Ordinary Time, Fall series 07
Jeremiah: Bridge across collapse
September
23, 2007
Communion Sunday Title: The cry of my people
Song leader: Annette
Worship leader: Kathy R.
Speaker: Linda
Intergenerational: Charlie
Texts: Jeremiah 8:18-9:1; Psalm
79:1-9; 1 Timothy 2:1-7; Luke 16;1-13
Special
input: Marika Clark is coming to speak
to the congregation about the Ada County Community Guardian program—about 8-10
minutes. She’ll plan to hang around
afterward to talk and answer questions as well.
Jeremiah 8:18 My joy is gone, grief
is upon me, my heart is sick. 8:19 Hark, the cry of my poor people from far and
wide in the land: "Is the LORD not in Zion? Is her King not in
her?" ("Why have they provoked
me to anger with their images, with their foreign idols?") 8:20 "The
harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved." 8:21 For the
hurt of my poor people I am hurt, I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me.
8:22 Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of my poor people
not been restored? 9:1 O that my head were a spring of water, and my eyes a
fountain of tears, so that I might weep day and night for the slain of my poor
people!
Psalm
79:1 O God, the nations have
come into your inheritance; they have
defiled your holy temple; they have laid Jerusalem in ruins. 79:2 They have
given the bodies of your servants to the birds of the air for food, the flesh
of your faithful to the wild animals of the earth. 79:3 They have poured out
their blood like water all around Jerusalem, and there was no one to bury them.
79:4 We have become a taunt to our neighbors, mocked and derided by those
around us. 79:5 How long, O LORD? Will you be angry forever? Will your jealous
wrath burn like fire? 79:6 Pour out your anger on the nations that do not know
you, and on the kingdoms that do not call on your name. 79:7 For they have
devoured Jacob and laid waste his habitation. 79:8 Do not remember against us
the iniquities of our ancestors; let your compassion come speedily to meet us,
for we are brought very low. 79:9 Help us, O God of our salvation, for the
glory of your name; deliver us, and forgive our sins, for your name's sake.
1
Timothy 2:1 First
of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and
thanksgivings be made for everyone, 2:2 for kings and all who are in high
positions, so that we may lead a quiet
and peaceable life in all godliness and
dignity. 2:3 This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our
Savior, 2:4 who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of
the truth. 2:5 For there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and
humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human, 2:6 who gave himself a ransom for
all--this was attested at the right time. 2:7 For this I was appointed a herald
and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the
Gentiles in faith and truth.
Luke 16:1 Then Jesus said to the disciples,
"There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him
that this man was squandering his property. 16:2 So he summoned him and said to
him, 'What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your
management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.' 16:3 Then the manager
said to himself, 'What will I do, now that my master is taking the position
away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. 16:4 I
have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may
welcome me into their homes.' 16:5 So, summoning his master's debtors one by
one, he asked the first, 'How much do you owe my master?' 16:6 He answered, 'A
hundred jugs of olive oil.' He said to him, 'Take your bill, sit down quickly,
and make it fifty.' 16:7 Then he asked another, 'And how much do you owe?' He
replied, 'A hundred containers of wheat.' He said to him, 'Take your bill and
make it eighty.' 16:8 And his master commended the dishonest manager because he
had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing
with their own generation than are the children of light. 16:9 And I tell you,
make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is
gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes. 16:10 "Whoever is faithful in a
very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little
is dishonest also in much. 16:11 If then you have not been faithful
with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? 16:12 And
if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you
what is your own? 16:13 No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either
hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the
other. You cannot serve God and wealth."
Quote
to ponder: For nothing is fixed, forever
and forever and forever, it is not fixed; the earth is always shifting, the
light is always changing, the sea does not cease to grind down rock.
Generations do not cease to be born, and we are responsible to them because we
are the only witnesses they have. The sea rises, the light fails, lovers cling
to each other, and children cling to us. The moment we cease to hold each
other, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out.
--James Baldwin
Homilette: Introduction
Having
Marika Clark come speak with us today
about the forgotten and resourceless
in our own Ada county
is especially poignant as we are
in the middle of our fall series on
the prophet Jeremiah.
