Worship April 18. 2021 German Church of Atlanta
Predigttext Hesekiel 34, 1 - 2.(3 - 9).10-16.31 Dear Congregation, Soft. Incredibly soft they look like those newborn lambs that jump around in the fields during spring time. Not only children want to reach out their hand to pet them. And really – this small, warm snout, this soft fur! But not always do they allow to be touched. Often the mother sheep make sure that nobody gets too close to their little ones. Yet also grown sheep at times need somebody who takes care of them. These days, at least in the Western world, there are no longer wild animals like wolf who can be dangerous to sheep. More so they are threatened by racing cars or by the condition of the environment in general: How many green spaces have disappeared for good! It is so helpful when in such dangerous situations somebody is there who sees the bigger picture. Just like good shepherds, who carefully guide and lead, who keep every single animal in their view and when need be carry a sheep in distress or wounded on their shoulders. God is just like such a good shepherd. This acclamation of faith is very comforting for many people. Especially in dark
and difficult times in life this image of God can carry us through. And we still respond to this image, even though shepherds no longer belong into our daily life experience. And yet, somehow this image is close to our hearts and even children can understand it, even though they might have never seen a shepherd before. “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want”. This is how we have heard earlier when we said Psalm 23 together. This is a prayer that many people are able to recite since their childhood or confirmation years. Especially powerful is the verse: “And even though I walk through the dark valley, I fear no evil, for you are with me.” The Jewish theologian Martin Buber translates this verse with the words: And even though I walk through the valley of the shadows of death, I fear no evil…” And those words also come very close to us: How many valleys of the shadows of death there are, in the personal lives of people, or when we think about the wars and catastrophic news from around the world! God can be imagined like a good shepherd, who especially in dark times remains with us, who guides and carries us. And this hope is expressed also in the Old Testament text for today. It is written in the book written by the prophet Ezekiel, in chapter 34, Verse 1-16 and 31 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 2 Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and say to those shepherds,
Thus says the Lord God: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flock? 10 Thus says the Lord God: I am against the shepherds. And I will require My flock from their hand and cause them to cease from feeding the flock. Nor shall the shepherds feed themselves anymore, for I will deliver My flock from their mouth so that they may not be meat for them. The True Shepherd 11 For thus says the Lord God: I, even I, will search for My sheep and seek them out. 12 As a shepherd seeks out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered, so I will seek out My sheep and will deliver them out of all the places where they have been scattered in a cloudy and dark day. 13 I will bring them out from the peoples, and gather them from the countries, and bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers and in all the inhabited places of the country. 14 I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel their grazing ground shall be. There they shall lie on good grazing ground, and in a rich pasture they shall feed upon the mountains of Israel. 15 I will feed My flock, and I will cause them to lie down, says the Lord God. 16 I will seek that which was lost and bring back that which was driven away and bind up that which was broken and will strengthen that which was sick. But I will destroy the fat and the strong. I will feed them with judgment.
As for you, My flock, the flock of My pasture, you are mine, and I am your God, says the Lord God. The prophet Ezekiel prophesizes here that God is like a shepherd who will come after his sheep and will save them from wherever they have been scattered. Ezekiel spoke these words in a time when things were dire and dark, a time when the people of Israel felt lost like sheep who had gone astray. It is the time during the Babylonian exile. Then the Babylonians conquered the small Juda with its capital Jerusalem, they thought of a war strategy that they could find a way to break the country up and to interrupt its cohesive life as a people. And so they took the upper class people with them into exile, the family of the prophet Ezekiel was one of them. The “simple people”, this means people who were most of all occupied with earning their daily bread, they were left behind in the destroyed city Jerusalem. Those who lacked direction and orientation stayed and they lived in the mainly burned and destroyed villages. Those who were dragged into exile were the ones who in the past had made important decisions and were leading other people. In some way those lead into exile had been the shepherds. And suddenly they were in a strange land, in exile, and they for the first time felt like lost sheep themselves. It might have been that some of them decided pretty quickly to cooperate with the Babylonians to
