9th Sunday in Trinity 2012
Rev.
Stephen E. Stults
St.
Barnabas Anglican Church
August
5, 2012
“O
Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall show forth Thy Praise.”
“Grant us, O Lord, the
spirit to think and do always such things as are right; that we, who cannot do
any thing that is good without thee, may by thee be enabled to live according
to thy will; through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
AMEN
If there were ever a more
ardent, perfectly formed plea for grace to live the Christian life, I don’t
know how it could be better phrased than in this prayer. This Collect for the 9th
Sun. after Trinity, no doubt written by a very mature Christian mind,
recognizes the true reality of life on this earth. First, it grasps the reality
that we need the right “spirit” to help us do the things that we should
do. This prayer affirms that the true
nature of this world is spiritual and that we need the right spiritual
orientation in order to behave correctly.
Our O.T. Lesson from
Ezekiel is in many ways a perfect example of this Collect. Let’s consider briefly why this may be so,
but first, some information about Ezekiel himself. According to noted O.T. scholars Keil and
Delitszch, Ezekiel,” יחזקאל (Ezekiel 1:3; 24:24), i.e., יחזק אל, God strengthens, ̓Ιεζεκιήλ (lxx and Book of Sirach, ch. 49:8), in the
Vulgate Ezechiel, while Luther, after the example of the lxx, writes the
name Hesekiel, was the son of Busi, of priestly descent, and was carried
away captive into exile to Babylon in the year 599 b.c. - i.e., in the eleventh
year before the destruction of Jerusalem - along with King Jehoiachin, the
nobles of the kingdom, many priests, and the better class of the population of
Jerusalem and of Judah (Eze 1:2; Eze 40:1;
cf. 2Ki 24:14.; Jer 29:1).
He lived there in the northern part of Mesopotamia, on the banks of the
Chaboras, married, and in his own house, amidst a colony of banished Jews, in a
place called Tel-abib (Eze 1:1; Eze 3:15, Eze 3:24; Eze 8:1; Eze 24:18). In the fifth year of his banishment, i.e.,
595 b.c., he was called to be a prophet of the Lord, and laboured in this official
position, as may be shown, twenty-two years; for the latest of his prophecies
is dated in the twenty-seventh year of his exile, i.e., 572 b.c. (Eze 29:17).”[i]
Ezekiel was himself a witness
to the fulfillment of God’s prophecy concerning Israel and Judah. Beginning in
Deuteronomy and continuing through all of the books prior to Ezekiel, the Jews
had heard the same message again and again; stay in covenant with Almighty God,
or face the consequences. This message
they ignored and continued to run after false gods and various pagan religious
practices, including ritual drunkenness and ritual fornication. They worshipped
the Baals and Ashtoreth, as well as Chemosh and Milcom, who were the abominable
idols of the Canaanites. We learn in
Ezekiel that the elders of the Jews had even carved out secret rooms in the
Temple of Solomon where they offered incense to various idols.
We all know the history that
followed Israel’s and Judah spiritual whoredom.
First, the Ten Tribes of the Northern Kingdom were carried away and
dispersed into the vast Assyrian Empire as a result of their gross
idolatry. Next, the Babylonian suzerain
Nebuchadnezzar invaded Judah and carried away the “cream of the crop”, so to
speak, of Judah. The Prophet Daniel was
amongst those carried away. King
Jehoiakim became a tributary. Failing to
see God’s Hand in their tribulations, this king rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar,
whereupon he marched again to Jerusalem, besieged it, and eventually took it
again. This time, the Babylonian king
carried away the king, his court, and many of the skilled artisans, warriors,
priests and carpenters. He left a rough
remnant of the people, over which he appointed Jehoiakin’s uncle, Mattaniah,
whom he renamed Zedekiah. This occurred
during the prophecy of Jeremiah, who warned the people repeatedly of their fate
if they did not repent. Meanwhile, the
various false prophets concurrent with him were prophesying prosperity and
peace. As we know, Jeremiah was eventually proved right, although he was
accused of speaking treason against the king and was imprisoned.
After the second fall of Jerusalem, Jeremiah,
speaking for God, told the people to bear the Babylonian yoke with patience and
all would be well with them. Even at
this point, the leaders of Judah refused to hear the Word of God, but instead
rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar, broke their treaty with him and turned to
Egypt for help. The very nation in which
they had been held in slavery for 400 years was to be their savior?
