You Want Me to do What?

You Want me to WHAT?
Ezekiel 2,3,4,5
The Good News: The Holy Spirit empowers us to be a light that shines before men… we have a story to tell, a song to sing, a message to proclaim, a mark to make in the world.
The Bad News: If we follow Christ, we will have a cross to bear. Sometimes we will be called to act ‘differently’ than those around us; forgiving, giving generously, making peace instead of war… and this will call us to take difficult stands, even unpopular stands so that people can see the Kingdom that Christ proclaims.
The Celebration: We are called to do more than survive, but to thrive…
The Question: Is faith an idea or an action? Or both?

The Catonsville Nine were nine Catholic activists who burned draft files to protest the Vietnam War. On May 17, 1968 they went to the draft board in Catonsville, Maryland, took 378 draft files, brought them to the parking lot in wire baskets, dumped them out, poured homemade napalm over them, and set them on fire.
Fr. Philip Berrigan and Tom Lewis had previously poured blood on draft records as part of "The Baltimore Four"- with David Eberhardt and James Mengel - and were out on bail when they burned the records at Catonsville.
Fr. Daniel Berrigan wrote, of the Catonsville incident: "Our apologies, good friends, for the fracture of good order, the burning of paper instead of children. . . ."
On September 9, 1980, Berrigan, his brother Daniel, and six others (the "Plowshares Eight") began the Plowshares Movement when they entered the General Electric Nuclear Missile Re-entry Division in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania where nose cones for the Mark 12A warheads were made. They hammered on two nose cones, poured blood on documents and offered prayers for peace. They were arrested and initially charged with over ten different felony and misdemeanor counts. On April 10, 1990, after nearly ten years of trials and appeals, the Plowshares Eight were re-sentenced and paroled for up to 23 and 1/2 months in consideration of time already served in prison. (citing wikipedia)

The Berrigan Brothers were known for extreme positions and extreme actions. For them, faith in God was not private, but public. Faith in God challenged and shaped the way they thought about the world around them… specifically the VietNam War and later, Nuclear Weapons. But the Berrigan brothers were offensive because they didn’t keep their radical opinions to themselves, or even keep them to a sermon or a book or a letter to the editor… they put their opinions, their faith shaped opinions on public display.



Eze 2:3-8

3 He said: "Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me; they and their fathers have been in revolt against me to this very day. 4 The people to whom I am sending you are obstinate and stubborn. Say to them, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says.' 5 And whether they listen or fail to listen — for they are a rebellious house — they will know that a prophet has been among them. 6 And you, son of man, do not be afraid of them or their words. Do not be afraid, though briers and thorns are all around you and you live among scorpions. Do not be afraid of what they say or terrified by them, though they are a rebellious house. 7 You must speak my words to them, whether they listen or fail to listen, for they are rebellious. 8 But you, son of man, listen to what I say to you. Do not rebel like that rebellious house;
NIV

Eze 3:24-27
"Go, shut yourself inside your house. 25 And you, son of man, they will tie with ropes; you will be bound so that you cannot go out among the people. 26 I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth so that you will be silent and unable to rebuke them, though they are a rebellious house. 27 But when I speak to you, I will open your mouth and you shall say to them, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says.' Whoever will listen let him listen, and whoever will refuse let him refuse; for they are a rebellious house.
NIV

Eze 4:1-5:6
4:1 "Now, son of man, take a clay tablet, put it in front of you and draw the city of Jerusalem on it. 2 Then lay siege to it: Erect siege works against it, build a ramp up to it, set up camps against it and put battering rams around it. 3 Then take an iron pan, place it as an iron wall between you and the city and turn your face toward it. It will be under siege, and you shall besiege it. This will be a sign to the house of Israel.

4 "Then lie on your left side and put the sin of the house of Israel upon yourself. You are to bear their sin for the number of days you lie on your side. 5 I have assigned you the same number of days as the years of their sin. So for 390 days you will bear the sin of the house of Israel.

6 "After you have finished this, lie down again, this time on your right side, and bear the sin of the house of Judah. I have assigned you 40 days, a day for each year. 7 Turn your face toward the siege of Jerusalem and with bared arm prophesy against her. 8 I will tie you up with ropes so that you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have finished the days of your siege.

9 "Take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and spelt; put them in a storage jar and use them to make bread for yourself. You are to eat it during the 390 days you lie on your side. 10 Weigh out twenty shekels of food to eat each day and eat it at set times. 11 Also measure out a sixth of a hin of water and drink it at set times. 12 Eat the food as you would a barley cake; bake it in the sight of the people, using human excrement for fuel." 13 The LORD said, "In this way the people of Israel will eat defiled food among the nations where I will drive them."

