Sermon Tone Analysis

If your love was a river,

Have your ever tried reading the Old Testament from cover to cover?

If you have I wouldn’t be surprised it you found it at times difficult.

It is there I would bathe,

The the laws and regulations of Leviticus appear to us strange and the dizzy heights of apocalyptic visions of the back end of the book of Daniel are confusing to say the least.

Readers sometimes feel they are wading through treacle when they hit the seeming endless genealogies of Chronicles or overwhelmed with emotion at the violence, both human and divine, that is displayed in what some call the ‘texts of terror’.

If your love were a fountain,

When I teach Old Testament at St Hild I tell students that the Old testament is not written to us but for us.

It’s like we are reading someone else mail.

And the original author and readership, inhabitants of the ancient near east, were from a culture very different than ours so it not surprising that we find these texts at times but difficult and strange.

It is there I would drink.

However, these texts are for us today.

In them we find the the back story of God’s work in the world, we gain insight into the complexity of the human condition and most importantly we discover the God who has revealed himself in our Saviour Jesus Christ.

Over the next two weeks we are going to be looking at two strange and shocking passages from the the prophet Ezekiel.

Each of the sermons will have extended reading of scripture which focus on two of the major themes and narrative turning points of the bible.

Exile: Gods people are exiled are sent away from the land.

The Babylonian Empire are on the move and surround, take over and eventually bring destruction to the Jerusalem and the Temple.

Its from this place that Boney M sang the words ‘By the rivers of Babylon, their we wept when we remembered Zion’.

Return from Exile.

God’s people in Exile in Babylon return to the land and rebuild the Temple.

So in order to appreciate these prophetic oracles as it was first spoken I want us to use our historical imaginations to place us back there in the culture and the context in which our passage was first spoken.

Once I have set the scene I will read to you from Ezekiel Chapter 16.

When Ezekiel spoke these words I don’t imagine that he spoke from a lectern in an anglican way so my reader will seek to embody the emotion of the passage, using music and drama, to bring this ancient text to life.

I want us to imagine ourselves in a market place in a refugee camp by the Chebar River, in Babylonia.

We are part of the 8,000-10,000 individuals who had been deported from Jerusalem and sent to Babylonia.

Here we we are exiled away from the Jerusalem, from Judah and the Temple.

We are the elite in exile ….nobles, artisans and priests.

(the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple hasn’t yet happened )

We have heard that the young man Ezekiel, a so called prophet, has a message from YHWH the God of Israel, to share with us.

Over here we have the nobles, the educated elite, who have come to hear what this prophet Ezekiel has to say.

You are biding your time, you have forgotten your identity as the children of Abraham and you continue to play the power games of empire Yes, you suppose God is a little angry with you, yes you oppressed the poor, but no big deal you believe that you will soon be back in the land and your lives back on track.

Over here are the priests who long to return to the Jerusalem to worship at the temple of YHWH.

You believe that Babylon isn’t that bad, that God is not really angry at you and that very soon we will be back in the land.

And like your counterparts in Jerusalem you worship YHWH on the sabbath, you perhaps have sacrifices presented for you in the temple of Jerusalem, But you are also known as those who in various times and places bow the knee to foreign pagan gods.

Furthermore, you also those who turn a blind eye to those who have been burning their children as sacrifices to false Gods.

Over here are the artisans and artists.

You are going to make the most of it here in Babylonia and you look forward to the future with hope.

You hope that this alliance with Babylon will bring material gain and new opportunities for business.

However, you have forgotten where you have come from that YHWH has called you, has loved you, has chosen you to be a light to the world and a blessing to the nations.

And then the Prophet Ezekiel, the one who speaks to the nobles, artists and priests without fear because he has first spent time in the presence of YHWH, opens his mouth.

(10 mins-Music Sad Classical Playlist)

16 The word of the Lord came to me: 2“Son of man, confront Jerusalem with her detestable practices 3and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says to Jerusalem:

Your ancestry and birth were in the land of the Canaanites; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.

4On the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to make you clean, nor were you rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths.

5No one looked on you with pity or had compassion enough to do any of these things for you.

Rather, you were thrown out into the open field, for on the day you were born you were despised.

6“ ‘Then I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, “Live!” 7I made you grow like a plant of the field.

You grew and developed and entered puberty.

Your breasts had formed and your hair had grown, yet you were stark naked.

