"Hard Heads, Not Hard Hearts"
July 9. 2006: 5th Sunday after Pentecost, Year B
The Rev. John MacIver Gage, pastor
United Church on the Green, UCC: New Haven, CT
www.newlights.org
Scripture:
Mark 6:1-13
Jesus left that place and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, "Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?" And they took offense at him. Then Jesus said to them, "Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house." And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. And he was amazed at their unbelief. Then he went about among the villages teaching. He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. He said to them, "Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them." So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.
Ezekiel 2:1-3:11
The Lord said to me: "O mortal, stand up on your feet, and I will speak with you." And when God spoke to me, a spirit entered into me and set me on my feet; and I heard God speaking to me. God said to me, "Mortal, I am sending you to the people of Israel, to a nation of rebels who have rebelled against me; they and their ancestors have transgressed against me to this very day. The descendants are impudent and stubborn. I am sending you to them, and you shall say to them, 'Thus says the Lord God.' Whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house), they shall know that there has been a prophet among them. And you, O mortal, do not be afraid of them, and do not be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns surround you and you live among scorpions; do not be afraid of their words, and do not be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house. You shall speak my words to them, whether they hear or refuse to hear; for they are a rebellious house. But you, mortal, hear what I say to you; do not be rebellious like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you." I looked, and a hand was stretched out to me, and a written scroll was in it. God spread it before me; it had writing on the front and on the back, and written on it were words of lamentation and mourning and woe. God said to me, "O mortal, eat what is offered to you; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel." So I opened my mouth, and God gave me the scroll to eat. God said to me, "Mortal, eat this scroll that I give you and fill your stomach with it." Then I ate it; and in my mouth it was as sweet as honey. God said to me: "Mortal, go to the house of Israel and speak my very words to them. For you are not sent to a people of obscure speech and difficult language, but to the house of Israel—not to many peoples of obscure speech and difficult language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely, if I sent you to them, they would listen to you. But the house of Israel will not listen to you, for they are not willing to listen to me; because all the house of Israel have a hard forehead and a stubborn heart. See, I have made your face hard against their faces, and your forehead hard against their foreheads. Like the hardest stone, harder than flint, I have made your forehead; do not fear them or be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house." God said to me: "Mortal, all my words that I shall speak to you receive in your heart and hear with your ears; then go to the exiles, to your people, and speak to them. Say to them, 'Thus says the Lord God'; whether they hear or refuse to hear."
May God speak through these words and make from them a holy word for us today. Amen.
Sermon:
I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that the book of the prophet Ezekiel isn't exactly at the top of that stack of books on your bedside table at home. It's sure not on mine. Frankly, it just doesn't come up that often. Out of all forty-eight chapters that make up the book of Ezekiel, only about three readings are scheduled as part of the three-year cycle of the Revised Common Lectionary and so recommended for our use in our Sunday worship. Sure, one of those three is the story of the Valley of Dry Bones, but, be honest, did you really know that was from Ezekiel? Doubtful. Alas, for most of us, what we may remember about this 'Major Prophet' can best be summed up thusly: We know that Ezekiel saw the wheel, and we know Ezekiel saw the wheel way up in the middle of the air. Period.
So a few words of introduction. Ezekiel 101, if you will. The book of Ezekiel is considered by Biblical scholars to be one of the "Major Prophets," along the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, and Daniel, but "major" in this case simply means "large," seeing as each of those books took up an entire scroll of their own in the original, as opposed to the "Minor Prophets," all twelve of which could be included in just one scroll. Truth is, both Ezekiel and Daniel get fairly short shrift in our modern Protestant Christian traditions because, well, they're weird. They're both chock full of visions of fantastical creatures and events. The whole first chapter of Ezekiel is devoted to that vision of the wheel and the wheels within the wheel and the angels and the throne and God's own wild and wooly self "way up in the middle of the air" commemorated in the old spiritual. And it generally goes downhill from there. The book is brimful with confusing prophetic sign-acts, the wrath of God, a fascination with blood and worse, and even what some would call pornographic imagery.
Yet despite our discomfort, we need to understand that there is a method to all this madness. The prophet Ezekiel was a priest in the temple at Jerusalem when that city was attacked by their Babylon overlords in 597 B.C.E. As such, he was member of the elite class, politicians, nobles, artisans, blacksmiths and others the Babylonians deported in order to subdue the rebellious state of Judah. So Ezekiel watched from exile along the banks of the river Chebar in Babylon while, over the next 10 years, the great empire systematically dismantled the institutions of government, reduced Jerusalem to rubble, and ground the people under their heel, carrying more and more of them off into exile as well.
