A quote from Dr. Joseph Sizoo, a pastor of long ago whom none of us have likely ever met: The most distinguishing characteristic which separates Christianity from all other religions lies in the personality of its founder Hinduism is based on a loyalty to an idea; Confucianism is loyalty to a tradition; Shintuism is loyalty to a country; and Islam is loyalty to a code. On the other hand, Christianity is loyalty to a person. You might conceive of Christianity without an organization; you might conceive of it without a ritual; you may even conceive of it without a creed. But to think of it without Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, is impossible What is disturbing, however, is that in the long years of its history, the Christian Church has often lost sight of that fact. We have taken secondary things and made them primary; we have taken primary things and made them secondary. In short, we have lost sight of the gardener in his garden; we have forgotten the king in his kingdom. As I continue with our message, I want you to keep this quote in mind. What is the purpose of a pastor? Have you ever wondered? Have you ever stopped and asked yourself, why do we have a pastor and why do we need to go through this calling process, and why does it all matter that much? Some churches just pick a guy out of the congregation to come up and preach or pray. Other churches have pastors but the system they use to get them is far different than what we use in the Lutheran church. However it works, there seems to be a universal understanding that there needs to be a pastor, a minister, a preacher, a priest in the midst of the people. And this is good, and this practice really goes all the way back to the time of Moses. Moses was really the first ordained minister, the first
pastor. And his primary job as the pastor to the Israelites was to lead the people to the promised land. And our Scripture lessons today reveal for us the call of a pastor; both his job and what to expect. Now Ezekiel was a priest according to the blood of his family. He lived in Tel Abib, a province of Babylonia, the largest and most powerful empire from about 600 years before Christ. In his 13 th year, be this his age or his 13 th year as a priest, Ezekiel was called and ordained by the Lord to be the prophet to the exiled Jews in Babylonia. During that time, God still worked through visions and other means to call His servants. And through powerful winds and visions of angels and the heavenly hosts and the cherubim, God came to Ezekiel and spoke. Today the Lord works through His Word given to us in Christ, as we read in Hebrews chapter 1, and although Christ has come and fulfilled all of the ancient prophecies and He is the reality of all the visions, God continues to work and call and set people apart for the ministry through His Church. He told Ezekiel that he was to be the prophet to the Israelites, and he was to go to them and say to them whatever the Lord gives him to say. The Lord also assured Ezekiel that, even though he will stand among thorns and briars, that he will preach to stubborn people, that the Lord will be with him and that he is to preach the Word no matter what. We also learn from Ezekiel, really from reading the whole book of Ezekiel, that his work as a prophet of the Lord was anything but exciting. Fulfilling? Yes. Exciting, fun, probably not so much. Ezekiel was to spend his time preaching, prophesying to a people who were anything but willing, anything but open, anything but humble.
The Lord told Ezekiel that His people to whom He was being sent were stubborn, they were like thorns and briars, and that they would not easily receive the message Ezekiel was to preach. Seems sort of counter-productive doesn t it? Why send a prophet, a preacher, a pastor to a people who aren t going to listen to the message anyway? Wouldn t it be more prudent to change the message, to water it down, and make it more acceptable to the people whom the message is intended? Seems like Ezekiel would get a lot more people to listen if he was just a little nicer to them and his message a little more palatable. Well, we have a similar story in our Gospel lesson today. Jesus was preaching all over the countryside, drawing big crowds and performing miracles for the people in order that His Word might touch the hearts of all who would hear, and call them to repent and believe in the Good News. At one point during His journey to the cross, Jesus decides to go home to Nazareth, where His family and friends live and where He grew up. I suppose we understand that. We enjoy being close to family and familiarity. It gives us a sense of connection, of history. And we also care for our family and friends and what good we do to others we might want to offer them as well. Well, Jesus preaches the same message the same Word to the people of home, calling them to repent of their sins and believe in the Gospel, just as He does with everyone. But the townsfolk are very unwilling, very cold and stubborn, like thorns and briars. They even get a little offended as Jesus words. Who is this? Who does He think He is? Isn t He Mary s son and His brothers and sisters are right here? In one of the Gospels we read that the town was so offended that they
