The Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost - August 28

Seeking God
Proper 17
Jeremiah 2:4-13
Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16
Luke 14:1, 7-14

Sometimes the message of a Scripture reading is simple and straightforward.  Not a lot of explanation or interpretation needed.

In saying that I could be talking about any of today’s three readings…  Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel are straightforward.  Be humble.  Don’t put yourself forward.  The instructions in Hebrews are clear (and I’ll come back to those), but again this Sunday my primary focus is on the Old Testament reading.  The prophetic voice of Jeremiah and it’s straightforward message.

Speaking to all of God’s people Jeremiah says:  Here’s what your ancestors did wrong.  They did not say, “Where is the Lord?”  They did not ask, “Where is God?”  Their God had brought them out of slavery and given them a plentiful land, but they did not seek God.

They did not ask:  Where is God?  Instead of asking after God, instead of seeking God, they went after worthless things.

So Jeremiah asks us:  What are you seeking?  What are you seeking in your life?  We are all seeking something.  What are you looking for?  What are you really seeking to find? 

Jeremiah says that if you go after worthless things, you become worthless.  Or you can seek God.

It’s that simple.

Hebrews says pretty much the same thing, although a bit more positively than Jeremiah.  Don’t seek after selfish goals, Hebrews says.  Show hospitality to strangers.  Jesus says the same thing in today’s Gospel.  Don’t invite your friends or relatives or the people you’re trying to impress to your banquet.  Invite poor, marginalized strangers.  And, Hebrews, points out, you may discover an unexpected benefit.  Entertaining God’s holy angels! 

And put yourself out to help people in prison or people who are being tortured.

Hebrews doesn’t say this explicitly, but it’s implicit in Hebrews that those acts of selfless compassion are ways of seeking God.  Helping others in need is where we will find God.  I’m reminded of the ancient, beautiful Christian hymn, in Latin, Ubi caritas.  Usually translated in English:  Where charity and love prevail, God himself is there.

Keep your lives free from love of money, Hebrews says.  I can just hear Jeremiah cheering.  Talk about chasing after worthless goals!

And the author of Hebrews reminds us of God’s promise: “I will never leave you or forsake you.”  I will never leave you.

God is with us always.  If we don’t see him right off it may be because we are focused on seeking worthless things.  Rather than seeking God.  Where is God in this place, in this time?  Asking is seeking, and seeking is finding.

I’m reminded of words in Eucharistic Prayer D (again)  “When our disobedience took us far from you,” [seeking after worthless things] “you did not abandon us to the power of death.  In your mercy you came to our help, so that in seeking you we might find you.”  You came to our help.  So that in seeking you, we might find you.

There is a very important sidebar to this discussion.  Periods of God’s apparent absence are real.  Even the most faithful people, the most spiritual individuals have written about the “dark night of the soul,” times when God seems absent.  The psalms of lament give voice to this piece of human existence.  The psalms are also models for what to do when God seems absent:  Persevere in trust.  Continue yearning and seeking even in the midst of despair.

Jesus quotes one of the psalms of lament from the cross, Psalm 22.  Words that are very familiar.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
   Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer;
   and by night, but find no rest.

Less familiar, unfortunately, are the rest of the words of Psalm 22.  But Jesus would have known them.  Words of perseverance, trust and praise.

Yet you are holy,
   enthroned on the praises of Israel.
In you our ancestors trusted;
   they trusted, and you delivered them.

You who fear the Lord, praise him!
   All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him;
   stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!
For he did not despise or abhor
   the affliction of the afflicted;
he did not hide his face from me;
   but heard when I cried to him.

Seeking God doesn’t always mean we find him instantly.  Sometimes it’s a journey.  A journey undertaken in trust that God’s promise to be with us always is true.  Persevering in the conviction that the witness of the psalmist and the saints to God’s presence is trustworthy.

Ultimately Jeremiah’s challenge to us is simple:  Are we seeking worthless things?  If so, we will become worthless, and we will most certainly not find God.

If, on the other hand, we ask:  Where is God? we will find him.

The Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost - August 21

Living as Covenant People

Jeremiah 1:4-10

For the last two weeks, the Old Testament lesson has come from the prophet Isaiah.  In today’s reading we have moved on to Jeremiah.  I didn’t make some specific decision to focus on the prophets after I got back from vacation, but they’ve caught my attention these last few weeks.  We’ll be in Jeremiah for three weeks.  I don’t know what I’ll preach in the coming weeks, but again today I’m going to focus on the Old Testament reading and the prophecy of Jeremiah.

We know very specifically when Jeremiah was active as a prophet, because it can be keyed to other historical events.  We don’t know when he was born, but we know he was active from 626 B.C. to 587.  That’s about 100 years later than Isaiah of Jerusalem.

