Friday, 5/21/2021
Week of 7 Easter
This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 102; Ezekiel 34:17–31; Hebrews 8:1–13; Luke 10:38–42
This morning’s Canticles are: before the Psalm reading, Pascha Nostrum(“Christ Our Passover,” BCP, p. 83); following the OT reading, Canticle 10 (“The Second Song of Isaiah,” Isaiah 55:6–11; BCP, p. 86); following the Epistle reading, Canticle 18 (“A Song to the Lamb,” Revelation 4:11; 5:9–10, 13, BCP, p. 93)
Today is Friday of the 7th (and final) week of Easter. It’s our last day of a quick trip through some of the main themes of the Book of Ezekiel and of the first half of the Book of Hebrews; meanwhile, we continue our way through the Gospel according to Luke. This morning we are meditating on the way Hebrews captures the essence of the new relationship Jesus gives us with God, and we are reflecting on the amazing breadth of ways Ezekiel had forecast this new relationship we enjoy.
Today’s paragraph in Hebrews is a view-from-the-mountaintop statement. Jesus, the author writes, is our new and permanent “minister” or “worship leader” (the Greek leitourgos is the word from which we get “liturgist”) in the heavenly sanctuary (Hebrews 8:2). Jesus is mediator of a new covenant. Hebrews unpacks this amazing reality by using a paragraph from the prophet Jeremiah: God writes his laws on our hearts in such a way that we are now inclined to love him and obey him rather than not—Hebrews 8:10; Jeremiah 31:33). We are given such a new orientation from within that we don’t even need someone to teach us (Hebrews 8:11; Jeremiah 31:34). Side note: As a teacher in the church, I have to conclude that this is at least a little hyperbolic! God has dealt mercifully with our wrongdoings; in fact, he “remembers them no longer” Hebrews 8:12; Jeremiah 31:34). This I do not take to be hyperbolic!
In a strikingly similar vein, Ezekiel’s book climaxes by clustering several central new covenant promises. Each is worth lingering over.
Yahweh promises his people a new shepherd-king in the line of David (Ezekiel 34). After the Jews return from Babylon to their homeland beginning in 538 B.C., no one arises with a claim to David’s throne for over 500 years. That is, until the angels sing, “To you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord” (Luke 2:11). “Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendant of David—that is my gospel,” says Paul (2 Timothy 2:8).
All hail King Jesus!
Ezekiel promises the gift of new and sprinkled-clean hearts, and the conferring of a new Spirit (Ezekiel 36:25–27). That would be the gift of the washing and regenerating of our hearts by the Holy Spirit that comes with faith in Jesus (Titus 3:5–8).
Come, Holy Spirit, make our hearts new this day!
Ezekiel is shown a valley of dry bones that are raised up and brought back to life (Ezekiel 37). That is what happens to people who “were dead in our trespasses and sins,” and who, “by [God’s] great love with which he loved us,” are “made alive and seated together with Christ Jesus in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 2:1–5).
For breathing life into the dead places of our lives, we praise you Holy Spirit!
Yahweh says he will renew the relationship between the estranged people of Judah and Israel (Ezekiel 38). That is precisely what happens when the Lord sends Peter and John from Jerusalem (the heart of the old Southern Kingdom, Judah) to Samaria (the heart of the old Northern Kingdom, Israel). They witnessed the same Spirit of Pentecost fall upon these new Samaritan believers as had fallen upon them in Jerusalem (Acts 2 and 8).
Praise you, Lord Christ, for your power to restore broken relationships, to bring love back into broken families, and to make enemies into friends.
Ezekiel, finally, receives a grand and extended vision of a new temple with flowing waters, filled with the glory cloud that had departed at the beginning of the exile (Ezekiel 40–47). We, the Church of Christ, are that new temple constructed of living stones, “a holy temple in the Lord; in whom [we] also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God” (Ephesians 2:21—see also 1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19; 1 Peter 2:5).
Lord, live in us that we may live in you! Amen!!!
May our hearts be encouraged with the long reach of God’s love, the way he has been working his good plans for you and me, and the way he nurtures each of us with his love and care right now.
Be blessed this day,
Reggie Kidd+
Image: Jerusalem-Menora-40-Ezechiels Vision der Totengebeine-2010Gerd Eichmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
