The Old Testament Reading today, taken from Series B of the Three-Year Lectionary, is Ezekiel 2:1-5. While I wrote about the hymn in today's bulletin insert in relation to the Old Testament Reading, Bible Class this morning made me realize that it also connects well with today's Gospel Reading, Mark 6:1-13. In verses 7-13, Christ sends out the apostles in pairs. God sent both Ezekiel and the apostles out to proclaim His Word, despite the reception the people they were sent to might have given them (Ezek. 2:3-5; Mark 6:11). Many times we act as the very people Ezekiel and the apostles were sent by God to proclaim "His unchanging Word" to (stanza one). How wonderful it is, then, that God still gives us the gift of faith (Eph. 2:8-9)!
From the July 8th bulletin:
God Speaks Through
His Prophets and Through Song
During the Old Testament Reading,
we heard the Word of God proclaimed through the prophet Ezekiel. It was through people like Ezekiel that God spoke
His word to ancient Israel, as we sing in stanza one of our Gradual hymn today,
God Has Spoken by His Prophets (LSB
583). God sent Ezekiel to a rebellious
people (Ezek. 2:3). We, like Israel, are
rebellious and stuck “in the world’s despair and turmoil” (stanza one), but
thanks be to God that He sent His Son to bear our sin for us! Now, just as He once spoke to His people
through the prophets, “God has spoken by Christ Jesus, Christ, the everlasting
Son” (stanza two; Heb. 1:1-2). He is the
“Light of Light, to earth descending” (stanza two; John 1:9), come to earth to
redeem us. Today “God is speaking by His
Spirit” (stanza three) to us, for just as He entered into and spoke to Ezekiel
(Ezek. 2:2), so too the Holy Spirit dwells in us, giving us life (Rom.
8:10-11).
-Kristen
“God the first, and
God the last.” stanzas one and three
“I am the Alpha and
the Omega,” says the Lord God,
“who is and who was
and who is to come, the Almighty.” Rev. 1:8
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