Sunday, July 7 Traditions online worship service.
This week we consider the prophet Ezekiel, whose career began as a priest from Jerusalem who lived through the destruction of the city by the Babylonians in 586 BC. Ezekial and was taken and deported to Babylon with other exiles. In exile, the people wrestled with the theological problem of how to live after their city had fallen and the Temple, which represented the home of the presence of God, had been destroyed. Ezekiel helped the community in exile not give up on their life with God, even as they were tempted to adopt the ways of life of their Babylonian captors. In receiving Ezekiel’s message, we discover that there can be a future life with God after the world crashes in calamity and nothing familiar remains.
Ezekiel 2:1-3, 3:12-17
Ezekiel 37:1-14