"Speaking and Hearing God's Truth"
Sermon by the Rev. Matt Kennedy

July 9th 2006
The Church of the Good Shepherd

Ezekiel 2:1-7

People don't like bad news. Nor do people generally like the bearer of bad news. That's why no one likes to bear it. I don't even like bearing moderately uncomfortable news. When I met Anne in seminary and we started hanging out we soon realized that we should probably date. The problem was I was also dating another girl back in Texas. I liked this girl a lot. She was nice, pretty, kind, a Christian, a great person. I couldn't stand the thought of telling her I wanted to date someone else. I hate hurting people's feelings. So I put it off. It was a dumb, stupid, thing to do. I put it off for a whole month. I just didn't call her. I got emails and calls and I didn't answer them. I told myself that I needed space to think over what I was going to say and how I was going to say it. I was lying. To make matters worse, and this is another aspect of my stupidity at the time, I didn't exactly tell Anne about this girl. In fact I didn't mention her at all. She eventually found out when she played back my messages and realized that some girl in Texas had been trying to get in touch with me for weeks and I had been ignoring her. Anne was not pleased.

And she was right not to be. I was being a big fat jerk. Anne wasn't the only one on my case. It got increasingly hard to pray because every time I would get alone with God, I heard his voice in my heart asking me about this girl. So I avoided praying. Finally, it got to be too much. I broke. I couldn't take the guilt and the pressure any more so I told the truth. I called her. She wasn't nearly so broken up on the phone as I thought she would be. After a month of non-communication, she'd gotten the message. But I had hurt her. By not telling her about Anne for a whole month, I didn‘t lie, but I certainly did not tell the truth.

The truth is an important thing. But it can also be a difficult thing. Sometimes you not only don't want to tell the truth to others, you don't want to hear the truth about yourself. You see this often with people who are addicted to drugs or alcohol. An addict spends a good deal of his time telling himself that he's not addicted. He creates a wall of lies around himself and he regards anyone who tries to pierce that wall as an enemy.

You see the same sort of wall built by people caught in bad relationships. How many here know someone clinging to an unhealthy relationship? The door is closed but they try with all their strength to pry it open. What happens when you try to level with them? Sometimes they hear it but often they're so consumed with this relationship and the way things used to be that they do the same thing the addict does, build a wall so they don‘t have to face reality. The good friend, the good counselor will tell them, gently, the truth. I've been on both sides of that divide. It's not fun. But the truth is the only thing that can help in a situation like that.

The truth, as the bible says, “sets you free.” Or, at the very least, the truth points you in the direction of freedom. You have to make the choice to follow it. God is the author of truth. Satan is the father of lies. One of the better lies Satan has crafted is the lie that “all is well”. The non-believer looks at his life and all his deeds good and bad and says to himself. “I'm a basically a good person, my good deeds outweigh the bad. All is well.” He hears the gospel. A friend or a pastor tells him that he stands guilty before God and his only hope for salvation is to let go of the lie that he is “basically good” and trust in the person and work of Jesus Christ alone. That truth hurts. It hurts to realize that you are guilty. It's hard to understand that there is nothing you can do on your own. But for those who accept this hard truth, there is freedom from death, freedom from sin. But for many this truth hurts too much. They build a wall. They hear Satan's lie and they will to believe it. “All is well.”

That was the problem the prophet Ezekiel faced. Reading through the history of Israel in 1st and 2nd Samuel and 1st and 2nd Kings is one of the more frustrating things you'll do. God warns the people over and over again through the prophets, “don't worship other gods. Don't follow the ways of the culture around you. Repent and obey my law and things will go well. But if you turn away, I'll let you go. I'll remove my protective hand and your enemies will invade and when they do, you'll not be able to beat them back.

