They and Their Fathers

​7th Sunday after Pentecost – B (Proper 9)                            LSB #’s 612 tune 400, 583 tune 451, 573
Text – Ezekiel 2:3
 
And he said to me, “Son of man, I send you to the people of Israel, to nations of rebels, who have rebelled against me.  They & their fathers have transgressed against me to this very day.”
 
THEY & THEIR FATHERS
 
 
Have you seen a young boy walking alongside his father & then realized that the two of them walk exactly  alike?     Have you seen a girl caring for her younger siblings & thought to yourself, “She speaks just like her mother”?   Those circumstances are not all that common, but it happens enough to cause people to wonder, “Is it nature,  or is it nurture?” 
In other words, do genetics determine if a child acts  exactly like a parent,  or is it the nurture, the training of the child,  that causes it?   Script writers have picked up on the theme in movies.  Often, it’s the son of a criminal   wondering if he’s doomed to a life of crime because of who his father is.  Do we break free & chart our own path,  or  do we follow  in their footsteps? 
With God’s chosen nation,  the people of Israel & their fathers had broken the very first commandment & followed after false gods.  Since their fathers worshipped idols, for hundreds of years,  it was natural for the children to follow in their footsteps.  Genetics played a role, because all of them were sinful to begin with, but God’s intention is for nurture to counteract it. 
Not that training & instruction in the ways of the Lord can erase the effects of sin,  but through them  the Holy Spirit can work to bring about repentance & humility.  Such instruction & training,  in the commands of God,  is emphasized in Deuteronomy 6:
“You shall teach them diligently to your children,  & shall talk of them when you sit in your house,  & when you walk by the way,  & when you lie down,  & when you rise.   You shall write them on the doorposts of your house & on your gates.”  (6:7 & 9 ESV)    God suggests  that constant instruction & training in His word is the appropriate way to raise children, to nurture them in the ways of heaven.    Do you know why?   The heavenly Father sees  that Satan also  is constantly working to lead you & your children  astray.  In fact, the Devil is successful at it every single day,  because not a day goes by  that you & I do not  sin.  To make things worse,  you & I are so acclimated to sinning  that often  we barely notice  when we do. 
We are quite aware of the evil we do.  It’s the good we leave undone  that escapes our attention most of the time.   When children are not trained in the word of God,  & when parents are not doing that training, the family will drift  far away,  & after generations of that drifting  faith is completely lost.  Those are the people to whom God was sending Ezekiel:
“Son of man, I send you to the people of Israel,  to nations of rebels, who have rebelled against me.  They & their fathers have transgressed against me to this very day.”  (2:3 ESV)   Their transgression was violating God’s 1st commandment, “You shall have no other gods before me.”  (Deuteronomy 5:7 ESV)   Two verses after the commandment, God expands upon it:
“You shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers  on the children  to the 3rd & 4th generation of those who hate me.”  (Deuteronomy 5:9 ESV)   The children of Israel were faithless, because their parents were faithless.  It becomes a vicious circle that perpetuates itself unless a higher power intervenes. 
They & their fathers had drifted from, & then rebelled against, faith in Yahweh.   It became a vicious circle that bred contempt for the Creator’s authority.  Jesus encountered similar attitudes in the Gospel reading, where the people of His hometown, “…took offense at Him…  And [Jesus] marveled because of their unbelief.”  (Mark 6:3c & 6:6a ESV) 
Originally, God’s Word in Ezekiel applied to the Jewish people of 590 B.C.,  but increasingly those words apply to all of Western civilization today.  For years, the United States was bringing up the rear in the decline of Christianity.  In many respects we are now leading the charge.  Christian thought & teaching is being labeled as hate speech.  Christmas hymns are sung less often by public school choirs.  Science class no longer offers support to the teaching of God as Creator.   It has substituted evolutionary theory as The Cause.    Government support of marriage no longer focuses upon one man & one woman in holy matrimony. 
Each of those aberrations from Christianity are part of God’s judgment upon our nation’s people.  A sure sign  is how blind we are to our rebellion.   We’re like an alcoholic who denies that he has a drinking problem.  There is no hope for such an individual.  The United States have entered a vicious circle that perpetuates itself  unless a higher power intervenes. 
God did intervene, sending Ezekiel, to foreshadow Jesus.  In the fullness of time God sent His Son, to intervene in the disastrous affairs of sinful human beings.   The difference is that, while Ezekiel foreshadowed God’s rescue mission, Jesus fulfilled it.  There are no more prophets on their way.   The reconciliation is finished,  yet the danger of unbelief is still  too real. 
Satan is constantly working his deceptions, & since Ezekiel was a sinful human being, like the rest of us,  this is how God called him: “‘Son of man, stand on your feet, & I will speak with you.’  And as [God] spoke to me,  the Spirit entered into me & set me on my feet...”  (Ezekiel 2:1-2 ESV)   Ezekiel, on his own, cannot even stand.  Neither can we. 
Ezekiel is under the same judgment because he too is in exile.  The intervention is entirely God’s work,  & the text records this intervention  in a world suffering under His judgment.  Yahweh sends a prophet to call this people back to Him,  as He judges them  in order to save them.  If our nation is under God’s judgment,  it is also that God may save His people. 
Are we willing to be saved?   Or,  will we continue to serve our own gods?  The false god of politics is constantly in the news this year.   Certainly, our own wants & desires continue to take precedence over the true God & His plans for us – plans like being in His house every seven days  to receive His blessings of forgiveness,  life & salvation.   After this sermon, God will be calling forward the officers & board members of this congregation to receive His blessings for their service to Him & to our community.  Are we willing to be saved  in order that we might serve?   As the OT lesson comes to its end, God tells Ezekiel:
“The descendants also  are impudent & stubborn: I send you to them, & you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God.’  And whether they hear  or refuse to hear (for they are  a rebellious house) they will know that a prophet has been among them.”  (2:4-5 ESV)    Around the year 597 B.C.,  Ezekiel prophesied the fall of Jerusalem. 
Ten years later, Nebuchadnezzar sent his armies to destroy the city & it was then that the people knew that Ezekiel had been a prophet among them.   The Fall of Adam & Eve from Paradise  to a world totally corrupted by sin, dwarfs the fall of our own nation & that of Israel.  
In the face of sinful rebellion, throughout human history,  God’s faithfulness led to His ultimate intervention through the life,  death  & resurrection of His Son.    His Father’s complete judgment for our rebellion  was placed upon Christ in order to set free   you & me  from the vicious circle of sin that has engulfed every generation of mankind. 
By the grace of God, all who believe are those who know that,  in Christ,  a prophet has been among us.  When Jesus returns on The Last Day,  then,  even those who rejected the Holy Spirit’s efforts to stand them up  will know that a prophet has been among them.  “…at the name of Jesus every knee will bow…”  (Philippians 2:10 NASB) 
As children of God by His work,  our lives are characterized as both the righteous & the rebels.  Any word of faith & hope that we offer to others  must first be the Word of God for us.  His Word is a two-edged sword, yet God’s law & gospel, always seek to promote life.  As God’s Word convicts us & brings us to life, then we can offer that witness to others in genuine humility & love.  We carry that Word not to condemn, but to bring life.   It is Jesus who will bring final judgment on those choosing to remain eternally in the category of They & Their Fathers.  The same word of Yahweh that spoke all the universe into existence, will also bring about the reality of heaven & hell.  He sent Jesus to save us from sin because He desires that all would be saved. 
His Word will bring life or death  depending on how each person receives it: “And whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house) they will know that a prophet has been among them.”  (Ezekiel 2:5 ESV)   There was no hope for any of us,  unless Jesus took on human flesh to redeem our race from sin. 
Now, through His Word & Baptism & Holy Communion,  God continues to nurture those who believe to keep us humble & repentant.  He works through the means of grace that we might be the light of the world & the salt of the earth.  He does this to counteract the effect that sin still has  even on the children of God. 
Just as Ezekiel & Christ faced stubborn audiences, St. Paul wrote, “For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions & calamities.  For when I am weak, then I am strong.”  (2 Corinthians 12:10 ESV)   Sin makes us weak, but that weakness, combined with the means of grace,  shows us our need for a Savior. 
Then, the Holy Spirit ‘sets us on our feet’  that we might be strong in Christ.  Amen. 
 
 
 
God has spoken by His prophets,  spoken His unchanging Word;  each from age to age proclaiming God, the one, the righteous Lord.  In the world’s despair & turmoil,  one firm anchor holds us fast: God is king, His throne eternal;  God the first,  & God the last.    God is speaking by His Spirit,  speaking to our hearts again,  in the ageless Word declaring  His own message,  now as then.   Through the rise & fall of nations  one sure faith yet standing fast;  God abides, His Word unchanging;  God the first,  & God the last.  Amen.  LSB 583:1 & 3.