Homily For Septuagesima 2025
Today, we moved from Epiphany season into the preparation, the warm-up as it were, for the Lenten season.
Our Old Testament Lesson is from Ezekiel Chapter 3. This is the commissioning by God of the Prophet Ezekiel’s ministry. This is the only prophetic book in which all the activity and prophecy occur entirely in Babylon. Recall that Judah was sent into Babylon because of its rebellion, its disobedience to God. It has been said that the testimony of Ezekiel gives us the best window into the lives of God’s people in exile. In Babylon, the exiles were reminded of what they had lost: the Temple, Jerusalem and the Promised Land. It is to the exiles that Ezekiel was sent. One would think that exile, the discipline of God, confirming his promises to judge, to correct, would have made the exiles more humble, more eager to hear.
At this point, we have the words of the Lord to Ezekiel, commissioning him to speak to his people and communicate God’s words to them. The Lord says they are people of familiar speech, they would understand the nuance of his language because they shared it in common; they would comprehend the contents of his idiom, his analogy, any manner of Jewish speech. Yet, the Lord tells Ezekiel, he would have found more success among those with another language. “Surely, had I sent thee to them, they would have hearkened unto thee.” Think of the ministry of Jonah - he tried to escape his vocation of prophet to Nineveh but bore witness to his fellow sailors, those of a different tongue, that he was the cause of their affliction. They listened, believed and threw him overboard. The Ninevites, who later heard the words of judgment by Jonah, also responded in faith. They turned to the Lord in repentance. They shamed God’s people by their willingness to turn from sin, their eagerness to submit to the Lordship of Yahweh. They had no assurance that God would receive their repentance, but they turned. Here, in Ezekiel, we are reminded that God’s covenant people often engage with him in presumption. They presume upon the covenant, they say in their hearts that God will certainly overlook their sin because of his love of Abraham, of Moses, of David. Of their ancestors. Our Old Testament lesson strikes at the heart of the arrogance of God’s people who think they are beyond judgment, even as they live in the midst of the consequences of their ancestors’ unfaithfulness. It has been said that familiarity breeds contempt. God’s instruction to Ezekiel bears this out.
Indeed, God tells Ezekiel that they will not hear, they will not listen to Ezekiel because they do not want to listen to the Lord. The reason that they do not hear and they do not want to listen to the Lord is that they are hard-hearted. What a terrifying statement! A hard heart does not want the grace and mercy of God. It refuses to hear the truth - even to the salvation of the hearer. They are not only hard-hearted, they are hard-headed.
God is promising Ezekiel to make his head harder than theirs. The Lord is committed to strengthen Ezekiel so that the rebellion and hard-heartedness evidenced by their looks will not thwart God’s prophetic mission through Ezekiel. God’s truth will be proclaimed whether Israel likes it or not. Even as they threaten and attempt to browbeat Ezekiel - God’s purposes in His word will be accomplished.
Ezekiel’s job, his hard vocation, is to speak the words of God. He is to speak it in its entirety whether sweet like the scroll which he consumed in the earlier part of this chapter or bitter like the wormwood of judgment. Whatever it is, whatever the consequence, Ezekiel must tell the WHOLE truth.
There is a profound temptation of prophets, and present preachers to speak half truths. To speak about the love of God without speaking of God’s hatred of sin. To preach about acceptance before God without talking about the brutality of Christ’s sacrifice.
There is temptation to say all is well, that God will accept whatever you are willing to bring him, that he is satisfied with lip service, a mere tip, rather than the fullest sacrifice of one’s life unto God. There is a temptation to speak of the blessings of God without talking about the responsibilities, the burden of obedience that comes with being God’s people. To speak of the good things of God without talking about sin and death and hell - the consequences of our own hard-heartedness and rebellion. Ezekiel and, indeed, every preacher must tell the whole truth. To say to God’s people what is true whether you receive it or not.