The chapter in my Old Testament textbook from seminary that talks about Jeremiah is titled:  “The Doom of the Nation.”  It was not a good time, politically or spiritually for the people of God.  A good bit of that trouble, Jeremiah pointed out was self-inflicted.  In terms of the religious life of the people, it was a time when people thought they could pay lip service to God in the temple but still offer sacrifice to pagan gods the rest of the week.  It was a time when religious/nationalistic sloganeering had replaced true heart-felt observance of the covenant.  They had forgotten what it meant to live as people faithful to the covenant God established at Sinai.

The passage we heard today from Jeremiah comes from the very beginning of the book.  It is a “call story.”  The Bible is full of “call stories.”  Call stories are when God speaks directly to a particular individual and says, “I have a job for you.”  You have a God-given “calling” or vocation.  Moses receives his call from the burning bush.  The Old Testament is full of stories of kings and prophets being called to their vocations by God.  The New Testament tells the disciples’ call stories.

Jeremiah tells his call story in his own words. “The word of the Lord came to me saying, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations."

God calls Jeremiah to be a prophet to the nations.  Jeremiah demurs:  I’m too young to be a prophet.  Doesn’t matter, God says, you’re called.  Do not be afraid.  I will be with you and will give you the words.  Moses tried to dodge his call, too, saying he was not eloquent enough to do what God asked.  Doesn’t matter, God said, I will be with you and will give you Aaron to speak for you.  It’s hard to wiggle out of God’s call.

So what does Jeremiah’s call story mean for us?  Is it a reminder from God that we are all called to be prophets?  And that we really don’t have any good excuses to dodge that call?

I’m reminded of the passage from Numbers (11:29) where Moses says:  “Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them!”

It’s not a bad question to ponder…  How we are all called to prophetic ministry.  And we could certainly all do a lot better at bringing God’s words to the world in which we live.

But (it may be a relief to hear) that’s not really the main point of this passage for us.

Writing about Jeremiah’s call, one commentator writes:  “we are not to read these lectionary verses as a reflection on vocation. We are not urged to “be like” Jeremiah; rather, we are called to listen to Jeremiah. We are not enjoined to admire Jeremiah nor are adolescent “youths” being encouraged to dream beyond their self-perceived deficiencies.”

The call stories of the prophets have a special role in the Scriptures.  They authenticate the prophetic ministry of the prophets.  They bestow divine authority on the words that the prophets proclaim.  The prophets are called by God to convey God’s message.  These are God’s words.  They are commanded words.  Jeremiah’s call bestows God’s own divine authority on the words he speaks.

And we are to listen.  Just as attentively as the people to whom Jeremiah spoke.  These are God’s words, spoken to us, today.  The urgency of the prophetic message is a constant “today.”  God commanded these words to be spoken.  And we are to listen.  To hear.  To take seriously the living Word of God in our lives. 

Jeremiah reminds us not to just give it lip service to the Word of God on Sundays.  But to study it, take it into our lives.  To read the Bible and listen to others who proclaim God’s Word.  And to take it very seriously throughout our lives. 

I’m into the prophets right now.  They seem particularly relevant to me in our current cultural setting.  But maybe something else speaks to you.  Seek out the Word of God.  Listen.  Attend to it in your life.

Jeremiah also called the people of his day to return to the covenant.  They had forgotten or abandoned their commitment to living as people in covenant with God.

Our covenant relationship with God is expressed in the Baptismal Covenant.  That individual covenant established between each of us and God at baptism.  It begins with the Apostles’ Creed, the baptismal declaration of faith.  Then it continues with these vows:

With God’s help, I will “continue in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of the bread, and in the prayers.”  I will participate in the life of a faith community.

I will “persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever I fall into sin, repent [I talked about that last week] and return to the Lord.”

I will “proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ.”  There’s that prophetic ministry.  We can’t escape it.

I will “seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?”  All persons.  It isn’t easy following the covenant.

And, finally, I will “strive [strive, that’s a strong word] for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being.”

That’s the covenant we are called into as people baptized as Christ’s own.

I’ve printed out copies of our Baptismal Covenant.  I’m going to ask the kids to help pass them out after the blessing of the backpacks.

You might leave your copy on the pew or on one of the tables.  Jeremiah would have something to say about that!

You can chuck it when you get home.  But your baptismal covenant with God won’t go away.  

Or you can put it on your refrigerator or by your desk or on your nightstand.  And pray it.  Memorize it.  So that it soaks into our DNA, becomes a part of all of our being.  So that we live it throughout our lives almost without thinking about it.  So that we live as God’s covenant people today.

The Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost - August 14

Grant Us True Repentance

Proper 15

Isaiah 5:1-7

The Old Testament reading for today, as it was last week, is from Isaiah.  I mentioned last Sunday that the Book of Isaiah was written by at least three different authors.  This passage is from what is often called First Isaiah, written by the 8^th century BC prophet, Isaiah of Jerusalem.

The language in Isaiah is rich and the poetry beautiful.  This passage conveys a powerful image.

God is grieved, deeply angered by the behavior of God’s people.  God is profoundly affected, deeply disappointed by the failure of the people of God to live as a just and righteous society.

The passage can be tricky to follow.  Voice and perspective change in the midst of the passage.  It starts out in the prophet’s voice.  “Let me sing for my beloved my love-song concerning his vineyard.”   It’s not clear at first who the prophet’s beloved is.  Who is the owner of the vineyard?  But later the voice changes to the voice of the owner of the vineyard and it becomes clear that the vineyard owner is God and the vineyard represents God’s people, the people of Israel and Judah.

God has poured love and care into the planting and nurturing of the vineyard.  But it becomes clear.  The owner is God.  The vineyard is God’s people…  Israel and Judah.  He pours love and care into the vineyard.  “What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it?”  God asks.

And, yet, when God looks upon the vineyard he “expected justice, but saw bloodshed.”  He expected “righteousness, but heard a cry.”  God’s desire was for God’s people to live fruitfully in justice and righteousness.  But, despite God’s care, the people in God’s vineyard produced only wildness, bloodshed, a cry.

What really strikes me in this passage is how deeply God is affected by the peoples’ failure.  God FEELS the peoples’ failure.  God’s grief and anger are passionate.  This is not the God we often picture sitting benignly on some distant throne.   This is not a God with a passive, vaguely benevolent indifference to his peoples’ sins.

This passage in Isaiah ends with God destroying the vineyard.

“And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. 6 I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.”

The end is the peoples’ destruction.

What does this mean for us?  For our failure to live righteously, to “do right by one another” to embody social justice in our society?

The idea that God feels our failure deeply, grieves our indifference to righteousness and justice reminded me of the language in our Ash Wednesday service.  We only use the special liturgy for Ash Wednesday once a year, of course.  And because it’s a Wednesday many of you aren’t able to come.  That’s too bad.  It’s a powerful service.  I’m thinking in particularly of the Litany of Penitence where we acknowledge how deeply we fall short of God’s hopes for us.

In one of its intercessions we pray for God’s mercy because we “have been deaf to God’s call to serve, as Christ served us.   We have not been true to the mind of Christ.  We have grieved God’s Holy Spirit.”  We have grieved God’s Holy Spirit.

God grieves our failure to live in righteousness.

In the Litany of Penitence, we also acknowledge “our self-indulgent appetites and ways, and our exploitation of other people;” “our blindness to human need and suffering, and our indifference to injustice and cruelty.”

Surely God is angry at our indifference to social justice and the needs of others.

So how does our story end? 

At the conclusion of the Litany of Penitence, the priest says these words:

“Almighty God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who desires not the death of sinners, but rather that they may turn from their wickedness and live…  has given power to pardon and absolve.”

God does not desire the death or destruction of us sinners.  Rather that we may turn back to God and live, pardoned and renewed.

In the context of that assurance of God’s desire to pardon and absolve, we all pray:  Grant us true repentance.

And that’s the crux of it all.  God, grant us true repentance.  Give us the will and the ability to repent.  Help us repent so that we may know God’s pardon and absolution.  The journey back to God begins with our repentance.  Grant us true repentance.

I don’t want to leave you with the impression that in the Old Testament the story ends with the destruction of God’s people and only in the New Testament does God offer forgiveness and reconciliation.  That is not the case.  The whole point of the prophetic witness in the Old Testament was to call the people to repentance.  The whole point of the prophets—Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amox, Micah—preaching destruction was to turn the people back to God.  God desires repentance and renewal.

We affirm that in our Eucharistic Prayers.  For example, in Prayer D, which we are using now at 10:00:   “When our disobedience took us far from you, you did not abandon us to the power of death.  In your mercy you came to our help, so that in seeking you we might find you.  Again and again you called us into covenant with you, and through the prophets you taught us to hope for salvation.”

Again and again and again, you called us back, and through the prophets you taught us to hope.  God’s desire is always that sinners turn from their wickedness and live.

Isaiah reminds us how deeply God grieves our failures to live with righteousness and justice.  If only we cared just a fraction as deeply about our failures as God does.  Maybe then we would repent.

Grant us true repentance.  That is the prayer we need to pray.  Grant us true repentance.

The Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost - August 7

It's About More than Worship

Proper 14

Isaiah 1:1, 10-20

Referring to today’s Old Testament lesson, one commentator writes:  “With its stunning poetry, inspiring call for justice, and complex portrayal of God, Isaiah 1 is one of the most memorable chapters of biblical prophetic literature.”

