The Rev. Canon Joel Atkinson
“O mortal, stand up on your feet, and I will speak to you.”
Gets your attention, doesn’t it?
Awe, wonder, a little bit of fear…am I losing my mind! These were a few of the feelings Ezekiel must have felt as he stood in that thunderstorm in Mesopotamia [modern day Iraq]. Ezekiel’s encounter with God was not enough to get him up. So God lifted him up.
More words came: “I am sending you to my people and your people.”
Who are the “my people” and the “your people” God calls Ezekiel to go to? Is it those we like? Is it those who are like us? NO! NO! “Everyone” is the only correct answer.
Advice was given: They are “a nation of rebels”…they “have transgressed”…they have not changed. “They are impudent and stubborn.” Listen to some synonyms for these two words: cheeky, insolent, rude, disrespectful, impolite, presumptuous, ill-mannered, sassy, mouthy – obstinate, immovable, willful, mulish, intractable.
Imagine with me the conversation between God and Ezekiel. Lord GOD, are you sure you have the right man? YES, I am sure! Ezekiel, you are going and you will say to them, “Thus says the Lord GOD.” But Lord GOD, they’ll think I am a fool. They’ll make fun of me. They’ll ban me from their towns…huh, huh, I may lose everything. Yes, all this is, sadly, very true. Like I said, they are a rebellious bunch, but if you maintain the course they will know a prophet has been with them. Okay, okay, okay, but sticks and stones do break my bones. I’ll do it, but know I’ve got plenty of reservations.
If we say “yes” to God, God even takes us with our reservations!
From Ezekiel, standing in a thunderstorm and hearing God’s call, the scene moves forward more than 600 years to another prophet standing in his hometown of Nazareth. He has been rejected by his people, prefiguring his final rejection in Jerusalem. Being a prophet of God is still not an easy thing. Thus we hear a few words concerning the treatment of prophets. “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house.”
Jesus’ words are bitter but so true, so true. Times have not changed very much.
Imagine with me a conversation between Jesus and God. Father, when I agreed with you to do this thing, I hoped those who knew me best would listen and might understand something of what you and I are about. Instead, voices are not raised in praise for a local boy making good. ‘Tis true, my Son, but you must live and reveal in your life the true nature of who I am.
Jesus goes on. He is not deterred by all the nay sayers and unbelievers. In fact, as Moses did in the wilderness, he appoints some followers to assist him in his call. Go out two by two. Don’t burden yourself with either too many possessions or too many expectations, but keep on keeping on. Please don’t take all the rejections you will encounter personally. Please don’t hold on to all the pain those you encounter will seek to lay upon you. Rather proclaim the life I have been teaching you about and make real in the lives of those you encounter the healing redemptive love of God.
Once more the scene changes as we move forward a few years. Jesus has been violently executed. Paul has taken up the mantle of discipleship and been sent on his way, like those who were sent two by two from Jesus. Like Ezekiel, called by God to standup and speak, like Jesus, who we proclaim as God’s son, Paul met the Lord GOD on the road to Damascus and his life was changed forever.
Paul speaks of the pain he has faced in following God as a thorn that is a constant torment which keeps him from feeling fulfilled in his work. Following the Lord GOD is no easier for Paul than it was for Ezekiel and Jesus. What is the thorn which so upset Paul? I expect it was a thorn similar to the one Ezekiel and Jesus assumed in their calling, a common thorn shared by all three, a thorn existent when deep and profound rejection comes from those whom you love, a thorn that digs in ever more deeply when your own people refuse to hear, and then act to pass their pain on to you and your mission.
Paul expresses how he deals with the physical, mental and spiritual rejection of neighbor and family. Listen to what he says, “My grace [God’s grace] is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” Then Paul responds, “So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ for whenever I am weak then I am strong.”
It was Jesus’ weakness that led him to execution on the Cross at Calvary, and it was his weakness that won God’s victory over life and death for him and for all of us.
Three calls…three responses…three thorns to be dealt with…three witnesses expressing God’s healing redemptive love…three victories won and three lives we cannot forget.
How about our lives? How do we measure up?
“O mortal, stand up on your feet, and I will speak to you.”
Gets your attention, doesn’t it?
