Ezekiel 22: 23-29
23 The word of the Lord came to me:
24 Mortal, say to it: You are a land that is not cleansed, not rained upon in the day of indignation.
25 Its princes within it are like a roaring lion tearing the prey; they have devoured human lives; they have taken treasure and precious things; they have made many widows within it.
26 Its priests have done violence to my teaching and have profaned my holy things; they have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they taught the difference between the unclean and the clean, and they have disregarded my sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.
27 Its officials within it are like wolves tearing the prey, shedding blood, destroying lives to get dishonest gain.
28 Its prophets have smeared whitewash on their behalf, seeing false visions and divining lies for them, saying, “Thus says the Lord God,” when the Lord has not spoken.
29 The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery; they have oppressed the poor and needy, and have extorted from the alien without redress.
Twenty six centuries ago, the nation of Judah had experienced upheaval. Surrounded by superpowers, its continued existence was tenuous, at best. Judah was all that was left of Israel, founded by the Creator to be different in the earth, proclaiming the nature of God. They were freed from slavery in Africa. They dispossessed a people in the land of promise with the help of God, though they were not trained warriors. God wanted them to be eternally grateful, remembering the lives that were taken so that they would live. God wanted them to be a people submitted to the Creator who was at the center of their community. Their reward for obedience was to be prosperity, health, and freedom from fear—shalom.
But they forgot their history. Instead of worshipping the God who delivered them from bondage, they worshiped the gods of the land they inhabited. Instead of recognizing their privilege and exceptionalism, they desired to be like other nations. Instead of living for God, they lived for themselves. They became community only in time of trouble as they mourned together, or in time of war when families sent their sons and husbands into battle. The leaders looked for opportunities to make themselves rich at the expense of the people to “make Israel great again.” The rich “us” and the poor “them” were the consequence of some ignoring that they were brothers and sisters, descendants of the same father. Forgetting that they were once strangers in a country not their own, they oppressed aliens. The nation was living a lie.
They had been warned by Moses and the prophets where these practices would lead. But not many were listening. The advisors to the king preached prosperity while impoverishing the national coffers to pay off more powerful nations for protection. Trusting God became a fantasy. The religious leaders no longer taught the word of God, but made things up as they went so that their comfort would be increased. The prophets, charged with speaking the word of God, chose to be politically correct and proclaimed peace, when there was no peace.
The nation was suffering from unresolved issues—do we worship the living God or Baal? The original people who had been left in the land had influenced society. Of this they had been warned by God and by Moses. Do we follow God’s law or do what we want as King David did with Bathsheba? Having a king other than God had its downfalls, as the people had been warned by Samuel. Do we put our desire for power over our desire to serve the people as did Rehoboam? He learned that some advice is better than others as the nation split in two. Do we want to be different or do we want to fit in? The unresolved issues yielded internal conflict. This conflict led to breaches, break-downs in society, but they were ignored by those in leadership. They believed that God was with them, and they could not fail. They even ignored the obvious.
Although the Babylonians had come into Jerusalem, replaced the king, and taken captives back to Mesopotamia, the leaders told the people not to worry; that the condition was temporary. Ezekiel, who had been deported and Jeremiah, who still lived in Judah told the people that the nation would fall, but not many listened. The majority ruled. Dissenting voices were silenced. All was well.
And Judah was destroyed.
I, the Lord of sea and sky
I have heard my people cry
All who dwell in dark and sin
My hand will save
I, who made the stars of night
I will make their darkness bright
Who will bear my light to them?
Whom shall I send?
Here I am, Lord. Is it I, Lord?
I have heard you calling in the night
I will go, Lord, if you lead me
I will hold your people in my heart
The world has not changed much in 26 centuries. Leaders still take advantage of their offices to gain wealth for themselves. Rulers still send people to war for their own benefit. There is violence in the streets. Widows and orphans multiply. The teachings of the religious establishment too often blur the lines between right and wrong. And God still speaks.
And I sought for anyone among them who would repair the wall and stand in the breach before me on behalf of the land, so that I would not destroy it; but I found no one. (Ezekiel 22:30)
The United States is a society in conflict because of her unresolved issues. Here is a brief review. For example, the history books tell us that people came to this country for religious freedom. But that was only true of a few colonies. Most colonies were established to make money. So, we teach a national narrative which belies our national reality. And what ever happened to the Loyalists, those who were not in favor of the Revolution but wanted to remain citizens of England? Some of them agreed with the revolutionaries, but wanted to negotiate with England through peaceful means. Others were concerned about their business concerns and markets open to them throughout the British Empire. During the Revolution, some tried to go about business as usual and not talk about politics. Some were beaten by gangs and others fled to Canada and Britain. Some of them had their lands confiscated and parceled out to others. Ultimately, they were written out of the history books, but their influence is still a part of our political thought. The Congress passed laws to make it illegal to persecute the losing side. But hearts and minds were not changed.
Less than a century after the Revolution, Manifest Destiny was preached – a belief that the nation should extend from shore to shore to create heaven on earth. However, that meant that the land belonging to the native people would be appropriated for the use of the white majority population. The politicians of the day suggested segregation of the native population or assimilation into white society. When the boundaries of the nation reached the Pacific, the natives had no where else to go. So the leaders wove a tale. The settlers being attacked were seen as the protagonists in the story while the natives were demonized as savages for fighting for their land (remember the westerns?). White male supremacy was not a controversy, but was an assumption.
