The Adventurous Lectionary – Pentecost 15 – August 28, 2016

The Adventurous Lectionary – Pentecost 15 – August 28, 2016

Jeremiah 2:4-13; Psalm 81:1,10-16; Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16.; Luke14:1, 7-14

As summer ends, the political season is heating up. Church life takes on a renewed urgency and after a summer’s lull, decisions need to be made. We are tempted to separate the world in terms of winners and losers, right and wrong, and good and evil. While today’s scriptures are strong in their critique, they also challenge self-righteous and polarizing behaviors and words.

Jeremiah’s words are hard to hear, whether in the time of the prophet or our time. We have turned from the living waters and dug wells of our own. We have turned from the True God to follow gods who are fabrications of our imagination, grounded in greed and individualism. Jeremiah speaks to the living waters and this means the rivers, lakes, streams, and oceans. On Cape Cod, where I live, water is essential to our way of life. What matters to the ocean is a matter of life and death to the fish of the sea and to the land itself. We have followed the false gods of consumption, anti-intellectualism, political expediency, and are oblivious to – or knowingly prevaricate regarding – our role in climate change, such that in 50 years the ground upon which my church sands may be under water.

It’s easy to pick out the idols of our opponents – and each ideology has their own – but for Jeremiah and the God of the prophets, idolatry begins when we act as if we are God, claiming to be able to do as we please with our property, the earth, and other persons. God is the God of life, and this life is for everyone. Worshipping false gods ends up destroying the non-human world, harming fellow humans, and leaving the earth in waste.

What false gods are worshipped in your congregation? Where are we tempted to “own” the earth and control the future? The God of the prophets cares about what we do: God feels the pain of the earth. The divine pathos, as Abraham Joshua Heschel asserts, means that human behaviors that cause poverty, pain, and disenfranchisement also cause God pain. Conversely, we never love God in the abstract, but love God best when we love God’s creatures.

The reading from Hebrews connects our relationship with God with our relationships with one another. “Let mutual love continue. Give hospitality to all persons.” These are important words in our increasingly contentious society. For those who use Facebook, just think of the vitriolic language “friends” use when they disagree with our positions. Just think of the rhetoric of politicians who try to bully and intimidate their opponents, with veiled threats of violence. Where is our sense that we might be entertaining angels in our midst? Where is our awareness of the dignity of others, much less our example to children, in terms of our language?

Jesus’ words regarding banquet guests are also applicable to our time. Jesus calls us to mindfulness and humility. We are part of a larger whole in which others matter just as much as we do, and that includes (in God’s eyes) other nations. Those who are confident in God’s grace can advocate for their positions and affirm their value and place in the church and society without diminishing others. If we trust that our lives are in God’s hands, we don’t need to be “first” or “right” or even “orthodox.” These are all ego-based behaviors that require someone else to be “second,” “wrong,” or “heretical.” I recall the title of a chapter in Reinhold Niebuhr’s Nature and Destiny of Man: “on having and not having the truth.” The reality of sin and self-interest counters any sense of righteousness whether it is ethical, economic, spiritual, or doctrinal. Even on our best days, we are partial, limited, and likely to be wrong about certain things. Yet, we are also God’s beloved, constantly inspired by God, and so we can affirm our own theological and ethical viewpoints, and advocate for social change, without demonizing our opponents. After all, a stopped clock is right twice a day! And, there may be some modicum of truth in our neighbor’s falsehood.

Today’s readings challenge us to look beyond ourselves and to be open to the holiness of others. They call us to humility, especially in those areas where we have the greatest expertise and commitment. A healing community recognizes its finitude and imperfection even as it aspires to make God’s realm come alive “on earth as it is in heaven.”