14 Then I said, "Not so, Sovereign LORD! I have never defiled myself. From my youth until now I have never eaten anything found dead or torn by wild animals. No unclean meat has ever entered my mouth."

15 "Very well," he said, "I will let you bake your bread over cow manure instead of human excrement."

16 He then said to me: "Son of man, I will cut off the supply of food in Jerusalem. The people will eat rationed food in anxiety and drink rationed water in despair, 17 for food and water will be scarce. They will be appalled at the sight of each other and will waste away because of their sin.

Ezekiel 5

5:1 "Now, son of man, take a sharp sword and use it as a barber's razor to shave your head and your beard. Then take a set of scales and divide up the hair. 2 When the days of your siege come to an end, burn a third of the hair with fire inside the city. Take a third and strike it with the sword all around the city. And scatter a third to the wind. For I will pursue them with drawn sword. 3 But take a few strands of hair and tuck them away in the folds of your garment. 4 Again, take a few of these and throw them into the fire and burn them up. A fire will spread from there to the whole house of Israel.

5 "This is what the Sovereign LORD says: This is Jerusalem, which I have set in the center of the nations, with countries all around her. 6 Yet in her wickedness she has rebelled against my laws and decrees more than the nations and countries around her. She has rejected my laws and has not followed my decrees.


Ezekiel is commanded by God to put his private faith in public view. And not in strongly worded letters to the editor, but through strange theatrical events staged publically.

What is he trying to communicate?

By lying on his side for 390 days, facing a little scale model of Jerusalem, he is acting out God’s patience in waiting for the people to listen and obey the covenant.
By then turning and laying away from the model… he is acting out the fact that God has turned his back on the people. The turning of the back of God will be experienced, is being experienced by the people through the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonian Empire, including the Temple, and the enslavement of many of its people, including Ezekiel, who have been carried off to Babylon. They have returned to Egypt as it were… God has let them go back to Pharaoh, since they rejected God’s sovereignty.

Oh, yes, he is bound, tied up too.
That probably means a few things… it means that he is bound to the word of God… it also means that the people will be bound in service to the Babylonian Empire… it also means that they are bound by their unwillingness to obey… now they will have to pay the price of not listening to the word of God, not keeping the covenant.

While we might think that the multi-grain bread sounds fine, it is meant to symbolize scavenging. The people will no longer benefit from the abundance of the earth, but will have to fight to scrape together enough to put together a loaf of bread. And the baking of the bread too is meant to show how desperate their lives are… only finding buffalo chips to bake on…

Shaving the head and beard was a sign of mourning. So Ezekiel is showing the people that they will mourn. And the hair becomes a symbol of the people… some burned… to symbolize both the destruction of their city by Babylon, and their suffering… some chopped with a sword, does that really need to be explained. Many were killed in the Babylonian Siege and the over-running of the city. Many died in the long trek to Babylon, a trail of tears, you might say. And the scattering of hair in the wind symbolizes that some were left to run and hide and scrape a living, some were separated from family, some taken into exile…they were scattered and no longer a whole people.

If the Politics in the Berrigan brothers actions offends… or you think that church isn’t the place for politics, leaders of faith not called to speak out politically… it is important to realize that what Ezekiel is doing here is political. He is saying that Judah, the people of God, the nation of God, deserve the punishment of servitude to Babylon. Their defeat and enslavement is something they must accept because it is something that God has allowed to happen. So Ezekiel is talking politics… our leaders, political and religious, failed and this is the consequence for us all…


But you also notice the difference between Ezekiel and Job last week. While Job give us a language to argue that our trauma and suffering is wrong, unfair, unjust… Ezekiel sees the suffering of Israel as deserved. If we suffer, it is because God has commanded it and allowed it and so we must deserve it… that is Ezekiel’s world-view. I’m not necessarily espousing that myself… I just want you to realize the big picture here is a debate about suffering and the role of God… a debate between Job and Ezekiel… a debate too big to work out this morning.


What troubles me this morning is that Ezekiel is different…
And it isn’t just that he has some different idea’s you see…
It isn’t that he has some unique thoughts…
Or beliefs that are different from others…
Ezekiel is different and he isn’t afraid to act different… put his difference on display…
Well, maybe he is afraid,
but his fear of reprisal doesn’t stop him from putting his difference on display.

