Dear friends -
October is the 50th anniversary month at Glen Ayr, and there will be some guest preachers for most of the Sundays, so this sermon will likely be the last until November 7th.
From November 14, I will be posting from Humber United Church in Corner Brook, Newfoundland. I have accepted a call to Humber and am in the process of packing and getting ready for the move.
Many thanks for your comments so far, and I hope to continue hearing from you.
Fran Ota
Saturday, October 9, 2010
A Life of Gratitude A sermon based on Deuteronomy 8:7-18, and Luke 17:11-19 Thanksgiving Sunday October 10, 2010 Glen Ayr United Church
Deuteronomy 8:7-18 For God brings you to a good land, with flowing streams, waters in valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, olive trees and honey; you eat bread whenever you wish, where you lack nothing. You shall eat and bless for the good land. Take care that you do not forget God, or fail to keep God’s laws. When you have eaten, built your homes to live in, and you have all that you need each day, do not exalt yourself, forgetting God, who brought you out from Egypt, from slavery, led you through the terrible wilderness, made water flow, and fed you with manna that your ancestors did not know, to test you, and to do you good. Do not say to yourself, "My own power has got this for me.”
Luke 17:11-19 On the way to Jerusalem Jesus went through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" When he saw them, he said, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." As they went, they were made clean. One of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He bowed at Jesus' feet and thanked him. This one was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, "Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" Then he said, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well."
***************************************************
The Feast of Shavuot in the Jewish calendar follows Passover, but comes before Pentecost. On the day after Passover, a sheaf of new wheat or corn is waved over the altar, as a sign of gratitude to God for bestowing blessings. At Pentecost two loaves of leavened bread made from the new wheat are waved over the altar. All the first fruits are to be offered to God. “You shall bring the first fruits of your land to the house of Hashem, your God.”
***************************************************
Autumn is my favorite season of the year--especially with the kind of autumn weather we’ve been having recently. All of the seasons have their charm, of course: I love the spring, watching all the new things come up once again, the pale lacy trees as the leaves just begin to come; I love summer, even if I spend some of the time grousing about the heat; and the winter, if there is enough snow. But autumn is my favourite - the lighter air, the clear blue skies, bright colours, a difference to the quality of the sunshine. There is an explosion of colors.
Thinking about our autumn, consider what a contrast it is to the treeless desert in which we find Jesus and the group on their journey in today’s story.
Luke’s text takes place in a "liminal space". The word liminal comes from the Latin for limnus, meaning "doorway". Jesus and the followers met the lepers in a region between Samaria and Galilee - they were neither in one place or the other. So they were in a place that was neither here not there, a place of transition, in a place of possible danger, but also a place of incredible opportunity.
Most of the time there isn't a soul seen for miles. Jesus and the twelve and all the various family members have been on the road for weeks. The kids are cranky, the women beginning to despair, the men no longer even talking to each other. Nothing left to talk about. Just more heat, dust, and desert.
On the horizon, they see a collection of mud- baked, one-room hovels clumped around a small watering hole. Still in the distance, Jesus thinks he can make out the shapes of moving figures. But you know how eyes play tricks when overexposed to intense light, and the heat which rises off the hot land. Mirages. At first, it almost looks like a herd of animals, maybe desert jackals. But the shape and the pace are strange. Some hobble. Others limp.
It turns out that the figures are ten human beings, all in thick, black wool tunics. They hang around just outside the village walls, and Jesus knows instinctively that they are lepers. Despised by everyone, cast out by everyone. You know them too - the ones who panhandle on streets corners that we make judgments about without even knowing them;, the ones who are passed out on the floor of busy subway terminals, whose clothing reeks of old food, sweat, alcohol and urine. Can't miss lepers. They're easy to pick out.
Not all those who were called lepers actually had leprosy - what we now call Hanson's Disease. Any skin condition - psoriasis, lupus, ringworm, anything - was enough to remove people from the community for life. What did they feel like, being pushed outside the community by their own tradition. Humiliated, sneered at, no reason to go on. Used as object lessons about sin. Charity cases. Hopeless. Subhuman. Proof that God elects some for higher purposes and others for destruction. Sinners, outsiders, worthless.
What would it be like to be avoided as one who spread a dread disease, to live with the fact that no one in the community will be willing to come close, no home of their own, no chance at employment, reduced by circumstances often outside their control, to the life of a beggar on the streets. What would it be like to be judged all the time, to have assumptions made about you, to be treated as less than human?
Jewish law said that these lepers were never to enter the villages, they must coverr their face and shout out "Unclean, Unclean." They were forced to walk around with hair disheveled and clothes ripped. The law said they must live alone, outside the community. Even if they were to recover, the law prescribed a specific cleansing ritual that had to be obeyed to the "T."
The ten knew exactly how far away to stand, so they stood just within hearing distance and yelled, " Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" Who told these outcasts about Jesus? Maybe they had caught wind of another leper that Jesus had healed. However it happened, they knew, and there they were asking Jesus for help - meaning they needed money and food. But they also needed some kind of deliverance for the hand they had been dealt by life.
"Go show yourselves to the priests," Jesus yells back. Now, note that both Jesus and the lepers are performing according to the laws of their tradition. Lepers were supposed to beg for mercy, and Jesus instructs them to follow tradition's procedures for lepers who received cures. "Go and show yourselves to the priests." The announcement could only mean one thing - they were healed.
So they went to find the local priest, as they discovered that they were healed, and hurry to begin the purification ritual. Except one. In the midst of dashing back to the town, he screeches to a halt. He realizes that right out there in the dusty back roads of eastern Palestine, he's been cured. He looks at the other lepers as they hobble over the hill, then at the man who did the healing.
Now, this one man is a foreigner, not of the same faith as the others. As he realises he is healed, he turns back, to thank Jesus for the incredible gift of healing. Jesus asks, "Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" And then he says , "Your faith has made you well." Only one recognised that his body had been healed, but more importantly, his spirit had been healed of its disease.
We get sentimental at Thanksgiving, and I think we confuse sentimentality with gratitude. We single out this one part of the year - a long weekend - to cram in food, family, and a side=helping of gratitude for life - if we remember. In all the hurrying, and the consigning of gratitude to one weekend a year, we’ve lost the meaning of the word “holiday”. ‘Holiday’ doesn’t mean a day off from life, it doesn’t mean time to do all the things we want and maybe remember blessings - in a fleeting sort of way. The word “holiday” literally means Holy Day, a day to remember and give thanks, *precisely* for all the blessings we have.
Virtually every culture celebrates thanksgiving and gratitude in some way - and the thanks is also connected to sharing of the blessings with others. In those ‘thanksgivings’, it is recognised that the fruits of creation are there not only to be used, but to be shared with those who may be considered outcast - the lepers who stand at a distance and are denied life. The fruits of creation are everything we have, and they do not belong to us. They have been given to us through the generosity of God, to be shared with the rest of creation. When we celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday, we are literally celebrating a Holy Day, the giving of thanks to a generous God, who asks us to be generous as well.
But this story also raises questions about worship and tradition. Traditions tell us who we are, give us identity, shape our values. Thanksgiving is a tradition for us. Family gathers around the table, or the barbecue or whatever, and family stories are told and retold. The stories live on, and tradition is passed on.
But we can be so locked into tradition - in fact, I’d call it nostalgia rather than tradition - that we miss the time of our lives now. Traditions prevent us sometimes, from seeing new needs and challenges. The problem with the nine lepers was not that they followed their tradition. Jesus told them to obey what their tradition required, and they did it. The problem was that they were so engrossed in keeping that tradition, that they missed the most important thing that ever happened to them, the most important opportunity in their lives. In order to carry on doing things the way they always had been, they missed altogether the very different thing, the person who gave them the reason to be celebrating.
Did you happen to catch what Jesus said to the one who returned to give thanks? Jesus said he was well, but didn't they all get well? They did. But in this passage the Greek word “sozo” or “salvation.” is used. They all got healed, but Luke implies that this one person experienced something the others missed or ignored..
Gratitude for life is not something we can pay attention to one a year and forget about the rest of the time. Gratitude is more than that; we are called into healing - and from the healing we are called OUT from the sidelines, and IN to life. We can’t stay in one place, hold things the way they are, and not participate fully. If we refuse to participate, we dismiss the gifts given - and that means we are not grateful. Life calls us back out, God calls us back out....and we have only one choice, and that is to risk being changed, to risk being made new, to risk something totally unknown, and to give thanks for it.
Sources:
1. “First Fruits”, a sermon by Rev. Fran Ota, Thanksgiving 2005.
2. “Grace and Gratitude”, a sermon by Rev. Thomas N. Hall.
Luke 17:11-19 On the way to Jerusalem Jesus went through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" When he saw them, he said, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." As they went, they were made clean. One of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He bowed at Jesus' feet and thanked him. This one was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, "Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" Then he said, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well."
***************************************************
The Feast of Shavuot in the Jewish calendar follows Passover, but comes before Pentecost. On the day after Passover, a sheaf of new wheat or corn is waved over the altar, as a sign of gratitude to God for bestowing blessings. At Pentecost two loaves of leavened bread made from the new wheat are waved over the altar. All the first fruits are to be offered to God. “You shall bring the first fruits of your land to the house of Hashem, your God.”
***************************************************
Autumn is my favorite season of the year--especially with the kind of autumn weather we’ve been having recently. All of the seasons have their charm, of course: I love the spring, watching all the new things come up once again, the pale lacy trees as the leaves just begin to come; I love summer, even if I spend some of the time grousing about the heat; and the winter, if there is enough snow. But autumn is my favourite - the lighter air, the clear blue skies, bright colours, a difference to the quality of the sunshine. There is an explosion of colors.
Thinking about our autumn, consider what a contrast it is to the treeless desert in which we find Jesus and the group on their journey in today’s story.
