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Reign of Christ Sunday

Ezekiel 34
For thus says the Lord God: I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. 12As shepherds seek out their flocks when they are among their scattered sheep, so I will seek out my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. 13I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited parts of the land. 14I will feed them with good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture; there they shall lie down in good grazing land, and they shall feed on rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. 15I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God. 16I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice.
20 Therefore, thus says the Lord God to them: I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. 21Because you pushed with flank and shoulder, and butted at all the weak animals with your horns until you scattered them far and wide, 22I will save my flock, and they shall no longer be ravaged; and I will judge between sheep and sheep.
23 I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd. 24And I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them; I, the Lord, have spoken.

You hear a prophetic utterance, and all I can think is steak.

Maybe it’s our proximity to lunchtime, and maybe it’s a fruitless longing for barbecue season, but when I read “you pushed with flank and shoulder, and butted at all the weak animals with your horns” from the passage Taye read this morning, I immediately thought of steak.

Yes, I know the passage is sheepish, but flank says steak to me, so I went to the “Joy of Cooking” (aka the other bible) to see where exactly flank and shoulder are located. I know, you’re thinking ‘I can’t believe his ignorance of basic bovine anatomy,’ but I took welding instead of home economics. Odd, considering I cook everyday and haven’t welded since 1979.

So shoulder is located at the shoulder, of course, and the flank is lower middle. Thank you, Irma S. Rombauer. Sadly, my revised copy doesn’t have the detail I was looking for, so I found cookscountry.com:

Sometimes labeled as London broil or chuck steak, [shoulder] steak is a great value for cost-conscious cooks. Although cut from the shoulder, it is relatively lean, with a moderately beefy flavor.

I love the last part. Beefy flavoured beef is a nice touch.

Flank steak, aka jiffy steak, is a large flat cut from the underside of the cow, with a distinct longitudinal grain. Flank steak is thin and cooks quickly, making it ideal for the grill. Although very flavorful, flank is slightly chewy.

I should have labeled this sermon ‘not safe for vegetarians.‘ Nevertheless, even vegetarians can appreciate that there is a bit of a lost art here—understanding cuts of meat—and it only underlines the extent to which we are increasing disconnected from what we eat. So if you take anything away from today, I might suggest you skip flank and shoulder and go straight for sirloin.

However, we are supposed to talk about sheep. And while they share the same basic anatomy as the cow, sheep have transcended field and farm to become a leading biblical metaphor. So famous are sheep in the Bible, I would argue that listeners are just as likely to think Psalm 23 when they hear the word ‘sheep‘ as think of the critter themselves. Ditto for Matthew 25 (“the sheep and the goats”) and the Parable of the Lost Sheep, perhaps the most famous of the lot.

And while we ponder these, it is remarkable how each seems to also appear in Ezekiel 34. Spot the reference:

For thus says the Lord God: I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. (think Luke 15)

There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and they shall feed on rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. (think Psalm 23)

I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down. (more Ps 23)

I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep...and I will judge between sheep and sheep. (Matthew 25)

Our intrepid scholars, of course, have been immersed in our study “Forgotten Bible” for three weeks now, and they would tell you that is looks like a case of ‘rewritten Bible.’ So what is it? In a nutshell, rewritten Bible describes a group of Bible texts that closely resemble other texts, clearly rewritten to address changes in context or situation.

In other words, Ezekiel writes with the words of Psalm 23 in mind, and Jesus shares parable and prediction with Ezekiel in mind, and we begin to mash all these together as we look for deeper meaning. But that would be jumping ahead. Before I get to that, I need to say a word or two about our friend Ezekiel.

Ezekiel is considered a major prophet, in the same company as Isaiah and Jeremiah, as compared to the minor prophets such as Joel, Amos or Habakkuk. Fun to say, Habakkuk. So he’s major league, and he also deals the same theme as his colleagues Isaiah and Jeremiah, namely the Babylonian exile and it’s aftermath.

So all three books concern themselves with disaster and restoration, with Ezekiel having the added distinction of being—in the words of one commentator—decidedly ‘trippy.’ Fun word, trippy, coined in 1968 (of course) and defined by Webster’s as ‘relating to, or suggestive of a trip on psychedelic drugs or the culture associated with such drugs.’ You know, trippy. My only memory of the 60’s is my brother looking menacing over the lip of my crib, but some of you lived though the 60’s, and perhaps you can confirm the times were, well, trippy.

Most people, of course, know exactly two things about Ezekiel: The Valley of Dry Bones (Ez 37) and the theme of a famous song I won’t sing just now:

Ezekiel saw the wheel;
Way up in the middle of the air.
Now Ezekiel saw the wheel in a wheel;
Way in the middle of the air.

Ezekiel is also famous for being the subject of cross-disciplinary study, particularly in the area of psychoanalysis. Other-worldly visions, violence, sex, death: Ezekiel has it all. So it is no wonder that he has been the subject of much diagnostic speculation, no of which will help us today.

What will help is an overview from our old friend Walter Brueggemann, who reminds us that unlike his colleagues Isaiah and Jeremiah, Ezekiel’s take on the exile is quite different. Yes, the same outline of disaster and restoration are here, but the motivation changes in Ezekiel. It’s not a transition from judgment to compassion found elsewhere, this is about the reputation of God:

“Therefore say to the Israelites, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: It is not for your sake, people of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone...I want you to know that I am not doing this for your sake, declares the Sovereign Lord. Be ashamed and disgraced for your conduct, people of Israel! (Ez 36.22, 32)

Unlike Isaiah (40), there is no comfort here. More discomfort, for even in the midst of the saving acts of God, there is a reminder of what led to this turn of events in the first place. Disobedience leads to disaster, the prophets cry, and restoration will follow, but don’t think for a minute it will be forgotten.

In other words, the reputation of the Most High is at stake when the nation follows the path of destruction. You won’t just embarrass yourself, or the nation: even God’s reputation takes a hit when the people fall away.

So what does this have to do with the Reign of Christ? How can we draw a line from sheep to sheep to shepherd, particularly the Good Shepherd we worship? Well, it begins with Ezekiel’s symbolic look at kingship, the king always being regarded as the ‘shepherd of the people’:

I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice.

The shepherd’s reputation is based on caring for sheep, the king’s reputation on shepherding the people, and God’s reputation on the application of justice. For who would follow a God that does not care for the vulnerable, or thwart the strong?

We are on the cusp of Advent, and soon the Mary will visit with her cousin Elizabeth once more, and once more Elizabeth will pronounce Mary ‘blessed among women’ and once more Mary will sing of her hope, the hope for one “born a child and yet a king.” And just as the baby in her womb will leap for joy she sing of the same ancient hope of our friend Ezekiel:

My soul glorifies the Lord
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name.
His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation.
He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered the proud
in the imagination of their hearts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.

Next week we will sing Wesley’s famous hymn, and we will begin to ponder this world made new: a realm that begins in ancient prophecy, that holds our deepest longing, and points to the glory of God:

Born thy people to deliver,
born a child and yet a King,
born to reign in us forever,
now thy gracious kingdom bring.

posted by michael jacob kooiman @ 9:44 AM