In today’s readings, the first reading from Ezekiel and the gospel from Mark, we have “winged creatures” or “birds of the sky” are able to rest and find shade in an unexpected place. The readings are at least thematically connected. Jesus’s focus in the Gospel is clear as he asks: “To what shall we compare the kingdom of God” – the kingdom being a topic Jesus has proclaimed since the beginning of the gospel: “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:15). But what is Ezekiel talking about?

As often happens in the first reading, we only get a part of the story. Today’s first reading comes from the Book of the Ezekiel, chapter 17.  Ezekiel is a challenging read as it is almost a continuous allegory and we are more a “tell us the story straight up” kind of listener. So here is the background of this chapter. Israel is a nation trying to stay independent but it is right in the middle between the two superpowers of the age: Babylon and Egypt. You can only juggle political intrigue and make calculated maneuvers for so long and in 597 BCE, time ran out. The Babylonians captured Jerusalem, put a vassal king in place, and took captive the elite of the nation as hostage, taking them to Babylon. Elijah was one of those exiled and he became the first prophet commissioned outside the Holy Land. Elijah’s messages seek to answer the question, “How did we end up in exile? Aren’t we God’s chosen people?”  And after answering that question, Elijah seeks to offer a message of Hope that God who is “gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in love and fidelity” (Exodus 34:6) will ultimately fulfill His covenant promises to his people. With that in mind, Ezekiel 17 begins:

“The word of the LORD came to me: Son of man, propose a riddle, and tell this proverb to the house of Israel: Thus says the Lord GOD: The great eagle, with wide wingspan and long feathers, with thick plumage, many-hued, came to Lebanon. He plucked the crest of the cedar, broke off its topmost branch, And brought it to a land of merchants, set it in a city of traders.” (Ezekiel 17:1-4)

Here is the cast of characters: the great eagle is the King Babylon; the wingspan and long feathers are the many vassal states, the cedar is Jerusalem, the topmost branch is the group of people taken as hostage, and the city of traders is the center of the earthly kingdom of Babylon.  Ezekiel was living this allegory as he was a temple priest who was taken hostage.

The history and allegory continue.  In verses 5 and 6, Ezekiel describes the Lord turning to care for the remnant in Jerusalem. There the Lord plants a “vine, dense and low-lying” that “produced branches and put forth shoots.” They were no longer the magnificent cedar, but they were getting by…but again the people tend to become involved in the political intrigue of their day. “Then another great eagle appeared, with wide wingspan, rich in plumage.” (v.7) The remnant in Jerusalem turned to Egypt, the other superpower.

In following verses, the Word of the Lord came to the Prophet Ezekiel. The basic message is that the people of Jerusalem and Judah did not turn to the Lord, they turned to Egypt, an earthly kingdom to protect them from another earthly kingdom, Babylon. Skipping the details, let’s just say it doesn’t go well. The armies of Babylon return in 587 BC, capture Jerusalem, destroy the Temple, tear down the city walls, and plunder everything and everyone. The survivors are taken into captivity and join those already there. This is the period known as the Babylonian Exile.

And that is all background to the first reading. In the Sunday first reading, we see Elijah’s message of Hope in which that tender shoot again becomes the majestic cedar: Israel restored. This is the promise of the God of the Covenant held up for the people to see and trust.  The cedar planted on the high, lofty mountain is the people in Exile returned to Jerusalem. Under the care of God, the people will become as though a great majestic cedar. “All kinds of winged birds” – those are the people of every nation flocking to Jerusalem, drawn into the covenant.  And more than that, “every tree of the field” that is, all the nations will know that the Lord is God and God alone.

Now perhaps, we hear the Gospel with a new perspective: “To what shall we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable can we use for it.” Ezekiel’s allegory would be a good comparison. The basic components are two earthly kingdoms and the covenant people. The two superpowers and people of faith.

Greece had Persia. Babylon had Egypt. Rome had Carthage. The Mongol Empire had the Holy Roman Empire. England, France, and Spain had each other. Japan had China. Russia had the United States. And all the while these earthly kingdoms and all that attends – money, power, prestige, lands, wealth, culture, custom, language – they compete for the loyalty and fealty of the people of God.

It is the same in each age. As covenant people of every age, we make our choices. As a Church we have made choices, We have our own history perhaps paralleling the choices the people of Jerusalem made. The superpowers come and go. I am sure Rome thought they would last forever. All the while what the Lord has planted through the life, death and Resurrection of Jesus endures. The Church is planted, it puts forth its branches and bears fruit. Sometimes it is like a “vine, dense and low-lying” that “produced branches and put forth shoots.”  Sometimes it is like the majestic cedar.

I think of all the places in which I have worshiped and received Holy Eucharist over the course of my life. The list is testimony, however weak, of the promise of God. I have celebrated the Kingdom in 40 some-odd States in our nation, Central and South America, the countries of Western Europe, Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, Tanzania, South Africa, New Zealand, Hawaii, Guam, afloat in ships large and small. I have received Holy Eucharist in the grandest of cathedrals and in St. Peters in Rome. I have received while under a sail strung between trees on an island in the middle of Lake Victoria. I have been with the people of God, celebrating the kingdom while the moon rose over the Serengeti.

“This is how it is with the kingdom of God”  It is as we live and spread the Faith as best we can. We sleep and rise the next day – and through it all the kingdom grows. And we think we have no idea of how it happens. Let me suggest that we do know how it happens. It happens because it was always God’s work and not ours. What is ours to do is this: when given the choice between the earthly kingdom and choosing for the Kingdom of God – choose God.  Choose God every day, every week, every year, for the whole of your life – in things small and great.

The superpowers come and go. We are the covenant people of this age called to make our choice for the Kingdom that endures forever.

Amen

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