But Ezekiel didn't just watch. Beginning in the year 593, he lifted his voice in prophetic witness against the failings of the rulers and people of Judah. According to Katheryn Pfisterer Darr, in her article on the book for the New Interpreter's Bible commentary series, the object of Ezekiel's vicious critique was an orthodox religious and political worldview that over-identified the all-too human institutions of temple and state with God's own self; in other words, the loudest voice of the Judaism of the day proclaimed that since they were God's chosen people, living in God's chosen land, worshiping in God's chosen temple, and following God's chosen king, God must be on their side—no, God was their side—and they could do no wrong.
The prophet Ezekiel was called to point out just how wrong they were, while the invading Babylonians underlined that point in the blood, sweat, and tears of a generation. As you can imagine, his was not a popular message. What nation wants to hear that theirs is a fatally flawed worldview, that their present course of action is doomed to failure, that they are not, in fact, all that? Is it any wonder then that history has given pride of place to Isaiah's sweet visions of restoration or even Jeremiah's lamentations? All three were writing about the same utterly dispiriting experience of a nation's downfall and exile, but Ezekiel, more than the others, chose the path of direct, and therefore often painful, confrontation with the religious and political authorities, indeed the entire culture of his day.
Our reading this morning recounts the prophet's call to this uncomfortable ministry. From the very beginning, it's clear that the road ahead is not going to be a cakewalk. God, as depicted in Ezekiel, doesn't mince words. "O mortal, I am sending you to... a nation of rebels...; they and their ancestors have transgressed against me to this very day. [They] are impudent and stubborn." Go ahead, Lord, don't hold back. Tell us how you really feel.
And I am sending you to them... [so] do not be afraid of them, though briers and thorns surround you and you live among scorpions; do not be afraid of their words, and do not be afraid of their words, and do not be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house... Whether they hear or refuse to hear, by gum, they shall know that there has been a prophet among them.
Now, I added the "by gum" there for emphasis, but you get the point. This is not going to be easy. Ezekiel is being called to confront the powers and principalities who determine, govern, control, and finance just about everything in his society with a naked, ugly truth that not only do they not want to hear, but they may not even be able to hear, given how completely enthralled they have become to their sin. The idolatrous way they imagine themselves in the place that rightfully belongs only to God is not just a bit of distasteful icing on the cake, it's the cake... and the plate the cake is sitting on... and the table below that.
And, in case you missed it, God doesn't want Ezekiel to mince any words, either. There's to be no watering down of God's word, no soft-sell. That's why God makes the prophet literal eat the message God would have him speak, an entire scroll jam-packed with the judgment of God on those who would claim God's proper authority for their petty political plans. God says, "O mortal, eat this scroll that I give you and fill your stomach with it... and go, speak to the house of Israel... speak my very words to them.".
So maybe Ezekiel was crazy. After all, who among us would choose such a calling? When it comes down to it, I'm more like Jonah than Ezekiel. At heart, I'm not such a confrontational person. Wrath is not my preferred modus operandi. Anger, no matter how righteous, scares the bejeebus out of me. Faced with such a calling, I'd much rather take ship in the opposite direction. I mean, can't we just all sit down like reasonable people and talk this out? Can't we just all get along?
But the truth is, as with all true prophets, Ezekiel doesn't choose his calling. It chooses him. God chooses him to speak a particularly hard word in a particularly hard time and place and to a particularly hard people. And God is the first to admit that this job shouldn't really be so hard. To paraphrase:
Listen, it's not like I'm sending you to a people who speak some obscure foreign language, or to some polyglot meeting of the United Nations where you wouldn't understand a single word. Heck, if I did send you there, they'd probably be more likely to listen to you. But I am sending you to your very own people, and they won't hear you because they're just not willing to listen. No, sadly, their heads are by now as hard as their hearts. But you hear me, so it's your responsibility to speak out, whether they listen or not, to say to them, "Thus says the Lord God."
And so to go along with this new calling, God gives Ezekiel a hard head, too, like the hard heads of his audience, hard like flint. This is a gift I crave for myself, because I do feel called, not just as a minister but as a member of Christ's church, to speak out in our own particularly hard time and place and to our own particularly hard headed powers and principalities. Despite the misgivings of my inner Jonah, I do eel called, like Ezekiel, to name aloud what I believe is an idolatrous spirit at work in our world and in our nation today.
Yes, idolatry, for what else should we call it when political leaders and parties claim divine sanction for their programs of empire building, war-profiteering, fear-mongering, even torture? When religious institutions seek to impose their own petty prejudices and predilections on their neighbors through the force of law under the pretense of God's will? When corporations, operating within what they believe to be God's own capitalism, consolidate wealth for the few at the expense of the welfare of the many, and corporate officers seem bound and determined to find a way to take it all with them when they go? There are plenty today who believe that they are God's chosen people, living in God's chosen land, worshiping in God's chosen church, and following God's chosen president, so God must be on their side and they can do no wrong.