Then there was a Civil War. We are taught that the was was fought to free the slaves of African descent; however, it was essentially a war based on the economy of the South. The southern states supplied to raw materials which ran the factories of the North. Some of the planters in the south thought that they could get a better deal from Britain. The Emancipation Proclamation, in part, was a document which took away the slave labor force of the South (and only the Confederate states), thereby affecting the financial underpinnings of the Confederates. After the Civil War, the 13th Amendment was passed, abolishing slavery in the United States. The law changed, but not the hearts and minds. So Jim Crow Laws suppressed the black vote and black freedom in the South and de facto segregation reigned in the north so that white supremacy and rule could be maintained.
Then America wanted to be like the other nations. It sought to be an empire. It went to war with Spain and acquired Cuba, the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico. But there was a problem. If these were to be a part of the United States, then that would mean that the residents would get a vote. Those populations would tilt the balance of power away from the white majority. So the leaders created a second class citizenship which had voice, but not vote. They ceased speaking about the empire and changed the map of the United States to hide the reality from the people. And God sent prophets to warn the people – prophets like Mark Twain who said, “There must be two Americas: one that sets the captive free, and one that takes a once-captive’s new freedom away from him, and picks a quarrel with him with nothing to found it on; then kills him to get his land.” Also, in satirical fashion, he rewrote the Declaration of Independence to say, “Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed white men.”
I, the Lord of snow and rain
I have borne my people’s pain
I have wept for love of them
They turn away
I will break their hearts of stone
Give them hearts for love alone
Who will speak my word to them
Whom shall I send?
Here I am, Lord. Is it I, Lord?
I have heard you calling in the night
I will go, Lord, if you lead me
I will hold your people in my heart
In 1920, women were finally recognized by the Federal Government as people and allowed them to vote. However, hearts and minds were not changed by a change in law. Today, women are still fighting for equality in employment and justice.
Since the late 19th Century, African Americans had been fighting for equality and justice in America. After going to battle for America in her wars, people just couldn’t put up with the injustice anymore. In 1955, Emmett Till, a 14 year old boy from Chicago was shot in the head and thrown into a river for supposedly touching a white woman. His mother chose to hold a public funeral with an open casket so that the world would see how her son was mutilated. This drew attention and sympathy from the white American public. In that same year, a Baptist Preacher named Martin Luther King, Jr. came to prominence as the spokesman for the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott. King, whose life we celebrate today, was a proponent of nonviolent resistance. He learned this teaching of Jesus, not in the church, but in his reading of Ghandi’s reflection of the Sermon on the Mount. Martin and others answered the call of God to speak to the nation, to stand in the gap. As others before him, he was silenced by assassination. Violence raged in the streets, and laws were changed. Desegregation accelerated. Black schools were closed so that the “superior” education given to white students could be had by all. As my old roomate, Deborah Austin, used to say, “We asked for equality, but we received integration.” The laws were changed, but hearts and minds were not changed.
The United States tells itself that it is a nation of laws. Laws and our silences are the whitewash which make us think that everything is fine. General Douglas MacArthur said, “Rules are mostly made to be broken and are too often for the lazy to hide behind.” We, as a nation, have broken our laws because we refuse to do the work of resolving our issues. We are a nation divided between those who operate on principle and those who operate on profit; between those who believe in freedom for all and those who believe in freedom for some; between those who have money and those who do not; between those who are male and those who are not; between those who are white and those who are not; between those who are Christian and those who are not. We each have our own version of history which is too often written by the majority and rebelled against by those who have been left out. We are a nation in conflict, and too many of us are in denial. All is well. Besides, it’s too hard to change.
So, 2600 years later, the words of Ezekiel still remain:
The word of the Lord came to me:
24 Mortal, say to it: You are a land that is not cleansed, not rained upon in the day of indignation.
25 Its princes within it are like a roaring lion tearing the prey; they have devoured human lives; they have taken treasure and precious things; they have made many widows within it.
26 Its priests have done violence to my teaching and have profaned my holy things; they have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they taught the difference between the unclean and the clean, and they have disregarded my sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.
27 Its officials within it are like wolves tearing the prey, shedding blood, destroying lives to get dishonest gain.
28 Its prophets have smeared whitewash on their behalf, seeing false visions and divining lies for them, saying, “Thus says the Lord God,” when the Lord has not spoken.
29 The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery; they have oppressed the poor and needy, and have extorted from the alien without redress.
I, the Lord of wind and flame
I will tend the poor and lame
I will set a feast for them
My hand will save
Finest bread I will provide
‘Til their hearts be satisfied
I will give my life to them
Whom shall I send?
Here I am, Lord. Is it I, Lord?
I have heard you calling in the night
I will go, Lord, if you lead me
I will hold your people in my heart.
Today, I address the household of faith, the people of God, the people whose law is that of love. The people whom God called to be the example to the nations. The Lord, the creator of heaven and earth still speaks,
I sought for anyone among them who would repair the wall and stand in the breach before me on behalf of the land, so that I would not destroy it; but I found no one.
What does it take to be one who stands in the breach? The Apostle Paul says that it takes a total commitment, a willingness to be a sacrifice (killed), a desire to be transformed by a renewed mind, a desire to follow the truth. The breach is the weak part of the wall where the enemy attacks. The one who stands in the breach defends the people from the front side and warns the nation at the rear. It’s a dangerous place to stand, and most people are not willing. As a Christian, Martin Luther King, Jr. had nothing to lose because he was sure of the resurrection promised by Jesus Christ for those who believe. What does it take to be one who stands in the breach? It takes love that trusts the other enough to believe that the story we have heard is not the total truth. What does it take to be one who stands in the breach? It takes faith to know that the ministry of reconciliation will not be in vain and that someday, we will overcome. What does it take to be one who stands in the breach? It takes courage. It takes an act of God. Who is willing to be next?
Here I am, Lord. Is it I, Lord?
I have heard you calling in the night
I will go, Lord, if you lead me
I will hold your people in my heart