Second Sunday After Pentecost Study

2ND SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST   06-06-2021

FIRST READING:   Ezekiel 17:22-24

Ezekiel was a Jewish priest and prophet who was exiled in Babylon. His prophecies began in 593B.C., seven years before the fall of Jerusalem; his last prophecy was in 573B.C.

These were not the best nor the most hopeful of times for the Jewish people; and it was also a politically volatile time for the rest of the world. The northern Jewish kingdom of Israel had been destroyed by the Assyrian Empire in 722B.C., leaving only the southern Jewish kingdom of Judah. Then Assyria was replaced as a world power by Babylon in 612B.C. Judah, a vassal state of the Babylonian Empire, rebelled, hoping for support from Egypt. But Egypt was unreliable. Judah was subdued by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon in 605B.C. and again in 598-597B.C. King Zedekiah of Judah was blinded and deported to Babylon; his children were publicly executed right before Zedekiah was blinded by his captors; thousands of other Jews were taken captive and dragged into exile in Babylon; the city walls of Jerusalem were reduced to rubble; and the treasured Temple in Jerusalem was looted, burned, and leveled to the ground. 

In the wake of so much disaster and an uncertain future, the people must have wondered about, even doubted, God’s power, presence, concern, and even existence. Was there anything left to hope in? 

Ezekiel was a man of God called to speak to his people in difficult times. Scholars in the past thought that he was one of the exiles in Babylon, brought there in the second wave of captives. Recent scholars now believe that he was actually still in the homeland, and that his “trips” to Babylon were spiritual flights of prophetic insight. This book that bears his name is full of unearthly visions, poems, parables, and comic street-theater actions. He did what he should to confront the people, and he did what he could to comfort the people. Out of the ruins he lifted up God’s word of new hope.

You might read Ezekiel 17:1-21, an allegory that uses the images of a cedar tree and a vine to represent two groups of God’s people – one in exile in Babylon and one in rebellion at home. The figure of an eagle is also present, symbolizing royal powers – the king of Babylon and the pharaoh of Egypt.

In today’s reading that follows the allegory, note that it is God – and not an eagle – that transports the cedar branch… plants it (on Mount Zion, the location of the ruins of the Holy Temple) and protects it and establishes it. Ezekiel is proclaiming that God – not leaders of the world – will indeed bring the exiled people (a portion, a remnant of them) back home, where they will flourish, prosper, and “bear fruit”. And it is finally God who will “make the high tree low and the low tree high”. Other “trees” – nations – will see God’s gracious work and experience God’s justice. 

So exile is not the last word to the people of Ezekiel’s time because God is still speaking. When have you been too discouraged, afraid, or in despair, thinking that your present situation was far too hopeless? God is still speaking!

SECOND READING:   2 Corinthians 5:6-17

(In much of 2 Corinthians, Paul is trying to defend his ministry against critics who are questioning his integrity, his motives, and his fitness for ministry. And it must have hurt Paul that the Corinthian Christians, a congregation that Paul helped to start several years before, didn’t really rally to his support. But the opposition and disappointment he encountered did not prevent him from trying to share the dynamic truth and saving power of Jesus Christ!)

In today’s reading Paul encourages the believers in Corinth to live by faith and not by sight. In reality Christians have nothing to lose, for they have already gained everything as God’s children and God’s servant people. Paul submits that we can live confidently because we know that the crucified Messiah has been raised to new life… we can live confidently knowing that the Holy Spirit has already claimed us for Christ and is preparing us to receive the fullness of God’s gift of everlasting life… we can live confidently even though “in the body” (verse 6) we face all sorts of trials and tribulations, we suffer in all sorts of ways, we are even sometimes persecuted for our faith. Paul suggests that it is sometimes a challenge to continue to be faithful, and to love and serve others while living our mortal lives here on earth… to not become impatient about the tasks and hard problems we face in the few years we still have… and to not become so eager to get “home with the Lord”.

We can live faithfully and love fervently because God’s authentic love for us, experienced through Jesus Christ, has transformed us! Paul puts it this way: “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” (verse 17).

Do you, like Paul, sometimes need a word of hope and of promise in the midst of life’s hard challenges? While we are anticipating our physical end and a promised transition of everlasting life, let’s continue to serve God responsibly, to take risks on God’s behalf, to say and to show and to be love!

GOSPEL READING:  Mark 4:26-34

The Gospel of Mark tells us very few of Jesus’ parables. Most of the ones it shares with us are here in Chapter 4, and they are all (except verse 21) “seed” parables. Today’s reading has two “seed” parables.

Mark 4:26-29 talks about the Kingdom of God growing secretly, by its own mysterious power, like a seed that has been sown. Who scatters the seed – is it God? The disciples? The crowd? Here and now, is it us? Patience and trust are required; its growth cannot be rushed or forced. God and God alone determines the readiness of the crop. God and God alone conducts its harvest.

Mark 4:30-34 compares the Kingdom of God to a mustard seed that is sown. The people who heard Jesus say this might have been shocked and confused. They would have been familiar with Ezekiel’s prophetic speaking of Israel’s proud, lofty, noble expectations for the future using the image of those the tall, towering, majestic, mighty cedar trees of the geographical region of Lebanon (First Reading). Why would Jesus be talking about a shrub that was actually considered a weed?

At first look, we might think that Jesus is saying that God can do great things even through what seems small. Whether it is our faith, our ministry, or our testimony, God can plant a tiny seed – that is, make a small beginning – within us… and it grows quietly and mysteriously… and, at maturity, it’s big and productive and rather amazing. That sounds pretty good. Mustard-seed faith. Mustard-seed mission. Small star – great results. The lesson is: “Don’t get discouraged, disciples of Jesus.  Keep working for the Lord. In due time, your hard work for the KINGDOM OF GOD will pay off.” Simple enough.

But that interpretation is too limited. Jesus is telling us that the KINGDOM OF GOD is like a vine-like weed that appears unannounced and unintended, popping up very subtly, and it begins to grow. And it crawls and spreads and – suddenly – another weed pops up. And then another. And all these weeds intertwine and – before you know it – they have wrapped around other plants… they are pulling them in, overpowering them, and taking control of the garden. And – watch out – now the whole garden is mustard… a spreading growth of weedy shrubs that won’t go away. The mustard plant has infected and affected the whole garden. It’s a hot mess!

Like a weed, this KINGDOM OF GOD will be unexpected, unwanted, and hard to control. Like a weed, it will just take root and take over. It will infect hearts and minds and lives, and it will spread. It will continue to grow and unfold and become. This KINGDOM OF GOD will spread from one life to another, person to person, and more and more people will get pulled into it, more and more people will become infected with it… like a contagious epidemic, like a disease. But it’s a disease that you want to catch.

When I was a teenager in Luther League back in the 1960s, a guitar might be strumming and a campfire might be flickering and a gathered group of Christian followers would sing together:

It only takes a spark to get a fire going.

    And soon all those around can warm up to its glowing.

    That’s how it is with God’s love, once you’ve experienced it:

    You spread his love to ev’ryone, you want to pass it on.

Watch out, world! The KINGDOM OF GOD is spreading like a weed, out of control like a fire!