Here are the hard words of the whole words in our Gospel and Epistle. In our Gospel, we have a story of a vineyard. The kingdom of God is like a vineyard. He calls workers to his vineyard at different parts of the day. Despite the apparent unfairness, he gives all the workers the same wage. They receive the same from the owner whether they had been there for one hour or the entire day. The wage is the same. The reward is the same. None of the workers had any right to earn a wage in the vineyard. It was of the owner’s discretion and his offer of putting them to labor. Here the hard words of our Gospel: the truth that it is all of grace. We are included among God’s people and have a vocation in His kingdom because of His unmerited favor. We did not earn it. We had no right to his care, his concern, his adoption. For those of us who believe that we are not worthy to gather the crumbs from under our master's table, these are words of comfort. We don’t deserve to be a part of his kingdom, but God rich in mercy, rich in grace. He calls us to himself and into meaningful, eternally rewarding labor. For anyone tempted to believe they have earned their way into the kingdom, have worked their own way into their eternal reward, we are reminded of the truth that we don’t deserve it. It is a gift of God. When God gives grace to others, it is his right. Comparisons between servants are not helpful, because it is God who decides, it is God who extends grace, grace that none of us is worthy of.
What he does with another, whatever good, whatever blessing, is no injustice to us.
Our Gospel concludes with Jesus saying “Many are called but few are chosen.” Gregory the Great has a keen insight on this passage. He writes, “ But what follows after this is dreadful. For many are called, but few are chosen; many come to the faith, and only a few are brought to the heavenly kingdom. See how many have gathered for today’s celebration; we fill the church! But yet who knows how few may be numbered in the flock of God’s elect. All voices shout “Christ,” but not everyone’s life shouts it. Many follow God with their voices but flee from him by their conduct. Paul says, “They profess that they know God, but they deny him by their deeds”; and James, “Faith without works is worthless”;...The sheepfold of our holy church receives goats together with lambs, but as the Gospel bears witness, when the judge comes he will separate the good from the evil as a shepherd sets the sheep apart from the goats. ….The judge will separate from the ranks of the humble those who now exalt themselves on the horns of pride. Those who share the heavenly faith in this life but seek the earth with their whole desire cannot obtain the kingdom of heaven.
The hard words of our Epistle focus on the rigor of commitment required of those who God has called into his race, his battle. As we noted in the Gospel, we don’t earn grace. Yet, the grace of God, rightly received, leads us to singleness of mind in our pursuit of obedience. Grace, truly known, does not cause one to be indolent, lethargic in regards to God’s will and commandments. We learn in our Epistle that grace moves us to strive toward true godliness. Paul was no slacker. We read often of the lengths he would go to to preach and teach the Gospel. The dangers of the sea, imprisonment, beatings etc.
He would not allow external challenges to prevent him from his vocation and we read here that he would not allow presumption or lack of exertion keep him from overcoming internal hindrances to the work of the Gospel. Paul had single-mindedness. Here, St. Paul speaks of exertion in terms of boxing and running a race. Both require one to make a commitment to discipline in order to achieve. A boxer watches his diet, the prize fighter spars so as to make sure that when the time comes, he doesn’t waste his effort throwing punches at a shadow - what is meant by beating the air. He exerts when it matters and turns his full attention toward being in fighting form. As to running, St. Paul says runners run with the purpose of winning. They do not assume to have won, they aren’t looking at the efforts of others. They are singleminded, they are utterly devoted to running with the full intention of winning. This focus must be on the end result. Our Epistle concludes with St. Paul’s concern for integrity. Notice his use of the first person pronoun “I”. He doesn’t say “You” or “We”.
His primary focus is on his own duty to make his life conform with the truth, as a runner, boxer, conform their lives to the primacy of their sport. So, St. Paul disciplines his body, his appetites, his affections to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Otherwise, says St. Paul, he runs the risk of being a spiritual castaway, that being someone who turns away from the faith. The Apostle was convinced that his life must be in the process of conforming to the propositional truths of the Gospel. He must make a concerted effort to bring his complete person, mind, body and will, under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Words are just the beginning of Christ’s claims on our lives.
On this Septuagesima Sunday, as we prepare for Lent, we are reminded that it is of grace that we have been saved. It is because of God’s favor, independent of our own efforts, that we are afforded the great honor of being workers in his vineyard.
We are also reminded that grace works - that is, as St. Paul speaks to in our Epistle, when we receive God’s favor, God’s goodness, it compels us toward the good works that the Lord has prepared for us to walk in. There is no tension between receiving the grace of God and then pursuing holiness with singleness of mind, like the runner who is completely given to the race or the boxer who is deliberate in the use of his energy in the fight. We must never forget as we enter a season of additional spiritual exertion, like Lent, that it is God’s pleasure to give us the kingdom. It is by grace we are saved through faith and not any works. We also must remember grace does work, for St. James tells us that faith without works is dead. May God by the Holy Spirit give us full reliance upon God’s grace and a faith that eagerly gives itself to good works. Amen.