One
of Jeremiah’s central themes
is that the coming doom
on his beloved country and people
is
the consequence of their callous abandonment
of the little people on the fringes
of their society—
the “innocent poor”
the
helpless people,
the
unimportant people,
the
unwanted people
whose lifeblood “can be seen on [the clothes of the wealthy].”
(2:34, CEV)
Jeremiah
is withering in his indictment of those who “are powerful and prosperous, but
…refuse to help the poor get the justice they deserve.”(5:28, CEV)
In
today’s text, Jeremiah weeps for his people
who are now experiencing the same
destructive callousness
that they themselves had earlier
inflicted on the poor of their own people.
In
this short text, we hear three intertwined voices: Jeremiah’s lament, the cry of the people, and what sounds like a
baffled, annoyed interjection from God.
I’ll
read it now; you may follow along as it is printed in your bulletin:
Jeremiah 8:18 My joy is gone, grief is upon me, my heart is
sick. 8:19 Hark, the cry of my
poor people from far and wide in the land: "Is the LORD not in Zion? Is her King not in her?" ("Why have they provoked me to anger with their images, with their
foreign idols?") 8:20 "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved." 8:21 For
the hurt of my poor people I am hurt,
I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me. 8:22 Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician
there? Why then has the health of my poor people not been
restored? 9:1 O that my head were a spring
of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears, so that I might weep day and night for the slain of my poor
people!
Images and idols:
I
want to begin with God’s line and work out from there...
"Why
have they provoked me to anger with their images,
with their foreign idols?"
What
is the big deal with images and idols, anyway?
I
was very conscious yesterday of needing to present an image;
of taking on the role of officiant
at April Wargo’s wedding.
What
image are you conscious of projecting this morning? It’s hard to not think
of projecting an image...we all do it, much if not most of the time.
So, what make
images an issue for God?
What
makes images a big deal to God
is not the image itself but when the
image is false.
I
may not be in the center of my comfort zone in a suit—
but I am a pastor,
sometimes I should probably look
like one!
But
if I used my role among you, my image as pastor
to proclaim to you
that
God had authorized me to behave and lead you in ways
that are not God’s ways
designed to peaceably order human
life and well-being....
that would be
setting up a false image,
leading to an
idolatrous or false understanding of who God is.
Think
about the leaders of the world who advocate violence in the name of God;
the image, the idol that they are pimping
is the false notion that
if
we can just kill or imprison all the evildoers and unbelievers,
they will be gone; our problems
solved.
[Take
a tuck or two here if necessary:
(A
chilling news note this week on MSNBC about a GI, Jeremy Hall:
“Military
officials in Iraq are investigating allegations that an Army specialist, is
being harassed for being an atheist.... and threatened...with being killed by
friendly fire...” after he filed a lawsuit complaining about being forced to
participate in religious ritual.
MSNBC,
< http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20922106/>)
Or
what about a system that enriches the top tier beyond belief,
siphons
much of the rest to the middle players...
and leaves millions with no recourse
when they are stricken with health
issues
except the over burdened
local emergency room.
It’s
clear who matters in this system,
and who doesn’t.
This
is a big deal.
And
we’ve got Caitlin Burkholder Deaton trying to discern right now how to take
this system on...and move it toward justice, towards equity, towards
shalom. Please pray for her!]
Consequences:
So, the issue
with images,
false images,
is that they
misrepresent who God is
and what God cares about.
God
doesn’t like to be misrepresented.
(Just
look at the first three of the 10 commandments, Exodus 20.)
And
God doesn’t want any of us to misrepresent ourselves, either;
to build a life on a false image,
a life that will in the end crumble
into destruction
instead of building a
life founded on the rock of integrity.
Jesus
nails it in today’s gospel reading from Luke 16:
"Whoever is faithful in a very little
is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest
in a very little is dishonest also in much. Luke 16:10
Small
deceptions seep out to poison the whole well...
This
misrepresentation of self and God is a huge issue for Jeremiah.
