God Calling

Jim:

The three readings today all have something to do with God calling people, whether to faithful obedience, a clearer understanding of God’s activities, or to diligent living.

Ezekiel 4:1-17
Poor Ezekiel! Called by God to be a prophet he finds himself doing all sorts of unpleasant things. And even if he didn’t actually lie on his left side for 390 days and on his right for 40, the intent is to symbolize a very unpleasant reality. That’s what strikes me about this passage today, the symbolism with which God conveys the divine message. God “speaks” in a number of ways throughout the Bible, and in this case God is using dramatic symbolism, challenging the people to perceive a new reality, to see things God’s way. God’s activities in history are often on such a grand scale that the only way we humans could grasp them would be through symbolism or metaphor. Our eyes and ears have to be opened and our minds stretched to even begin to understand what God is doing. In this case it is poor Ezekiel who is called on to provide the symbolism.

Hebrews 6:1-12
Ezekiel certainly knew something about diligence, and diligence is what the writer of the book of Hebrews is encouraging in verses 11 and 12. “And we want each of you to show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope to the very end, so that you may not become sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promise.” Sluggish is a funny word, but it is one that I relate to. In fact I use it often, but it never means things are running smoothly or efficiently. If you’ve ever watched a slug for very long you’ve seen a slow, messy, inefficient creature that seems to have no real direction or purpose. Those who live the gospel with faith and patience are far from sluggish, but instead are the active, purposeful, and direct. It is the non-sluggish ones that we are to imitate so that our lives, too, may offer witness to the good news of the gospel.

Luke 9:51-62
One of my favorite verses in Luke is 9:62, “Jesus said to him, ‘No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’” Now I’m no farmer, I don’t even do much gardening, but I can imagine that to plow while looking where you’ve been would be pretty difficult. So there is a practical side to what Jesus has said. But as usual we need to consider the verse in it’s context if we want to get its full meaning. Someone has just said to Jesus that they wish to follow him but first they want to say goodbye to the folks back home. To follow Jesus of course means more than traveling with him or walking a few steps behind him. It means to live in accordance with the gospel that he has come to proclaim. It means living in a new way with faithful obedience to the word of God. If this person, whoever he or she was, really wanted to commit to a life of faithful obedience they didn’t need to start by turning to the old ways of doing things, which is what saying goodbye to the folks at home means. That’s a little like beginning a diet by first eating all the foods that have made you overweight. It’s also like trying to plow while looking behind and not ahead. The kingdom of God is for those who live in faithful obedience and who cease to live in the old ways that have served to separate them from God.