have a better life quality. And some were probably also willing to let go of their culture and of their faith. According to Ezekiel God was having a harsh judgment towards those who would do that: These are bad shepherds who only think about themselves. This meant that from now on God himself had to take care of the sheep, the human sheep, and it was his task to gather all those who belong to Israel once again – and this in the city of Jerusalem. For many people in our world it is a difficult and dark time. There are many who feel desperate and afraid for their life, just like a sheep that has fallen in between the rocks and that can’t get out by itself. There are many who feel like they are traveling through the valley of the shadow of death: Based on traumatic experiences in their personal life. We are thinking of those living in war and crisis regions of our world – Syria and the South Sudan, Eritrea and in so many other places. What about those shepherds that are supposed lead especially in those threatening times? When we link the prophetic words of Ezekiel to the political powerful in the war and crisis regions of our world, then his words become very relevant for today: In those regions the persons in power are nearly always deeply involved with injustice, and often they are even the originators and the ones flaming the war and violence. What about those people who in the larger sense could be shepherds, like teachers, doctors, journalists and authors? Many of them are fleeing their homelands as well. And who could blame them? Often they especially are in danger of being killed. And yet often
the fear about one’s own life is not as difficult as the worry about loved ones, especially one’s children – who need to survive and be protected. I find it most astonishing that in such situations some people decide to stay. People who become good shepherds for others. For example teachers in Afghanistan, that start schools in order to teach the children how to count and how to write, and also to teach children about peace and about reconciliation. There are doctors in Syrian hospitals in the city of Aleppo, and in so many other places in this world, who have run out of nearly everything they need to treat patients. The electricity fails, basic medicine runs out… And yet those doctors keep working, because they are, according to Ezekiel’s words good shepherds who bind the wounded and strengthen the weak. And it is often also “simple people” who become good shepherds for others. I recently learned about elderly women who would sit on so called “listening benches” in areas where war had raged and many people had become traumatized. As there are no psychiatrists or therapists to treat the emotionally wounded, these grandmothers sit on those listening benches and listen to those who come to sit with them. Much healing happens as the older generation listens with compassion and wisdom to the younger generation. In many countries where violence and chaos are everywhere and many families have to flee to safety, as for example in South Sudan, those families who already have
several children, take in yet another child as that child does not have anybody to care for her. This family becomes a good shepherd for the child. God’s promise however, reaches far beyond what we as humans can do. God will seek those who are list, God will bring back those who went astray and God will bind the wounded and strengthen the weak… This is the great promise, not only in the book of Ezekiel, but this promise can be found all throughout the Bible, both the Old and the New Testament: And this intention and promise of God can make us reflect on ourselves and on our society how we are functioning: God does not side with those who are winners, who are successful and who are in control of their lives – as far as that is possible at all. God’s heart is reaching out to those who are vulnerable, wounded and helpless. Vulnerable, wounded and helpless – just as Jesus was. Now in this Easter season we especially have him in mind as he was crucified and went like a sheep to be slautered. In every person who is being tortured today, in everybody who gets stoned, crucified and killed… in every of those persons Jesus, who we confess as Christ, is being all over beaten and killed. However, this will not be the end of the story! Even the Old Testament already promises that God will overcome all systems that kill and even death itself. In this audacity of hope we have been placed through Jesus Christ. Overwhelming is the message that God has resurrected Jesus from the dead.
And that means too: For every person who is deadly sick or who struggles with pain. For every person who is being killed, for each of them and for us ourselves we can hope that God will give an eternal life where all pain will be gone and only peace will prevail. This is the personal hope for others and for ourselves that we are able to have based on the resurrection. And then, the hope of resurrection is even more than that, it moves and changes the world: God will change the world from ground up. God will transform this world into a place where justice and peace will reign, and where especially those who are lost and confused, those who are wounded and weak will be treated gently and will be taken care of. And this will happen – which is the message throughout the Bible. Until this will happen though, God needs us. Us, who we are not necessarily perfect shepherds. Us, who make mistakes and who get lost ourselves sometime. And yet, God needs us, so that we can make small changes in this world and begin with transforming it. We might be very simple and ordinary people, and yet we can sit on a bench listening. We can contribute that the poor receive food. We can be welcoming to people who are different from us. We can reach out to our neighbor. We can contribute small things to make this world a gentler and more hospitable place. Wie es in dem Lied heißt, das wir gleich gemeinsam singen: In Gottes Namen wolln wir finden, was verloren ist, in Gottes
Namen wolln wir suchen, was verirrt ist, in Gottes Namen wolln wir heilen, was verletzt ist, in Gottes Namen wolln wir stärken, was geschwächt ist….