How different am I?
That is what troubles me.
How would others know by looking at me, listening to me, watching me act and interact
That I am a disciple of Christ?
I’m intrigued by folks who have ways of being different…
Muslim women who wear burka’s
And I know that can be controversial, especially in Europe right now…
Or Hasidic Jewish boys who grow the peyot, the ringlets of the sideburns
And they wear the tzitzit…the vest with tassles… also called the tallit katan
Or the dress of the Amish.
I’m not saying I want to go in that direction… but I’m just saying… there is no mistaking who they are…
You know who they are and to a certain extent, what they believe, just by looking at them…




For instance Amish men grow beards, but Mustaches are forbidden, because they are associated with European military officers and militarism in general
And I am intrigued by the courage it takes to be different… to maintain styles of dress for instance, that just are stylish anymore… but mean something and communicate something…


The story of Ezekiel, and his bizarre behavior calls into question what faith means…
If we take Ezekiel seriously faith is not simply a collection of unique idea… an intellectual pursuit
We study the Bible not just to learn the words of Jesus,
uncover the mystery of the Trinity
imagine resurrected life
Nor is faith an emotional pursuit
Worship something that will make us feel better, stronger, more peaceful
Better able to face the working week ahead…
Faith should be those things, I hope it is.
But the faith of Ezekiel challenges us beyond intellect and emotion…
Challenges us in the realm of action…

God has something to say and Judah does not listen… will not listen…
Elijah is given something to say… that now one else dares say…
Will he say it? Will he take action?


I’ve told you before the story of John Woolman, an American and a Quaker who lived in New Jersey in the 18th century. He refused to pay taxed during the French and Indian War. He advocated for the humane treatment of working animals. He traveled advocating for slaves, being one of the first of the Quakers to see slavery as an offensive moral issue. When he stayed with slaveholders he paid the slaves for the their work cooking and cleaning for him. Most famously he only wore undyed clothing, because clothes that were dyed in that time, were made by slave labor, and he did not want to support that institution economically. Faith went beyond intellect and emotion to the realm of action…

As a matter of fact John Woolman is a good example for out day… for while we may be shocked and saddened by the thought of sweatshop labor, and agricultural slavery… we support it in our spending and shopping habits. The most important thing we can do morally and ethically to put our faith into public action is to create spending and shopping habits that do not harm the workers and harvesters around the world.

I shocked the folks at St. Charles Ave Baptist Church when I introduced them to the Cocoa Protocol. In that we eat, that I enjoy so very much, the brownies that I savor and he chocolate cookies that bring me comfort… comes from slave labor.
John Woolman wouldn’t eat it.
I can’t imagine what Ezekiel would do to make a public statement about it.
I do know that the faith of Ezekiel and Woolman challenges me to do more
Than pray and think about how unjust this is… and do something…
The season of Lent, which begins this Wednesday… on Ash Wednesday…
Is perhaps a good time to revisit the idea of fasting…
Not even going hungry…
But fasting from foods that are produced or harvested by slave labor.

Ezekiel is a difficult book to read…
It is dark and sometimes violent
And it’s focus is always on the anger of God
Which is not a topic I like to linger on
Not just because it doesn’t make for a particularly popular sermon
But because I just can’t make the association between
Trauma, suffering and tragedy and God’s active wrath
That Ezekiel can…

But this I can do…
I can recall the words of the prophet Isaiah
Isa 61:6
6 And you will be called priests of the LORD,
you will be named ministers of our God.
Isa 61:8
8 "For I, the LORD, love justice;
I hate robbery and iniquity.

In the strange actions and dark rhetoric of Ezekiel I hear this bad news…
God hates robbery and iniquity…
God cares deeply for the oppressed, the enslaved, this abused and mistreated
God is hurt by those who participate in that abuse and enslavement.
God is hurt by those who will not listen… actively energetically listen
And then perform the words and wisdom they have heard.
I can hear that warning…
Do You hear that warning?

But I also hear good news.
You will be called priests of the LORD

And in Ezekiel I can hear the words of Jeremiah
Jer 1:9-10
"Now, I have put my words in your mouth. 10 See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down , to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant."

Ezekiel is here to remind us of the challenge, the bad news of our calling
to destroy that which oppresses others
to repent if unwittingly we have participated in the abuse of others
But I can also hear the good news
build and plant lives that honor and respect others
build and plant practices in my life that bring glory to God
because they free others from abuse

And in Ezekiel I can hear the words of jesus
Mt 5:14-16"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
NIV





For this is what Ezekiel is called Israel to return to…
The light
This is what Ezekiel warns us against,
The slow and subtle limp from being people of light to people of darkness

That is the bad news
But the good new is that we are people of the light.

we have a story to tell, as the song says as story that God still whispers to us, a story of truth and mercy, a story of peace and light

We’ve a song to sing, That shall lift their hearts to the Lord, A song that shall conquer evil
And shatter the spear and sword,
,
We’ve a message to proclaim, That the Lord who reigns up above Has sent us His Son to save us,
And show us that God is love,

Do you Hear it the story?
Can You hear the song?
Will you, like Ezekiel, stand up and perform
The Story that you hear?

God Bless You All