And though the news did seem
too good for our believing,
‘Tis not an empty dream
too high for our achieving.
He triumphed in the strife
o’er all his foes he towered;
they killed the Prince of Life
but he hath death o’erpowered. Amen.
"How Great the Harvest Is", a Hymn chosen by Kenneth Leech to be sung at his funeral. Alistair MacIntyre wrote in his introduction to the anthology of Leech's work entitled Prayer and Prophecy: The Essential Kenneth Leech “in his ability to relate contemplation to action directed to the needy and by his insistence on the need for such action to be an expression of an inner turning to God, Ken Leech has taken the tradition of Catholic spiritual writing one stage further, posing often neglected questions about the spiritual dimensions of radical action.”
 |
| The Sermon on the Mount (1896), Károly Ferenczy. Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest (wikimedia commons) |
Luke 6:17-26
"First Thoughts on Year C Gospel Passages in the Lectionary: Epiphany 6,"William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.
"It does no good and can do harm for North American ministers to tell their congregations, 'Just by virtue of being here today, you are among the very richest people in the world.'"
"Riches in the Rule of God," Mary Hinkle, Pilgrim Preaching: Keeping Company with Biblical Texts and the People Who Hear and Preach Them.
"In the end, the blessings cannot be sought as ends in themselves and do not come by effort. They are simply the way things are in the kingdom that has now come in Jesus. If we accept that as truth, what remains is only to live in that truth (v. 46) and let it transform us."
Lectionary Commentary and Preaching Paths (Epiphany C6), by Dennis Bratcher, at The Christian Resource Institute.
Thomas Merton once wrote, “At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth, a point or spark which belongs entirely to God.” [Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander (Image Books: 1968), 158.]
The “poor in spirit” don’t have to play any competitive games; they are not preoccupied with winning, which is the primary philosophy in the United States today. Jesus is recommending a social reordering, quite different from common practice. Notice also how he uses present tense: “the Kingdom of God is theirs.” He doesn’t say “will be theirs.” That tells us that God’s Reign isn’t later; it’s now. You are only free when you have nothing to protect and nothing you need to prove or defend. Trapped people have to do what they want to do. Free people want to do what they know they have to do. Admittedly, it takes a while to get there. [Adapted from Richard Rohr with John Bookser Feister, Jesus’ Plan for a New World: The Sermon on the Mount (Franciscan Media: 1996), 129, 130-131.]
Oremus Online NRSV Text
Oremus Online NRSV Text
We have just read how Jesus unrolled the scroll to the prophet Isaiah. He began to read. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." He then rolled up the scroll and everyone in the synagogue watched him as he sat back down. Then Jesus said, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." (Luke 4:16-21) Jesus’ ministry would exactly mirror what Isaiah foretold when he imagined God's shalom. Jesus’ community would be for the least and the lost. Jesus will inaugurate a community of release and freedom. He will bring God's blessing of peace into the world that all will know they are beloved of God, for he is the Prince of Shalom.
As if to live into what is often called "The Nazareth Manifesto”, Jesus sets about casting a vision for this community. The Beatitudes are exactly such a vision. (Luke 6 and Matthew 5) It is rare that the gospels record a direct teaching by Jesus. (Parables are the primary way he speaks about the kingdom of peace.) This direct teaching from Luke's Gospel begins with the beatitudes, because his words distribute blessings. Again, capturing the narrative of Abraham and Sarah and bringing it forward, people living in this new community built around Jesus are a blessing and will be a blessing to the world.
As if to live into what is often called "The Nazareth Manifesto”, Jesus sets about casting a vision for this community. The Beatitudes are exactly such a vision. (Luke 6 and Matthew 5) It is rare that the gospels record a direct teaching by Jesus. (Parables are the primary way he speaks about the kingdom of peace.) This direct teaching from Luke's Gospel begins with the beatitudes, because his words distribute blessings. Again, capturing the narrative of Abraham and Sarah and bringing it forward, people living in this new community built around Jesus are a blessing and will be a blessing to the world.
The poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who are deeply long for goodness and faith, those who make mercy happen, the humble, and those in whom there is no guile, all of these people are beloved of God, blessed by God, and they are a blessing to the world. These are the people God welcomes into the bosom of blessed Abraham - as in the parable of Lazarus and the rich man. (Luke 16:19-31) The least are the first citizens in the reign of peace - a new family outside of the systems of domination.
The second citizens are the peacemakers. The community of shalom must be filled with peacemakers, and Jesus is committed to growing the number of peacemakers and equipping them for their work. People will know who is a member of the community of shalom because they will live outside of the domination system of powers, authorities, and violence and live into the narrative of bringing peace. The peacemakers will join the ranks of God’s beloved, and they will be known by the way they live their life as children of God. Living as peacemakers, though, will not be peaceful, as Jesus teaches later on. Those who are afraid of the authorities and principalities, or who gain from the systems of domination, will not be happy with the peacemakers and will punish them, persecute them, and martyr them because of the discomfort they feel about the evil that peacemakers reveal in the various edifices of society. For this reason their witness to peace will bring about division between those who are peacemakers and those committed to the status quo of violence and greed. A sharp edge quickly emerges between those who make peace and those who will not join Jesus’ community of shalom. This division will not be brought about by the peacemakers but by those for whom peace only comes through violence. (Matthew 10:34-39)
The second citizens are the peacemakers. The community of shalom must be filled with peacemakers, and Jesus is committed to growing the number of peacemakers and equipping them for their work. People will know who is a member of the community of shalom because they will live outside of the domination system of powers, authorities, and violence and live into the narrative of bringing peace. The peacemakers will join the ranks of God’s beloved, and they will be known by the way they live their life as children of God. Living as peacemakers, though, will not be peaceful, as Jesus teaches later on. Those who are afraid of the authorities and principalities, or who gain from the systems of domination, will not be happy with the peacemakers and will punish them, persecute them, and martyr them because of the discomfort they feel about the evil that peacemakers reveal in the various edifices of society. For this reason their witness to peace will bring about division between those who are peacemakers and those committed to the status quo of violence and greed. A sharp edge quickly emerges between those who make peace and those who will not join Jesus’ community of shalom. This division will not be brought about by the peacemakers but by those for whom peace only comes through violence. (Matthew 10:34-39)
The keepers of the Pax Romana will persecute the peacemakers and they will suffer for righteousness sake. Despite these trials those who live in peace, who constitute the community of shalom, will participate in God's reign in this world and the next. Those who are reviled and persecuted, who have all kinds of evil muttered against them because of their witness to God's peace, and participate in the great narrative arc of God, join the ranks of Abraham, Sarah, Moses, Esther, Isaiah, and Jonah. (Matthew 5:10-11) Luke's references come after our passage chosen for today. But they are worth bringing into this conversation. Jesus says:
27“But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.29If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. 30Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. 31Do to others as you would have them do to you.These peacemakers make up the body of Jesus’ new community. This community is spoken into reality by the Living Word made flesh, just as creation itself came forth from the same Incarnation. The Beatitudes should be read as a call to the members of the new community. The Beatitudes are their marching orders. Jesus’ voice echoes over the hillside, declaring that his disciples are to bless the world like the patriarchs, matriarchs, judges, and prophets before them. They are to be salt. They are to be light. Salt and light are images often used for the religious elite. Jesus appropriates the images and offers them to the new members of the community. This will not be a new religion or a renewal of an old religion. This is no religion at all. Like the Sinai prophets before him, Jesus speaks out against the religion of the day. He calls into existence a community of mutuality that does not use religious hierarchy to oppress, or create a religious economy that can enrich. Jesus’ community will be people who serve God with no religious domination. This is a higher way of living together. There are no exclusions here.
