Sermon for August 31, 2014 12 Pentecost Jeremiah 15:15-21; Psalm 26:1-8; Romans 12:9-21, Matthew 16:21-28 by Kim McNamara
As our readings this morning point out, working for God can be challenging.
In our Old Testament reading, the prophet Jeremiah offers up a lament for the struggles he has endured while working for God. God puts words in Jeremiah’s mouth, then orders Jeremiah to gird up his loins, stand up, speak out, and tell the people everything God commands. The word given to Jeremiah is that God is angry because the people have forsaken God, worshipped other gods, and have not kept God’s law. In anger, God has banished mirth and gladness in the land and is determined to bring disaster upon the people. God has told Jeremiah not to marry or have children because all the children in the land will die of deadly diseases, by the sword, and by famine.
God has literally set Jeremiah up against the whole land; against the kings of Judah, its princes, its priests, and the people. God warns Jeremiah, “They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you to deliver you.” Under the weight of God’s hand, Jeremiah has been filled with indignation and has become, as Jeremiah himself describes, a man alone; a man of strife and contention to the whole land. There is no place in the company of merrymakers for him. There is no joy for him. Blessed Jeremiah has the dubious honor of being chosen by God to tell the people about their sins and about God’s coming wrath. Are those in power grateful for Jeremiah’s work? No way! The king and his men accuse Jeremiah of lying to them and they do exactly what he warns them not to do. Disillusioned, Jeremiah calls God a deceitful brook, like waters that fail.
Last week, we heard about Peter’s great moment of blessing. When Jesus asked his disciples who they thought the Son of Man was, Peter got the answer right. “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus blessed Peter, telling him that he is the rock the church will be built on. Jesus even promised to give Peter the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Blessed Peter! His moment of glory is short-lived, though. In today’s lesson, which immediately follows last week’s verses in Matthew, Jesus begins to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem, undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders, chief priests, and scribes, be killed, and on the third day be raised. But, Peter objects and rebukes Jesus. “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you!”
Perhaps it was the blessing Peter had just received from Jesus that gave him the confidence to speak his mind. Perhaps Peter had begun to feel the strength of his call to build a church. Perhaps Peter had his own ideas about how the life of the Messiah should be lived and ended. On the other hand, perhaps Peter speaks out of his very human love for his leader. In any case, Peter gets sharply reprimanded by Jesus. Peter the Rock has now become Peter the Stumbling Block. But, Peter hasn’t changed. He is still Peter; still human and still following God’s call. Or trying to. Working for God can be challenging. Jesus warns us. “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” I recently attended an environmental justice conference at Seattle University, where I had the opportunity to listen to the people in harm’s way of tremendously powerful environmental changes in our world and to discuss the mission of the church in caring for and healing the Earth and our people. Many of the themes we are exploring in our readings this morning seem relevant to the work of the environmental community. I have been a member of this community for many years and I have to admit that some of us are like Jeremiah, indignant people filled with strife and contention.
We have been called to raise awareness about the degradation of God’s creation, to predict the impending disasters that may arise when we mess around with global environmental systems, and to challenge those in power with our cries for change. A little like Peter, we have been surprised by the range of reactions we get to our doomsday predictions. Sometimes people seem to listen to us, believe us, and take action. Other times they seem to ignore us. Or sometimes our warnings are vehemently and viciously denied. We have been accused of loving the Earth more than the people. We live with fear, anger, sorrow, joylessness, despair, hopelessness, and depression. Most merrymakers would not want us to join their party.
Doing God’s work is challenging. It is immensely challenging to attempt to bridge the gap between the promise of joy and delight in God’s word and creation, and the reality of living together as self-centered, short-sighted, pleasure-seeking human beings. In many ways, we are struggling today with the same problems Jeremiah had to deal with. The people have forsaken God, are worshipping other gods, and have not kept God’s law.