8“ ‘Later I passed by, and when I looked at you and saw that you were old enough for love, I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness.

I gave you my solemn oath and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Sovereign Lord, and you became mine.

9“ ‘I bathed you with water and washed the blood from you and put ointments on you.

10I clothed you with an embroidered dress and put sandals of fine leather on you.

I dressed you in fine linen and covered you with costly garments.

11I adorned you with jewelry: I put bracelets on your arms and a necklace around your neck, 12and I put a ring on your nose, earrings on your ears and a beautiful crown on your head.

13So you were adorned with gold and silver; your clothes were of fine linen and costly fabric and embroidered cloth.

Your food was honey, olive oil and the finest flour.

You became very beautiful and rose to be a queen.

14And your fame spread among the nations on account of your beauty, because the splendor I had given you made your beauty perfect, declares the Sovereign Lord.

15“ ‘But you trusted in your beauty and used your fame to become a prostitute.

You lavished your favors on anyone who passed by and your beauty became his.

16You took some of your garments to make gaudy high places, where you carried on your prostitution.

You went to him, and he possessed your beauty.

17You also took the fine jewelry I gave you, the jewelry made of my gold and silver, and you made for yourself male idols and engaged in prostitution with them.

18And you took your embroidered clothes to put on them, and you offered my oil and incense before them.

19Also the food I provided for you—the flour, olive oil and honey I gave you to eat—you offered as fragrant incense before them.

That is what happened, declares the Sovereign Lord.

20“ ‘And you took your sons and daughters whom you bore to me and sacrificed them as food to the idols.

Was your prostitution not enough?

21You slaughtered my children and sacrificed them to the idols.

22In all your detestable practices and your prostitution you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, kicking about in your blood.

30“ ‘I am filled with fury against you, declares the Sovereign Lord, when you do all these things, acting like a brazen prostitute!

31When you built your mounds at every street corner and made your lofty shrines in every public square, you were unlike a prostitute, because you scorned payment.

32“ ‘You adulterous wife!

You prefer strangers to your own husband!

….

35“ ‘Therefore, you prostitute, hear the word of the Lord! 36This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Because you poured out your lust and exposed your nakedness in your promiscuity with your lovers, and because of all your detestable idols, and because you gave them your children’s blood, 37therefore… I will deliver you into the hands of your lovers, and they will tear down your mounds and destroy your lofty shrines.

They will strip you of your clothes and take your fine jewelry and leave you naked and bare.

40They will bring a mob against you, who will stone you and hack you to pieces with their swords.

41They will burn down your houses and inflict punishment on you ….I will put a stop to your prostitution,…… you did not remember the days of your youth but enraged me with all these things, I will surely bring down on your head what you have done, declares the Sovereign Lord.

60Yet I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you.

….

I will establish my covenant with you, and you will know that I am the Lord.

63Then, when I make atonement for you for all you have done…you will remember.. declares the Sovereign Lord.’ ”

[Take a few minutes to chat to your neighbour about the impact of this passage].

Passion of YHWH: (4 mins or less)

In this passage the Ancient hearers come face to face with a God who is passionate and burns with a furious and zealous love.

This is not the God of philosophical speculation a God who can be desribed as an unmoved mover or absent landlord, but rather this is YHWH the covenant God who presents himself as a lover, intimately involved with passion and emotion with a people group who are objects of both his affection and anger.

As we heard this passage being read we see YHWH the lover

who has pursued his love,

lavished gifts on his love,

entered into covenant partnership and marriage with his love.

A God who burns with holy rage when he discovers that his love has other lovers.

And then with a broken heart he lets her go, but even then he turns and says he will remember the covenant he has made and, as the rest of the bible shows he goes out to pursue his love again to bring her home.

This message is for us today for The God and Father of of our Lord Jesus Christ is a lover, full of emotion and passion for his people.

YHWH a God who woos the rebel, loves the unlovable,

He is the God who goes after the lost sheep, and who welcomes the prodigal , a God who who promises to his people that even in their exile and the desert place there is hope.

YHWH is passionate lover that risks a broken heart, a passionate love that is played out over centuries and across the cosmos, a love that is willing to go through hell and high water so that the church, which includes broken sinners like me and you, can be in intimate union with him forever.

A love stronger than betrayal

stronger than the power of sin

a burning passionate furious love.

It is this love, through the Spirit, which was tugging at our hearts as scripture was being spoken, to call us afresh to repentance, fidelity and allegiance.