Much of religion is about forcing others to become something they are not. God’s desire in sending us out into the world to serve, on the other hand, is about enabling us to become something we are-members of the Body of Christ, a community that knows and extends God’s shalom to the world. This community will create relationships of peace instead. The human way of practicing religion manufactures systems of violence and oppression. This new Jesus community has a higher rule of peacemaking. It will be concerned with broken relationships and peacemaking among neighbors – all people. Women will not be objects to be coveted or property with no self-determination. Women and men will live together in healthy relationships.
Finally, Jesus calls his disciples to be a community of honesty. They are invited to speak truthfully and not engage in sophistry – the use words to gain power. (Matthew 5: 33-37) They are invited to be salt and light by becoming peacemakers who joyfully sacrifice themselves for each other. Moreover, they must be willing to give their life for an enemy as well as a friend. (Matthew 5:38-48 as in John 15:9-17)
In Luke we have the idea that this is the way one builds a house upon a firm foundation. This is how one lives without the log in the eye. This is how we live if we are to bring forth good fruit (Luke 6:27-49)
God in Christ Jesus, the Word of God, speaks God's mission of shalom into existence through the Beatitudes. Jesus says with clarity that God’s intention is for the community of shalom to witness against the domination systems of man by reversing them.[i] Theologian Walter Wink calls this inauguration a "domination free order."[ii] The peacemaking community is an alternative to communities based upon sibling rivalry, the repeated (mimetic) desire for improvement of one's own state over and against our brother or sister - as in the story of Cain and Abel.[iii] The peacemaking community is an alternative to communities that live by the law of vengeance, where women are property, violence against other tribes is sanctioned, and religion is linked with the powers of the nation state. The peacemaking community rejects wealth as a driver of connection and source of power, thereby setting aside practices of economic oppression, so that all are fed and have what is needed for shelter, clothing, care, and sustenance. The Jesus movement, if a movement at all, must loose the economy of the community of shalom from elements of violence. In Matthew 6:19-34, Jesus replaces a dark violent vision of community with trust in God and pursuit of life in God's new order.[iv] Socially, politically, religiously, economically, Jesus subverts the domination system and the spirit that drives it.
God in Christ Jesus, the Word of God, speaks God's mission of shalom into existence through the Beatitudes. Jesus says with clarity that God’s intention is for the community of shalom to witness against the domination systems of man by reversing them.[i] Theologian Walter Wink calls this inauguration a "domination free order."[ii] The peacemaking community is an alternative to communities based upon sibling rivalry, the repeated (mimetic) desire for improvement of one's own state over and against our brother or sister - as in the story of Cain and Abel.[iii] The peacemaking community is an alternative to communities that live by the law of vengeance, where women are property, violence against other tribes is sanctioned, and religion is linked with the powers of the nation state. The peacemaking community rejects wealth as a driver of connection and source of power, thereby setting aside practices of economic oppression, so that all are fed and have what is needed for shelter, clothing, care, and sustenance. The Jesus movement, if a movement at all, must loose the economy of the community of shalom from elements of violence. In Matthew 6:19-34, Jesus replaces a dark violent vision of community with trust in God and pursuit of life in God's new order.[iv] Socially, politically, religiously, economically, Jesus subverts the domination system and the spirit that drives it.
In Luke Jesus is clear that the opposite way of living is destructive. Jesus says:
"...But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. 25“Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. “Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep. 26“Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.
The peaceable kingdom is deeply connected to the call stories and vocation of Israel covered in the prior chapter. The reign of peace is less concerned with order and control and more concerned with enabling all of us to play our part in the narrative arc of God's love. Seeing the world through the lens of shalom cannot be undone, though it can be rejected in favor of a personal Pax Romana which perpetuates economic and social violence for the sake of individual or tribal peace. There are plenty of authority figures who pretend that "peace" in the world can be purchased by violence, but this is a complete rejection of Christ's reign of shalom. The shalom of God’s reign is purchased by loving enemies, and laying down swords. The peace of God is purchased by Christ's victimhood and not by God's own violence. God’s story of peace is rooted like a cedar of Lebanon in the world by the suffering God-man, and not by a faithful war led by disciples. Even when Peter dares to raise a sword to protect the savior, Jesus heals the man wounded by his blade and tells Peter the kingdom of peace cannot be saved by violence. (John 18:10-12) In this way, Jesus in Luke's Gospel says, we are merciful as God is merciful.
