My friends, if we stopped with the 1^st reading today from the prophet, Ezekiel, we might come away with a feeling of, “Ugh!” which is what I did upon first glance.  But, thankfully, the Church gave us two more readings, so we can come away a bit more hopeful, in that, one, we are loved by God, and that two, this same God really wants only good, and not bad for us in life. 

   Additionally, this 1^st reading is yet more proof that we should not read Scripture literally, and that we do not take this short reading, or any other, out of context. Prophets usually show up when the people, “lose their way,” when they basically forget that they, “are spiritual people, here, having a human experience.”  Also, prophets seem to show up, thankfully, when people aren’t even acting much like human beings.  There are many present-day situations in our country and world for which the above seems true. 

   Ezekiel’s reading seems harsh, initially, but no doubt, we are getting just the tail-end of a very long discussion where the prophet can’t get the people to see his meaning and its importance.  Jesus, in his short life with us was discouraged in the same way with people wanting power and control over their enemies, revenge for past injuries, and he, as the Messiah, was their ticket to get all of that, when all that Jesus really wanted, was that they would simply, love each other…

   The psalmist’s lament, “If today you hear God’s voice, harden not your hearts,” was no doubt that of Ezekiel and Jesus too as they tried to “break-through” the “hardened hearts” of the people that each came to serve. 

   With the psalmist’s lament, it is important to recognize that he/she addresses “the hardening” occurring in the “heart,” not the “head.”  This is significant in that it says, “Don’t overthink this!” Just do!  Going to the “heart” instead of the “head” would be, I think we could agree, a very feminine thing to do, thus the reason for suggesting a feminine author through the use of the pronoun, “she” above.

   As an aside, I think it is important to mention that it is thought by some that there were psalms written about “women’s life cycles,” but unfortunately were lost, so that none are attributed to the “gentler” sex.  David is given credit for half of them along with several other men… and so it goes.

   Coming back then to the readings, in Paul’s letter to the Romans today, he reminds them and us that we have a “debt that binds us to love one another.”  And he goes on to say that we should,” Love [that] neighbor as [we] love ourselves.” 

   In the past when this phrase has come up about, “Loving others as we do ourselves,” we have discussed here, the assumption that, “we do indeed love ourselves.”  For any number of reasons, one might find that they, “don’t love themselves,” so that this command might find a person not really knowing how to love others. 

   I can remember in my days working as a chaplain with people in the Department of Behavioral Medicine, meeting many folks who didn’t have much love for the person they were or had become… therefore, a better way to look at this command, for some, might be, “Love others as God loves you,”  because we know that God does love us no matter who we are or what our life may have been about.

    Another important concept that we should realize coming out of Paul’s letter today is the fact that as a good Jew, he would have been aware of over 600 rules and regulations that were part of his faith belief, yet, he seems to be saying today, “if love is present, in our activities, then all those rules and “regs” are basically covered!

   One has to wonder why a religion would establish 600 laws when one law, “to love,” covers it all.  And the answer through the wisdom of our years is that it is much easier to do the 600 than it is to do the one!  You know this to be true, if you have ever tried to love someone that you find unlovable.

   Our brother Jesus always wants us to “dig deeper” – to not get, “lost in the weeds,” as it were, over sterile rules, for instance, demanding that we acknowledge that the bread and wine on the table is “real flesh and real blood,” as on an altar – letting it remain there as a sacrifice to an angry God.  No, Jesus asks that we go deeper, realizing that the gift of his life, death, and resurrection was meant as just the starting place from which we would take this wonderful story and share it with others, each of us becoming, through the reception of the Eucharist, “his body, his blood” in the world.  He said as much before he physically left us – “You will do greater things than me.”

   Before concluding here, I would like to go back to the psalmist’s words once again: “If today you hear God’s voice, harden not your hearts” – sometimes we might wonder “how” we can be sure that what we are “hearing” comes from God… I have found, overtime, that when there is “peace within,” for the most part, God is present. And additionally, if what I am proposing to do, “is about love,” that is another sign of its “rightness.”

   And my friends, if this seems just too overwhelming, remember Jesus ‘ words from Matthew’s gospel today, [when] “two or three of you gather in my name, I am there with you.”  Now, additionally, this should tell us that there is much more strength in numbers, when we set out to do something – writing postcards asking for better, demonstrating prophetically, whatever it might be – remember, where two or three are gathered, our brother Jesus is with us!    Amen? Amen!