Sermon for August 30, 2020 - The Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost - Proper 17A - The Ven Pat Zifcak
Bishop Gayle is one of the members of the faculty who teach our deacons in formation. She comes twice in their three- year cycle to teach the prophets. She loves to share their lives and ministry with us particularly, I think, to remind us that our call as deacons is closely related to the call of the prophet. Like many who are called to ordained ministry, the prophet is never really sure that God is calling him. Like many of us the prophet soon begins to feel overwhelmed by all that God requires. Like many of us the prophet begins to question whether God is really in the work that is to be done and darn it! Why can’t God just tell the people what God wants them to know. Why shouldn’t we run? Why shouldn’t we be angry? Why shouldn’t we quit? God doesn’t need us and, besides, it is too hard.
In Romans, we are called to live in community where each one cares for another in a shared every day life. Everything we do must be measured by its impact on the community, by the best interests of all, guided by personal and corporate relationships. We are to live in harmony. In these days of quarantine, is there a single one of us who doesn’t know how quickly harmony can turn discord, kindness to meanness, respect to frustration and anger? Vengeance is God’s but if only….
Why shouldn’t we run? Why shouldn’t we be angry? Why shouldn’t we quit? This work of harmony, kindness, respect is too much for us. And it has been months that we have been living too close to our family, feeling required to help our neighbors, too aware of the losses in our communities. Our emotions are too close to the surface and no one wants to hear how tired we are, how sad we are, how angry we are. We can’t thank someone for their remarkable kindness or generosity because we would need to take measure of those qualities in ourselves.
Jeremiah never thought that being God’s prophet would carry such a price. He cries to God, “Why is my pain unceasing, my wound incurable,….”And God replies, “I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked, and redeem you from the grasp of the ruthless.” If, God says, “you turn back, if you utter what is precious.” I am with you, I will save you, I will deliver you.
How far would we have to run that God could not find us? How angry is so angry that God would not forgive us? Would quitting mean that God would let us go? God doesn’t need us, does God?
Jeremiah was someone just like us. His message was to Israel, God’s chosen people, God’s holy city. Jeremiah was not only ignored but persecuted. A prophet’s life was hard. We know some ran, all were angry, many wanted to quit. God did not abandon them. God did not give up on them. God was for Jeremiah what Jeremiah would be to the people of Israel: a fortified wall of bronze for them to fight against but never overcome. God is that for us. There is nothing we can’t say to the God who loves us.
Let us turn to Matthew to ask what it is our God requires of us. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. Follow Jesus by living our lives according to his example. Shape our lives by his example not in the big moments when others may be watching or there is something that might be gained for us individually. Live by his example in the everyday moments, when we cannot answer one more question, we cannot accept one more request, when we are exhausted and there is still work to do, when our wisdom has abandoned us. How many times did Jesus answer the same question, respond to the same doubts, walk to a lonely place or climb a mountain only to find his followers there. But could he, would he change his life, his message, to make his life easier? Even facing suffering and death, he remained faithful to God and to the purpose for which he was sent. When Jeremiah cries to God for relief from the message, God challenges him and assures him but does not release him. Being faithful requires courage to stay the course. It is not the response of others that should determine our faithfulness. We are faithful to the God we know will deliver and redeem us.
And what does the Lord require of us, asks Micah? To do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God. To love God and to love our neighbor requires these three. As one commentator suggests, our Christian behavior cannot flow from a belief that the end is near but from the belief that God is near. When we come to the end of ourselves, God is there. With two political conventions and another shooting in recent days, with anger and despair as my constant companions, I must believe that God is near, that God is working God’s purpose out through us, God’s only voice, God’s hands and feet in the world. I must believe that every effort I make to live in community, to serve others, to learn more, to speak more is an effort to answer God’s purpose for me in this world. As Christians, we must all believe that and know that in these times when we are called upon to speak a prophet’s message, God will challenge us, assure us, save us, deliver and redeem us.