Luke’s text takes place in a "liminal space". The word liminal comes from the Latin for limnus, meaning "doorway". Jesus and the followers met the lepers in a region between Samaria and Galilee - they were neither in one place or the other. So they were in a place that was neither here not there, a place of transition, in a place of possible danger, but also a place of incredible opportunity.
Most of the time there isn't a soul seen for miles. Jesus and the twelve and all the various family members have been on the road for weeks. The kids are cranky, the women beginning to despair, the men no longer even talking to each other. Nothing left to talk about. Just more heat, dust, and desert.
On the horizon, they see a collection of mud- baked, one-room hovels clumped around a small watering hole. Still in the distance, Jesus thinks he can make out the shapes of moving figures. But you know how eyes play tricks when overexposed to intense light, and the heat which rises off the hot land. Mirages. At first, it almost looks like a herd of animals, maybe desert jackals. But the shape and the pace are strange. Some hobble. Others limp.
It turns out that the figures are ten human beings, all in thick, black wool tunics. They hang around just outside the village walls, and Jesus knows instinctively that they are lepers. Despised by everyone, cast out by everyone. You know them too - the ones who panhandle on streets corners that we make judgments about without even knowing them;, the ones who are passed out on the floor of busy subway terminals, whose clothing reeks of old food, sweat, alcohol and urine. Can't miss lepers. They're easy to pick out.
Not all those who were called lepers actually had leprosy - what we now call Hanson's Disease. Any skin condition - psoriasis, lupus, ringworm, anything - was enough to remove people from the community for life. What did they feel like, being pushed outside the community by their own tradition. Humiliated, sneered at, no reason to go on. Used as object lessons about sin. Charity cases. Hopeless. Subhuman. Proof that God elects some for higher purposes and others for destruction. Sinners, outsiders, worthless.
What would it be like to be avoided as one who spread a dread disease, to live with the fact that no one in the community will be willing to come close, no home of their own, no chance at employment, reduced by circumstances often outside their control, to the life of a beggar on the streets. What would it be like to be judged all the time, to have assumptions made about you, to be treated as less than human?
Jewish law said that these lepers were never to enter the villages, they must coverr their face and shout out "Unclean, Unclean." They were forced to walk around with hair disheveled and clothes ripped. The law said they must live alone, outside the community. Even if they were to recover, the law prescribed a specific cleansing ritual that had to be obeyed to the "T."
The ten knew exactly how far away to stand, so they stood just within hearing distance and yelled, " Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" Who told these outcasts about Jesus? Maybe they had caught wind of another leper that Jesus had healed. However it happened, they knew, and there they were asking Jesus for help - meaning they needed money and food. But they also needed some kind of deliverance for the hand they had been dealt by life.
"Go show yourselves to the priests," Jesus yells back. Now, note that both Jesus and the lepers are performing according to the laws of their tradition. Lepers were supposed to beg for mercy, and Jesus instructs them to follow tradition's procedures for lepers who received cures. "Go and show yourselves to the priests." The announcement could only mean one thing - they were healed.
So they went to find the local priest, as they discovered that they were healed, and hurry to begin the purification ritual. Except one. In the midst of dashing back to the town, he screeches to a halt. He realizes that right out there in the dusty back roads of eastern Palestine, he's been cured. He looks at the other lepers as they hobble over the hill, then at the man who did the healing.
Now, this one man is a foreigner, not of the same faith as the others. As he realises he is healed, he turns back, to thank Jesus for the incredible gift of healing. Jesus asks, "Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" And then he says , "Your faith has made you well." Only one recognised that his body had been healed, but more importantly, his spirit had been healed of its disease.
We get sentimental at Thanksgiving, and I think we confuse sentimentality with gratitude. We single out this one part of the year - a long weekend - to cram in food, family, and a side=helping of gratitude for life - if we remember. In all the hurrying, and the consigning of gratitude to one weekend a year, we’ve lost the meaning of the word “holiday”. ‘Holiday’ doesn’t mean a day off from life, it doesn’t mean time to do all the things we want and maybe remember blessings - in a fleeting sort of way. The word “holiday” literally means Holy Day, a day to remember and give thanks, *precisely* for all the blessings we have.
Virtually every culture celebrates thanksgiving and gratitude in some way - and the thanks is also connected to sharing of the blessings with others. In those ‘thanksgivings’, it is recognised that the fruits of creation are there not only to be used, but to be shared with those who may be considered outcast - the lepers who stand at a distance and are denied life. The fruits of creation are everything we have, and they do not belong to us. They have been given to us through the generosity of God, to be shared with the rest of creation. When we celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday, we are literally celebrating a Holy Day, the giving of thanks to a generous God, who asks us to be generous as well.
But this story also raises questions about worship and tradition. Traditions tell us who we are, give us identity, shape our values. Thanksgiving is a tradition for us. Family gathers around the table, or the barbecue or whatever, and family stories are told and retold. The stories live on, and tradition is passed on.
But we can be so locked into tradition - in fact, I’d call it nostalgia rather than tradition - that we miss the time of our lives now. Traditions prevent us sometimes, from seeing new needs and challenges. The problem with the nine lepers was not that they followed their tradition. Jesus told them to obey what their tradition required, and they did it. The problem was that they were so engrossed in keeping that tradition, that they missed the most important thing that ever happened to them, the most important opportunity in their lives. In order to carry on doing things the way they always had been, they missed altogether the very different thing, the person who gave them the reason to be celebrating.
Did you happen to catch what Jesus said to the one who returned to give thanks? Jesus said he was well, but didn't they all get well? They did. But in this passage the Greek word “sozo” or “salvation.” is used. They all got healed, but Luke implies that this one person experienced something the others missed or ignored..
Gratitude for life is not something we can pay attention to one a year and forget about the rest of the time. Gratitude is more than that; we are called into healing - and from the healing we are called OUT from the sidelines, and IN to life. We can’t stay in one place, hold things the way they are, and not participate fully. If we refuse to participate, we dismiss the gifts given - and that means we are not grateful. Life calls us back out, God calls us back out....and we have only one choice, and that is to risk being changed, to risk being made new, to risk something totally unknown, and to give thanks for it.
Sources:
1. “First Fruits”, a sermon by Rev. Fran Ota, Thanksgiving 2005.
2. “Grace and Gratitude”, a sermon by Rev. Thomas N. Hall.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
“Hope in Perilous Times” A sermon based on Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15 Glen Ayr United Church September 26, 2010
What a really odd story from the scripture this morning! At the core of the passage from Jeremiah, is a Word. Word, you say - so what? Yet this is no ordinary word, but extraordinary Word. Think about some times when there were extraordinary words, which located us so completely that we remember to this day where we were and what we were doing. They might be words of disaster, words of insight, or prophetic words which stop us short in our tracks.
Have you had an experience where a word comes, just an ordinary word, but it comes in such a powerful way that it is WORD.
Back in my administrative days, around 1990, I was discouraged by a superior from applying for a higher position because - he said- a Master of Divinity degree was needed. Yet that requirement was not listed in the job description; I was too naive then to realise that the motives were political and personal on the part of the other person, and not even legal. I remember sitting in a car venting to a trusted friend, who responded “Well, why don’t you just go get the degree!”. The effect was jarring, and I can still feel it. It might seem like a simple thing to say, but the words stuck as prophetic. .....it was the equivalent of God telling Jeremiah to go out and buy land.
The Word from God comes to Jeremiah with such jarring effect that the text is even precise about the timing - right when Zedekiah the Israelite King was finishing his first decade, and King Nebuchadnezzar was finishing nearly two decades of fierce rule.
Probably the worst possible time for this Word to come: Jerusalem is outnumbered, surrounded by a superior force. They have tried to ally with Egypt to fight the Babylonians. That, according to the king of Babylon, is the end. It gets worse - the Babylonian army sets up a siege against Jerusalem; Jeremiah is in jail. He is there because he dared to speak the annoying Word from God. He has dared to speak up and speak the truth about reality. Now, if the King has a different view than God has, obviously there is a problem.
Here’s the Word which landed Jeremiah in the guardhouse:
This is God speaking . . .the thing you have ignored, hoping it would just disappear, is about to happen. So I’m going to tell you plainly- your dreaded enemies are going to break through, and I’m the one letting them in. Your king Zedekiah will surrender, Nebuchadnezzar will take him to Babylon, and he will stay put there till I say otherwise.
So listen up - keep on fighting, you will lose.
Now, that should have resulted in Jeremiah being executed - yet he wasn’t. There must have been something about the unvarnished, raw quality of the Word that had the ring of truth to it. The message was clear: God?s judging actions would seem to end things forever for these people.
That raises questions for us. How do we masking our real condition by choosing only what we want to hear? Prophets speaking prophetic words better be on the appointment system and not the popular vote system - because otherwise they won’t be around long. How do we dance around reality and the truth about our lives because to do otherwise would be painful?
It’s easy, actually, to become the villagers who see the truth about the emperor and his clothes when he’s making a naked fool of himself. Everyone of the villagers see his nakedness but keep silent, because they have been told, "only the dull and incredibly stupid cannot see the new clothes." So the silence goes on; we continue believing in life as usual, choosing to ignore the messages that God sends to our bodies, our neighborhoods, our congregations, and our nations.
So Jeremiah sits in jail, silenced for speaking out and breaking the silence about the truth.
Strange thing, though. Even though the villagers ignore Jeremiah?s words, as they have throughout his gadfly career, deep down they know he?s right. They know the truth when they hear it. So the story begins with nothing in the present that encourages any investment in the future. "Hey, Jeremiah," God whispers to the prophet who sleeps between two guards.
"That you again, God?" “Yes, it’s me. Listen up. When your cousin drops in for a prison visit and starts talking about the family farm, go ahead and buy it.”
