Preparing for Worship - March 20, 2022

In the Old Testament lesson, Ezekiel 33:7-20, the prophet Ezekiel is told to speak just what the Lord has told him to say. For people burdened by sins and guilt, Ezekiel is to say, “Turn back from evil and live in the Lord… and your sins will not be remembered against you.” If people are rejecting the Lord and calling Him and His ways “unjust,” they are to be warned of coming judgment, unless they also repent and return to the Lord. For, "as I live, declares the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.” God wants to have mercy and forgive repentant sinners.

The Psalm, Psalm 85, tells of how God’s people have received mercy, but there is always the danger of ”turning back to folly.” The psalmist prays for God’s “steadfast love” and “salvation” in troubled times. Then, “love” and “righteousness” and “faithfulness” and “peace” are personified and meeting together on earth. That literally would happen in the coming of Jesus Chris, who combined all these characteristics in Himself and “gave what is good” to us and the world, in His saving work.

The Epistle is from 1 Corinthians 10:1-13. Paul warns that “anyone who thinks that he stands (spiritually) should take heed lest he fall.” Paul speaks of the blessings that God gave His Old Testament people when He rescued them from slavery in Egypt and cared for them - yet how many of the people drifted away from God into evil. We will be tempted, too, Paul says, but “God is faithful” and He can help us “endure” and “escape” in faith in Him.

The Gospel lesson is Luke 13:1-9. Jesus spoke of tragedies in His own time and said that people should not think that they are better than those people who died, for we are all sinners who need continually to repent and be forgiven. Jesus then told a parable of a fig tree that bore no fruit. The one who cared for the tree asked for more time to work with the tree to see if it would bear fruit. If it went on and on bearing no fruit, it would eventually be cut down. The good news is that the Lord is patient and there is still time for those who have resisted and resisted the Lord to repent and be brought to faith in Him. The warning is that people do not have forever, and a time can come when it is too late to repent and receive faith.