Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24br...
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Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24
One evening for an hour before bed I watched a television special on starving children. The program was both explaining the problem and raising money for some permanent solutions. The cameras aimed from many perspectives at skinny, shrunken children with distended stomachs.
I went to bed, closed my eyes, and no matter what I thought of, I could still see those children. Whether I considered changing the oil in the car, phoning my parents, or reading a book, somehow the faces of these children were in my sight.
Ezekiel has a more intense experience. As a prophet he "sees" reality that is truer than what others perceive. For him, no matter how others view the state of the nation's people and the quality of their leaders, he "sees everywhere" God's hungry and harassed people as sheep that are abused and abandoned by their leaders/shepherds.
Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24
"Your children are so talented -- and yet they're so nice!" people often exclaimed to Janet. Janet's two children were talented musicians, straight-A students, community volunteers, and active in student organizations at the public high school. Janet's children worked hard to achieve their goals, like many of their peers, but there was something about these siblings that set them apart: their humility. Both Shawn and Sarah used their talents to encourage others instead of using them to raise up themselves. In Shawn's words, "God has given us so many blessings; it's not our place to be arrogant simply because of his gracious gifts. God has given me a loving family and many talents, and it's my job to pass that on." Shawn and Sarah used their strengths to show God's love through their actions instead of using their strengths to glorify only themselves.
Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24
During the exile, God's people are scattered like abandoned sheep. The people of Israel are longing to return to the good old days in their homeland, when David was their king. God promises that God will lead them and place over them a shepherd like David, thus establishing a new covenant of peace through the coming Messiah.
The ancient image of shepherd was often used as a symbol for the king of a nation. God is pictured as the shepherd-king who cares for the flock. Former leaders of Israel have abused their power and exploited the people. Human leadership tends to become self-serving over time. "You eat the best portion and clothe yourselves with wool, but you do not feed the sheep. You have not strengthened the weak, healed the sick, bound up the injured." Their former leaders have been poor shepherds who have not gathered them, cared for their wounds, fed them, or protected them from harm.
Ezekiel speaks of God's care for the outcast and afflicted. God will provide justice by holding accountable those who have gained prosperity at the expense of others. There will be a final judgment and individuals will be called into account.
Ephesians 1:15-23
A widow trudges through a cemetery, counting off the rows of headstones, until she reaches the one with her husband's name inscribed upon it. As she takes trowel in hand and kneels down to plant those flower bulbs or to pull those stray weeds, she remembers. In her weeding, she remembers. In her planting, she remembers. In those few whispered words of affection, spoken as though he were kneeling right beside her, she remembers.
Maybe he wasn't "a saint," as most people commonly use that word. Maybe he had his faults and foibles like anyone else. But maybe, in the faith the two of them shared, in the grace and forgiveness he asked for and received in his time, she can dare to remember him as one of the saints.
She can dare to picture him seated at that great banqueting table: to which, one day, as the Lord Jesus says, people will come "from east and west, from north and south." Maybe, as she sits in the church pew and partakes of bread and wine, she will sense, in that moment of time, the truth of the final prayer of George Macleod, founder of the Iona Community, the one he arranged to have read at his own funeral: "Thus shall we come to know within ourselves that there is no death and that only a veil divides, thin as gossamer."
Maybe she will remember how the two of them used to sit, in the evening, at the kitchen table, sipping their coffee, sharing stories of the day, looking death in the face and laughing. And maybe, as she thinks now of her own death, a little smile will dance across the wrinkled corners of her mouth, and she will know, deep within her, it is nothing to be feared.
Ephesians 1:15-23
Throughout high school, Stephanie was not open to talk about spiritual matters. Whenever one of her friends would try to talk to her about Jesus she would reply, "Don't go there!" and that would end any possibility of discussion. At other times she would simply walk away. Stephanie made some bad decisions and began using drugs that in her mind seemed to push her farther way from God.
