out,

the challenge Ezekiel faced,

that Ezekiel’s would be an unheeded voice,

saying to him,

“The house of Israel will not listen to you,

for they are not willing to listen to me….

[Still], do not fear them or

be dismayed at their looks,

for they are a rebellious house…

Say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God’;

whether they hear or refuse to hear.”

Ezekiel spoke harsh words to the people,

words the people didn’t want to hear.

But they were God’s words,

God’s words spoken through Ezekiel,

in the same way prophets before and after

have spoken God’s challenging words

to all God’s children;

in the same way God speaks

challenging words to us even now, here,

today,

from this pulpit and every pulpit,

anywhere and everywhere

the word of God is preached.

But for as harsh as God’s words were

to the children of Israel as they lived in exile,

captives of the Babylonians

for the better part of 70 years,

ultimately, God’s words to his children were redemptive;

ultimately, God’s words led the people

to restoration,

to reconciliation,

to grace,

to peace,…  to love.

For God as our Father, our Mother in Heaven,

a parent who can often be angry and upset with us

over our misbehavior and disobedience,

over our strident unwillingness to listen,

God is also our parent whose love for us

is unconditional,

our loving parent who longs to forgive,

longs to be reconciled to and with us,

no matter how far we stray,

no matter how bad we are:

“…As I live, says the Lord God,

I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked,

but that the wicked turn from their ways and live;

turn back, turn back from your evil ways; …

Though I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’

yet if they turn from their sin

and do what is lawful and right—

…—they shall surely live, they shall not die.

None of the sins that they have committed

shall be remembered against them;

if they have done what is… right,

they shall surely live.”

God longs to forgive all his children,

God longs to be reconciled with all his children;

God longs to draw all his children to him.

For as God reminds us,

God is our shepherd, tending us,

caring for us,

looking after us,

looking out for us:

“For thus says the Lord God:

I myself will search for my sheep,

and will seek them out.

As shepherds seek out their flocks

when they are among their scattered sheep,

so I will seek out my sheep.

I will rescue them from all the places

to which they have been scattered ….

I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep,

and I will make them lie down, …

I will seek the lost,

and I will bring back the strayed,

and I will bind up the injured,

and I will strengthen the weak…”

This is the word of the Lord our God.

This is what God wants for us,

God looking after us through his Son,

whose very birth was first witnessed,

so appropriately, by shepherds,

shepherds abiding in the fields,

“keeping watch over their flock by night.”    

God our shepherd,

the One who forgives us

through his grace and love;

the One who wants only to draw us

ever closer to him,

that we would know more completely his love.

It is challenging book, the book of Ezekiel,

that tells us this,

that adds to our understanding of our heritage

that we are God’s beloved.

As the Psalmist tells us,

it is a goodly heritage.

“The Lord is our shepherd,

we shall not want.

He makes us to lie down in green pastures;

he leads us beside still waters,

he restores our souls.

He leads us in right paths

for his name’s sake.

Even though we walk through

the valley of the shadow of death

we will fear no evil

for God is with us,

God’s rod and staff, they comfort us.

God prepares a table before us,

even in the presence of our enemies.

God anoints our heads with oil;

our cups overflow.

Surely goodness and mercy

shall follow us all the days of our lives

and we together, all God’s children

shall dwell in the house of the Lord

forever and ever.”

AMEN