This is adapted from a section on the beatitudes from my book Vocãtiõ: Imaging a Visible Church. You can purchase a copy by following this link to Amazon or to Church Publishing.
"Does it make any sense at all to speak of future hope if it is not embodied and social? Paul would be very uncomfortable with the popular Christian tendency to reduce future hope to the belief that our souls (whatever they are) go to heaven and that is all there is to it."
"First Thoughts on Passages on Year C Epistle Passages in the Lectionary: Epiphany 6," William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.
"There is a vast gap between a proclamation and an experience. This difference is not notable for the one doing the proclaiming, but is for the one being proclaimed to."
Kairos CoMotion Lectionary Discussion, 1 Corinthians 15:12-22, Wesley White. "A place of conversation regarding Progressive Christianity."
[i] Charles L. Campbell, The Word before the Powers: An Ethic of
Preaching (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2002) 49.
[ii] Walter Wink, Engaging the Powers Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domination
(Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Pr., 1999) 112.
[iii] See again René Girard's argument
that mimetic rivalry and desire are at the heart of violence within society.
René Girard, The Girard Reader, ed.
James G. Williams (New York: Crossroad, 1996,) 9-65.
[iv] See also Kavanaugh's discussion of
the link between violence and the commodity form of life in Following Christ, 43-53.
1 Corinthians 15:12-20
"First Thoughts on Passages on Year C Epistle Passages in the Lectionary: Epiphany 6," William Loader, Murdoch University, Uniting Church in Australia.
"There is a vast gap between a proclamation and an experience. This difference is not notable for the one doing the proclaiming, but is for the one being proclaimed to."
Kairos CoMotion Lectionary Discussion, 1 Corinthians 15:12-22, Wesley White. "A place of conversation regarding Progressive Christianity."
We continue this week reading from Paul's first letter to the Corinthians. What is going on here? Paul is making his case that Jesus was indeed resurrected - and that we all hope in the bodily resurrection. Rooted deep in his own writing and faith are the three acclamations we Episcopalians make every Sunday during the eucharist: Christ has died, he has been buried, and he has resurrected! Paul received these from those who evangelized him, and he bears witness to their own testimony of resurrection narratives.
There is in our church, and all churches, a deep belief that there was in fact no resurrection. This is promulgated by our teachings that Jesus is really just a good moral teacher or a spirit guide. Some scholars have even suggested that this is true. These are not new in our Christian tradition and they are not new challenges to the Christian faith.
Paul is challenged by those who believe exactly the same. Some believe he was nothing more than a teacher, a prophet, a failed revolutionary. Some in Corinth believe that it is really all a metaphor for what it means to live a life of the spirit. Others believe that life is eternal regardless of Jesus...this was a popular philosophy in Corinth because of Philo. Eternal life was not a new idea. But, for the followers of Philo it was the soul alone that was immortal, not the physical.
Paul in the beginning of our passage hits this straight on: Jesus was bodily resurrected. He then reminds us of the case of the Corinthians (and suddenly, these appear eerily familiar):
Here then Christianity, if these be true, is nothing more than a list of moral rules to follow. Or, Christianity is just another good non profit doing good work. It is the community that cares more than others. Both of these lines of thinking may be well and good thoughts in and of themselves but they are not Christianity. Moreover, they will inevitably lead to persecution and violence inflicted upon the other. Here then we find in Corinth nothing new...it is merely an ancient view of our contemporary secular age Christianity.
Paul refutes all of this as he suggests that it is precisely in Christs death upon the cross and resurrection that God's creative act is unraveled in the midst of the cosmos. It is both Jesus' death and his resurrection that does this work. He was, Jesus the finite individual, is the first fruits of the eternal harvest.
Let us turn to Dietrich Bonhoeffer in the last years of his life for a little help with this. Meditating upon the Hebrew scriptures he writes in 1943: "It is only when one knows the unutterability of the name of God that one can utter the name of Jesus Christ; it is only when one loves life and the earth so much that without them everything seems to be over that one may believe in the Resurrection of a new world."
Rowan Williams reflects on this: "Grasp once and for all that God is never "available" as an object for speculation divorced from love and discipleship, and it is possible to undertake, in fear and trembling, the enterprise of speaking about Christ."
Bonhoeffer writes in 1944 pondering this cross and resurrection and life given for the other...for us...writes, "Before God and with God we live without God. God lets himself be pushed out of the world on to the cross. He is weak and powerless in the world, and that is precisely the way, the only way, in which he is with us and helps us...not by virtue of his omnipotence, but by virtue of his suffering."
Now Rowan Williams one more time, "Recognizing a God who has ben 'pushed our of the world' is not to be faced with a shocking anomaly, but with the revelation of how things are with the world if God is indeed the God whose life is fully enacted by Jesus of Nazareth." [1]
Wittgenstein writes, "Christianity...offers us a (historical) narrative and says: now believe! - that is not "believe that this is a true historical narrative!", but "Believe that your life can and must change!" ..."It is love that believes the Resurrection."
Belief, contrary to the thinking of most secular Christians and the Corinthians of Paul's day, does not come because of historicity or even a process of a kind of well argued philosophy. It is not, as Rowan Williams points out, caused by the process. Wittgenstein is certainly to be found well within the secular age and at home in Corinth. But what he has done is interesting and a bit of a hole in is own argument - Williams points out. Hans Frei picks it up and runs with it in this way...Frei brilliantly writes, "The meaning of the text is what it narrates, not its correspondence with otherwise-establishable "fact". But this does not mean that historical claims are irrelevant or that historical skepticism is mandated: if the narrative works in a certain way, the believe understands that the required response is belief - not conviction about historical probabilities or possibilities, but commitment to the text's presenting meaning as a true depiction of the reality which reader and the text alike inhabit. [2]
So let us return to Paul and his letter to the Corinthians! For, I believe. This is what Paul is saying. I, out of love, and the testimony of those who are witnesses to the resurrection, believe. By virtue of Jesus' suffering, death, and resurrection I have come to believe in the God whose name cannot be named, and I have therefore understand not only a moral ethical love, but a love that has power to reorient all creation...a love that has a power to change everything.
_______________________________
[1] Rowan Williams on Dietrich Bonhoeffer as found in Rowan Williams, Christ the Heart of Creation (Bloomsbury: London, UK, 2019) 216-217.
[2] Rowan Williams on Ludwig Wittgenstein as found in Williams, Christ, 261-262, see note 13 too.
There is in our church, and all churches, a deep belief that there was in fact no resurrection. This is promulgated by our teachings that Jesus is really just a good moral teacher or a spirit guide. Some scholars have even suggested that this is true. These are not new in our Christian tradition and they are not new challenges to the Christian faith.
Paul is challenged by those who believe exactly the same. Some believe he was nothing more than a teacher, a prophet, a failed revolutionary. Some in Corinth believe that it is really all a metaphor for what it means to live a life of the spirit. Others believe that life is eternal regardless of Jesus...this was a popular philosophy in Corinth because of Philo. Eternal life was not a new idea. But, for the followers of Philo it was the soul alone that was immortal, not the physical.
Paul in the beginning of our passage hits this straight on: Jesus was bodily resurrected. He then reminds us of the case of the Corinthians (and suddenly, these appear eerily familiar):
- Jesus wasn't raised (vv. 13,16)
- Preaching (in particular Paul’s) doesn't do anything because our souls are eternal anyway - a denial of our hope in the resurrection as sons and daughters of the Christ's new family.
- God will still punish sinfulness - a denial of the forgiveness of sins purchased by the cross.
- Paul and others are actually doing damage by insisting upon this faith because it leads people astray from truth
- And, the saints have perished and been lost
Here then Christianity, if these be true, is nothing more than a list of moral rules to follow. Or, Christianity is just another good non profit doing good work. It is the community that cares more than others. Both of these lines of thinking may be well and good thoughts in and of themselves but they are not Christianity. Moreover, they will inevitably lead to persecution and violence inflicted upon the other. Here then we find in Corinth nothing new...it is merely an ancient view of our contemporary secular age Christianity.
Paul refutes all of this as he suggests that it is precisely in Christs death upon the cross and resurrection that God's creative act is unraveled in the midst of the cosmos. It is both Jesus' death and his resurrection that does this work. He was, Jesus the finite individual, is the first fruits of the eternal harvest.
Let us turn to Dietrich Bonhoeffer in the last years of his life for a little help with this. Meditating upon the Hebrew scriptures he writes in 1943: "It is only when one knows the unutterability of the name of God that one can utter the name of Jesus Christ; it is only when one loves life and the earth so much that without them everything seems to be over that one may believe in the Resurrection of a new world."
Rowan Williams reflects on this: "Grasp once and for all that God is never "available" as an object for speculation divorced from love and discipleship, and it is possible to undertake, in fear and trembling, the enterprise of speaking about Christ."
Bonhoeffer writes in 1944 pondering this cross and resurrection and life given for the other...for us...writes, "Before God and with God we live without God. God lets himself be pushed out of the world on to the cross. He is weak and powerless in the world, and that is precisely the way, the only way, in which he is with us and helps us...not by virtue of his omnipotence, but by virtue of his suffering."
Now Rowan Williams one more time, "Recognizing a God who has ben 'pushed our of the world' is not to be faced with a shocking anomaly, but with the revelation of how things are with the world if God is indeed the God whose life is fully enacted by Jesus of Nazareth." [1]
Wittgenstein writes, "Christianity...offers us a (historical) narrative and says: now believe! - that is not "believe that this is a true historical narrative!", but "Believe that your life can and must change!" ..."It is love that believes the Resurrection."
Belief, contrary to the thinking of most secular Christians and the Corinthians of Paul's day, does not come because of historicity or even a process of a kind of well argued philosophy. It is not, as Rowan Williams points out, caused by the process. Wittgenstein is certainly to be found well within the secular age and at home in Corinth. But what he has done is interesting and a bit of a hole in is own argument - Williams points out. Hans Frei picks it up and runs with it in this way...Frei brilliantly writes, "The meaning of the text is what it narrates, not its correspondence with otherwise-establishable "fact". But this does not mean that historical claims are irrelevant or that historical skepticism is mandated: if the narrative works in a certain way, the believe understands that the required response is belief - not conviction about historical probabilities or possibilities, but commitment to the text's presenting meaning as a true depiction of the reality which reader and the text alike inhabit. [2]
So let us return to Paul and his letter to the Corinthians! For, I believe. This is what Paul is saying. I, out of love, and the testimony of those who are witnesses to the resurrection, believe. By virtue of Jesus' suffering, death, and resurrection I have come to believe in the God whose name cannot be named, and I have therefore understand not only a moral ethical love, but a love that has power to reorient all creation...a love that has a power to change everything.
_______________________________
[1] Rowan Williams on Dietrich Bonhoeffer as found in Rowan Williams, Christ the Heart of Creation (Bloomsbury: London, UK, 2019) 216-217.
[2] Rowan Williams on Ludwig Wittgenstein as found in Williams, Christ, 261-262, see note 13 too.
Jeremiah 17:5-10
"The message is very constant in Jeremiah: if the people repent then God will turn back to them and continue to care for them. However, we know by later narrative in the Book of Jeremiah that the people have failed to heed the message of Jeremiah and the Babylonians descend and take Jerusalem and the people captive."
Jeremiah 17:5-10, Commentary, Background, Insights from Literary Structure, Theological Message, Ways to Present the Text. Anna Grant-Henderson, Uniting Church in Australia.
"The prophet probes what the psalmist assumes, speaking about trust, which comes from deep within one and grows only within a mature and tested relationship. In this case, trust in God."
Jeremiah 17:5-10, The Old Testament Readings: Weekly Comments on the Revised Common Lectionary, Howard Wallace Audrey Schindler, Morag Logan, Paul Tonson, Lorraine Parkinson, Theological Hall of the Uniting Church, Melbourne, Australia.
Jeremiah 17:5-10, Commentary, Background, Insights from Literary Structure, Theological Message, Ways to Present the Text. Anna Grant-Henderson, Uniting Church in Australia.
"The prophet probes what the psalmist assumes, speaking about trust, which comes from deep within one and grows only within a mature and tested relationship. In this case, trust in God."
Jeremiah 17:5-10, The Old Testament Readings: Weekly Comments on the Revised Common Lectionary, Howard Wallace Audrey Schindler, Morag Logan, Paul Tonson, Lorraine Parkinson, Theological Hall of the Uniting Church, Melbourne, Australia.
Powers have shifted from the Babylonians to the Assyrians in the time that Jeremiah begins his life and ministry. Josiah has reunited the centrality of worship at the temple in Jerusalem. After his death the country dissolved into worship of the local idols and Jerusalem was overthrown. Jeremiah finds himself in Egypt and invited to prophesy to God's people.
Jeremiah begins our reading today by reminding us that mortal flesh is vain. Like Jesus says about sands and foundations, Jeremiah speaks of parched places and shrubs with shallow roots. The desert is filled uninhabitable if one places their hope in mortal powers and authorities. But if we rest our hope from and in God we discover that we are tree who taps into deep water and living streams. The depth of our dependence upon God ensures that the drought of the desert will not harm us and that we will cease to be anxious and will bear good fruit. Jeremiah, at the end of this weeks reading, places the orientation of this trust and deep living water in our human heart.
The heart is the guiding apparatus of the human. The head is a seat for wisdom in Jeremiah's thought, the heart is the seat of action.
When our Jewish brothers remember the destruction of the Temples, they read three of the most searing passages in the prophetic literature, the first are from the opening of the book of Jeremiah. Why? Because Jeremiah has a keen sense of history and its cyclical nature; the reality that the worship of the divine is qualitatively different from all other polytheistic faiths when it comes to community and virtue; and, lastly because the prophets remind us these first two qualities are essential in grasping the fact that how we live and treat one another (ethics) is of greater importance than politics. (See Rabbi Sacks article "The Prophetic Voice".)
Jeremiah touches on each of these in our passage today. Dependance upon the mortal trappings is dependance upon the demigods of the earth and season. Dependance upon such powers and authorities will never provide the depth of understanding needed to survive the desert times within culture and community. Finally, that politics are never as important as how we live together. For Jeremiah prophesied that all this diaspora and destruction was brought on by the political dependence of mortals, who believed in their own capacity to provide for Israel instead of God's. In this way God did not still the hand of the Babylonians or Assyrians.
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks writes:
Jeremiah, the most passionate and tormented of all the prophets, has gone down in history as the prophet of doom. Yet this is unfair. He was also supremely a prophet of hope. He is the man who said that the people of Israel will be as eternal as the sun, moon and stars (Jer. 31). He is the man who, while the Babylonians were laying siege to Jerusalem, bought a field as a public gesture of faith that Jews would return from exile: “For this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Houses, fields and vineyards will again be bought in this land” (Jer. 32). See his longer article here.
Recognizing that human ways, human politics, political systems and structures, or the demigods of human desire - power, authority, and wealth will bring nothing but hopelessness and anxiety is simply good theology. God is not only the one in whom to trust. God is the deliverer too. God is the one who is with us and offers succor in the wilderness. Jeremiah remembers all to well, and he reminds his brother and sister Jerusalemites, and us...God is present even when the people are in the wilderness. Do we not remember our people's story?
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