1.
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly
Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Amen. The message from God’s Word
on this 5th Lenten Midweek Service is taken from Psalm 104:10-18,
Ezekiel 17:1-24 & Mark 4:30-32, it’s entitled, “Tree of the Lord’s
Planting,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.
“From tiny acorns grow great oaks,” so they say. That
may be, but the process never just happens. What we take to be simple and
common acts of nature are always really the work of the Creator’s hand. It goes
all the way back to the beginning when Genesis tells us that, “the Lord God planted
a garden in Eden, in the east. . . . And out of the ground the Lord
God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for
food” (Gen 2:8–9). Tonight, in the 17th chapter of Ezekiel, we
heard about a particular tree that the Lord planted. We’ll consider that tree
in this 5th sermon of our special Lenten sermon series, “Living
among the Bible’s Trees.” Considering
the tree of the Lord’s planting, we realize that, although we are disloyal and sin
in other ways, Jesus saves us and makes us to dwell securely.
3.
In that reading from Ezekiel, our First Reading tonight,
God uses trees in a figure of speech. Using a cedar, willow, and vine, God
relates recent history allegorically: King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon taking
King Jehoiachin of Israel captive and putting his relative Zedekiah in his
place, only to have Zedekiah disloyally and unfaithfully seek help from Egypt.
Then God prophesies the consequences of Zedekiah’s rebellion. Finally, using a
similar figure of speech, the Lord God speaks of the tree that he himself will
plant, in order to prophesy the Messiah and his kingdom, the Church.
4.
Since Adam & Eve, the first man and woman ate of the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil, not only King Zedekiah but all of us in
various ways have been disloyal and unfaithful. Nebuchadnezzar had Zedekiah
swear a loyalty oath in the Lord’s name, but Zedekiah broke it. Instead of
faithfully trusting in the Lord even at that point, Zedekiah sought from Egypt
help that never really came. You and I in our Baptism renounced the devil, all
of his works, and all of his ways, and at our confirmation we further promised
to live according to the Word of God and to remain true to him in faith, word,
and deed. You make vows to spouses, and we make commitments to family, friends,
and employers. How long do we go before we first and then repeatedly break such
vows and commitments in thoughts, words, and deeds? You and I also face
consequences for our rebellion against God in all its forms: we face not an
exile in Babylon but death here in time and torment in hell for eternity.
5.
The 1978 song called “The Trees” by the Canadian
rock group Rush could just as well have been inspired by the First
Reading. In the song, maple trees demand more light from lofty oaks and eventually
form a union and pass a law that kept the trees equal by hatchet, axe, and saw.
In the First Reading, not a “noble law” but the Lord brings low the
high, proud tree and makes high the low, humble tree; the Lord dries up the
green tree and makes the dry tree flourish. Unless we humbly repent and
believe, as the Lord calls and enables us to do, we will be humiliated at the
judgment and for all eternity. He is the Lord; he has spoken, and he will do
it. So, we humbly turn in sorrow from our disloyalty and rebellion and from all
our sin, we trust God to forgive our sin, and we want to do better than to keep
on sinning. When we repent, we receive God’s forgiveness of our sin. God
forgives all our sin, whatever it might be, for Jesus’ sake.
6.
Jesus is the Sprig from the lofty top of the cedar, the
tender topmost of its young twigs, whom the Lord himself sets out and plants on
a high and lofty mountain. And indeed, the New Testament shows us Jesus on
mountains, such as when he was tempted, when he was transfigured, and when he
finally comes again with the new Jerusalem. Jesus is the righteous Branch
who saves Judah and makes Israel to dwell securely (Jer 23:5–6). The young
Plant grew up and was despised and rejected by people, a man of sorrows and
acquainted with grief. On the cross, he bore our griefs and carried our
sorrows, was pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities, in
order to bring us peace with God and heal us from the eternal death we deserve (Is
53:2–5). For Jesus’ sake, whatever our sin might be, God forgives it all.
7.
The Psalm for this day (Ps 104:10–18) recalls creation
and the Garden of Eden with its parklike plenitude of trees. The two stanzas of
the psalm that we chanted are the center of the psalm and tell of the good use to
which God puts water, creating strong trees bursting with life, hordes of birds
and other alpine animals. We should think of Holy Baptism and the good use to
which God at the font puts water and his Word—working forgiveness of sins,
rescuing us from death and the devil, and giving eternal salvation to all who
believe the words and promises of God. Those so baptized live with daily sorrow
over their sins and trust that God forgives their sin, and as needed they seek
out the unique comfort offered by individual Holy Absolution from their pastor
as from God himself. And those so baptized live in the shelter of the Church,
sustained on the Church’s meal, the Sacrament of the Altar, bread that is
Christ’s body and wine that is Christ’s blood, given and shed for the
forgiveness of sins for life and salvation. Considering the tree of the
Lord’s planting, we realize that, although we are disloyal and sin in other
ways, Jesus saves us and makes us to dwell securely. As every bird and
winged creature according to its kind once entered the ark (Gen 7:14), so we
nest in the tree of the Lord’s planting, eating the abundant seed or food it
offers.
8.
There is a tendency among some Americans wrongly to
apply to the democratic country that is the United States promises that God
made to the theocratic country that once was the Old Testament nation of
Israel. We can and should pray both that our nation as a whole repents and that
God richly blesses our nation as he has in the past, but we should not expect
the United States to endure forever and to be what Jesus calls the “city set
on a hill” (Mt 5:14); that’s more properly Christ’s Church. We should also
not expect even the Church to achieve its greatest glory this side of eternity.
Jesus’ teaching in the Second Reading, the Parable of the Mustard Seed,
certainly echoes or alludes to the First Reading from Ezekiel (see also Dan
4:12). The mustard seed was the smallest seed Palestinian farmers and gardeners
knew. It was proverbial for its smallness as a seed, but, as a plant, it reportedly
could grow to ten or twelve feet tall, the largest plant in their herb gardens.
So Jesus uses the seed and its God-given growth at least in part to teach that
the kingdom of God that is the Church starts from insignificant beginnings, as
planted and grown by the Lord’s doing, but eventually gives shelter to people
from all nations of the world, ultimately standing gloriously forever in
eternity. Jesus himself is the tree of the Lord’s planting, and he makes
us, his Church, to be that tree as well. God blesses our “Living among the
Bible’s Trees,” both now and forever. Amen.
Now the peace of God that passes all understanding guard your hearts
and minds in Christ Jesus until life everlasting. Amen.
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