God’s work can be challenging. Fortunately, whether we are working for the planet, for the church, for our community, or for our family, working with God’s people does bring joy, delight, blessings, healings, miracles, love, and a deeper understanding of the meaning of life on Earth. Most days. Some days, the work is sad, painful, exhausting, confusing, frustrating, and difficult. As a result, we get tired, grumpy, defensive, indignant, and uncooperative. With friends like us, who needs enemies!
Paul was, obviously, very familiar with the challenges of creating, developing, and sustaining the early church community. In several of his letters he beseeches his community members to genuinely love, honor, and serve each other. Live in harmony with one another and associate with the lowly. Do not set our minds on vengeance if we are wronged, but overcome evil with good. Paul even wants us to feed and care for our enemies. He is asking a lot from us! On good days we struggle to maintain harmonious relationships with our family and friends. How can we be expected to love our enemies?
While I was at the conference, I began to reflect on the thought that a very big challenge for us as we do God’s work may actually be some of the problematic assumptions implied in the Old Testament. For example, “we” are God’s people and “the others” are not. Or, God rewards faithful living and punishes wrong doing here on Earth. From this perspective, when we look around at all the blessings and privileges we enjoy, it is easy to conclude that we are the chosen people, which in turn justifies our lifestyle choices. Our way must be the right way, so we do not need to change.
Our Old Testament assumptions also lead us to some potentially destructive ways of thinking about “the others.” If “they” are causing us problems, or are not thinking or behaving the way we think they should, is it okay for us to identify them as the enemy and ask God to hurt them? What about the people in our world who are daily dying of disease, sword, and famine? They must be doing something wrong to have invoked God’s wrath! So, we don’t need to be concerned about the others because they are somehow to blame for their own problems? We, especially, do not need to be concerned about the problems our lifestyle may be causing the others because we are God’s chosen people?
Given the complexity of our world today, the diversity of people we have to deal with, our poor history of human rights abuses, and the work we need to do, these implicit assumptions are very problematic stumbling stones. And, even if we do not subscribe to these assumptions, others might assume we do, so they are still problematic.
Fortunately, Jesus gives us new ways of thinking about our life and our work with others in our world; more challenging ways of thinking, yes, but more humane and hopeful ways of thinking. Jesus teaches us that our way and our reward will not be found in human things, but in divine things. Thus, worldly wealth should never be interpreted as a sign of reward for right living. What we might identify as signs of God’s punishment may actually be the result of our human-created systems of power, social structure, and resource allocation; unjust human systems that need to be challenged.
Jesus invites us to take up our cross and follow him. If we pick up that cross, from that moment forward, we must acknowledge that God is in charge of our journey and the future is in God’s hands. We must understand that we are simply servants working out of love. In our work with God’s people, there is no room for egos, arrogance, personal power, destructive force, or retribution. Only from this position of humility will we be given opportunities to see, to listen, and to learn how we both help and harm others; how we serve as a rock, but also as a stumbling block. If we can truly listen to each other, rather than deliver lectures and defend ourselves and our positions, with God’s help, we may actually build the relationships necessary to be able to work together to solve these problems. Maybe then, we can talk about love.
Now, what do we do if we have already gotten to boiling point and our cup is running over with frustration and anger? A suggestion comes from Jeremiah. Talk to God. God will listen to your complaints and laments. God will wait for you to turn back to him and, when you finally start talking sense again, God will put you back to work. In the meantime, if a lament is threatening to erupt in you, I do hope you will come to us for company, support, and perhaps a little mirth, gladness, and joy.
Yes, we are people; imperfect human beings with needs and desires and limited lives and visions. Yes, there is work to be done in this world—very challenging work—and we, as imperfect as we are, are called to that work. God loves us and has given us this life and our gifts. In return, God calls us, asks us to love others, and invites us to contribute our gifts to making the world a more just and peaceful place. So, just how challenging can that be, really? God, have mercy!
Amen.