( Sermon Ez 34,1–16.31) [ German Sermon ] [ Announcements (German)426.72 KB ]
Move 1 In the room of the grandparents
I remember my grandparents' bedroom well.
Above my grandparents' bed hung the picture of the Good Shepherd. I think it hung over many beds, or maybe it hangs over yours too... A shepherd with a heavy stick in his hand, watching his sheep carefully. In many pictures he has put a lamb like a collar around his shoulder: as if the tired animal can't walk anymore or the shepherd wants to warm himself a little. It becomes clear how close the contact with his sheep is: This is good for him and the sheep. The sheep close to the shepherd - safe, protected and content.
Move 2 Idyll versus everyday life
That a flock runs as we see it in idyllic shepherd pictures, together, lively and well-fed, does not always seem to be the case. Having a well-tended herd is hard work. The normal state, when a herd is left to its own devices, means chaos.
That is why a shepherd must have very special qualifications. One must be completely there with open eyes, whole heart and energetic hands. In the life of a shepherd or shepherdess, there are no times when you can say: Not now, I'm tired, today I don't feel like it, the weather is too bad for me. Actually, there is only one reason why someone decides to become a shepherd or shepherdess: Because one loves sheep and life in nature. There can be no other answer than love and passion.
Move 3 Ezekiel and the bad shepherds
Now, not everyone is suited for this and not everyone performs this task well.Perhaps it is the middle of the night at that time and the prophet Ezekiel is lying sleepless in his bed. Although he is tired, dog-tired. He ponders. So long time they are now in the foreign country. It had been a bad day in 597 B.C., when the Babylonians under King Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the temple and they were dragged away, he and many others from Israel, from the Holy City of Jerusalem to the far country. That burned and tore at the heart. For a long time.
Now, after years in exile, nothing tears. It feels grey.
He, the prophet, had spoken with great power against the impending doom. He had fought for his people, for justice. He had not minced words and had railed against the kings of Israel because they had failed as caretakers and servants. It would have been their duty to be there as appointed shepherds for the flock. But they had thought only of themselves.
Now, after the years in exile, the prophet is at a loss for words.
Sometimes I, too, am at a loss for words. When the misery I see in the world is too great. When I see how people beat up, bully and exploit others. When I see how the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, how children starve and die and how wars just don't stop and how people vegetate or drown on the run and others don't take them in.Too often I am speechless.
Move 4 God makes himself the boss
But God speaks.
Ezekiel 34, 1-16, 31
1. The word of the Lord came to me:
2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock?
3 You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock.
4 You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally.
5 So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals.
6 My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them.
7 “‘Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord:
8 As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, because my flock lacks a shepherd and so has been plundered and has become food for all the wild animals, and because my shepherds did not search for my flock but cared for themselves rather than for my flock,
9 therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord:
10 This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. I will remove them from tending the flock so that the shepherds can no longer feed themselves. I will rescue my flock from their mouths, and it will no longer be food for them.
11 “‘For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them.
12 As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness.
13 I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land. I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in allthe settlements in the land.
14 I will tend them in a good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel.
15 I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign Lord.
16 I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice.
31 You are my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, and I am your God, declares the Sovereign Lord.’”
Dear congregation,
God speaks. When you can't find the words yourself. God finds them and puts them into Ezekiel's heart, rekindles the old fire in him. Ezekiel may feel: No, they are not alone in the foreign land, no, not everything is over.
God has declared the flock to be in His charge. He himself has taken the shepherd's staff in his hand again. Something new begins, further than the old, freer, clearer. God looks back, reckons and looks forward, lets hope blow into the hopeless everyday life, hope for return, above all hope that the people are seen, the lost and weak.
They are comforted and safely guided by their God.
And these words of God, this wonderful promise, gives Ezekiel the inner strength to get up again in the morning and let God's word out, to those who have not done what shepherds are supposed to do. And he speaks to the others who are also in their beds in a foreign land, tired and powerless and wanting to go home.He tells them about their God, who does not grow weary.
Who binds himself to people, strong and weak, great and small. Whose love embraces all. But he also becomes angry and intervenes when what he has lovingly ordered and brought into being simply falls into disrepair.
Or is treated badly. Who in the end has the last word over all who do not fulfil their duties as appointed shepherds.
"I will seek again that which is lost, and bring back that which has gone astray, and bind up that which is wounded, and strengthen that which is weak, and guard that which is fat and strong."
Dear congregation, this is one of the most beautiful and comprehensive promises that the Old Testament gives us.
God is on the move. Always watchful, eagle-eyed. Always energetic, full of energy. And I feel: there is a great sense of security. I have a God before my eyes who is completely at rest in himself, who is one with himself and his actions. But at the same time he is also completely with his creatures. I see big, strong hands, but which can hold gently. And a loving gaze of the shepherd who looks at his flock.These images respond to the deep longing for salvation and wholeness that we carry within us. To the longing that life may be held and protected. Safe in God's hands.
Move 5 Jesus follows the tradition
Dear congregation, I believe that this is exactly the reason why many had and still have the picture of the Good Shepherd hanging above their bed. Because it expresses our longing so well.
Looking at the shepherd conveys: I do not have to go my way alone.
We prayed Psalm 23 at the beginning of the service. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
And in this tradition stands Jesus, who says of himself John 10:11
I am the good shepherd. He lays down his life for the sheep.
Two weeks ago we celebrated Easter.
Since Jesus rose from the dead, we can believe that something new begins with death. Hopeful. Because God wants it that way. Because he acts. Because he intervenes and takes sides, and .... Here, too, he has the last word.Resurrection, bringing to life, leading out of death into life is a matter for the boss, also here.
The Good Shepherd, who accompanies my life, will also do this beyond. For him, life is in death.
I want to trust in that. Whatever may happen:
God takes the last word. Always.
16 I will seek again that which is lost, and bring back that which has gone astray, and bind up that which is wounded, and strengthen that which is weak, and preserve that which is fat and strong; I will feed them, and make them right.
31 Yes, you shall be my flock, the herd of my pasture, and I will be your God, says the Lord God. (Ez 34)
Amen
