“Do Not Be Afraid”

Scripture: Ezekiel 1:28-3:3

We have been talking about faith during the past several weeks, and today, we begin to see an example of faith in action. I left you with a question last week that I hope you have been considering – “What does your Christian faith mean to you?”, and I hope that in your ponderings you have discovered at least this one aspect of faith – that it must be active, that it can never take you to a place where you are content to just sit back and enjoy your faith. I received one email from a parishioner this week who obviously put a lot of thought and prayer into the question, and in return, discovered quite a bit about faith in her life. And I greatly appreciate that note.
And of course, faith is more than just being “active”, but the aspects of faith that may have been revealed to you must be active. Today, we begin a series on the book of Ezekiel that will show how God spoke many truths to one of the major prophets, and how he was called to share those truths with his fellow countrymen who were being held captive in Babylon at the time.

It is seldom that people want to hear when God sends corrective advise, and even less so when he wants us to share that word with others. Such was the case for Ezekiel.

Read Ezekiel 1:28b - 2:2

When God calls us to do something, I don’t think he ever sees it as a request or a suggestion! It is the Lord’s intention that whoever is called will do exactly what is needed! We don’t get to evaluate the call, we don’t get to modify the message to make it more palatable, and we don’t get to choose the best time to go out and speak it.
Ezekiel may have been sitting down one evening, perhaps relaxing, perhaps repairing a tool, perhaps even having a meal. But when the Lord began to speak, everything else became irrelevant and stopped immediately. He had noticed a huge storm coming toward him from the north, and in the middle of it were four winged creatures who preceded the appearance of Almighty God. And Ezekiel would not be allowed to sit during the Lord’s discourse – the Spirit came over him, and promptly put him on his feet. He was going to pay attention, one way or another!

That’s how God seemed to get the people’s attention in the Old Testament days. But this style was only used on a select few – those who were selected to carry Jehovah’s message to the rest of the nation. By the time we get to the New Testament, he still taught the apostles’ his lessons in dramatic ways, but gearing his style to the needs of the person – such as Peter’s vision of a sheet, versus Paul’s being blinded. But one way or another, the Lord always gets the messenger’s attention!

But today, the Lord’s methods seem to be a bit more subtle. No more standing us upright on our feet, no more dramatic and unmistakable visions, no more blindness – he seems to speak to us in indirect ways – through every day means such as a radio or TV show, through the gentle words of a friend, and sometimes even in a sermon! But the point here is that when God speaks, we had better be ready to listen. We may not be comfortable with the messages we receive and with the calls placed on our lives, but we had better listen and we had better respond, just the same.

Read Ezekiel 2:3-5

Put yourself in the prophet’s sandals for a moment. You are quietly minding your own business, when suddenly you are surrounded by four heralds of God, you are forced to your feet by the Holy Spirit, and the Lord begins to instruct you as to what you are going to do in his name. Just another, normal, routine day in your life, right? Hardly!
And then you get your assignment - He tells you that you will be carrying his message to the very people who have never listened to him before. They have defied him, ignored him, insulted him, and turned away from him to embrace the evils of the world. And they aren’t going to listen to you either, but you must go and tell just the same. And whether they listen or not, they will know that you are the Lord’s messenger, and that the message truly is for them.

Scared yet? Concerned that the Lord just may have made one gigantic mistake in giving this to you?

Pastor and writer William Coffin writes:
Fear distorts truth, not by exaggerating the ills of the world . . . but by underestimating our ability to deal with them . . . love seeks truth, fear seeks safety.

--William Sloane Coffin, “The Courage to Love” (New York: Harper and Row, 1982), 60.

Whenever and whatever the Lord asks of us should be a reason for joy! Think about it – you have been chosen by God as the best choice for the task that is at hand! “But”, you think, “I don’t know how to do that! I don’t have the skills to do that! What if I fail? What if I blow it?” The truth is that none of that matters, because if the Lord calls us to do something, we are better off if we don’t know how to do it – it is then that we have to let him do it through us! And he will let us know that.