Her friends continued to talk and little by little Stephanie seemed more open to matters of faith. Slowly she began changing and even began attending worship with one of her friends. Still she did not want to hear about Jesus or God. Fortunately her friends never gave up on her. Gently her friends would tell her how much Jesus loved her.
Several months later, Stephanie went to the altar following worship to pray that Jesus would forgive her sins and change her life. Stephanie wanted to study the Bible. Her attitude seemed to change almost over night. Her friends were amazed. She did not stop there; she befriended other people who were going through their rebellious years experimenting with drugs. She would share her experiences and how she came to find Jesus or rather how Jesus found her through her friends.
The apostle Paul writes, "I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers."
Ephesians 1:15-23
Vera is one of the most hope-filled people one will ever meet. Daily she comes to the street mission and offers to help in any way she can. Most often she is given the chore of sweeping up after the noon meal, putting the chairs back under the tables, and helping set up for the evening meal.
Vera never discloses her age; she may not even know it. She appears to be at least sixty or older and lives in a one-room apartment over a rundown diner. She has no family that she has ever talked about, lives week-to-week on a small disability payment and handouts, and walks with a decided limp due to a work-related accident many years ago.
Yet one never sees Vera without an ear-to-ear grin. She never complains, always seeing the good in every person and situation. Asked by a local pastor one day why she is always so upbeat, Vera simply said, "How can I not be? My hope is in Jesus."
Vera obviously knows the hope that Paul prayed the Ephesians would experience.
Matthew 25:31-46
Henry van Dyke was an author, educator, and clergyman. His influence continues through the words "Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee" that he wrote to Beethoven's "Ode To Joy." His story "The Other Wise Man" is another lasting achievement.
In this short story, Artaban sells his possessions to buy three jewels for the newborn Jewish king. He misses the departure of the other wise men from Persia and spends the rest of his life searching for him. Every time he's near he misses Jesus and also, from his compassion, gives away his first two jewels to help others.
Finally, in Jerusalem he's rushing to Golgotha to save Jesus when, instead, he's compelled to use his last jewel to ransom a girl being dragged into slavery. The sky darkens and an earthquake shakes roofing tiles onto his head. The girl hears a voice and the dying old man responds, "Not so, my Lord! For when saw I thee an hungered and fed thee?"
The Other Wise Man had found the king and his treasures had been accepted.
Matthew 25:31-46
"Just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me." Is that concept so surprising? In elementary school, if somebody punched your little brother, you and all your siblings were quick to his defense. If someone insulted your cousin, you had something to say about it. Shakespeare used the blood feud of the Capulet and Montague families as the vehicle for Romeo and Juliet's tragedy. Closer to home, the Hatfield-McCoy feud on the West Virginia-Kentucky border killed six of Randolph McCoy's sixteen children, not to mention the many other deaths on both sides of the feud. There are hundreds of stories about families who get involved in conflict on behalf of only one family member. But it works the other way, too: show kindness to a person in need, and you may gain an entire clan as your ally. Don't we consider ourselves God's children? Then let's not be surprised that our hospitality to others, however indirect, makes God our ally.
Matthew 25:31-46
Sandy and Kevin began a prison ministry at the county jail. They travel weekly to this detention center, known on the street as the "Downtown Hilton," for a Bible study, sharing, and a time of prayer. They all sat in a circle sharing prayer concerns. The inmates' burdens were heavy: a mother separated from her children; a young man struggling with a drug addiction; a homeless woman who was picked up off the streets; and others who were fighting loneliness, guilt, doubt, fear, and depression. Stories of abuse, neglect, and abandonment were all too familiar. Anger was often directed at God.
Still, God was at work in that place. Concrete walls, electronic doors, and jail cells keep inmates in, but they cannot keep the pursuing grace and forgiving love of God's Spirit out. During their time Angela, a new inmate, wanted to share. "I count every experience in my life, good or bad, as either a lesson or a blessin'. I like to keep it simple. To me everything is either a lesson or a blessin'." There were amens around the room. We all knew then that the Holy Spirit was speaking. That day Sandy and Kevin knew that they had also received a lesson and a blessin'.
