Sixth Sunday after Epiphany
Preaching
Preaching and Reading the Old Testament Lessons:
With an Eye to the New
In many respects religious faith has become a rather casual affair in our society. Persons can have it, or they can leave it alone. It's all a matter of personal opinion. There is no particular opprobrium leveled at the person who claims to be an agnostic or atheist, nor is there considered to be much advantage to claiming that one is a Christian. To be sure, at election time, every politician will claim to be deeply religious in order to secure the faithfuls' vote. But otherwise, everyone goes his or her own way, believing or unbelieving, church-goer or Sunday-golfer. It's just a matter of one's own personal choice.
The same is true with respect to discussions about God. He can be a hotly-debated topic, set out to be examined. Is he good or is he indifferent? Can we trust him or is trust misplaced? Is he in control of the world or are we on our own? Does he judge us or doesn't he care? Each person forms her or his own position, and while the questions make for lively group discussion, they really boil down to individual opinion. In the end their answers seem of little consequence in how we live day by day.
In fact, one can be entirely neutral in all religious discussion, taking neither the side of belief nor the side of unbelief, exercising a kindly skepticism toward all positions of faith. And that stance too is considered to be of no particular consequence. "It really does not matter what people believe" said one neighbor to me, "just as long as they are happy." Happiness, contentment, satisfaction, not love of God, are the ultimate goal of living.
At the base of such casual attitudes toward God and Christian faith is another fundamental belief, however, the belief that we have no continuing connection with God. According to the scriptures, you and I and all people have been created in the image of God. That means that we always stand in some sort of relationship with him, and we cannot be fully understood as human beings except that relationship be included. The many areas of human learning may describe us in various terms, from the standpoint of psychology, sociology, economics, history, geography, and so forth. But unless that description includes the fact that we also stand in constant relation to God, we have not been fully described.
As a result, our Old Testament wisdom text for the day -- and indeed, all three of our stated texts -- say that there are only two ways of life. There is life lived in trust in God, and there is life lived apart from that trust. And between those two alternatives, there is no neutral ground. Paul would put it quite sharply: Either we are slaves of Jesus Christ or we are slaves of sin (cf. Romans 6). There is no neutral ground that we can choose between those two bonds.
What is more, says our text, it makes all the difference in our life as to which position we choose. We have all seen the effects of failing to water a garden. Shrubs and flowers that are green and glorious begin to yellow and droop. The ground around them becomes hard as stone, and in a few weeks the plants dry up and die, leaving only brown twigs in the iron-like earth to mark where they have been. Such is the life of persons who trust only in themselves and other human beings to protect and secure their lives, says Jeremiah. Using the terms of his landscape, he says they are like shrubs in a desolate desert, planted in earth full of salt. There is no growth, no blossoming, no prolongation of their life. Neither in life nor in death do they abide.
In contrast, proclaims our prophet, the one who trusts in the Lord is like a tree planted by a stream of flowing water, and to that water Jeremiah elsewhere compares the Lord (Jeremiah 2:13). Such a person is grounded and rooted in the life of God who never dies. So the person can bring forth good fruit in his or her life, fruit of the Spirit given by God (cf. Galatians 5:22-23). And in the heat of the day, vitality remains, unaffected by circumstance.
Significantly, Jeremiah centers trust in the heart (vv. 5, 10). It is there, in the inmost part of our being, that the prophets locate our dependence on God, for as Jesus says, it is what comes out of a person, out of the heart, that defiles him (Mark 7:14-23). If the heart is sound, life and good action flow out naturally, but if the heart is corrupt, out of it come evil thoughts and deeds. Thus, in his judgment on the Judeans, Jeremiah can say at the beginning of chapter 17 that the sin of Judah is engraved with a point of diamond on the heart (v. 1), and Ezekiel can call for the people to get themselves a new heart lest they die (Ezekiel 18:31). We are called to love God with all our heart (Mark 12:30; Deuteronomy 6:5), as well as with our soul and mind and strength, for it is in our hearts, as we all know, that our love abides. If we love persons with all our heart, we cherish them and try to please them and want to be with them. And so too, and much more, is to be the love and trust in our hearts for God.
Our text tells us that if we dedicate our hearts in love for God, and trust him with our lives in all things, we need not "fear when heat comes" (v. 8). And indeed, if our lives are firmly planted in God, what is there that can harm us? Suffering may come our way -- and it comes to all of us -- but God is there to comfort and to strengthen. Misfortunes and disappointments may mar our days, but even they can work for good in God's plans for our lives, if we love him (Romans 8:29). Death itself will meet us all, but in God's love, death is not final. Beyond the grave, there is the joyful promise of eternal life with the Father.
God examines our hearts, says our text, verse 10. We cannot escape that. Casual as we sometimes are about our religious faith, indifferent as someone may be to God and the things of God, the One in whose image we were created and with whom we are inextricably connected, sees and knows all that goes on in the depths of our inner selves. God created us in the first place, and now he knows us through and through. And before each one of us he sets that choice of faith, to live in him, nourished by his everlasting life and flourishing in his vitality, or to live for ourselves and meet the inevitable death that comes from our own meager resources. Jesus encapsulated the thought of our text when he set before us those two ways: Whoever saves his own life, relying on self and the world, will lose his life. But whoever loses his life, dedicating it totally to God, will save it (cf. Mark 8:35).