On the other hand another commentator muses that the people who put together our lectionary—the schedule of Scripture readings that we follow—must have intentionally put Isaiah in the middle of August when many people are not in church…  because we can’t take the stinging force of Isaiah’s prophecy.

Scholars today think that the Biblical Book of Isaiah—had at least three different authors.  Today’s reading is from what is often called First Isaiah, written by someone actually named Isaiah.  Isaiah of Jerusalem.  It was written in the 8^th century BCE, a time when prophetic writing flourished.  Isaiah of Jerusalem was a contemporary of Amos and Hosea.

Two features were prominent in the lives of God’s people at that time.  First, the Assyrians were always threatening.  A hostile nation was on their doorstep, threatening their peace, safety, and way of life.  They felt threatened and insecure.  And second, within the society of the Hebrew people, both in the northern and southern kingdoms of Judah and Israel, there was what we would call today “significant income disparity.”  There were the very rich and the very poor, and not much in between. 

So that is the social context for Isaiah’s vision.  The more specific context is worship.  In Isaiah’s prophecy, God speaks to God’s people gathered for worship.  Can you imagine God speaking that way directly to us, gathered here in worship today?

In a different translation from the one we heard this morning, God says:
Why offer to me your glorious sacrifices, says YHWH?
I am satiated with your ram-fueled burnt offerings,
and with the fat of those fattened beasts!
With the blood of bulls and lambs and goats I find no delight at all!
When you come to gaze at my face, who asks this from your hands?
Stop trampling my courts; never again come with empty offerings;
incense is anathema to me!
New moon and Sabbath, calling a congregation to worship—
I can no longer stand evil assemblies!  

Isaiah is speaking to the upper part of that income disparity…  to the comfortable, the well-off.  Yahweh’s words are meant to be shocking.  The people would have responded that they were doing exactly what they were supposed to be doing, worshipping according to Torah.

Yes, but, Isaiah says.  Yes, but.  Isaiah is not condemning worship.  Isaiah is condemning certain worshippers who have apparently come to see comfortable, routine, worship as the be all and end all of righteousness.

No, says Yahweh, in Isaiah’s vision.  Worship is not just a part of your comfortable lifestyle that serves to fulfill the totality of your obligations to God.  Worship is not some sort of “Get out of jail free card” that erases your failure to care for others in your community.

Put that way, it is an issue that is certainly still relevant today.

Isaiah’s vision continues with instructions for improvement:

Stop doing evil! Learn to do good!
Pursue justice! Rescue the oppressed!
Protect the orphan! Litigate on behalf of the widow!

You who have the means need to help those who do not.  Work for justice; help the oppressed.  Orphans and widows were particularly powerless in that society.  Exercise your power on their behalf.

They are words we need to hear, too.  Fight injustice.  Help people who need help. 

Each of us has individual opportunities to do that work in our own society.  But to name a few basic ways we can help…  help people who are hungry…  help support education, which is one of the best tools in our society to overcome injustice.

This summer the Daughters of the King sponsored a drive for school supplies.  I thank God for those of you who participated.  But what if everyone had?  What if each and every member of this congregation had brought in school supplies?  Spiral notebooks would have been spilling out onto the sidewalk.  We all have the means to help people in our own neighborhoods who can’t afford basic school supplies. 

And then there are the food collection baskets in the west foyer.  Again, I thank God for the people who regularly and faithfully bring in food donations.  I have a practice, which I confess I don’t follow 100%, but I try to keep on track.  Every time I go to the grocery story, whether that’s once a week or once a day because I always seem to forget something, I buy at least one extra item.  One extra item.  One nutritious item.  Or, of course, it could be more than one.  What if every one of us did that?  Every time we go to the grocery store, buy at least one extra item to be donated to the food pantry.  The foyer would be full every week.

We need worship, of course.  We need to hear God’s word in worship and to be fed at God’s Holy Table to remind us and strengthen us and empower us for the work we are called to do in the world. 

And we need worship for the spiritual sustenance of our souls.  Worship, here, is a place to encounter the living God.  It’s not the only place to encounter God, but it is a reliable place where we come face to face with God.  In Isaiah’s vision, God says, “Come now, let us argue it out.”  We are here together, with one another, in relationship, in conversation.   And in that relationship, God offers forgiveness and renewal.  “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be like snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.”  In worship we are assured that God never gives up.  We experience God’s persistent commitment to us.  God never walks away from us.  No matter what evil the people had done.  No matter what we have done or failed to do.  God is always here with us—to chastise, yes, as the prophets remind us, but also to guide us and renew us in our life of faith.