But no matter how many prophets God sent, the people, all of them, the kings, the nobles, the priests, and the commoners, all of them continued to reject God and his law. This morning's old testament reading is the record of God's call to Ezekiel, one of the last prophets. listen to it again and think about what we've said about the importance of telling the truth: “I am sending you to a rebellious nation…they and their fathers have been in revolt against me to this very day. The people to whom I am sending you are obstinate and stubborn. Say to them, ‘this is what the Sovereign Lord says' and whether they listen or fail to listen--for they are a rebellious house--they will know that a prophet has been among them…Do not be afraid of them or their words…not be afraid of what they say or terrified by them…you must speak my words to them whether they listen or fail to listen.” The truth is so important to God that he wants it proclaimed even when people don't want to hear it.

The people of Jerusalem did not want to hear it. Even as their world was crumbling and all the things God said would happen, began to happen, the people living in Jerusalem hid from the truth. They persuaded themselves that God's word spoken through the prophets was not really God's word. They imported prophets of other gods to tell them how wonderful things were in Jerusalem how pleasing it was to God to have idols of Baal and ashtorah and Molech in Jerusalem alongside the Ark of the Covenant. They hid behind lies and the more difficult times got, the thicker and more impenetrable the lies became. The false prophets told the people of Jerusalem, even as their enemies besieged the city walls that, there would be peace and prosperity, joy and happiness. All is well.

But Ezekiel said in reply: “Because they lead my people astray, saying “Peace” when there is no peace, and because a when a flimsy wall is built, they cover it with whitewash, tell them who cover it with whitewash that it is going to fall. Rain will come in torrents, and I will send hailstones hurtling down, and violent winds will burst forth.”

Who do you think was more popular? Ezekiel was not invited to many parties. That's what happens to prophets, at least the real ones. People don't like them because they tell the truth. But the truth is necessary all the same. Jerusalem was going to be destroyed. The people had to know why so that when the Babylonians crashed through the walls they might remember Ezekiel's words and repent and save their souls if not their lives; so that those who survived might know the truth, repent, and forge a new future, so it wouldn‘t happen again. “This has happened because you've rejected your God, but He still loves you. Repent and return.”

What a difficult thing to say. What difficult thing to hear. And yet saying may save souls and hearing will save your own.

Let me apply this in two ways. First, personally. We like to put ourselves in Ezekiel's shoes, but I think from God's perspective I tend to act more like the people of Jerusalem. When someone speaks the truth to me I get defensive and rationalize my way out of facing it. How about you? Is there a truth that has been spoken to you recently that you have been trying to avoid? If so, there is only one thing to do, hear it and accept it. If you have been confronted with the truth, you have been confronted by God. He loves you and wants you to be free of false comforting lies. He uses his Word, his church, and his people to reach you. But you must be willing to be reached. Don't live a lie. Don't whitewash a flimsy wall. When the wall crumbles you might, like the Israelites crumble with it.

Second don't be afraid to speak the truth. We need to be careful here. There are some Christians who run around saying all kinds of unkind, nitpicky, and judgmental things to their brothers and sisters and then turn around and say, “I was just being honest” or “I'm just speaking the truth in love” or ‘I'm just expressing my true feelings.” Sometimes your true feelings don't need to be expressed. Sometimes your true feelings are hurtful, mean, and, in fact, untrue. Be very careful before going around correcting other people. God is far more concerned about you correcting yourself.

When the bible talks about speaking the truth in love, it is speaking about biblical truth primarily the truth of the gospel, that all have sinned but that all who call on the name of Jesus will be saved. You and I as individual Christians must be willing to speak this truth in love to our friends and neighbors and to our world which is fallen.

But there is more to it. We must also be willing to defend this truth when confronted with lies. This is where truth telling becomes difficult because our world, even our denomination, has succumbed to many lies: lies about sexuality, lies about life, lies about the bible, lies about marriage, lies about children. Like the people of Jerusalem, many have persuaded themselves that God's Word spoken through the prophets and apostles is not really God's Word and the more difficult times become in the world and in thr church, the thicker and more impenetrable the lies grow. All is well, they say. What we have done and what we are doing is right and good. All is not well. There is no peace. God will not be mocked. His word is true. This is what God has called us to say. This is the truth God has called Good Shepherd to speak. And we will speak it, whether they listen or fail to listen, whether they hear or refuse to hear.

We will, by God's grace speak the truth.

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