tried to throw Jesus off a cliff. Wouldn t it be better for Jesus to just cool down his message a bit? Maybe not even talk about all that religious stuff, right? At least they wouldn t try to throw him off a cliff. What was the problem? Why didn t Jesus own townsfolks, maybe His own friends and relatives, receive His message and believe? Why were they so offended, so stubborn, and why were the people of Israel to whom Ezekiel was sent to preach, why were THEY so stubborn and unwilling? After all they d been through so much; you think they d be more willing to listen to the Lord s message and repent. In both cases, the trouble isn t the message or the messenger or his approach, the trouble is sin. Sin has a way of wanting to run and hide from God, from His Word, hide in the deepest, darkest crevices of God s creation. And those who are controlled by the sinful nature, that nature pulls them and drags them around like an old stuffed doll. For the old Adam, that old man, the sinful human nature, whatever you want to call it, he is still alive and kicking in this world. And those who do not believe in Christ who died and rose again, they are controlled by the old Adam, they are slaves to sin and all they care to do is avoid God and His Word as much as they can. And believe it or not, when you awoke this morning, that old Adam was right there waking up with you and he began whispering in your ear from the moment you opened your eyes. Now as a Christian, you re not controlled by him; he was subdued and drowned in your baptism, but he s still there tempting you. And the old man, he still encourages you to be stubborn, closed, and unwilling to listen. After all, it s the primary work of your old nature to keep you away from the Lord s Word and Sacraments and to convince you that
God s Word and Sacraments really aren t all that necessary for faith, life, or happiness. See that was the problem with the Israel of Ezekiel s time and the problem with the Israel of Jesus time. And if we let it, it can also be the problem with each of us. And us pastors, we who have the divine call to serve as prophet and preacher and undershepherd in God s church, we have the old Adam too, that old nature speaking in our ear, tempting us and trying to lure us away from the faith. CFW Walther, one of the fathers of the LCMS in the United States, once wrote these words: A person may pretend to be a Christian though in reality he is not. As long as he is in this condition, he is quite content with his knowledge of the mere outlines of Christian doctrine. Everything beyond that, he says, is for pastors and theologians. To understand as clearly as possible everything that God has revealed - all of that is irrelevant for non-christians. These are tough words, but they re true words and they should drill into our hearts a little bit, right? For us Lutherans and really for most churches, the number one thing is the infallibility of Scripture, the divinely inspired Word of God given to us through the hands and pen of the prophets and apostles. It is in Scripture that we discover God s revealed will, His plan, His work, and it s in Scripture where we learn about Jesus and His life, His death, His resurrection, His ascension, and His coming to take us home. It s in Scripture where we learn about Holy Baptism, the Lord s Supper, the Forgiveness of Sins, our own resurrections. But the one thing that none of us likes, the one thing we all struggle with, even as Christians, is the following words of Solomon:
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. Now the world doesn t trust in the Lord in any way, shape, or form. Some have a violent reaction to the hearing of Scripture, to the preaching and teaching of the faith. Yet even we, as Christians, we too, sometimes have a tough time. We do. We read something in Scripture that doesn t make sense to us and instead of saying thus saith the Lord we say, I don t like that passage or who does that preacher think he is preaching like that and we do what we can to either ignore the words or spin them to our own liking. (example of arguing with Lehenbauer). A popular sort of phrase or cliché you hear a lot today concerning the Scriptures: what does this mean to me. As if Scripture is a book which depends upon our own interpretation or opinion. The reality is that Scripture is God speaking to us a single unified, unifying message which He and He alone wants ALL of us as His one body the Church to hear and believe. Not individual, personal interpretation, but one interpretation God s interpretation as He teaches us in Scripture. It s sort of like a truck. Every part, every system, every mechanism in a truck works and functions for the same common goal and works according to the builder s single set of instructions. When the truck isn t working it s because one or more of those parts isn t working according to specification. And as His Church, His one Body, we function best when abiding in His Word, functioning within specification. We work best when, as our
