Ez 34:11-16, 20-24
20 November 2005
Christ the King
“On a Cloudy and Gloomy Day”
When you ask people about their favorite month, November is rarely at the top of the list. In most of the northern hemisphere, November is a time of saying farewell to warm weather and preparing for the icy cold of winter. It’s an in-between time. For lovers of autumn color, most of the leaves have already fallen. For lovers of winter fun, there’s the yet unfulfilled hope of snow. (Certainly, for those who live a little farther south than we do!)
November weather in Philadelphia, as in many places, is often rather gray and dismal. As November in 1995 approached, for the first time in my life, I remember really looking forward to it. (Besides, regardless of how I felt about it, it was coming anyway. That’s true of a lot of things in life!) I had decided to fervently embrace those chilly, drizzly days. Little did I know that by month’s end, I would have had the surgery which would change my life forever—for the better!
Banu has told me that she developed an appreciation for damp, dreary days when she lived in England. If this causes you to conclude that we’re a couple of strange birds…I’m afraid that you might be right!
My pondering on November-type weather isn’t without purpose. As I considered today’s Old Testament reading, there was a phrase that just jumped out at me. It’s the second half of verse 12, when the Lord tells Ezekiel, “I will rescue [my sheep] from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness.” That’s a powerful statement. The New American Standard Bible translates the last part this way: “on a cloudy and gloomy day.”
There’s plenty of symbolism packed into that phrase. But before we unpack it, I need to follow up on that “strange birds” comment. A lot of the biblical prophets could rightly be considered strange birds. But I would say that Ezekiel gets first prize in the strange bird contest! I’ll point out some stuff in the book to support my allegation.
Right away, in chapter 1, we see the story of Ezekiel’s call by God to be a prophet. With his visions of storm clouds and living creatures and wheels in the sky, it sounds like the description of an alien invasion. I’ve even read claims that Ezekiel indeed is visited by extraterrestrials!
In chapter 4, he makes a model of the city of Jerusalem and does various things, like setting stuff on fire, to represent its destruction. Ezekiel is among the first exiles taken to Babylon after the invasion, and at this point, the city hasn’t yet been destroyed. So the antics he performs are considered symbolic actions, meant to be a warning.
Read the book of Ezekiel, and you’ll see plenty of other examples of strange behavior. You’ll benefit from a good study Bible in many places. Some of the imagery is quite bizarre and hard to understand. Although, I would suggest you avoid anything produced by the people obsessed with UFOs!
Still, despite the…eccentricity of Ezekiel, we’re given a glimpse into a very private, very intimate, part of the man himself. In chapter 24, the Lord tells the prophet that the Babylonians have begun to lay siege to the city of Jerusalem. And on a much more personal note, that very evening “the delight of [his] eyes” will be taken from him (v. 16). That night, his wife will die.
Ezekiel is forbidden to show the outward signs of mourning. He isn’t to dress in the way that someone in bereavement would be expected to. When the people ask him why he’s acting this way, the prophet lets them know that it’s a sign for all of them. The city of Jerusalem and its temple are about to be destroyed.
In chapter 33, after word of the fall of Jerusalem has reached the exiles in Babylon, there’s a reflection on the way the people treat Ezekiel. They’re willing to hear his words, but they’re unwilling to act on them. Today we would say that it goes in one ear and out the other. Verse 32 says, “To them you are like a singer of love songs, one who has a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument; they hear what you say, but they will not do it.” Surely I’ll never encounter that, with my less-than-beautiful voice and lack of musical skill!
In the first part of chapter 34, as we approach today’s reading, Ezekiel is criticizing the “shepherds of Israel” (v. 2). He reprimands the leaders of the people—both the religious and political leaders. The prophet says that they have betrayed their office. He compares the people to sheep with unworthy shepherds, shepherds who have allowed them to fend for themselves among the predators. They’ve been left without guidance, wandering around in the storm.
But, the prophet says, God will act. Here’s where we encounter the promise I mentioned earlier. God will rescue them “on a cloudy and gloomy day.” The people will be returned from exile. The Lord says, “I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep…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” (vv. 15-16). You know, there’s a fellow from Nazareth about six centuries later who says pretty much the same stuff!
Verses 11 to 16 are summed up with these simple, yet compelling, words: “I will feed them with justice.” God is the shepherd who will feed the sheep with justice. What can that possibly mean?
In recent months, there have been a number of disasters, both natural and man-made. A partial list would include the tsunami in the Indian Ocean, the hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico, and the rioting in France (which has threatened to spill over into other European countries). Each of these has helped expose deeper problems of poverty and racism.
Today’s shepherds, mostly government leaders and the news media, tend to focus on the economic aspects of these events. But there are more than political and financial factors to consider. There is the human factor, and that gets stressed over and over by the prophets.
It’s been noted, “One day each of us will go from this world to the next, and then the question will not be, ‘What impact did you have on the global economy?’ but [rather] ‘What did you do to help alleviate human suffering? Did you feed the hungry? Did you clothe the naked? Did you visit those in prison? Did you shelter the stranger?’ In the end, these are the most important questions.”[1] That sounds a lot like our gospel reading (Mt 25:31-46)!
Ezekiel sets the tone for our parable in Matthew 25 in another important way: there will be a time of reckoning. The prophet says that God “will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep” (v. 20). That’s yet another example in the Bible of the great reversals that God’s justice brings to human society when it is implemented—and when we choose to implement it.
There’s a lot in this scripture text, but I’m still intrigued by that phrase in verse 12: “on a day of clouds and thick darkness.” On a cloudy and gloomy day. In chapter 30, Ezekiel says, “For a day is near, the day of the Lord is near; it will be a day of clouds, a time of doom for the nations” (v. 3). Two hundred years before Ezekiel, Amos had said, “Is not the day of the Lord darkness, not light, and gloom with no brightness in it?” (5:20). The prophets had a long tradition of raining on the parade of the puppet masters—or at least those who thought they were pulling the strings!
On a cloudy and gloomy day. I wonder, even when the sun is shining, how many times have we felt that way? What about today, as we look toward our special congregational meeting? (Which I sincerely hope we have actually prayed about!) Is this symbolically (if not in fact) a cloudy and gloomy day?
As we were seeking advice on parliamentary procedure from our presbytery’s stated clerk, she was decidedly upbeat about our willingness to continue the ministry, despite our financial difficulties. Noting that a number of congregations in the Buffalo area have had similar experiences, she said, “You don’t close a church because of money. You close a church if you don’t have any members.”
Will we accept the apostle Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians that Jeanne read for us? He prays that “with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which [God] has called you…and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power” (Ep 1:18-19). Not too many clouds and gloom there!
Banu chose for her devotional at the session meeting last Tuesday Paul’s words in 2 Cor 1:8-9. “We do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, of the affliction we experienced in Asia; for we were so utterly, unbearably crushed that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death so that we would rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.” As I listened to that, I had a feeling which couldn’t be put into words, but it would be something like this: “God is so awesome.”
Have you been scattered someplace on a cloudy and gloomy day? Do you feel like you’ve received the sentence of death? I think we’ve all been there, at one time or another. But the good news is that God doesn’t leave us there.
The hope to which God calls us isn’t business as usual. The path of hope is the path of faithfulness. We take just a tiny step along that path, and with “the immeasurable greatness of his power,” Jesus Christ, our shepherd and our king, guides us through the cloudiest and gloomiest of days.