Note that Jeremiah says no fewer than five times "this is the Word of the Lord", as if to say, not my idea! So Jeremiah buys property from jail with the Babylonians at the gate. Imagine the press coverage in the village paper the next week: Real Shekels Nets Worthless Land." S
So what did the writer want us to walk away with? What is it about this story that will help us in our own discipleship?
This story is about betting on the future. It is the gospel of grace that promises a future even when we barely have a present. What a daring, risky act of faith in God-to believe the Word that says, "Don’t despair, don’t fear; this is not the last chapter for my people. In my time and through my grace, you will once again be back and buying and selling and living in peace."
To those who didn’t believe Jeremiah, his actions would have been cause for great humour. His purchase of land would seem completely against logic and completely silly. But the point is, even when things looked totally hopeless, Jeremiah didn’t just sit on his hands - he still did something to bring about significant change in the fortunes of the people. God doesn’t say to him “Leave it all to me.”, God says “Do something while you’re trying to see what comes next.” His purchase of the land is God’s Word of blessing in the midst of the reality of hopelessness. We discover that God has placed the people and land on loan to the Babylonians, but both will be given back, because the God of hope sent a Word.
This story reminds us that there will always be Babylonians on the doorstep. They have been there before, and they will be back again. In a struggling church facing financial difficulties - expenses seem to go up annually, making the budget shrink even as you seek new ways to be in mission-this story is for you. Not hard to feel surrounded by gloom and negatively that sees only next week, let alone a renewed, empowered future. Take this story and own it. Devour the Word
of God to this ancient people. Take a risk. Trust God. Even while you are trusting God, do something, but still continue to trust that God sees, hears and knows. Let this story be your hope - God’s grace will sustain where God leads.
There will be times when we face our own "self-invited troubles."times when we get boxed into a corner through misguided choices. That is, of all times, when we turn to God for courage and wisdom to go forward, to return to where God wants us to be. We can bet against the future because we know that God invites us into a hope of recovering, and becoming fruitful again.
Finally, the story teaches that God has no limitations - but that we do, and we cannot overcome those limitations without God. God can break out of all conventions and overcome all constraints - to bring about a new reality.
May the God of all hope in our future produce from our wayward fearful hearts a new spirit, new life, and a new way of living and thinking in the presence of God.
Sources:
1. Buying New Land - a sermon by Fran Ota
2. Betting on the Future, a sermon by Rev. Thomas Hall
Have you had an experience where a word comes, just an ordinary word, but it comes in such a powerful way that it is WORD.
Back in my administrative days, around 1990, I was discouraged by a superior from applying for a higher position because - he said- a Master of Divinity degree was needed. Yet that requirement was not listed in the job description; I was too naive then to realise that the motives were political and personal on the part of the other person, and not even legal. I remember sitting in a car venting to a trusted friend, who responded “Well, why don’t you just go get the degree!”. The effect was jarring, and I can still feel it. It might seem like a simple thing to say, but the words stuck as prophetic. .....it was the equivalent of God telling Jeremiah to go out and buy land.
The Word from God comes to Jeremiah with such jarring effect that the text is even precise about the timing - right when Zedekiah the Israelite King was finishing his first decade, and King Nebuchadnezzar was finishing nearly two decades of fierce rule.
Probably the worst possible time for this Word to come: Jerusalem is outnumbered, surrounded by a superior force. They have tried to ally with Egypt to fight the Babylonians. That, according to the king of Babylon, is the end. It gets worse - the Babylonian army sets up a siege against Jerusalem; Jeremiah is in jail. He is there because he dared to speak the annoying Word from God. He has dared to speak up and speak the truth about reality. Now, if the King has a different view than God has, obviously there is a problem.
Here’s the Word which landed Jeremiah in the guardhouse:
This is God speaking . . .the thing you have ignored, hoping it would just disappear, is about to happen. So I’m going to tell you plainly- your dreaded enemies are going to break through, and I’m the one letting them in. Your king Zedekiah will surrender, Nebuchadnezzar will take him to Babylon, and he will stay put there till I say otherwise.
So listen up - keep on fighting, you will lose.
Now, that should have resulted in Jeremiah being executed - yet he wasn’t. There must have been something about the unvarnished, raw quality of the Word that had the ring of truth to it. The message was clear: God?s judging actions would seem to end things forever for these people.
That raises questions for us. How do we masking our real condition by choosing only what we want to hear? Prophets speaking prophetic words better be on the appointment system and not the popular vote system - because otherwise they won’t be around long. How do we dance around reality and the truth about our lives because to do otherwise would be painful?
It’s easy, actually, to become the villagers who see the truth about the emperor and his clothes when he’s making a naked fool of himself. Everyone of the villagers see his nakedness but keep silent, because they have been told, "only the dull and incredibly stupid cannot see the new clothes." So the silence goes on; we continue believing in life as usual, choosing to ignore the messages that God sends to our bodies, our neighborhoods, our congregations, and our nations.
So Jeremiah sits in jail, silenced for speaking out and breaking the silence about the truth.
Strange thing, though. Even though the villagers ignore Jeremiah?s words, as they have throughout his gadfly career, deep down they know he?s right. They know the truth when they hear it. So the story begins with nothing in the present that encourages any investment in the future. "Hey, Jeremiah," God whispers to the prophet who sleeps between two guards.
"That you again, God?" “Yes, it’s me. Listen up. When your cousin drops in for a prison visit and starts talking about the family farm, go ahead and buy it.”
Note that Jeremiah says no fewer than five times "this is the Word of the Lord", as if to say, not my idea! So Jeremiah buys property from jail with the Babylonians at the gate. Imagine the press coverage in the village paper the next week: Real Shekels Nets Worthless Land." S
So what did the writer want us to walk away with? What is it about this story that will help us in our own discipleship?
This story is about betting on the future. It is the gospel of grace that promises a future even when we barely have a present. What a daring, risky act of faith in God-to believe the Word that says, "Don’t despair, don’t fear; this is not the last chapter for my people. In my time and through my grace, you will once again be back and buying and selling and living in peace."
To those who didn’t believe Jeremiah, his actions would have been cause for great humour. His purchase of land would seem completely against logic and completely silly. But the point is, even when things looked totally hopeless, Jeremiah didn’t just sit on his hands - he still did something to bring about significant change in the fortunes of the people. God doesn’t say to him “Leave it all to me.”, God says “Do something while you’re trying to see what comes next.” His purchase of the land is God’s Word of blessing in the midst of the reality of hopelessness. We discover that God has placed the people and land on loan to the Babylonians, but both will be given back, because the God of hope sent a Word.
This story reminds us that there will always be Babylonians on the doorstep. They have been there before, and they will be back again. In a struggling church facing financial difficulties - expenses seem to go up annually, making the budget shrink even as you seek new ways to be in mission-this story is for you. Not hard to feel surrounded by gloom and negatively that sees only next week, let alone a renewed, empowered future. Take this story and own it. Devour the Word
of God to this ancient people. Take a risk. Trust God. Even while you are trusting God, do something, but still continue to trust that God sees, hears and knows. Let this story be your hope - God’s grace will sustain where God leads.
There will be times when we face our own "self-invited troubles."times when we get boxed into a corner through misguided choices. That is, of all times, when we turn to God for courage and wisdom to go forward, to return to where God wants us to be. We can bet against the future because we know that God invites us into a hope of recovering, and becoming fruitful again.
Finally, the story teaches that God has no limitations - but that we do, and we cannot overcome those limitations without God. God can break out of all conventions and overcome all constraints - to bring about a new reality.
May the God of all hope in our future produce from our wayward fearful hearts a new spirit, new life, and a new way of living and thinking in the presence of God.
Sources:
1. Buying New Land - a sermon by Fran Ota
2. Betting on the Future, a sermon by Rev. Thomas Hall
Saturday, September 11, 2010
A Land of Desolation and Mourning sermon based on Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28 September 12, 2010 Glen Ayr United Church
At that time this people and Jerusalem will be told, "A scorching wind from the barren heights in the desert blows toward my people, but not to winnow or cleanse; a wind too strong for that comes from me. Now I pronounce my judgments against them.
"My people are fools; they do not know me. They are senseless children; they have no understanding. They are skilled in doing evil; they know not how to do good." I looked at the earth, and it was formless and empty; and at the heavens, and their light was gone. I looked at the mountains, and they were quaking; all the hills were swaying. I looked, and there were no people; every bird in the sky had flown away. I looked, and the fruitful land was a desert; all its towns lay in ruins before God’s fierce anger. This is what God says: "The whole land will be ruined, though I will not destroy it completely. Therefore the earth will mourn and the heavens above grow dark, because I have spoken and will not relent, I have decided and will not turn back."
************************************************************
Nine years ago, terrorsts hijacked four passenger planes, flew two of them into the twin towers of the World Trade Centre. The other two crashed. More than two thousand people from seventy different nations died. We relive the images this weekend, and commensurate with the reliving has come the inevitable flag waving and false patriotism, with overtones of semi-Christian self-righteous anger.
In the reaction following that day, a so-called War on Terror was declared, which included both Afghanistan, and Iraq. In the case of Iraq, war was waged on a country which had nothing whatsoever to do with 9/11. Yet by the time the war on Iraq was declared, more than fifty percent of North Americans had been hoodwinked into believing he was responsible.
Documented deaths in Afghanistan are 19,629 as of 2010. Documented deaths in Iraq are over 150,000 since the war began in 2003. Terror has been used to attack terror. Lands have been reduced to desolation, and destabilised to the point where they may never recover.
I can almost hear the words of God through Jeremiah’s mouth. My people do not know me, they are senseless children, they are skilled in doing evil, they don’t know how to do good. The earth will mourn and the heavens will grown dark.