Read Ezekiel 2:6-8

Whether they listen or not, just tell them. Remember, though, that you can’t go against his call on your life. Just do it, and don’t be afraid of what you have to tell them!

That has always been the tough part for me – doing it whether someone is listening or not. My first real venture into ministry was when I received a call from the Broome County Council of Churches, asking me to begin leading worship at Sullivan Park Nursing Home. Some of you have lead worship in nursing homes before, and you know that these aren’t the most pleasant places. Many homes have that “odor” about them, and the people moan and carry on, and they doze off while you are speaking, and they get a glazed look in their eyes, and they don’t seem to hear a single word you say. And you wonder why you are even there. And then you begin the hymn “Amazing Grace”, or “Blessed Assurance”, or one of the other familiar oldies, and every single person is with you. Or you begin to say the Lord’s Prayer, and again, every person in the room is saying it with you. And then you understand – it has nothing to do with what you think they should hear – it’s what God will be saying to them through you.
Pastoral ministry is similar – when you first begin, you have grandiose ideals and expect that you are going to inspire the congregation with all sorts of good news. You won’t, though, but every once in a while, someone comments on a message that you offer, or rather that the Spirit delivers though you, and it suddenly all seems worthwhile – even when the message that the person received wasn’t what you said! The Spirit works in strange ways!!

Ezekiel knew right from the start that many of the people weren’t going to listen, but he also knew that he had to go just the same. The prophet had faith – faith that God would be going with him, that God would be giving him just the right words to say, that success or failure had nothing to do with him – all he had to do is say the words that the Lord gave him, at the time the Lord wanted it said, and to the people the Lord wanted to hear it. All Ezekiel had to do was to go and speak, and Almighty God would do everything else.
But what was he to say?

Read Ezekiel 2:9-3:3

Words of “lament, mourning and woe” – not exactly great news for Israel! But they were the very ones that the Lord needed to have delivered by Ezekiel. But what about words of love and joy and celebration? Not yet – now was the time for words of agony, and Ezekiel would have to go just the same.
And they aren’t the kinds of words that we like to deliver, either. But the Lord’s words are always the right words to say, just the same. But should it matter to us? What difference should it make whether the message God wants us to deliver are words of joy or words of disappointment?
They are his words, his message, his heart that we carry, not ours. And the prophet is told to consume the words, and he discovers that God’s words of lament, mourning and woe are just as sweet as any other word that he might receive.

Have you ever thought of it that way? That the joy we experience in service to our Lord isn’t in the message, but simply in the service itself? It isn’t about the words, or the service, or the compassion, or the gift – it is about sharing them in the name of Jesus Christ. We don’t need to worry about acceptance or rejection, we don’t have to be concerned with the victory or the failure, we don’t have to worry whether the folks choose to listen or not– we just have to deliver!

That is what takes the fear and the apprehension and the reluctance and the sense of inadequacy away. If the Lord calls us to do something, he will also provide the words or the skill or the love or the grace and mercy, or anything else that we will need to deliver. No longer is there any reason to fear speaking of the wonderful gift of Jesus, no reason to fear inviting someone to give themselves to the Lord, no reason to fear encouraging them to come to worship with you.
Let Jesus’ words ring in your heart – “Peace be with you!” He said that phrase over and over when he began to appear to the disciples after his resurrection. “Peace be with you.” That means that there is nothing to fear – not his abrupt and unexpected appearance in your life, not his call to service in his name (even though it was the last thing you wanted to hear), not his giving of a task that there is no way that you could ever accomplish it, not the message that someone will definitely NOT want to hear, but one that must be shared anyway. Peace, not fear, is what Jesus offers us. Claim it, celebrate it, and above all else, share it.

And for the next few weeks, we will follow Ezekiel as he shares the “sweetest words” of God with the people of captive Israel.