This was absurd and
futile. The Egyptians were utterly
defeated by the Babylonians, and now perfidious Jerusalem was to feel the full
fury of Nebuchadnezzar, who had been remarkably restrained up to this point
regarding the city. His forces marched back to Jerusalem and besieged it
again. Eventually, the city was starved
out. The walls of Jerusalem were
breached, and in the eleventh year of Zedekiah’s reign, the city was completely
destroyed. The fabulous Temple of
Solomon was thoroughly looted and destroyed as well. Nebuchadnezzar left Jerusalem a smoking heap
of stones. As we know from the book of Jeremiah, Zedekiah, his court, and his
top military men tried to escape through a hole in the wall. They were captured and brought to
Riblah. Here, Zedekiah’s sons were
killed before his eyes, and Zedekiah himself was blinded. He was led in chains back to Babylon, where
he spent his days as a captive, subject king to Nebuchadnezzar. Judah as a nation had been effectively
destroyed.[ii]
In the section of Ezekiel we
read today, the last act, namely the destruction of Jerusalem, had not happened
yet. The final blow had not yet been struck against the heart of Judah. Yet, we see in the reading that the mindset that would lead to it was
very much present amongst the exiles to which Ezekiel was attached. In this passage, God speaks to Ezekiel and
asks why should be He be entreated by a people whose heart was far from
Him? Even though these men, the elders
of Israel, had come seeking the counsel of God, their innermost hearts and
spirits were not of God. In fact, they
had put the stumbling block of their idolatry in front of the faces and had
idolatry in their heart, even while they were seeking the counsel of God. Obviously, they were “hedging their bets”, so
to speak. They obviously wanted it both
ways: namely, to enjoy the notorious sensuality and wanton-ness of their pagan
practices, while pretending to be holy towards the God of Israel. This cannot be.
Our God is a holy God, who will
not tolerate our allegiance to any sort of idolatry. He will not allow His Glory to be diffused
with another. He cannot allow His Holiness to be diluted in a believer’s heart,
or to be mixed with an idol of any sort; that is, if one is to enjoy true
fellowship with Him. It is possible to
be deceived into thinking one has fellowship with God, but it is not true. Witness those poor, deluded souls who think
they can lead one of the various “alternative lifestyles”, and then come have a
meaningful relationship with God in His House.
They may be able to “play church”, but their worship is tainted and is not
acceptable to God. Their fellowship with
Him is not really real, and any feeling of good will they may experience from
it may very well be a satanic deception.
By the way, this is true of any for us, including this priest. If we have deep hatred, animosity, or un-repented
sin abiding in us when we enter the House of God, we cannot offer a worthy
sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving when our spiritual selves are in turmoil
due to sin. One may, like these elders
of Israel, go through the motions of religiosity, yet never really get close to
God.
The purpose of religion is not merely to do
ritualistic things to curry favor with God, but to develop a deep and abiding
relationship with the Holy Trinity.
Thus, when Christ speaks in Luke 17:21 regarding the Kingdom of God, “And when he was demanded of
the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said,
The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for,
behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” This is very akin to the
statement Jesus made in John 14:23 where he says, “If a man love me, he will
keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make
our abode with him.” This certainly sounds like a relationship situation to me.
This sense of relationship is exactly what Ezekiel is
speaking of during this interview with the Jewish elders. God is not at all minded to listen to them
because they are not truly interested in a relationship with Him. They only
want to use God to get what they want, or to hear what they want. What they really want to hear are the words
of the false prophets saying, “Peace, Peace”, when there is no peace. Through Ezekiel, God tells them that He will
turn His face from those who deceive themselves with idols and will remove them
from their land. This will be done not out
of cruelty, but rather out of chastisement, so that Judah would eventually
truly repent herself of her idolatry.
As later history would prove, God did remove Judah from
the Promised Land. Judah did repent and
was restored, but to a lesser degree until the time of the Ptolemeys. By this time, the Jews were so against
idolatry that it led to the rise of the Pharisees, who became jealous guardians
of the Law. Yet, as history would show by the time of Christ, slavish adherence
to the Law had itself become a form of idolatry. It is really difficult for man
to get it right, isn’t it?
The point for today is that we too must remove any idols
in our hearts, or any stumbling blocks of iniquity that impede our relationship
with Almighty God. All of us have them, and for us to enjoy the fullest
fellowship with God, they must be removed.
The Holy Spirit will keep pointing to them until one of two things
happens. Either we, with the help of the
Holy Ghost, remove them in order to enjoy a fuller experience with God, or we will
grow hardened in our sinfulness until a fuller relationship loses its value to
us.
Pray God that this does not happen to any of us, because
it had serious consequences. Rather than experiencing the wonderful fruit of
the Spirit: love, joy, peace, contentment, godliness and self control, we will
bear the evil fruit of our natural natures: hate, discontent, malice, unease,
fear, and infidelity. If one reads St.
Paul long enough, one will come across of these “laundry lists” of bad
behavior.
In the words of St. Paul himself, he me! May it never be! We pray that
all of us may continue to take daily inventory of ourselves and of our
relationship with Almighty God in Christ. We pray that we may ardently seek
those things that hinder our relationship and fling them from us like so many
filthy rags… We pray that you may seek the power of the Holy Ghost to do so,
for only through Him is it possible.
Then, unlike those idolatrous men in Ezekiel whom God
would not hear, we will enjoy the warm spiritual embrace of our Heavenly
Father. He will hear us. He will come to
us and tabernacle with us. He will make
His Face to shine upon us. Through His blessed Holy Spirit, He will give us
peace, now and forever.
AMEN.
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