As I watch the videos, the memorials and the services remembering those days - there is a part of me that knows it would be easy to fall back into a run-down of the number of times the US interfered in the Middle East in ways which were less than constructive - its role in supporting Afghanistan against the Russians, and funding Osama Bin Laden. It would be easy to go back and look at the history of the US in Iraq, Iran - and so many other places. It is easy to say when you meddle with other people’s countries, you have to expect something to happen sooner or later.
All of those things are true, documented historical events. But I think that is no longer where we have to put our focus. What has been learned? Has anything been learned?
Rev. Ron McCreary in Florida comments in his sermon “Prophets have the gift to be able to "see through"...if there had been a State Department or Pentagon analyst on the ground with Jeremiah the analyst would have seen the same thing Jeremiah reported. How can Jerusalem and Judea be so blind? How can they not have seen the buildup of Babylonian strength and come to the obvious conclusion? Often we see what we expect to see, and cannot comprehend what we do not expect even when it is right in front of us.”
Rev Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Centre in Gainesville, Florida, had planned to burn copies of the Qur'an yesterday on the anniversary of the attacks. I believe Jones was an opportunist of the first order. Had he wanted to burn the Qu’ran with his congregation, he could have just done it - but instead turned it into a media event. I also believe he had in his head a very clear picture of what he thinks Christian faith and American citizenship are about, and what Islam is about; and this is a picture which, truth be told, others share as well.
Jones discovered that a lot of people, Christians and Jews and Muslims, liberals, moderates, conservatives, religious leaders, political leaders and just plain common folk thought his ideas were all wrong. How could he have been so isolated in his thinking?
Jeremiah’s words echo - the land shall be desolate and the earth shall mourn. I don’t think we should ever forget the desolation and the mourning - those are part of learning. But if we continue to repeat the same patterns, we are doomed over and over again. Hatred, bigotry, media manipulation breed more hatred and bigotry, and more violence.
I have been heartened, in these days, to see that wisdom and sense have prevailed. The outcry from everywhere, directed to Rev. Terry Jones, has made it clear that we have indeed learned a lesson about fanaticism of any kind. I want to read to you part of an open letter from clergy in Tallahassee, Florida - directed to Rev. Jones.
“Although our faith traditions differ in significant ways, we have many things in common. Among these principles we share are respect for one another as human beings created in the image of God, love of neighbor, and the obligation not to bear false witness against one another.
To burn the Koran would violate all of these principles, and has already fanned the fires of religious hatred and bigotry. “
I asked a friend in New York to reflect on the days following the attacks. Here are her thoughts:
“I was overseas on Sept 11, 2001, but live about a 10 minute walk from the World Trade Center. When I saw the live footage on television, I said to myself, "what an awful movie!" It took me several minutes to realize that this was the news, and yes, this was happening in my hometown.
I arrived back in the US on September 15, on one of the first flights back into New York. JFK, unsurprisingly, was chaotic, though surprisingly lax with security at customs and at baggage claim. Outside the airport, which is about 12 miles east of Manhattan, huge smoke could be seen coming out of what was now renamed Ground Zero. As much as I wanted to look away, my eyes kept veering southwest, towards Lower Manhattan.
I wasn't able to get into my apartment for weeks, and it was only by luck that I had my passport with me, which was required to get back into the neighborhood. Our building super left messages on his voicemail daily to apprise us of the current status in the neighborhood while making sure that the building was secure. He and his team were just a few of the many, many everyday heroes during that time. A Red Cross station was set up in the building lobby, and huge piles of debris were stacked up, 1-2 stories high, at intersections. One apartment, in a building a few blocks closer to me to Ground Zero, had its entire external wall ripped off, and the insides could be seen, like a dollhouse had it been in a war zone. A smell of burnt building material filled the air, and there was constant noise of things being moved and rearranged.
As weeks went by, though, New Yorkers adapted to a new normalcy. The ever present National Guard became a part of the neighborhood. Walking right on the West Side Highway - which was closed for traffic - seemed like a regular thing. Seeing straight through what were the World Trade Centers gave the neighborhood new views, and going around Ground Zero, instead of zipping through the mall at the WTC was an inconvenience but not unlike other pedestrian issues the New Yorkers faced daily.
While we could never go back to before 9/11, little signs of New York as we remember it began cropping up. The newspaper guy outside the corner deli reappeared one morning. New palm trees were carted into the famed Winter Garden, promptly greeted with New York-style graffiti on the particle boards holding the place together welcoming them back. Ads featuring New York celebrities appeared on TV telling tourists that it was not only ok, but encouraged them to come visit.
And thus we plodded on. Streets reopened and new buildings popped up. Defiant barriers were erected around 'high alert' sites, such as the Stock Exchange and the train stations. A major effort to revitalize the downtown resulted in a rebirth of the area. There is now a Tiffany's on Wall Street. Around the corner is Hermes, and Whole Foods is just a couple of blocks north of Ground Zero on the West Side Highway. During the blackout of 2003, the city again came together with most people remembering how it was that awful day.
Nine years later, I'm not sure what we've learned. As with many large cities, much of the population is transient, so a good number of people who live here now weren't even in the city when it happened. Tourists walk by Ground Zero with a Starbucks iced latte in hand, some posing in front of it with a smile. Many do remember bitterly, though, and there is currently staunch opposition against building an Islamic Cultural Center several blocks from Ground Zero.
I've got mixed feelings, as do most New Yorkers I think. Sad doesn't seem to convey them completely enough. It's more of a combination of a loss of innocence and resolve to move forwards while not forgetting. As trite as it sounds, though, I think the least we can all do is to count our blessings and to appreciate the most basic things in life. Even the toughest and strongest of us can be made vulnerable.”
On this day - and on days to come - we mourn with New York. We know nothing will be the same. We mourn with all those who lost loved ones, not only on that day, but in the nine years of war which have ensued. The land in Iraq is desolate, and there is mourning. The land in Afghanistan is desolate, and there is mourning. God looked at the desolation, and mourned. God mourns yet. If you read Jeremiah carefully, God has not done this. God looks and sees the evil humans are capable of perpetrating on each other. God is angry that the children - all of them - have learned nothing.
We - each of us - can do something. Each of us individually has a power which, together, makes us strong enough to change the world. Our faith is supposed to BE a world-changing faith - the call of the Gospel is to change the world.
Today - I’m going to try to change the world.....
Sources:
1. Rev. Ron McCreary, Gray Memorial United Methodist Church, Tallahassee, Florida.
2. Open letter - Tallahassee Interfaith Clergy
"My people are fools; they do not know me. They are senseless children; they have no understanding. They are skilled in doing evil; they know not how to do good." I looked at the earth, and it was formless and empty; and at the heavens, and their light was gone. I looked at the mountains, and they were quaking; all the hills were swaying. I looked, and there were no people; every bird in the sky had flown away. I looked, and the fruitful land was a desert; all its towns lay in ruins before God’s fierce anger. This is what God says: "The whole land will be ruined, though I will not destroy it completely. Therefore the earth will mourn and the heavens above grow dark, because I have spoken and will not relent, I have decided and will not turn back."
************************************************************
Nine years ago, terrorsts hijacked four passenger planes, flew two of them into the twin towers of the World Trade Centre. The other two crashed. More than two thousand people from seventy different nations died. We relive the images this weekend, and commensurate with the reliving has come the inevitable flag waving and false patriotism, with overtones of semi-Christian self-righteous anger.
In the reaction following that day, a so-called War on Terror was declared, which included both Afghanistan, and Iraq. In the case of Iraq, war was waged on a country which had nothing whatsoever to do with 9/11. Yet by the time the war on Iraq was declared, more than fifty percent of North Americans had been hoodwinked into believing he was responsible.
Documented deaths in Afghanistan are 19,629 as of 2010. Documented deaths in Iraq are over 150,000 since the war began in 2003. Terror has been used to attack terror. Lands have been reduced to desolation, and destabilised to the point where they may never recover.
I can almost hear the words of God through Jeremiah’s mouth. My people do not know me, they are senseless children, they are skilled in doing evil, they don’t know how to do good. The earth will mourn and the heavens will grown dark.
As I watch the videos, the memorials and the services remembering those days - there is a part of me that knows it would be easy to fall back into a run-down of the number of times the US interfered in the Middle East in ways which were less than constructive - its role in supporting Afghanistan against the Russians, and funding Osama Bin Laden. It would be easy to go back and look at the history of the US in Iraq, Iran - and so many other places. It is easy to say when you meddle with other people’s countries, you have to expect something to happen sooner or later.
All of those things are true, documented historical events. But I think that is no longer where we have to put our focus. What has been learned? Has anything been learned?
Rev. Ron McCreary in Florida comments in his sermon “Prophets have the gift to be able to "see through"...if there had been a State Department or Pentagon analyst on the ground with Jeremiah the analyst would have seen the same thing Jeremiah reported. How can Jerusalem and Judea be so blind? How can they not have seen the buildup of Babylonian strength and come to the obvious conclusion? Often we see what we expect to see, and cannot comprehend what we do not expect even when it is right in front of us.”
Rev Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Centre in Gainesville, Florida, had planned to burn copies of the Qur'an yesterday on the anniversary of the attacks. I believe Jones was an opportunist of the first order. Had he wanted to burn the Qu’ran with his congregation, he could have just done it - but instead turned it into a media event. I also believe he had in his head a very clear picture of what he thinks Christian faith and American citizenship are about, and what Islam is about; and this is a picture which, truth be told, others share as well.
Jones discovered that a lot of people, Christians and Jews and Muslims, liberals, moderates, conservatives, religious leaders, political leaders and just plain common folk thought his ideas were all wrong. How could he have been so isolated in his thinking?
Jeremiah’s words echo - the land shall be desolate and the earth shall mourn. I don’t think we should ever forget the desolation and the mourning - those are part of learning. But if we continue to repeat the same patterns, we are doomed over and over again. Hatred, bigotry, media manipulation breed more hatred and bigotry, and more violence.