quote from the beginning of the message says: we show loyalty to a person, THE person, Jesus the Christ who dwelt among us as God and man. You see? We can be loyal to a teaching, a idea, a rule, a law, we can be loyal to particular passages in Scripture that we really like, we can be loyal to this church this building the LCMS to Lutheranism in general, but none of this matters if we are not first and foremost loyal to the man, the Son of Man who showed His loyalty to the Father by dying for you and me. Imagine if I as a pastor chose to not believe in what Scripture taught about Jesus but instead chose to teach you my own ideas. Perhaps I had a tough time with the whole idea of Jesus dying on the cross and instead of teaching you that it s real I taught you that it s just figurative, symbolic. Or let s flip it around. Maybe I really did believe in Scripture and wanted to teach and preach it to you as it s meant. But you took offense, you were stubborn and didn t want to hear what Scripture had to say. What if I as the pastor said to myself I don t want to offend anyone or hurt feelings and instead preaching the whole counsel of God, I only preached and taught the things you liked to hear, that you were comfortable hearing. What sort of pastor would I be? Loyalty listening abiding, not in an idea, not in a philosophy, not in a feeling or someone else s teaching, but loyalty in the Man, Jesus. That s the Christian faith. See, God called and ordained Ezekiel to preach EVERYTHING he was told to preach, the whole Word of God, the entire counsel of God, and not just the things the people wanted to hear. Yes, Ezekiel s life was
threatened many times, his ministry was at stake, his freedom was on the line. People walked away. Jesus preached the full counsel of His Father, He preached the Word without holding back, without filtering, without reservation, and even when the people didn t like it and showed little respect for Him and even threatened His life, Jesus preached the Word. You see? As a pastor, I am called to preach the Word. I am bound, I am chained to Scripture and like Ezekiel, like St. Paul, like all of God s preachers and teachers, I must preach only what the Holy Spirit gives me to preach as revealed in Scripture, and because of my love and my duty to God s children, I don t want to preach my opinion to you; I want to preach God s truth to you. And just as Ezekiel did and Jesus did, and God has commanded, I want to call you to repent of your sins and believe in the Gospel because I want everyone of you to hold fast to the promises of forgiveness and eternal life offered you in Christ who died and rose again. And let s face it, there is always more to learn when it comes to the faith; you never know enough. And I am also fully aware that some of you might get offended, might walk out, might get angry at me and might never come to this church again should I preach or teach something you don t like. It happened to Ezekiel, it happened to Jesus, it happens to every loyal pastor who lives and breathes today. But if I let the old Adam in each of you, and the old Adam in me, dictate the message, filter the preaching, then I am not worthy of the call to which God has called me and I m not worthy to be a pastor in this or any church. Because you see it s the Word of the Lord that saves. And a pastor who does not preach Christ is of no value to you whatsoever. A pastor who does not reveal to you your sin, call you to repent of your sin, and then cover you with the Good News of salvation is of no benefit to you at all.
And thankfully, thankfully, Jesus was no push over. We pastors, we re all sinners, none of us are as strong as we d like to be. None of us are as sure or confident as we make ourselves out to be. We are weak, we are easily swayed, we give into pressure, we fall to temptation. We are no better than any of you who struggle and question. Sometimes we are very stubborn too. Sometimes we can be some of the sharpest thorns in the field. But thankfully Jesus is not. Even when Jesus was ridiculed by his own family, his own hometown, He stood His ground. Yeah, the town was full of faithless people, but Jesus didn t run or compromise. And as we read in the Gospel of John, even when most of his followers left Him after He preached, so that only the 12 remained, Jesus remained steadfast, remained loyal, and did not waver or change His message. Instead He preached the Word, and He preached and preached and taught and taught all the way to the cross where He shed His blood and bore the brunt of God s wrath for our sin, for our stubbornness. He did this for us because He loves us, and to this day, this moment, it is Jesus only desire that we stand as His baptized, washed, and holy people, covered in the righteousness of His blood, and feasting on the heavenly food of salvation. Jesus has done it all; He has run the course and finished the race for us and now we ride the wave of His triumph all the way to heaven s golden streets. Even in our stubbornness, in our weakness, even when that whispering old Adam tempts us and lures us away from the light, even when we are tempted to be disloyal or loyal to something or someone OTHER than Jesus, He comes and rescues us and preaches His Word to us. And somehow, it still boggles my mind, somehow Jesus even works His Word and promises through weak, broken, sinful pastors like me, so
that His people, His children, so that you are carried back to His forgiveness and salvation, back to His church back to the banquet table filled with all the good food of paradise. So pray for faithful pastors like Ezekiel or Jeremiah, but moreover, pray that Christ s faithfulness flood this congregation and fill each and every one of us, so that His faithfulness continue to speak a better word, a better message in our ears and our hearts and our minds than what the old man, that old Adam offers. Amen.