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January 28, 2007 Rev. Steve Gehlert Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. That's why I eat a good breakfast every morning. Go Lean Crunch, that's my favorite. Eat it almost every morning, except Saturday, when I might have a cup of tea and some breakfast crackers, cream cheese and jam. And, except Sunday, when I don't eat anything. Nothing! Never! I'm sure, or at least I hope, you're wondering, "Why not? Sunday's a pretty big day for you, Pastor Steve. I've heard you get here pretty early, too. Shouldn't you each breakfast?" Well, whether you're wondering things like that or not, I'm going to tell you, why, why I don't eat breakfast on Sundays. I can't. Just can't eat before I preach. (though many of you have noticed that I have no such problem, afterwards) But I can't before. Never could. Still can't. I remember how my stomach got all knotted up on those once a month Sundays when I preached at my field work churches in seminary. The thought of adding food to the turmoil in there was unimaginable. And though things have gotten a bit better, it's still something I'd rather not do. Why all that turmoil? Why would someone like me, who clearly likes to eat, about whom verdicts about leftovers of doubtful quality are resolved with the words, "Pastor Steve will eat it," not be able to even think about it before speaking for 10-15 minutes to people I've known so long? Well, it's a lot more than stage fright. It's the fact that I'm called to share God's word. To take the Word of God as written in scripture two to three thousand years ago and bring it out, help it speak to us now, in our time and place. It's a challenge. No, it's more than a challenge, it's scary! Jeremiah, young as he was, had no illusions about that. When God spoke to him, saying, "Before you saw the light of day, I had holy plans for you: a prophet to the nations that's what I had in mind for you, " Jeremiah didn't want to hear it. "Hold it, Master God! Look at me! I'm only a boy!" Of course, just as it had been with Moses, and lots of prophets before, God wouldn't take "no" for an answer. God said, "Don't say, `I'm only a boy.' I'll tell you where to go and you'll go there. I'll tell you what to say and you'll say it. Don't be afraid of a soul. I'll be right there, looking after you." "Don't be afraid of a soul!" Easier said than done, even if it's God that says it. Even if God has backed it with a powerful promise "I'll be right there looking after you." Easier said than done, because of what happened next. God reached out and touched his mouth, and said, "Look! I've just put my words in your mouth hand delivered!" That's why it's easier said than done! Speaking is hard enough - trying to make sense, be lively and engaging, certainly not boring. But this is way beyond that, because it's God's word you've got to speak - God's words and not your own. You've got to speak those words, God's words, and not your own words. And you can't do whatever you want with them. You can't ignore or distort or cheapen them. You have to respect and honor them, share them as clearly as you can. And that's only the beginning. It's not just that you have to say them, it's what they say. Lots of what God's word says is simple and direct, but also very hard for people to hear, maybe not if you say them once, but if you make a whole sermon on them. "Thou shall have no other Gods before me," and we find all kinds of other things to love, worship, and serve before God. "Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy (dedicated to me)," and we want to treat it like any other day, or at best a day to catch up on things we want to do ourselves. "Thou shall not kill," and we find all kinds of reasons that we need to do it. "Bring me the first fruits of what you produce, a tithe of what you earn," and we think leftovers will be fine. "Remember the poor, the widows, and the orphans in your midst, and we want to keep as far away from them, and have as little to do with them as possible. Such simple, direct, clear, commandments! There's little you can do to make them less simple, less direct, less clear; they speak for themselves. But it's no fun when you've got to be the one to say them, to bring them to people today, knowing many aren't going to want to hear them. That's surely part of Jeremiah's (and our) reason for saying, "No! But wait, there's more! Listen to what God throws in! "I've given you a job to do to pull up and tear down, take apart and demolish, and then start over building and planting." It's not just that the words are God's and not ours, or even what they say - it's also what they do. It's not just that they're difficult and challenging, it's that they pull up and tear down, take apart and demolish." That means that speaking them can be hell! That's what Jeremiah experienced, after a doing it a while, he made people so mad, he wanted to quit, and he told God he was fed up. He said he didn't want to speak but the words still burned inside him, and pleaded with God to take them away, so he wouldn't have to speak them anymore. He didn't get his way. God left the words with him and he continued to speak them suffer the consequences. That's what Jesus is doing in today's Gospel passage, speaking God's word and suffering the consequences of speaking God's word. It doesn't seem like that's what's going to happen at first. He's the hometown boy come back for a Sabbath visit (he's been down