Passage: This Week's Second Reading

"Whatever God Wants"

Have you ever seen an apple tree in late spring? Have you ever seen a used Christmas tree in late spring? About the only thing they have in common is that they are both trees. Other than that, they are very different. One is green and promising, the other is brown and long overdue for the recycling center, the burn pile, or the trash man. One is alive and the other is dead.

Different trees with different expectations. You know which one will eventually bear fruit. Not only is that dried-up Christmas tree dead, but blue spruces and scotch pines never bear fruit.

But suppose you returned to the apple tree in late September. You would be surprised if you found the green blossoming apple tree had been struck by lightning, cut down, and thrown on the burn pile. You’d be even more surprised to find that dry, brittle pine tree not only planted, but green and full of big, juicy apples.

It’s that kind of amazing and unexpected reversal God is talking about in our text. "I am the Lord; I bring low the high tree and make high the low tree, dry up the green tree, and make the dry tree flourish. I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it."

God does what He wants, whatever He wants, and you can’t stop it, you can’t control it, you can’t even predict it.

God was and is in control of history. Back then, the people of Jerusalem were relying on their own power and political might for their protection. They made alliances with heathen nations instead of trusting in God. God calls them a tall tree which he is going to teat down through the rise and fall of nations and the ever-changing tide of political powers.

Today, God is still in control of human history. Sure, it’s hard to tell exactly what he’s doing. We can’t say for sure how God is working through current news headlines. As I worked on this sermon, I looked at my internet home page and saw stuff about the Air France plane crash, Afghanistan, Northern Ireland, Gabon, and North Korea. Most stuff was bad news. Bombings, military operations, nuclear explosions, a swine flu pandemic, reporters put in jail and people dying.

God is certainly not the author of evil. Even the evil men do is subject to His control and serves His purposes. God determines the length to which wicked men may go and regulates and limits their actions so that all things work out for the good of His children.

Always: God does whatever He wants. God acts beyond our predictions and against our expectations. "I am the Lord; I bring low the high tree and make high the low tree, dry up the green tree, and make the dry tree flourish. I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it."

God does what He wants in salvation. Back then, the words of our text were to provide comfort for the remnant. Some of the Israelites had already been sent into exile. Ezekiel was one of the priests taken into exile in Babylon during the second wave of deportations under Nebuchadnezzar. Chapter 17, the words of our text takes place before the final siege of Jerusalem, which culminated in the destruction of the temple in 587 BC.

In the verses leading up to our text, Ezekiel uses this highly symbolic language to declare the downfall of King Zedekiah in Jerusalem. Ezekiel’s prophetic word comes as Law to those who were trusting in Zedekiah and had false hopes that Jerusalem would not fall because the temple was there.

But the words of Ezekiel are also a word of Gospel to those from Judah who were already in exile. They had been laid low, humbled, cut down. But they are reminded that God is still in control. The remnant is promised future restoration and abundant growth at YHWH’s own hand.

God promised to plant them again in the land. His covenant with David would stand. The exiled community would go from burn pile to blossoming, fruit-bearing tree – even though cedars never bear fruit. And this tree was going to be big enough for all nations to find a home under its branches.

When God saves, you can’t predict it, you can’t stop it; it’s more wonderful than any of our expectations.

Now, God saves through our daily repentance. Before God, there’s no place for our tall pride, our green and flourishing self-reliance. There’s no place for the best we’ve done or the hardest we’ve tried.

In the great reversal that is God’s way of doing things, trusting in God means giving up on yourself, bearing fruit means admitting that our lives are barren and being raised to life means first being torn down and laid low. "I am the Lord; I bring low the high tree and make high the low tree, dry up the green tree, and make the dry tree flourish. I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it."

Of course, if God can bring down high trees and make the low tree high, we have to ask ourselves; "Am I a high tree or a low tree?" It’s hard to tell sometimes because God is often working in hidden ways. The truth is, we can only see ourselves as the low high tree being made high and green because of the promises we have from God. In Baptism, we have the promise of new birth in the water and the Spirit. Our sins have been forgiven and we are strengthened with God’s grace to everlasting life.

That’s what happened when we (and Mackenzie) were baptized. God killed and made alive at the same time. God tears us down and makes us grow and flourish and bear fruit. We live as baptized Christians who have been joined to the tearing down and raising up power of God in Jesus Christ.

In Holy Communion, we receive the body and blood of Christ, given unto death and shed for the forgiveness of our sins. When we repent of and confess our sins, God in his grace through Jesus Christ forgives those sins and forgets those sins.

God does what He wants, and all he wants to do, he does for us in Christ. For our sake, the Son of God, who from eternity had shared the glory of the Father, was laid low as a baby in a manger.

To accomplish God’s plan of salvation, and for our sake, the royal Son of David, the shoot and branch of Jesse, was dried up and nailed to the tree of the cross. For our sake, his dead, broken body was laid low in a borrowed tomb. But to complete, to finish, all that God had planned, that dead Son of David who was also the Son of God, was raised from the dead and burst from the tomb with resurrection life.

The God who does what he wants, whenever he wants, wants an intimate relationship with you in Jesus Christ. Salvation is ours by God’s grace through faith. We don’t deserve it. There’s nothing we can do to earn it. By the power of the Holy Spirit, God works faith in our hearts through the Means of Grace, which are the Word, Baptism, and Holy Communion.

There is no human being whom Christ did not redeem on the cross. There is no one to whom the Holy Spirit does not want to bring the gift of faith. God wants all men to be saved and has redeemed all men through Christ.

In Jesus, God is on your side. You can trust him no matter what. We need that promise, because we are not ultimately in control of our lives, our families, our church. God is in control. And God does whatever he wants; even if you don’t understand it, even if you didn’t expect it, even if you don’t like it.

The Good news is that this God who works outside of human understanding or control, this almighty, all-powerful God is acting for you. Even when it doesn’t feel like it, even when it doesn’t look like it, even in the confusing and painful times, God is in control.

God does what he wants, whatever he wants, and this is what he wants: to bless you and protect you, to humble you and save you and in saving you, to save other people too.

God himself has planted you and will make you grow and flourish and bear much fruit, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen