This is the first of two Lenten sermons done this year.
Many of you have probably seen or heard of the motivational posters that are often displayed in offices. Most all of them have some pretty photograph taking up most of the poster and then below the photo in large colored print on a black background is a word that exemplifies some attribute or quality that the purchaser of the poster wants to emphasize, like teamwork, character, vision, etc. Under that is some statement, quote, or often humanistic platitude that is designed to engender the appropriate response in the reader. For instance under the large word vision you might find, “If you can conceive it, you can achieve it.” It is interesting that if you search on the internet for motivational posters what you will find up near the top of the list a site which specializes in “demotivators”. One of their posters depicts a coastal scene with a gorgeous sky, a peaceful sea –but out of that sea juts the bow of a ship which has either sunk and is stuck or else is in the final throes of its journey to the deep. Underneath the picture is the title “Mistakes” with the tagline “It could be that the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others.”
Some days Ezekiel’s life probably felt a bit like that. He would be right. Not that his life was a shipwreck, or a mistake, or that his life would serve as a warning to others because of its disastrous nature, but rather he was called to be a watchman, a warning to his people of eminent danger they faced for their faithlessness. It was he who spotted the enemy coming and put out the call to prepare. Consider his first day on the job of being a prophet…
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Part of a Lenten Evening Prayer series given at St. Francis Reformed Episcopal Church, March 5, 2008
We have, this Lenten season, been exploring the concept of blindness, in particular the progressively worsening blindness of the Pharisees as seen in the Gospel of John. Two weeks ago, Rick introduced us to a blindness of the Pharisees toward the words that Jesus spoke in John 8. They are resolutely unwilling to open either their eyes or hearts and recognize the Truth.
Last Wednesday Jonathan presented us with the profound irony of the Pharisees increasing blindness when confronted with the healing of the man born blind in John 9. That day on the wide road the Pharisees looked on incredulously as the man born blind skipped by on his way back up the road to the fork that would take him down the narrow way toward life. As C. S. Lewis stated, “If you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road.”
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