One evening for an hour before bed I watched a television special on starving children. The program was both explaining the problem and raising money for some permanent solutions. The cameras aimed from many perspectives at skinny, shrunken children with distended stomachs.
I went to bed, closed my eyes, and no matter what I thought of, I could still see those children. Whether I considered changing the oil in the car, phoning my parents, or reading a book, somehow the faces of these children were in my sight.
Ezekiel has a more intense experience. As a prophet he "sees" reality that is truer than what others perceive. For him, no matter how others view the state of the nation's people and the quality of their leaders, he "sees everywhere" God's hungry and harassed people as sheep that are abused and abandoned by their leaders/shepherds.
Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24
"Your children are so talented -- and yet they're so nice!" people often exclaimed to Janet. Janet's two children were talented musicians, straight-A students, community volunteers, and active in student organizations at the public high school. Janet's children worked hard to achieve their goals, like many of their peers, but there was something about these siblings that set them apart: their humility. Both Shawn and Sarah used their talents to encourage others instead of using them to raise up themselves. In Shawn's words, "God has given us so many blessings; it's not our place to be arrogant simply because of his gracious gifts. God has given me a loving family and many talents, and it's my job to pass that on." Shawn and Sarah used their strengths to show God's love through their actions instead of using their strengths to glorify only themselves.
Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24
During the exile, God's people are scattered like abandoned sheep. The people of Israel are longing to return to the good old days in their homeland, when David was their king. God promises that God will lead them and place over them a shepherd like David, thus establishing a new covenant of peace through the coming Messiah.
The ancient image of shepherd was often used as a symbol for the king of a nation. God is pictured as the shepherd-king who cares for the flock. Former leaders of Israel have abused their power and exploited the people. Human leadership tends to become self-serving over time. "You eat the best portion and clothe yourselves with wool, but you do not feed the sheep. You have not strengthened the weak, healed the sick, bound up the injured." Their former leaders have been poor shepherds who have not gathered them, cared for their wounds, fed them, or protected them from harm.
Ezekiel speaks of God's care for the outcast and afflicted. God will provide justice by holding accountable those who have gained prosperity at the expense of others. There will be a final judgment and individuals will be called into account.
Ephesians 1:15-23
A widow trudges through a cemetery, counting off the rows of headstones, until she reaches the one with her husband's name inscribed upon it. As she takes trowel in hand and kneels down to plant those flower bulbs or to pull those stray weeds, she remembers. In her weeding, she remembers. In her planting, she remembers. In those few whispered words of affection, spoken as though he were kneeling right beside her, she remembers.
Maybe he wasn't "a saint," as most people commonly use that word. Maybe he had his faults and foibles like anyone else. But maybe, in the faith the two of them shared, in the grace and forgiveness he asked for and received in his time, she can dare to remember him as one of the saints.
She can dare to picture him seated at that great banqueting table: to which, one day, as the Lord Jesus says, people will come "from east and west, from north and south." Maybe, as she sits in the church pew and partakes of bread and wine, she will sense, in that moment of time, the truth of the final prayer of George Macleod, founder of the Iona Community, the one he arranged to have read at his own funeral: "Thus shall we come to know within ourselves that there is no death and that only a veil divides, thin as gossamer."
Maybe she will remember how the two of them used to sit, in the evening, at the kitchen table, sipping their coffee, sharing stories of the day, looking death in the face and laughing. And maybe, as she thinks now of her own death, a little smile will dance across the wrinkled corners of her mouth, and she will know, deep within her, it is nothing to be feared.
Ephesians 1:15-23
Throughout high school, Stephanie was not open to talk about spiritual matters. Whenever one of her friends would try to talk to her about Jesus she would reply, "Don't go there!" and that would end any possibility of discussion. At other times she would simply walk away. Stephanie made some bad decisions and began using drugs that in her mind seemed to push her farther way from God.
Her friends continued to talk and little by little Stephanie seemed more open to matters of faith. Slowly she began changing and even began attending worship with one of her friends. Still she did not want to hear about Jesus or God. Fortunately her friends never gave up on her. Gently her friends would tell her how much Jesus loved her.
