People's Prayers: Prayers of the People: A Conscious Conscience ~ 11th Sunday after Pentecost WLWC* ‘25 Yr C

For Sunday, August 24, 2025, Year C, CORRECTION to the READINGS previously listed:

Ezekiel 22:1-8, 12; Psalm 50:106, Hebrews 10:26-31; John 5:19-24

You, child of earth and Eve, will you judge? Will you judge the city of blood? Then make known to it all its abominations. So shall you say: Thus says the Holy God: Oh city! Shedding the blood of its own; its time has come! It makes idols for itself, defiling itself. [Ezekiel 22:2-3]

God of gods, the Maker of All, speaks and summons the earth from the dawning of the sun to its setting…She summons the heavens above—and the earth—in order to judge her people: Gather to me my faithful ones, who made a covenant with me by sacrifice.” [Psalm 50:1, 4-5]

Indeed, if we willfully sin after receiving the knowledge of the truth, no longer is there a sacrifice for sins. Rather [there is] an expectation of judgment and a zealous fire that will devour those opposed [to God]…How much…even worse punishment will be deserved by those who the Child of God, they put under their feet and the blood of the covenant, they treat as a common thing… [Hebrews 10:26-27, 29]

…The Father loves the Son and shows him all that he is doing and will show him greater works than these, so that you all will be astonished. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son, to whomever he wishes, gives life…Anyone who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Truly, truly I tell you all, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgment, but has passed from death to life. [John 5:20-21, 23b-24]

Such a light-hearted opening from that Ezekiel! Ok, not so much. He’s speaking the words that God gave him to speak to the former authorities in Jerusalem in its captivity in Babylonia. In experiencing the violence of forced migration, those formerly in power are also guilty of perpetrating the same to its most vulnerable people. Ezekiel, in the full reading says: The leaders of Israel among you, each one wielded power within you for the purpose of shedding blood. Mother and father are treated with contempt within you; against the immigrant in your midst they commit violent acts of extortion; orphan and widow are subjected to violence within you… The message is that if you choose to follow God and God’s covenant, ignoring that covenant and living outside of the values God places within it, subjects one to the full force of God’s Judgment. Here I offer a reminder that while Dr. Gafney’s* translations are her own, the context does not change through other translations. What is happening to those now under Babylonian rule, is the same as how they were treating the least among them in their own land.

The Psalmist also reminds us of the expectations of God in how the voluntary covenant works ~ the faithful who follow the covenant will be gathered to God. Others are subjected to God’s judgment.

The author of the Letter to the Hebrews is unclear. As early as the 2^nd century AD/CE, scholars weren’t confident that it was a letter from/by Paul. Other authors have been suggested including Priscilla who was a significant leader in Paul’s movement. Regardless, the message is clear: unintentional sin is forgiven. However, those who choose to sin are in bigger trouble and at the mercy of God. This is the theme for Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, which for the Jewish people is the holiest day of the year. The term “scapegoat” comes from this for the ancient practice of symbolically placing one’s willful sins onto a goat and sending it out into the wilderness to die. Thankfully, say the goats, that’s no longer necessary. And so, the Letter asks, if people, in the time of Moses were executed for such sin against the Father, imagine how much more grievous the punishment for those who do not honor the Son whose life was sacrificed for them?

This piece of John’s Gospel brings together the difficult concept of the Father and the Son being separate and yet not. They are more than simply parent and child. As Jesus says Anyone who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. If we hear the words of Jesus and believe the Father who sent him, then we pass into eternal life without judgment. Sounds easy, yes? Or not quite so.

All in all, Dr. Gafney tells us that these readings together are a rebuke to those who are convinced they are “saved” with no particular responsibilities attached. “Oh sure, I raised my hand in that meeting and accepted the Savior, I’m good, thanks!” With so many directions this life offers ~ this way, that way, or the other way ~ we must choose carefully or be sent to the wilderness to die. The daily news of abuses of people in our own country and various places in our world is testament enough to know that we each have more to do to follow and honor Jesus and by that to honor God. We are, at the very least, to have a conscious conscience to keep the covenant we have chosen with Jesus, by how we live, think, and act in this, our, one and only, human life.

LET US, GOD’S PEOPLE, PRAY

Leader: ~ God of gods, the Maker of All, shake us from a sense of self that deludes us into believing that we are more virtuous and much holier than any other sister or brother through the arrogance of our personal judgments. Open our souls to the humility of grace received from faith-filled honor and belief in your Son, our Savior Christ.

O God, our God

RESPONSE: We, your faithful, gather ourselves to you

~ God of gods, the Maker of All, deliver us from any and all leaders who speak evil, oppress others, and only serve their own interests. Guide us to support and join with all who give food to the hungry, relieve the needs of the afflicted, and bring Your light into our World, our Nation, and our Communities. We pray especially for: add your own petitions

O God, our God