The same is true with respect to discussions about God. He can be a hotly-debated topic, set out to be examined. Is he good or is he indifferent? Can we trust him or is trust misplaced? Is he in control of the world or are we on our own? Does he judge us or doesn't he care? Each person forms her or his own position, and while the questions make for lively group discussion, they really boil down to individual opinion. In the end their answers seem of little consequence in how we live day by day.
In fact, one can be entirely neutral in all religious discussion, taking neither the side of belief nor the side of unbelief, exercising a kindly skepticism toward all positions of faith. And that stance too is considered to be of no particular consequence. "It really does not matter what people believe" said one neighbor to me, "just as long as they are happy." Happiness, contentment, satisfaction, not love of God, are the ultimate goal of living.
At the base of such casual attitudes toward God and Christian faith is another fundamental belief, however, the belief that we have no continuing connection with God. According to the scriptures, you and I and all people have been created in the image of God. That means that we always stand in some sort of relationship with him, and we cannot be fully understood as human beings except that relationship be included. The many areas of human learning may describe us in various terms, from the standpoint of psychology, sociology, economics, history, geography, and so forth. But unless that description includes the fact that we also stand in constant relation to God, we have not been fully described.
As a result, our Old Testament wisdom text for the day -- and indeed, all three of our stated texts -- say that there are only two ways of life. There is life lived in trust in God, and there is life lived apart from that trust. And between those two alternatives, there is no neutral ground. Paul would put it quite sharply: Either we are slaves of Jesus Christ or we are slaves of sin (cf. Romans 6). There is no neutral ground that we can choose between those two bonds.
What is more, says our text, it makes all the difference in our life as to which position we choose. We have all seen the effects of failing to water a garden. Shrubs and flowers that are green and glorious begin to yellow and droop. The ground around them becomes hard as stone, and in a few weeks the plants dry up and die, leaving only brown twigs in the iron-like earth to mark where they have been. Such is the life of persons who trust only in themselves and other human beings to protect and secure their lives, says Jeremiah. Using the terms of his landscape, he says they are like shrubs in a desolate desert, planted in earth full of salt. There is no growth, no blossoming, no prolongation of their life. Neither in life nor in death do they abide.
In contrast, proclaims our prophet, the one who trusts in the Lord is like a tree planted by a stream of flowing water, and to that water Jeremiah elsewhere compares the Lord (Jeremiah 2:13). Such a person is grounded and rooted in the life of God who never dies. So the person can bring forth good fruit in his or her life, fruit of the Spirit given by God (cf. Galatians 5:22-23). And in the heat of the day, vitality remains, unaffected by circumstance.
Significantly, Jeremiah centers trust in the heart (vv. 5, 10). It is there, in the inmost part of our being, that the prophets locate our dependence on God, for as Jesus says, it is what comes out of a person, out of the heart, that defiles him (Mark 7:14-23). If the heart is sound, life and good action flow out naturally, but if the heart is corrupt, out of it come evil thoughts and deeds. Thus, in his judgment on the Judeans, Jeremiah can say at the beginning of chapter 17 that the sin of Judah is engraved with a point of diamond on the heart (v. 1), and Ezekiel can call for the people to get themselves a new heart lest they die (Ezekiel 18:31). We are called to love God with all our heart (Mark 12:30; Deuteronomy 6:5), as well as with our soul and mind and strength, for it is in our hearts, as we all know, that our love abides. If we love persons with all our heart, we cherish them and try to please them and want to be with them. And so too, and much more, is to be the love and trust in our hearts for God.
Our text tells us that if we dedicate our hearts in love for God, and trust him with our lives in all things, we need not "fear when heat comes" (v. 8). And indeed, if our lives are firmly planted in God, what is there that can harm us? Suffering may come our way -- and it comes to all of us -- but God is there to comfort and to strengthen. Misfortunes and disappointments may mar our days, but even they can work for good in God's plans for our lives, if we love him (Romans 8:29). Death itself will meet us all, but in God's love, death is not final. Beyond the grave, there is the joyful promise of eternal life with the Father.
God examines our hearts, says our text, verse 10. We cannot escape that. Casual as we sometimes are about our religious faith, indifferent as someone may be to God and the things of God, the One in whose image we were created and with whom we are inextricably connected, sees and knows all that goes on in the depths of our inner selves. God created us in the first place, and now he knows us through and through. And before each one of us he sets that choice of faith, to live in him, nourished by his everlasting life and flourishing in his vitality, or to live for ourselves and meet the inevitable death that comes from our own meager resources. Jesus encapsulated the thought of our text when he set before us those two ways: Whoever saves his own life, relying on self and the world, will lose his life. But whoever loses his life, dedicating it totally to God, will save it (cf. Mark 8:35).