I have been heartened, in these days, to see that wisdom and sense have prevailed. The outcry from everywhere, directed to Rev. Terry Jones, has made it clear that we have indeed learned a lesson about fanaticism of any kind. I want to read to you part of an open letter from clergy in Tallahassee, Florida - directed to Rev. Jones.
“Although our faith traditions differ in significant ways, we have many things in common. Among these principles we share are respect for one another as human beings created in the image of God, love of neighbor, and the obligation not to bear false witness against one another.
To burn the Koran would violate all of these principles, and has already fanned the fires of religious hatred and bigotry. “
I asked a friend in New York to reflect on the days following the attacks. Here are her thoughts:
“I was overseas on Sept 11, 2001, but live about a 10 minute walk from the World Trade Center. When I saw the live footage on television, I said to myself, "what an awful movie!" It took me several minutes to realize that this was the news, and yes, this was happening in my hometown.
I arrived back in the US on September 15, on one of the first flights back into New York. JFK, unsurprisingly, was chaotic, though surprisingly lax with security at customs and at baggage claim. Outside the airport, which is about 12 miles east of Manhattan, huge smoke could be seen coming out of what was now renamed Ground Zero. As much as I wanted to look away, my eyes kept veering southwest, towards Lower Manhattan.
I wasn't able to get into my apartment for weeks, and it was only by luck that I had my passport with me, which was required to get back into the neighborhood. Our building super left messages on his voicemail daily to apprise us of the current status in the neighborhood while making sure that the building was secure. He and his team were just a few of the many, many everyday heroes during that time. A Red Cross station was set up in the building lobby, and huge piles of debris were stacked up, 1-2 stories high, at intersections. One apartment, in a building a few blocks closer to me to Ground Zero, had its entire external wall ripped off, and the insides could be seen, like a dollhouse had it been in a war zone. A smell of burnt building material filled the air, and there was constant noise of things being moved and rearranged.
As weeks went by, though, New Yorkers adapted to a new normalcy. The ever present National Guard became a part of the neighborhood. Walking right on the West Side Highway - which was closed for traffic - seemed like a regular thing. Seeing straight through what were the World Trade Centers gave the neighborhood new views, and going around Ground Zero, instead of zipping through the mall at the WTC was an inconvenience but not unlike other pedestrian issues the New Yorkers faced daily.
While we could never go back to before 9/11, little signs of New York as we remember it began cropping up. The newspaper guy outside the corner deli reappeared one morning. New palm trees were carted into the famed Winter Garden, promptly greeted with New York-style graffiti on the particle boards holding the place together welcoming them back. Ads featuring New York celebrities appeared on TV telling tourists that it was not only ok, but encouraged them to come visit.
And thus we plodded on. Streets reopened and new buildings popped up. Defiant barriers were erected around 'high alert' sites, such as the Stock Exchange and the train stations. A major effort to revitalize the downtown resulted in a rebirth of the area. There is now a Tiffany's on Wall Street. Around the corner is Hermes, and Whole Foods is just a couple of blocks north of Ground Zero on the West Side Highway. During the blackout of 2003, the city again came together with most people remembering how it was that awful day.
Nine years later, I'm not sure what we've learned. As with many large cities, much of the population is transient, so a good number of people who live here now weren't even in the city when it happened. Tourists walk by Ground Zero with a Starbucks iced latte in hand, some posing in front of it with a smile. Many do remember bitterly, though, and there is currently staunch opposition against building an Islamic Cultural Center several blocks from Ground Zero.
I've got mixed feelings, as do most New Yorkers I think. Sad doesn't seem to convey them completely enough. It's more of a combination of a loss of innocence and resolve to move forwards while not forgetting. As trite as it sounds, though, I think the least we can all do is to count our blessings and to appreciate the most basic things in life. Even the toughest and strongest of us can be made vulnerable.”
On this day - and on days to come - we mourn with New York. We know nothing will be the same. We mourn with all those who lost loved ones, not only on that day, but in the nine years of war which have ensued. The land in Iraq is desolate, and there is mourning. The land in Afghanistan is desolate, and there is mourning. God looked at the desolation, and mourned. God mourns yet. If you read Jeremiah carefully, God has not done this. God looks and sees the evil humans are capable of perpetrating on each other. God is angry that the children - all of them - have learned nothing.
We - each of us - can do something. Each of us individually has a power which, together, makes us strong enough to change the world. Our faith is supposed to BE a world-changing faith - the call of the Gospel is to change the world.
Today - I’m going to try to change the world.....
Sources:
1. Rev. Ron McCreary, Gray Memorial United Methodist Church, Tallahassee, Florida.
2. Open letter - Tallahassee Interfaith Clergy
Saturday, August 7, 2010
God Hates Our Worship????? a sermon based on Isaiah 1:10-20 Glen Ayr United Church August 8, 2010
Hear, you heavens! Listen, you earth! God has said this: "I raised children but they rebel against me. The ox knows his master, the donkey his owner's manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand." You sinful nation, a people burdened with guilt, children given to corruption! You have forsaken God, and turned your backs on the Holy One. Why do you persist in rebellion? Your whole being is injured, your whole heart afflicted. From the sole of your foot to the top of your head there are only wounds, and open sores, none of them cleansed or bandaged or soothed with ointment.
"All your sacrifices - what are they to me?" says God. "I have had more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the grease which comes from the fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of sacrifices. When you come before me, who asked this of you, this trampling of my house? Stop bringing meaningless offerings! I cannot stand the smell of your incense. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations - I cannot bear your evil assemblies. They have become a burden, and I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will not look; even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood; wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.
"So come let’s reason it out together," says God. "Though your sins are red as crimson, they shall be white as snow, like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the land; but if you resist and rebel, you will be eaten by the sword." God has spoken.
************************************************************
Well, God is surely angry. Nothing can be more clear than the incredible anger God lets loose - at the wilful and destructive ways of the people. You can almost see the smoke and flames, hear the thunder. All of the promises and the covenant have been disregarded. Yet when the people come to worship they offer sacrifice of animals, incense, and as God says - insincere prayer. God says clearly, I’ve had enough! Not only that, God says “who asked you to do this? I didn’t!” God says clearly that the worship practices of this people are a travesty - charades, smoke and mirrors, incessant talk of religion and faith even while the sins and evil continue.
And what is it about worship that’s got God’s dander up? What makes God’s nostrils flare so?
Note, that it isn’t particularly the ‘order’ of worship that is the problem. If that were all, we could make a few editorial changes in the bulletin. God isn’t particularly upset by the content - the call to worship and prayers of the people are fine. I don’t think God even gets too upset about the chaos of Passing of the Peace. Nor do I think God is really worried about whether we use new or old hymns, Taize or Iona - we do those things out of choice to allow a wide variety of worship experience.
What has God incensed is that worship lasted but an hour on the Sabbath, and that there were people consulting their portable sundials if worship went overtime. People didn’t want to spend any more time than they had to in the temple - there were other things to do. Worship was fine, but don’t take any more time than necessary to get through the rituals. Fire up the altar, light the incense, pray hard - and get it all into an hour.
God’s intent was that worship would be a 24/7 expression of faith. For too many Israelites in Isaiah’s day, worship was a performance - an intentional, carefully enacted-performance. The rest of the week they went back to live the way they wanted with no reference to God, and certainly no interference.
Hypocrisy is the sin here - singing one thing and doing another. Offering prayers but never being part of an answer to prayer. Preaching against the enemy on Sunday and making deals with the enemy on Monday. God says to these worshipers, "cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow."
The great Danish philosopher and theologian Søren Kierkegaard, says that worship minus direct impact on our neighborhoods = silly geese.
Here is a paraphrase of Kierkegaard’s story. There was a barnyard full of a gaggle of geese. Each Sunday they gathered to hear wonderful words about creation, God’s plan, and extol the glorious destiny of geese. "We were meant to become air-borne on the winds and to soar in the heavens," the leader of the flock would tell them. At the mere mention of heaven the ganders would cackle and the rest would curtsey. After the meeting they would waddle home. But that’s as far as they ever got. They grew fat and plump and at Christmas they became Christmas dinner - that’s as far as they ever got.
Behind the story of tubular necks and webbed feet, Kierkegaard saw weak worship that had its “performance” of religion once a week, but failed to impact the neighborhoods in practical ways.
Yesterday, while putting this sermon together, I was watching a drama called Hitler: The Rise of Evil. One of Hitler’s arguments in the early years was that people were indifferent, didn’t care about their country. He was able to play on emotions and fan the flames of racism and hatred, yet few in Germany stood up to him. The church was conspicuously absent in opposing him, with the sole exception of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Indifference, and fear, prevented those who might have stopped him.
I decided to look a little at what happened with Denmark during the war, keeping Kierkegaard’s words in mind. Denmark had an uneasy kind of agreement with Hitler, and yet were able to refuse to allow his excesses. By far the greatest success in Danish policy toward Germany was the protection of the Jewish minority. Throughout the years of its hold on power, the government consistently refused to accept German demands regarding the Jews. They would not enact special laws concerning Jews, and their civil rights remained equal with those of the rest of the population. German authorities became increasingly exasperated with this position but concluded that any attempt to remove or mistreat Jews would be "politically unacceptable."
Then I looked at the Norwegian resistance to Hitler following Hitler’s ultimatum. King Haakon reported the ultimatum to his cabinet, mindful that although he could not make the decision himself, he could use his moral authority to influence it. He told the Cabinet:
“ I am deeply affected by the responsibility laid on me if the German demand is rejected. The responsibility for the calamities that will befall people and country is indeed so grave that I dread to take it. It rests with the government to decide, but my position is clear.
For my part I cannot accept the German demands. It would conflict with all that I have considered to be my duty as King of Norway since I came to this country nearly thirty-five years ago.[4]”
Nor, he said, could he appoint any government headed by Quisling because he knew neither the people nor the government had confidence in him. However, if the Cabinet felt otherwise, he himself would abdicate so as not to stand in the way of the Government's decision.
Nils Hjelmtveit, Minister of Church and Education, later wrote: "This made a great impression on us all. More clearly than ever before we could see the man behind the words; the king who had drawn a line for himself and his task, a line from which he could not deviate. We had through the five years [in government] learned to respect and appreciate our king and now, through his words, he came to us as a great man, just and forceful; a leader in these fatal times to our country".[5]
Inspired, the Government unanimously advised the King not to appoint any government headed by Quisling, and telephoned its refusal to Bräuer. That night the government's refusal was also broadcast to the Norwegian people. The government announced that they would resist the German attack as long as possible, and expressed their confidence that Norwegians would lend their support to the cause.
Well some of this rings a bell in the New Testament too, doesn’t it? Jesus coming into the temple in Jerusalem, all those hundreds of years later, and seeing that nothing has changed since Isaiah’s words? Throwing animals out, turning over tables, money on the ground, claiming that worship has become an excuse to take advantage of people. It’s not accidental, this story about Jesus. There is a clear parallel.
Look at the end of today’s passage - God says stop doing wrong, learn to do right, defend the oppressed. Worship is meant to strengthen and prepare us so that who and what we are has a positive impact in our neighbourhoods. It means that when someone speaks hatred against Moslems, we are willing to speak back. It means when someone is treated poorly because of their colour, faith, economic status, we speak back. Worship - true worship - doesn’t begin when we walk *in* the door of the church, and it doesn’t end when we walk *out*. True worship *begins* when we walk out the door, and come into contact with the world, with all of its failings. Particularly in these times, when phobias and fear of those who believe differently provokes legislated, and unlegislated injustices, we who are Christians must exercise our worship in a way which counteracts those injustices, and holds them up to the light.
Sources:
1. Telling the Truth about Worship a sermon based on Isaiah 1:1; 10-20 by Rev. Thomas Hall
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupation_of_Denmark
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haakon_VII_of_Norway
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler:_The_Rise_of_Evil
"All your sacrifices - what are they to me?" says God. "I have had more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the grease which comes from the fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of sacrifices. When you come before me, who asked this of you, this trampling of my house? Stop bringing meaningless offerings! I cannot stand the smell of your incense. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations - I cannot bear your evil assemblies. They have become a burden, and I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will not look; even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood; wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.
"So come let’s reason it out together," says God. "Though your sins are red as crimson, they shall be white as snow, like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the land; but if you resist and rebel, you will be eaten by the sword." God has spoken.
************************************************************
Well, God is surely angry. Nothing can be more clear than the incredible anger God lets loose - at the wilful and destructive ways of the people. You can almost see the smoke and flames, hear the thunder. All of the promises and the covenant have been disregarded. Yet when the people come to worship they offer sacrifice of animals, incense, and as God says - insincere prayer. God says clearly, I’ve had enough! Not only that, God says “who asked you to do this? I didn’t!” God says clearly that the worship practices of this people are a travesty - charades, smoke and mirrors, incessant talk of religion and faith even while the sins and evil continue.
And what is it about worship that’s got God’s dander up? What makes God’s nostrils flare so?
Note, that it isn’t particularly the ‘order’ of worship that is the problem. If that were all, we could make a few editorial changes in the bulletin. God isn’t particularly upset by the content - the call to worship and prayers of the people are fine. I don’t think God even gets too upset about the chaos of Passing of the Peace. Nor do I think God is really worried about whether we use new or old hymns, Taize or Iona - we do those things out of choice to allow a wide variety of worship experience.
What has God incensed is that worship lasted but an hour on the Sabbath, and that there were people consulting their portable sundials if worship went overtime. People didn’t want to spend any more time than they had to in the temple - there were other things to do. Worship was fine, but don’t take any more time than necessary to get through the rituals. Fire up the altar, light the incense, pray hard - and get it all into an hour.
God’s intent was that worship would be a 24/7 expression of faith. For too many Israelites in Isaiah’s day, worship was a performance - an intentional, carefully enacted-performance. The rest of the week they went back to live the way they wanted with no reference to God, and certainly no interference.
Hypocrisy is the sin here - singing one thing and doing another. Offering prayers but never being part of an answer to prayer. Preaching against the enemy on Sunday and making deals with the enemy on Monday. God says to these worshipers, "cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow."
The great Danish philosopher and theologian Søren Kierkegaard, says that worship minus direct impact on our neighborhoods = silly geese.
Here is a paraphrase of Kierkegaard’s story. There was a barnyard full of a gaggle of geese. Each Sunday they gathered to hear wonderful words about creation, God’s plan, and extol the glorious destiny of geese. "We were meant to become air-borne on the winds and to soar in the heavens," the leader of the flock would tell them. At the mere mention of heaven the ganders would cackle and the rest would curtsey. After the meeting they would waddle home. But that’s as far as they ever got. They grew fat and plump and at Christmas they became Christmas dinner - that’s as far as they ever got.
Behind the story of tubular necks and webbed feet, Kierkegaard saw weak worship that had its “performance” of religion once a week, but failed to impact the neighborhoods in practical ways.
Yesterday, while putting this sermon together, I was watching a drama called Hitler: The Rise of Evil. One of Hitler’s arguments in the early years was that people were indifferent, didn’t care about their country. He was able to play on emotions and fan the flames of racism and hatred, yet few in Germany stood up to him. The church was conspicuously absent in opposing him, with the sole exception of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Indifference, and fear, prevented those who might have stopped him.
I decided to look a little at what happened with Denmark during the war, keeping Kierkegaard’s words in mind. Denmark had an uneasy kind of agreement with Hitler, and yet were able to refuse to allow his excesses. By far the greatest success in Danish policy toward Germany was the protection of the Jewish minority. Throughout the years of its hold on power, the government consistently refused to accept German demands regarding the Jews. They would not enact special laws concerning Jews, and their civil rights remained equal with those of the rest of the population. German authorities became increasingly exasperated with this position but concluded that any attempt to remove or mistreat Jews would be "politically unacceptable."
Then I looked at the Norwegian resistance to Hitler following Hitler’s ultimatum. King Haakon reported the ultimatum to his cabinet, mindful that although he could not make the decision himself, he could use his moral authority to influence it. He told the Cabinet:
“ I am deeply affected by the responsibility laid on me if the German demand is rejected. The responsibility for the calamities that will befall people and country is indeed so grave that I dread to take it. It rests with the government to decide, but my position is clear.
For my part I cannot accept the German demands. It would conflict with all that I have considered to be my duty as King of Norway since I came to this country nearly thirty-five years ago.[4]”
Nor, he said, could he appoint any government headed by Quisling because he knew neither the people nor the government had confidence in him. However, if the Cabinet felt otherwise, he himself would abdicate so as not to stand in the way of the Government's decision.
Nils Hjelmtveit, Minister of Church and Education, later wrote: "This made a great impression on us all. More clearly than ever before we could see the man behind the words; the king who had drawn a line for himself and his task, a line from which he could not deviate. We had through the five years [in government] learned to respect and appreciate our king and now, through his words, he came to us as a great man, just and forceful; a leader in these fatal times to our country".[5]
Inspired, the Government unanimously advised the King not to appoint any government headed by Quisling, and telephoned its refusal to Bräuer. That night the government's refusal was also broadcast to the Norwegian people. The government announced that they would resist the German attack as long as possible, and expressed their confidence that Norwegians would lend their support to the cause.
Well some of this rings a bell in the New Testament too, doesn’t it? Jesus coming into the temple in Jerusalem, all those hundreds of years later, and seeing that nothing has changed since Isaiah’s words? Throwing animals out, turning over tables, money on the ground, claiming that worship has become an excuse to take advantage of people. It’s not accidental, this story about Jesus. There is a clear parallel.
Look at the end of today’s passage - God says stop doing wrong, learn to do right, defend the oppressed. Worship is meant to strengthen and prepare us so that who and what we are has a positive impact in our neighbourhoods. It means that when someone speaks hatred against Moslems, we are willing to speak back. It means when someone is treated poorly because of their colour, faith, economic status, we speak back. Worship - true worship - doesn’t begin when we walk *in* the door of the church, and it doesn’t end when we walk *out*. True worship *begins* when we walk out the door, and come into contact with the world, with all of its failings. Particularly in these times, when phobias and fear of those who believe differently provokes legislated, and unlegislated injustices, we who are Christians must exercise our worship in a way which counteracts those injustices, and holds them up to the light.
Sources:
1. Telling the Truth about Worship a sermon based on Isaiah 1:1; 10-20 by Rev. Thomas Hall
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupation_of_Denmark
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haakon_VII_of_Norway
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler:_The_Rise_of_Evil
Saturday, July 31, 2010
“A Little Greed Goes a Long Way” a sermon based on Luke 12:13-21 Glen Ayr United Church August 1, 2010
Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me."
Jesus replied, "Who appointed me judge or arbiter between you?" Then he said to the crowd, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life is not found in the abundance of his possessions."
He told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced an exceptionally good crop. He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.' Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and store all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." '
"But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have saved up for yourself?' This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God."
******************************************************************
I hope that your summer has blessed you with some special moments of contentment. Maybe at the beach or beside a cold mountain stream. Maybe when you had some fun with grandchildren, or lunching with friends, or a short trip (or long) to a place of quiet and rest; maybe you took some pride in the amount of money you had to retire on; sat back with a satisfied smile and said to yourself “Soul, relax; eat and drink, be merry. Nothing to worry about.”
This morning's lesson from Luke has a lot to do with leisure, with living, with getting a fresh perspective on things. You can almost visualise Jesus perched on a huge boulder, perhaps an outcropping of rock on an otherwise pretty flat plain. Thousands of people have travelled to hear his revolutionary words, perhaps in the hope of healing and exorcising of evil spirits. Jesus knows the time is short. With his own death before him, he preaches his "No Fear" sermon one last time.
But as he begins to move into his second point - a heckler in the crowd shouts: "Hey, Jesus, would you please order my brother to give me a fair share of the family inheritance." Who is this guy? He has one thing on his mind, and he hasn't heard a thing that's been said. Jesus angrily snaps a retort back to the heckler: "Who do you think I am, buddy? Some judge that God has personally assigned to you? Take care, my friend, about greed; there's more to life than getting things. "
What Jesus says next should be plastered across every billboard in North America. It's a story about a man whose land produces a bumper crop. He's blessed with abundance. So Jesus says that this little guy knocks down his existing buildings in order to make room for the surplus crop. Well, he's worked hard, so we can kind of see where he’s coming from. But now adequate facilities need to be built. So far, we're exactly in line with this fellow; we've done the same thing we do in most of our churches - we add air conditioning, new wall to wall carpeting and fresh paint, add extra storage space and give the youth their own room. So we've torn our barns down in order to build bigger ones. No problem here. But then Jesus lets us overhear this guy as he begins to talk to himself; a sort of brain to wallet to soul meeting.
"You've made it! You’ve really made it! No more work for you, buddy roo; you can just ease on into retirement and live off the interest. You know eat, drink, and be merry kinds of stuff."
Now we do have a problem. Just live off the interest? Just ease out of life? Just unplug ourselves from life and take it easy? An interruptive voice breaks up this guy’s thought. "Fool," says God. "Tonight death may come for you, and your very soul will be required. So then who'll get your things; you certainly won't."
Seems to be a straightforward story about greed. Greed is probably one of the biggest temptations we face. We're trained to be greedy quite early in life, brainwashed, all of us, into being unable to discern between real need, and just want. The average child has watched 15,000 TV commercials before he or she even starts school. We spend more money on advertising than on our public institutions of higher education. Billions of dollars have been pumped into our world by greedy people, to try and convince us that Jesus was wrong about greed.
When I was in Japan this summer, a huge scandal broke around the sport of sumo. Now, the origins of sumo are religious; the ring is considered holy ground, and those who participate in the sport, are supposed to be above reproach in everything they do. Some of them however, got greedy. They got involved with mafia middlemen, and began betting on baseball - heavily - and ran up huge debts. Greed overcame commitment to something which has elements of both religion and sport. Some of them got caught - and some didn’t. They did more, though - they let go the principles which had brought them to the sport, in favour of feathering nests for the future.
Jesus seems to be warning us against being greedy. But there is also something more here, much more than human greed. Something to do with the way we view life--and death. The heckler seemed to subscribe to the same belief as many today - that you only go around once in life. That the only life we have is the here and now.
We may or may not believe there is an afterlife, but what we think we do have is the here and now. Jesus says that ain’t necessarily so.
Paul says with this “Get it all now just in case” philosophy, we might as well be greedy; might as well cheat, might as well get even; because if all we have is this life, we sure can’t enjoy it after we’re dead.
I prefer a slightly different tack: I believe that there is another life beyond this one, but I want to live this life as if there isn’t. Because that, actually, if I am quite honest about it, puts me on the proverbial hot seat. Just in case there is no afterlife and no second chances, I need to do the best job with this life that I possibly can.
It’s a difficult conundrum. One could say that if we believe in an afterlife we need to be better in this one, in case we are judged in the next and found wanting; but the Christian hope tells us that we are forgiven no matter what we do, in God’s prevenient grace. But if we live as if there is no afterlife, then we really do have only this chance, right now, to make it worthwhile.
Jesus seems to be saying that. We can accumulate goods, make investments to cover us after we retire, enjoy a comfortable lifestyle, sit back and relax - and our very soul might be required while we are patting ourselves on the back for being wise and prudent.
The Good News of the Gospel reminds us that though we live in the world like everyone else, life is centred in our relationship with God. God alone can fill us with good things, that God's love is steadfast and sure.
That doesn’t mean we should not enjoy our lives - Jesus certainly had time to sit with friends and family, to enjoy a glass of wine on a summer’s day, to laugh and celebrate the very act of living. Of course we need to take moments to eat, drink, and be merry! That's what summers and families are about. But for Jesus it was not the end goal. He didn’t get to a certain point and say “that’s it, I’ve done my bit, someone else’s turn now.” Life - and faith - are continuing. If we have faith, we cannot stop living life, to its fullest and to the best of our ability, *because* we have faith. When it comes to how we view this world, and ourselves in it, perhaps we need to eat, drink, - and be wise-- for tomorrow we may die, but we may also live another day.
Sources:
How Much Is Enough? by Rev. Thomas N. Hall
Jesus replied, "Who appointed me judge or arbiter between you?" Then he said to the crowd, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life is not found in the abundance of his possessions."
He told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced an exceptionally good crop. He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.' Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and store all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." '
"But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have saved up for yourself?' This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God."
******************************************************************
I hope that your summer has blessed you with some special moments of contentment. Maybe at the beach or beside a cold mountain stream. Maybe when you had some fun with grandchildren, or lunching with friends, or a short trip (or long) to a place of quiet and rest; maybe you took some pride in the amount of money you had to retire on; sat back with a satisfied smile and said to yourself “Soul, relax; eat and drink, be merry. Nothing to worry about.”
This morning's lesson from Luke has a lot to do with leisure, with living, with getting a fresh perspective on things. You can almost visualise Jesus perched on a huge boulder, perhaps an outcropping of rock on an otherwise pretty flat plain. Thousands of people have travelled to hear his revolutionary words, perhaps in the hope of healing and exorcising of evil spirits. Jesus knows the time is short. With his own death before him, he preaches his "No Fear" sermon one last time.
But as he begins to move into his second point - a heckler in the crowd shouts: "Hey, Jesus, would you please order my brother to give me a fair share of the family inheritance." Who is this guy? He has one thing on his mind, and he hasn't heard a thing that's been said. Jesus angrily snaps a retort back to the heckler: "Who do you think I am, buddy? Some judge that God has personally assigned to you? Take care, my friend, about greed; there's more to life than getting things. "
What Jesus says next should be plastered across every billboard in North America. It's a story about a man whose land produces a bumper crop. He's blessed with abundance. So Jesus says that this little guy knocks down his existing buildings in order to make room for the surplus crop. Well, he's worked hard, so we can kind of see where he’s coming from. But now adequate facilities need to be built. So far, we're exactly in line with this fellow; we've done the same thing we do in most of our churches - we add air conditioning, new wall to wall carpeting and fresh paint, add extra storage space and give the youth their own room. So we've torn our barns down in order to build bigger ones. No problem here. But then Jesus lets us overhear this guy as he begins to talk to himself; a sort of brain to wallet to soul meeting.
"You've made it! You’ve really made it! No more work for you, buddy roo; you can just ease on into retirement and live off the interest. You know eat, drink, and be merry kinds of stuff."
Now we do have a problem. Just live off the interest? Just ease out of life? Just unplug ourselves from life and take it easy? An interruptive voice breaks up this guy’s thought. "Fool," says God. "Tonight death may come for you, and your very soul will be required. So then who'll get your things; you certainly won't."
Seems to be a straightforward story about greed. Greed is probably one of the biggest temptations we face. We're trained to be greedy quite early in life, brainwashed, all of us, into being unable to discern between real need, and just want. The average child has watched 15,000 TV commercials before he or she even starts school. We spend more money on advertising than on our public institutions of higher education. Billions of dollars have been pumped into our world by greedy people, to try and convince us that Jesus was wrong about greed.
When I was in Japan this summer, a huge scandal broke around the sport of sumo. Now, the origins of sumo are religious; the ring is considered holy ground, and those who participate in the sport, are supposed to be above reproach in everything they do. Some of them however, got greedy. They got involved with mafia middlemen, and began betting on baseball - heavily - and ran up huge debts. Greed overcame commitment to something which has elements of both religion and sport. Some of them got caught - and some didn’t. They did more, though - they let go the principles which had brought them to the sport, in favour of feathering nests for the future.
Jesus seems to be warning us against being greedy. But there is also something more here, much more than human greed. Something to do with the way we view life--and death. The heckler seemed to subscribe to the same belief as many today - that you only go around once in life. That the only life we have is the here and now.
We may or may not believe there is an afterlife, but what we think we do have is the here and now. Jesus says that ain’t necessarily so.
Paul says with this “Get it all now just in case” philosophy, we might as well be greedy; might as well cheat, might as well get even; because if all we have is this life, we sure can’t enjoy it after we’re dead.
I prefer a slightly different tack: I believe that there is another life beyond this one, but I want to live this life as if there isn’t. Because that, actually, if I am quite honest about it, puts me on the proverbial hot seat. Just in case there is no afterlife and no second chances, I need to do the best job with this life that I possibly can.
It’s a difficult conundrum. One could say that if we believe in an afterlife we need to be better in this one, in case we are judged in the next and found wanting; but the Christian hope tells us that we are forgiven no matter what we do, in God’s prevenient grace. But if we live as if there is no afterlife, then we really do have only this chance, right now, to make it worthwhile.
Jesus seems to be saying that. We can accumulate goods, make investments to cover us after we retire, enjoy a comfortable lifestyle, sit back and relax - and our very soul might be required while we are patting ourselves on the back for being wise and prudent.
The Good News of the Gospel reminds us that though we live in the world like everyone else, life is centred in our relationship with God. God alone can fill us with good things, that God's love is steadfast and sure.
That doesn’t mean we should not enjoy our lives - Jesus certainly had time to sit with friends and family, to enjoy a glass of wine on a summer’s day, to laugh and celebrate the very act of living. Of course we need to take moments to eat, drink, and be merry! That's what summers and families are about. But for Jesus it was not the end goal. He didn’t get to a certain point and say “that’s it, I’ve done my bit, someone else’s turn now.” Life - and faith - are continuing. If we have faith, we cannot stop living life, to its fullest and to the best of our ability, *because* we have faith. When it comes to how we view this world, and ourselves in it, perhaps we need to eat, drink, - and be wise-- for tomorrow we may die, but we may also live another day.
Sources:
How Much Is Enough? by Rev. Thomas N. Hall
Saturday, July 24, 2010
“A Marriage Made in Heaven” a sermon based on Hosea preached at Knob Hill United Church July 25, 2010
You should have seen the babies! Just so beautiful, each one of them. Black curly hair, dark raisin eyes, dimpled cheeks, a sparkle in their eyes, and light in their laughter. Each baby had a different laugh. We had three children. Each time I carried the baby well...and easy births, all three. The mid-wives used to say I was just made for having babies, that it was too bad I only had three, that with the number of babies around dying, we could have had a family as big as Abraham's"
My name? I am Gomer. I have no idea what my father was thinking when he named me, but it was nothing compared to the names Hosea chose for our children. What was *he* thinking? Jezreel for our first born son, Lo-ruhamah for our only daughter, and Lo-ammi for our lastborn son.
The names won’t mean anything to you, but they mean a lot to my people, the Israelite people. It’s a mystery to me what was going on in his head; he got this religion thing, and kept on telling me that God had even told him who to marry. Well, the other girls couldn't believe it that day when Hosea walked into the place, took one look at me, and said "That's her!" "That's the one!" At first it was misunderstood; everyone just thought the woman he wanted in the brothel was me, as if we were just to treat him as a regular customer. Then he said he wanted to marry me!
"Oh yeah" I said to him. “They all say that when they want something, but then when it’s over, where am I? Back in my little hovel with a few coins in my hand...waiting for the next one.” Hosea was different. He talked to me gently. He said he meant it, that I would belong to him...be his woman...have his children, that I didn’t have to work as a prostitute any more. I could have a regular fire for cooking, and a regular tent for sleeping, and I would belong to his people.
Now I'll tell you what the names meant. Jezreel, the first one; his name is really about sowing seed...in the ordinary sense, but not in those days. In fact it was a really big threat. It has to do with how the Omrites got overcome in the valley of Jezreel, and how God meant that to be a message for the people of Israel. You should have seen how mean the kids were to Jezreel. He came home many a time beaten up because of his name.
Then the second one, our daughter. I begged for a nice plain name like Sarah, but he insisted. This one was called Lo-ruhamah. In our language it means "Unloved". I just didn't get it. How could we raise a daughter named “Unloved”? But Hosea explained that God meant to love the people of Israel no longer. The people of Judah would be favoured, but not our people. Why? I asked, what have they done?
Hosea replied that they had spent too much time going after other idols......they couldn't take a commitment to God through thick and thin. So Hosea named our daughter "No more love".
Then the third child came - another boy. Would you believe it? This name topped it all off. His name is Lo-ammi. It meant our people were gone, out of the sight of God. Cut off. Finished. In my language his name meant "You are not my people, and I am not your God".
But without God, we were a people in darkness. Hosea told me that it was all about his people and how they'd been unfaithful to God, how they'd take wool and flax, bread and water, and even raisin cakes, down to the idols. How they forgot who is the Creator of the Universe when it comes to our daily bread. How they danced and pranced before the idols and gave their silver and gold...just as if Ba’al and the other idols were God.
Well, the other people started to talk, and it got bad. They talked about how my children, now orphans they called them, were no better off than the children of Israel, since they'd gone running off after idols and forgetting their faith. My children were OK but the talk was awful. I left Hosea, taking the children with me; I couldn’t take the laughing and the jeering any more, but Hosea came after me again.
In our culture, there was a punishment for leaving a husband and going back to the old business; a woman would be put out in the desert with no cover, no food or water, just left to die. I had made it to the city again. That's where he found me. I was going back to my former business, to make some money to support my children, when he came looking for me again. He put out more money than I had seen at one time; fifteen silver shekels...and a bushel and a half of barley. That's the price of freeing one slave. And I was bought back. More than bought back. It was like he was courting me all over again. There was tender talk, fresh dates and figs. There was no talk of the past. He treated me as if I was going to be his new wife, and start all over again. I wasn't sure at first. Was this just more of the same? Was I going to be treated just like another example? Yes, and No, said Hosea.."You'd better explain" I said.
So he did explain. The tender love he was giving me was just like the tender love that God has for people....just so long as they don't go off worshipping idols. The covenant, it's called. The tender love he had for me was something he just enjoyed doing. He wanted me back as his own faithful wife. Well...he kept on loving me, and this time I stayed. I settled in to the family and started learning about his people. His people became my people.
Jezreel kept his name, but the land became good again, so Jezreel’s name was about the goodness that God sows in our hearts even when we stray. Lo-ruhamah..the one called "unloved"...became known as "the loved one". She's a beautiful girl....just about to have a child of her own. As for Lo-ammi..."no people of mine"...his is the best! "You are my people" says God. And Lo-ammi says"You are my God". And all comes right for us; but we have to watch the people, says my Hosea. They do like to go off on their own ways so easily. Some day, I told Hosea, some day there's going to be a great teacher in Israel. Someone so great, that he'll teach them of the great tender love of our God. But he may have to die to prove it.
My name? I am Gomer. I have no idea what my father was thinking when he named me, but it was nothing compared to the names Hosea chose for our children. What was *he* thinking? Jezreel for our first born son, Lo-ruhamah for our only daughter, and Lo-ammi for our lastborn son.
The names won’t mean anything to you, but they mean a lot to my people, the Israelite people. It’s a mystery to me what was going on in his head; he got this religion thing, and kept on telling me that God had even told him who to marry. Well, the other girls couldn't believe it that day when Hosea walked into the place, took one look at me, and said "That's her!" "That's the one!" At first it was misunderstood; everyone just thought the woman he wanted in the brothel was me, as if we were just to treat him as a regular customer. Then he said he wanted to marry me!
"Oh yeah" I said to him. “They all say that when they want something, but then when it’s over, where am I? Back in my little hovel with a few coins in my hand...waiting for the next one.” Hosea was different. He talked to me gently. He said he meant it, that I would belong to him...be his woman...have his children, that I didn’t have to work as a prostitute any more. I could have a regular fire for cooking, and a regular tent for sleeping, and I would belong to his people.
Now I'll tell you what the names meant. Jezreel, the first one; his name is really about sowing seed...in the ordinary sense, but not in those days. In fact it was a really big threat. It has to do with how the Omrites got overcome in the valley of Jezreel, and how God meant that to be a message for the people of Israel. You should have seen how mean the kids were to Jezreel. He came home many a time beaten up because of his name.
Then the second one, our daughter. I begged for a nice plain name like Sarah, but he insisted. This one was called Lo-ruhamah. In our language it means "Unloved". I just didn't get it. How could we raise a daughter named “Unloved”? But Hosea explained that God meant to love the people of Israel no longer. The people of Judah would be favoured, but not our people. Why? I asked, what have they done?
Hosea replied that they had spent too much time going after other idols......they couldn't take a commitment to God through thick and thin. So Hosea named our daughter "No more love".
Then the third child came - another boy. Would you believe it? This name topped it all off. His name is Lo-ammi. It meant our people were gone, out of the sight of God. Cut off. Finished. In my language his name meant "You are not my people, and I am not your God".
But without God, we were a people in darkness. Hosea told me that it was all about his people and how they'd been unfaithful to God, how they'd take wool and flax, bread and water, and even raisin cakes, down to the idols. How they forgot who is the Creator of the Universe when it comes to our daily bread. How they danced and pranced before the idols and gave their silver and gold...just as if Ba’al and the other idols were God.
Well, the other people started to talk, and it got bad. They talked about how my children, now orphans they called them, were no better off than the children of Israel, since they'd gone running off after idols and forgetting their faith. My children were OK but the talk was awful. I left Hosea, taking the children with me; I couldn’t take the laughing and the jeering any more, but Hosea came after me again.
In our culture, there was a punishment for leaving a husband and going back to the old business; a woman would be put out in the desert with no cover, no food or water, just left to die. I had made it to the city again. That's where he found me. I was going back to my former business, to make some money to support my children, when he came looking for me again. He put out more money than I had seen at one time; fifteen silver shekels...and a bushel and a half of barley. That's the price of freeing one slave. And I was bought back. More than bought back. It was like he was courting me all over again. There was tender talk, fresh dates and figs. There was no talk of the past. He treated me as if I was going to be his new wife, and start all over again. I wasn't sure at first. Was this just more of the same? Was I going to be treated just like another example? Yes, and No, said Hosea.."You'd better explain" I said.
So he did explain. The tender love he was giving me was just like the tender love that God has for people....just so long as they don't go off worshipping idols. The covenant, it's called. The tender love he had for me was something he just enjoyed doing. He wanted me back as his own faithful wife. Well...he kept on loving me, and this time I stayed. I settled in to the family and started learning about his people. His people became my people.
Jezreel kept his name, but the land became good again, so Jezreel’s name was about the goodness that God sows in our hearts even when we stray. Lo-ruhamah..the one called "unloved"...became known as "the loved one". She's a beautiful girl....just about to have a child of her own. As for Lo-ammi..."no people of mine"...his is the best! "You are my people" says God. And Lo-ammi says"You are my God". And all comes right for us; but we have to watch the people, says my Hosea. They do like to go off on their own ways so easily. Some day, I told Hosea, some day there's going to be a great teacher in Israel. Someone so great, that he'll teach them of the great tender love of our God. But he may have to die to prove it.
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