Several months later, Stephanie went to the altar following worship to pray that Jesus would forgive her sins and change her life. Stephanie wanted to study the Bible. Her attitude seemed to change almost over night. Her friends were amazed. She did not stop there; she befriended other people who were going through their rebellious years experimenting with drugs. She would share her experiences and how she came to find Jesus or rather how Jesus found her through her friends.
The apostle Paul writes, "I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers."
Ephesians 1:15-23
Vera is one of the most hope-filled people one will ever meet. Daily she comes to the street mission and offers to help in any way she can. Most often she is given the chore of sweeping up after the noon meal, putting the chairs back under the tables, and helping set up for the evening meal.
Vera never discloses her age; she may not even know it. She appears to be at least sixty or older and lives in a one-room apartment over a rundown diner. She has no family that she has ever talked about, lives week-to-week on a small disability payment and handouts, and walks with a decided limp due to a work-related accident many years ago.
Yet one never sees Vera without an ear-to-ear grin. She never complains, always seeing the good in every person and situation. Asked by a local pastor one day why she is always so upbeat, Vera simply said, "How can I not be? My hope is in Jesus."
Vera obviously knows the hope that Paul prayed the Ephesians would experience.
Matthew 25:31-46
Henry van Dyke was an author, educator, and clergyman. His influence continues through the words "Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee" that he wrote to Beethoven's "Ode To Joy." His story "The Other Wise Man" is another lasting achievement.
In this short story, Artaban sells his possessions to buy three jewels for the newborn Jewish king. He misses the departure of the other wise men from Persia and spends the rest of his life searching for him. Every time he's near he misses Jesus and also, from his compassion, gives away his first two jewels to help others.
Finally, in Jerusalem he's rushing to Golgotha to save Jesus when, instead, he's compelled to use his last jewel to ransom a girl being dragged into slavery. The sky darkens and an earthquake shakes roofing tiles onto his head. The girl hears a voice and the dying old man responds, "Not so, my Lord! For when saw I thee an hungered and fed thee?"
The Other Wise Man had found the king and his treasures had been accepted.
Matthew 25:31-46
"Just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me." Is that concept so surprising? In elementary school, if somebody punched your little brother, you and all your siblings were quick to his defense. If someone insulted your cousin, you had something to say about it. Shakespeare used the blood feud of the Capulet and Montague families as the vehicle for Romeo and Juliet's tragedy. Closer to home, the Hatfield-McCoy feud on the West Virginia-Kentucky border killed six of Randolph McCoy's sixteen children, not to mention the many other deaths on both sides of the feud. There are hundreds of stories about families who get involved in conflict on behalf of only one family member. But it works the other way, too: show kindness to a person in need, and you may gain an entire clan as your ally. Don't we consider ourselves God's children? Then let's not be surprised that our hospitality to others, however indirect, makes God our ally.
Matthew 25:31-46
Sandy and Kevin began a prison ministry at the county jail. They travel weekly to this detention center, known on the street as the "Downtown Hilton," for a Bible study, sharing, and a time of prayer. They all sat in a circle sharing prayer concerns. The inmates' burdens were heavy: a mother separated from her children; a young man struggling with a drug addiction; a homeless woman who was picked up off the streets; and others who were fighting loneliness, guilt, doubt, fear, and depression. Stories of abuse, neglect, and abandonment were all too familiar. Anger was often directed at God.
Still, God was at work in that place. Concrete walls, electronic doors, and jail cells keep inmates in, but they cannot keep the pursuing grace and forgiving love of God's Spirit out. During their time Angela, a new inmate, wanted to share. "I count every experience in my life, good or bad, as either a lesson or a blessin'. I like to keep it simple. To me everything is either a lesson or a blessin'." There were amens around the room. We all knew then that the Holy Spirit was speaking. That day Sandy and Kevin knew that they had also received a lesson and a blessin'.