Over
and over,
he cries out to the people
that they have completely
misrepresented God,
they have missed God’s
priorities
and what it is that God truly cares
about....
They
think that they have covered their bases by participating in religious
ritual—and then are free to live greedy selfish lives based on oppression.
Not
so, Jeremiah weeps;
in your greed and arrogance
you are bringing the same fate on
yourselves
that you have visited on
the poor among you...
And
when that fate descends, the shocked people
torn by many deaths and widespread
destruction, cry out:
“Where
is God? Why isn’t he where we thought
he would be?
And this has gone on SO LONG;
‘The
harvest is past, the summer is ended,
and we are [still] not saved.’"
At
this moment, Jeremiah simply weeps for them.
Later,
he will find words of hope and comfort,
but now he simply accompanies them
in their desperate grief.
Henri Nouwen describes this act beautifully:
The
friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion,
who can stay with us in an hour of
grief and bereavement,
who can tolerate not
knowing, not curing, not healing
and face with us the reality
of our powerlessness,
that is a friend who cares. (Emphasis added)
Conclusion:
We
aren’t able to fix everything. In spite
of our best efforts
the landscape of our planet home is
still littered with destroyed lives.
Sometimes
all we can do is accompany people in their hurt and pain.
I
think I’ve told you the story of a four year old boy who figured this out but
it bears repeating:
This
child had become friends with the elderly couple next door. The wife died and for months the husband was
desolate. One day the little boy saw
the old man sitting in his back yard, crying.
He went on over and crawled up in his lap and stayed for some time. When he came back home, his mother who had
watched this out of the window asked what he had said to their grieving
neighbor. “I didn’t say anything,” the
child replied; “I just helped him cry.”
A
final word, from the Jewish Talmud:
Do not be daunted by the enormity of the
world's grief.
Do
justly, now.
Love
mercy, now.
Walk
humbly, now.
You
are not obligated to complete the work,
but
neither are you free to abandon it.
Communion:
We
will now move into our celebration of communion. Hyde Park has always had an open communion; any who know
themselves to be on a journey towards Christ are welcome to participate. We understand children to be a part of God’s
family until they are old enough to choose to turn away from God, so they, too,
are welcome to join the family at this Table.
We
will do this a bit differently today.
Knowing
that his hours were nearly up,
Jesus does what he loves to do:
he has a dinner with his friends,
even including the
friend
who he knew would betray
him that night.
Eating
with friends is so typical of Jesus...
But I glanced through the gospels
looking at the different
meals that are mentioned
and realized that many
of them take place
in the homes of people who were not
obvious picks as friends;
some
were Pharisees, the religious elite who eventually had him executed. Some were “sinners”, tax collectors, some
were (gasp!) women...
So
this morning, I want you to think first of your friends and those you love;
Bring them into your heart and mind
and welcome them into this space.
And
now think of friends who have betrayed you, disappointed you...
Bring them into your heart and mind
and welcome them into this space.
And
now, think of the people with whom you have major issues, “enemies” in New
Testament language. These may be people
you know personally, or it may be people in leadership around the world. Be specific.
Bring them into your heart and mind
and welcome them into this space.
And
now, think of the little people on the margins, the unwanted, the powerless.
Bring them into your heart and mind
and welcome them into this space.
Getting
a little crowded in here! That’s
good. It is in God’s heart to include
all....
Now,
please stand and let us pray the Lord’s Prayer together;
we will use “sins” instead of
“trespasses” today.
It
is printed on the back of your liturgy card
(Lord’s
Prayer in unison)
You
may be seated.
Please
turn on your liturgy card to the first bolded section on the front; let us read
that together.
(In
this act of worship...)
Blessing
of the elements:
Bless this bread, O God, in your
love and to your service. Amen.
Bless this cup, O God, in your love
and to your service. Amen
We
will pass the bread along the rows, followed by the juice; each of you will
serve the person next to you; you may say “the body of Christ” and “the blood
of Christ”—or just look them in the eyes and smile.
As
the elements are passed, I will read Jesus’ words from Matthew as Annette leads
us in singing softly.
Communion:
Ending
prayer from Liturgy card:
Benediction: