“Showers of Blessing in their Season”

“And I will make them and the places all around my hill a blessing; and I will cause showers to come down in their season; there shall be showers of blessing.”

Showers of blessing in their season. That’s what God promises to us today through His word.

Today is called Rogation Sunday. It comes from the Latin word rogare meaning “to pray.” So in other words, today is “Prayer Sunday” according to the ancient church calendar. Isn’t that kind of funny? Isn’t every Sunday a prayer Sunday? Of course it is. But this Sunday – the fifth Sunday after Easter - and the three days that follow were anciently called rogation days because these were the days, coming as the do right at the beginning of the growing season, that the ancient Christians were called upon to pray specifically for God’s blessing to come down in the form of rain – rain, which in those days was the necessary ingredient to life. They didn’t have Yardbird sprinkler systems like we do. They had to depend on rain for a good growing season and a plentiful harvest. And rain wasn’t something they could produce by their own efforts or technology. Rain was seen from the Biblical perspective as a gift that came down directly from the hand of God:

“He waters the hills from His upper chambers..

He cause grass to grow for the cattle,

And vegetation for the service of man,

That he may bring forth food from the earth,

And wine that makes glad the heart of man.” (Psm. 104:14-15)

In England in the Middle Ages these days were also called “Gang days.” That might have a bit of a different connotation if we tried to use it today. But back then they were called “Gang days” because the people of the parish would process along the borders of the parish following the cross, singing litanies, and praying that God would send down his blessings and give them a good harvest.

We give expression to the spirit of the day with the opening address of our collect for today: “O Lord, from whom all good things do come.” We heard the same thing expressed last week in our epistle lesson from St. James: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights.” And today we’ve heard from the prophet Ezekiel the special promise of God that he will send down showers of blessing in their season. The showers will come so abundantly that not only will we receive a blessing, but that we will become a blessing. The blessing, he says, will spill out from God’s holy hill – that is from us His Church – to the whole surrounding neighborhood. “I will make them and all the places around them a blessing.”

If you’d like a vivid picture of how the blessings of God flow out of the Church into the surrounding community, travel now in your mind’s eye to the Jerusalem of the 5^th century BC, where the Spirit of God has carried Ezekiel in a vision to see us - the New Covenant Church – under the image of the restored temple. In chapter 47 of his prophecy, Ezekiel records that his angel-guide “brought me back to the door of the temple; and there was water, flowing from under the threshold of the temple toward the east, for the front of the temple faced east; the water was flowing from under the right side of the temple, south of the altar. He brought me out by way of the north gate, and led me around on the outside to the outer gateway that faces east; and there was water, running out on the right side. And when the man went out to the east with the line in his hand, he measured [out a distance of ] one thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters; the waters came up to my ankles. Again he measured [a distance of] one thousand cubits and brought me through the waters; [This time] the waters came up to my knees. Again he measure one thousand cubits and brought me through, and the water came to my waist. Again he measured one thousand, and it was a river that I could not cross; for the water was too deep, water in which one must swim, a river that could not be crossed. He said to me, ‘Son of man, have you seen this?’ Then he brought me to the bank of the river.

“When I returned, there, along the bank of the river, were very many trees on one side and the other. Then he said to me: ‘This water flows toward the eastern region, goes down into the valley, and enters the sea [i.e., the Dead Sea]. When it reaches the sea, the waters are healed. And it shall be that every living thing that moves, wherever the rivers go, will live. There will be a very great multitude of fish, because the waters go there; for they will be healed, and everything will live where the river goes… Along the bank of the river, on this side and that, will grow all kinds of trees used for food; their leaves will not wither, and their fruit will not fail. They will bear fruit every month, because the water flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.”

Have you seen this? Can you picture it in your mind? It’s the picture of how the Church transforms her community, transforms her culture, transforms event he world itself, by pouring out of herself the blessing she has received: the living water of Jesus Christ. The river in the vision is a picture of the Spirit of Christ present in the Church and flowing out of her to give life to her surroundings. Jesus Himself alluded to this image when He said, “He who believes in me… ‘out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” St. John says, “This He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive.” Have you seen this? We receive the blessing of the Spirit – we have the Spirit poured into us – that we may pour out that blessing into our community - indeed into the world.

Remember when God called Abraham to be the father of all those who would believe in Jesus Christ, he promised not only to bless Abraham, but that Abraham would be a blessing, and that in him all the families of the earth would be blessed That promise is being fulfilled through us his seed, in whom the Spirit of Christ dwells.

We were showered with God’s blessing in the waters of baptism – the blessing of new life and the forgiveness of sins and the indwelling of His Spirit. But those showers of blessing now have to flow down out of us into the community God has placed us in to bring the dead to life, to make new creatures in Christ, to produce an orchard of living trees who will bring forth the fruits of the Spirit for the healing of the nations.

You see, God showers us with His blessing that we might be a blessing. That’s the first application of our lesson from Ezekiel.

But then the Lord says, “I will cause showers to come down in their season.” What are the four seasons of God’s blessing?

The first season, which we might think of as the Spring of God’s blessing, is the season of patient and persevering faith. St. James uses an illustration from everyday life to of this season. He says, “See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and the latter rain. So you be patient also.” God’s blessings come to those who wait for them in patient faith. Remember, Abraham waited in faith for years to receive God’s promise of a son. Sometimes the blessings of God don’t come immediately. And I know in this instant gratification culture that we live in waiting is really the last thing we want to do. We can’t stand to wait for anything. But so often waiting upon God for a time in patient faith is the way God has designed to give us His blessing. Why? Because God is a person, not a cosmic vending machine. He’s a person Who wants to be truly engaged and not just used to get His blessing. And to the Scripture tells us to “wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the Lord!” (Psm. 27:14).

O Lord, from whom all good things come, grant us patient faith.

Well, the second season of God’s blessing is the season of loving obedience.

It’s written in Deuteronomy 11: “It shall be if you earnestly obey my commandments which I command you today, to love the Lord your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, then He will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil.” If we’d like to have a good growing season and a good harvest here in our community – both literally and spiritually – we’ve got to strive for loving faithfulness in everything we do and say and think. If we don’t then we’ll have to enter the third season of God’s blessing: the season of repentance.

In Joel chapter 2, the Lord calls His people to turn back to Him and repent of their evil ways: “Turn to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning… Then the Lord will be zealous for His land, and pity his people. The Lord will answer and say to his people, ‘Behold, I will send you grain and new wine and oil. And you will be satisfied with them… Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God; for He has given you the former rain faithfully. And He will cause the rain to come down for you – the former rain, and the latter… the threshing floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with the new wine and oil.” Repentance

O Lord, from whom all good things do come, grant us loving obedience;

and when we fail, grant us your Spirit to give us true repentance.

And then finally the fourth season of God’s blessing is the season of fervent prayer. Again it’s from the pen of St. James that we read that “the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” And he says, consider this: “Elijah was a man with a nature [just] like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three year and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain and the earth produced its fruit.” You see, prayer – the effective, fervent prayer of righteous men and women – brings down the rain of God’s blessing.

O Lord, from whom all good things do come, grant us the spirit of prayer and of supplication.

Patient and persevering faith. Loving obedience. Genuine repentance. Fervent prayer. These are the seasons in which God’s blessing will come down upon us like showers, to bless us and to make us a blessing to all the places around the Holy Hill of St. Stephen’s. May it be said of our church that a river not only runs through it, but from it, to bring life and peace and blessing to all who encounter it. May it be said that the showers of God’s blessing are always in season here at St. Stephen’s, because its people wait patiently upon their God and are obedient to His will, are repentant when they fail, and are unceasing in their prayers. +