The scriptures read are Ezekiel 11-12, Psalm 75 and 1 John 5.
Ezekiel 11. In his vision Ezekiel is told by God to preach against the 25 leading men of Jerusalem. God intimates that the Judeans in Babylon are being protected from the judgment that is to hit Zion back home.
God will remove the people's heart of stone and replace it with new heart and new spirit.
The mobile throne of God leaves the city and Ezekiel's vision ends.
Ezekiel 12: Another enacted parable. Ezekiel is to pack as if going into exile and dig a hole in one of the wall as if escaping from Jerusalem, something their king will try to do when the time comes for his capture.
Ezekiel was to eat and drink while shaking as if in fear to draw attention to God's message of eminent destruction.
Psalm 75. This joyful toccata based on the psalm is a delight.
1 John 5. Trusting in God's Son leads to our rebirth. Loving God leads to loving others. John likes boiling things down to its essentials. God has eternal life; the life is found in his Son; therefore those who have the Son also have his life within them.
We can trust the testimony of the Spirit, Christ's baptism and his death (Spirit, water and blood). John is writing so we can enjoy that faith in the divine Christ without doubt. We can therefore pray for Christian brothers and sisters who are wrestling with sin, confident that God will help, provided the sin doesn't lead to their spiritual death. BTW, I think this passage introduced the idea of the deadly sins. The protection from which is living in Christ's life.
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