Ezekiel 3:1-12

Each September, for the last several years, I've been part of the audience for Asphalt Jungle Shorts.  We walk through streets, alleys, buildings, and restaurants in downtown Kitchener and encounter actors performing street theatre.  We've "overheard" a couple on a date in a restaurant, eavesdropped on "crows" discussing road kill, and once listened to "God" under an store awning.  "At the intersection of theatre and reality" is more than this theatre group's tagline - its what its like when public spaces become theatre space.  As audience members we may wonder, "Is that person by the trash can a homeless person or an actor portraying a homeless person?"  Imagine how disconcerting it can be for people who are not part of the audience!  Why is that person talking so loudly in the bus shelter?  And why are all those other people standing around listening?

Some of the biblical prophets specialized in street theatre; prophets like Ezekiel who was among a large group of exiles taken to Babylon.  In today's reading, we hear the story about when Ezekiel ate a scroll (fortunately for Ezekiel, it "was as sweet as honey").  He digested God's word to the house of Israel and then, time and time again, acted out that word - whether the people listened or not.  In chapter 4 we hear how he drew a picture of Jerusalem under siege on a clay tablet and placed so it could be seen by the people as they walked along the street.  Then he lay in the streets on his left side for 390 days and on his right side for 40 days to symbolize the captivity of northern Israel and southern Judah - city streets at the intersection of theatre and reality.  In chapter 12 we hear about the prophet packing his bags as if he was being sent into exile. During the day he went about the city streets with his baggage so everyone could see that he was planning to leave and then in the evening, while everyone was still watching, he dug an opening in the wall as if he were escaping, put his bag over his shoulder, and carried it out into the dark.  In the morning, presumably when he returned to the city, the people ask, "What are you doing?".  He explains that he is a living sign and that the people remaining in Jerusalem will go into exile just like he had acted out - city streets at the intersection of theatre and reality.

About a year ago, at St. John's in downtown Kitchener, we installed hundreds of empty single use water bottles among the trees along Water Street.  They represented the number of these bottles disposed of every minute in our region.  We didn't lay in the streets, but we did post signs telling the story of the impact of bottled water and of God's word to let "justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream.  Read about this project here.

How do we "eat" God's word to us?  How are we living signs intersecting with the realities of our city streets - or wherever we find ourselves?

Marilyn Malton