Well, I have news for them: God chooses a lot of people. That is the flipside of the Biblical witness. God chose, Israel, yes, but God also chose Ruth, the lowly Moabite, and Cyrus, the mighty Persian (Isa 44:28ff), to be a part of God's purpose for the world. And of course, in Christ and through his apostles, God chooses the gentiles, ie the rest of us, all people, everywhere to take part of God's far-flung kingdom. God chooses a lot of people. God chooses men, but God also chooses women. God chooses white folk, but not without choosing people of every other color, too. God chooses straight people, of course, but God also chooses lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons. God chooses the rich, it's true, but actually, we believe, prefers the poor. And yes, God does choose the United States of America, but... well, God chooses a lot of people. God is always on the side of what is right—the side of love—not just the right people.
But it hurts to say that out loud in our society today. It hurts to keep banging my head up against the heard heads of the powers that be who seem intent on pursuing idolatry as a policy in the court house and the church house and the customs house today. It hurts to read the paper, to watch the news. Fact is, even though I know it's not really the news, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Comedy Central is just about the only news I can stand to watch at this point. It hurts to see so many so completely enthralled to the self-serving machinations of folks who claim to have their best interests at heart when really, most likely, they wouldn't give them the time of day if they worked in a watch factory. And even when I manage to get my ego all the way out of the way—and that is difficult, we know that; there is some emotional satisfaction in being the underdog—it hurts to have the word of peace, justice, and compassion I bring from my understanding of God's word so utterly rejected.
Just imagine how Jesus must have felt when he encountered the rejection of his word by his neighbors in Nazareth. Here's Jesus, the Son of the Living God, the Word incarnate, and despite the wisdom of his words and the power of his actions, all they can see is the uppity boy next door. And not only do they reject him, they take offense at him, call him not only a dreamer but a blasphemer. And, as the story goes, "he could do no deed of power there." Knock your head up against that for a moment: Their habit of disbelief, their refusal to hear what God has to offer through him, is so strong it actually stymies the ability of the Messiah to create change.
But like Ezekiel before him, Jesus kept on keeping on in the way of God, because even though his head was hard—and it had to be—his heart wasn't. That is the gift of the true prophet, the same gift Ezekiel received, if you read closely: a hard head and a soft heart. Jesus, remained tender-hearted to the last. Every hurtful word, every hateful act, every apathetic reaction, every stingy response to those in need, every injustice dressed up as righteousness, every word of grace refused, every opportunity for change missed—each and every time, Jesus' heart broke inside him. Yet Jesus persevered in his prophetic calling, all the way from tiny Nazareth to Jerusalem, to the high priest's house, the king's palace, the governor's headquarters and beyond that, to the cross, not because he was right, which we believe he still is, but because he loved the world so very much. Jesus loved them all, loves us all, even those who refuse him and persecute him and put him to death. How else could he pray from the cross, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing" (Luke 23:34) unless out of sheer, hard-headed love that refused to take no, even the no of death for an answer?
In the wake of the death of The Rev. William Sloane Coffin, for many years the chaplain across the street at Yale University and an infamous gadfly to the conscience of this nation during the dark hours of Vietnam and the cold, dangerous days of nuclear détente in Europe, many in the peace-with-justice community are asking, Where are today's prophets? Where are those who will take up the mantle of Martin Luther King, of Mother Jones, of Harvey Milk, of Betty Friedan, and so many other fallen prophets? Well, I believe Coffin himself would say, "We're right here." You and I are the church. The legacy of Ezekiel and Isaiah and Jeremiah and, yes, Jesus, falls to us, not just to the heroes, but to those of us who sit in the pew and listen to the story of God's challenging and transforming love made flesh in history. So if you listen, friends, then hear, and if you hear, then act.
This is my prayer for myself this morning, and for you, if you'd like it:
O Lord, give us hard heads and soft hearts. Give us the evangelical courage to persevere in our prophetic witness for your extravagant welcome and your purposes of peace, justice, and compassion for all people in the face not only of the powers and principalities of our world, but even closer to home, of our friends and families and neighbors who may not want to hear what you have to say through us. Help us to stand up, speak up, speak out, even as we believe you are still speaking about the ways of our world, which are not yet your holy ways.
But keep us grounded always in love, in tender hearts which are moved not only by the plight of the sinned against but also the sinner. Help us to move through our discomfort to a place where we will not take no for an answer, but the moment we do not speak from love, O God, stop our mouths.
And keep us humble, Lord. Remind us that though you call us as partners in your great work of transformation, we, like Ezekiel, are merely mortal, merely human, beloved by you even as we are judged by your righteous will and redeemed by your amazing grace. Where we stray, correct us and keep us in your will. In the good and strong name of Jesus, who is the pioneer and perfector of our faith, we pray. Amen.