to the Jordan and been baptized and then spent forty days in the wilderness struggling with his own resistance to God's call). He reads the scripture, "God's Spirit is on me; he's chosen me to preach the Message of good news to the poor, sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to set the burdened and the battered free, to announce, This is God's year to act!'" and they're all impressed by how well he does. "We've never heard those old, familiar words of Isaiah read so well, some of them may have thought. But then he says, "You've just heard Scripture make history. It came true just now in this place." What! How can he claim that? How can he claim that those powerful words about God's justice have come true in him? Why this is only old Joseph's son. We've known him since he was a kid." They're threatened by his saying, "now, today," about these holy words. "Now, today," means that good news to the poor, liberty to the oppressed, are not just some fine promises that we can keep off in the future, unfulfilled. It means we've got to start doing something about them right now. That calls people to look at what they've been doing to keep them unfulfilled, how they've lived in opposition to their fulfillment. That's the beginning of his pulling up and tearing down, his taking apart and demolishing. Simply by saying, "now," he was destroying their illusion of faithfulness, he was showing them how they'd refused to obey God's word of justice. And what do people do when someone says something they don't want to hear? The first thing they do is try to deny the authority of the one who said it. "It's only Joseph son, no need to listen to him," they said. But then he got even more direct with his tearing down, reminding them how God's people had always resisted the truth, and that God had often had to go outside the family to share it. Then their resistance turned to anger. In fact, the congregation became a mob and tried to kill him. So one thing is clear about speaking God's word it will confront people's egos, so be ready for anything. People want to feel good about themselves. In fact, some, insecure, unsure of their own worth, live to be made to feel good about themselves. But calling people to faith, to justice, to gratitude and generosity, implies that those wonderful things are not there to the degree they need to be, and people don't like to hear that. They want to think everything's just fine, at least about themselves. "The world may be a mess, but not me. I'm basically, just fine," they want to think. But if, as God told Jeremiah, the ultimate purpose of the words is to build and to plant, there has to be some pulling up and tearing down first, pulling up of the roots we've put down in injustice and oppression, tearing down that illusion about ourselves. In some ways, things are not, "just fine." And, if things are not, "just fine," then that means things need to change, and change is something most people resist. Look at any issue and most people will end up on the side that requires no change. The more you say that something needs to change, the more opposition you're going to get. But how can this world, the way it is, become God's world, the way God wants it, without things changing, without all of us changing? That's just the problem, isn't it? That's what creates opposition. That's what makes sharing the word so scary. That's the reason for the butterflies. Because there's a good chance, that if you're speaking God's word, people aren't going to like it. It's hard to speak the word of God. Everybody wants to be liked. Nobody likes conflict. That's why we tend to keep quiet. Especially when we're young. My sister, in 8th grade, was walking home from school, with Ricky Bates, a fellow 8th grader who happened to be black. The street that ran down to the river, to the one tiny "colored" area of my hometown, was one she had to cross on her way home. I don't know how many times she'd walked that way with him, only this time, my dad happened to be driving by. He picked her up and drove her home and "had a talk" with her. Then he went to Ricky's father to express his concern. I heard about all this but said nothing. I knew it was wrong but I can't remember saying anything. Nobody likes conflict. Everybody wants to "get along." So, it's hard to speak the word of God, especially when you're young. It's hard, but not impossible. One of our youth caught hell from a coach for missing a week of practice to do the Esperanza trip last year has told him he's going again. It's not impossible to speak God's word. Even when you're young! You can speak it to friends, to coaches, to teachers, even to parents. Sometimes, they're the ones that need to hear it most, they're the ones that have gotten comfortable with injustice, who are living for ease and convenience, and need to be reminded that the truth is often uncomfortable and inconvenient. You just have to care enough to listen to what God's said to us in Jesus and believe that God calls young people, not just Jesuses and Jeremiahs, but young people like many of you. And, of course, you've got to be willing to bear the cost, to pay the price, just like they did. But if you really believe it's God's word, then what else can you do? And if it's God's word, don't forget, it comes with God's promise, "I'll be with you." And God keeps every promise, so you can trust it, and that makes all the difference. |
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