Prophet to a Hostile Nation

July 5, 2015
Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
First Reading: Ezekiel 2:2-5
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/070515.cfm

The truth hurts. That’s why we must be careful in the way we share it. When you live with a lie for a long time, it starts to become part of you—like ivy on a brick building or a parasite vine on a tree. When someone comes along with a knife to cut off the harmful vine, you might be shocked, angered, or even truly hurt. The tree does not understand the gardener’s true intentions, but only sees the violence being done. God called Ezekiel to be a prophet in a time of change, challenge and difficulty, when God’s people had strayed from his purpose, suffered the consequences, and become stubborn in their disobedience. Ezekiel had quite a task on his hands, being the messenger for the true Gardener.

Standing Up

This Sunday’s first reading comes from Ezekiel chapter 2 where we are presented with Ezekiel’s calling by God. It is similar to the call of Isaiah (Isa 6) and the call of Jeremiah (Jer 1). The Lord has granted Ezekiel an astounding vision of his glory, his divine presence—where he sees the four living creatures, an almost indescribable expanse, and the very throne of God himself. (You can read about that in Ezekiel 1.) Once granted this vision, Ezekiel does what you should do and falls on his face before God (Ezek 1:28). Yet the very first thing God says to Ezekiel is “Stand on your feet!” (Ezek 2:1).

I would imagine Ezekiel felt odd about this. He had done what he was supposed to do in God’s presence—lie prostrate before him—and yet God commands him to stand. God is not calling Ezekiel to be a pure contemplative, but to be a prophet. He does right by lying prostrate, but he does even better by standing in obedience to God’s call. This is a powerful lesson for us—that God sometimes calls us to intimacy in prayer and worship, but other times he calls us to act, to go, to do, to tell. We must be attentive to his voice to know when the time is right to switch modes. No one is called to pure action without prayer and only very few—the cloistered monks and nuns—are called to all prayer all the time.

A Nation of Rebels

When your boss sends you to meet people, it is always more comfortable if he can honestly say “They’re nice people.” But here, God sends Ezekiel into a firestorm. He is not going to preach to the choir, but to a crowd of “rebels” (Ezek 2:3 RSV). That’s small comfort for a messenger. Hostile people don’t like to hear words that challenge them, confront them, or in this case, even judge them. God indicts his people for disobedience through his prophet Ezekiel. The Lord was in a committed relationship with them and they did not uphold their end of the bargain, er, covenant. He has a right to charge them with infidelity and Ezekiel is the bearer of that bad news

Stubborn as Scorpions

Not only are they likely to chafe at the message, they are “impudent and stubborn” (Ezek 2:4). That is, they are not likely to change their behavior even at the behest of God’s own prophet. It gets worse. In the verse after our reading selection, the Lord stiffens his warning about exactly how obstinate this people is:

And you, son of man, be not afraid of them,
nor be afraid of their words,
though briers and thorns are with you and you sit upon scorpions;
be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks,
for they are a rebellious house. (Ezek 2:6 RSV)

Preaching to the Israelites will be like sitting on scorpions! Ezekiel certainly has his work cut out for him. But notably, God warns Ezekiel against a normal social habit that he would be tempted to succumb to: to fear other people. If Ezekiel allowed fear to overcome him, then he would not preach the message of judgment, repentance, and restoration that God has given him. If he were to keep silent, the rebellious people would never hear what God so wanted them to hear—a difficult message, a challenging one, even a hurtful one, but a message that will bring healing and restoration.

The trouble with a passage like this is that sometimes we are one side and sometimes on the other. Sometimes we are the stubborn ones, resisting God’s message to us, treating his messengers with contempt. In those times, we need to let go of our resentment, to embrace the humility necessary for repentance and change, to let down our guard and let God in. Other times, we might find ourselves in the role of the prophet, where God is calling us to speak on his behalf. In those times, it might be tempting to give in to fear or to hide in prayer, lacking courage to stand up and speak. When the time to speak does come though, we must choose our words carefully. In fact, Jesus promises us that he will provide what we need: “When they deliver you up, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say; for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour” (Matt 10:19 RSV). Hopefully, we’ll have the courage of Ezekiel to garden with God, even if it involves some pruning.

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Mark Giszczak (“geese-check”) was born and raised in Ann Arbor, MI. He studied philosophy and theology at Ave Maria College in Ypsilanti, MI and Sacred Scripture at the Augustine Institute of Denver, CO. He recently received his Ph. D. in Biblical Studies at the Catholic University of America. He currently teaches courses in Scripture at the Augustine Institute, where he has been on faculty since 2010. Dr. Giszczak has participated in many evangelization projects and is the author of the CatholicBibleStudent.com blog. He has written introductions to every book of the Bible that are hosted at CatholicNewsAgency.com. Dr. Giszczak, his wife and their daughter, live in Colorado where they enjoy camping and hiking in the Rocky Mountains.

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