"What We Already Possess", February 3, 2013

Jeremiah 1:4-10 Luke 4: 21-30 One of my favorite photos was taken several years ago, hiking with a group of Boy Scouts, in New Hampshire. At the time I was in my mid40s and did not imagine myself out of shape though keeping up with a group of 16-18 year olds as they ran up the side of mountains took my breath away. In order to join them, I had officiated at a wedding, then driven through the night to sleep an hour in the car, before beginning to climb. Within the first hour, I recognized how hard it was to breathe, how heavy my feet, and making it through the morning was all I could imagine, not hiking the entire Presidential Range of the White Mountains in a week. My heart was pounding, my lungs felt as though they could not get enough air, feet were plodding one in front of another like an old plow mule. I began imagining, that we would stop for lunch. If I could only keep up until then, over lunch I would describe how delighted I was to have joined them in starting off, and I could slip back down the mountain without causing my son excess embarrassment. When finally, we reached the first plateau, it dawned on me, there was no way back down that face of the mountain. Stretched out before us, was the expanse of one mountain rising and falling into the next, as literally we stood with our feet on the mountains and heads in the clouds. And our kids and their friends were no longer children calling out “Carry Me, Carry me!” but instead a company in the prime of their lives, expectant with what lay ahead. There is an odd tension in our readings this morning. Where many of the prophets were called to preach to other people, Jonah going to Ninevah, those from Israel prophesying to Judah, and Judah to Israel, Jeremiah was called to prophesy and preach to his own people. It is a difficult thing to be part of a community, and yet naming hidden truths, standing over against what we have become. Jesus came to his own Village in Nazareth, to his own family and friends, to the Synagogue where he had grown up. He read a famous passage from the scroll of Isaiah, and suddenly the people rush Jesus out of town trying to throw him off the top of a hill. The tensions of faith are continually recognizing that as much as 1) we strive for comforts, for safety and security, 2) there are realities we do not know, do not want to know, much as Jack Nicholson's character in A Few Good Men screaming at Tom Cruise from the witness stand of a Courtroom “You Can't Handle The TRUTH!” and 3) we recognize living life is for more than ourselves, our experience shapes our world, our children and history; and also, 4) that as unworthy and unable as we feel we are to accomplish even daily living, God has already provided all we need. The Old Testament Prophet Jeremiah was called to a difficult time in Israel's history. To preach and prophesy that The Chosen People of God, were going to be broken; the Children of God uprooted and cast aside, in order that God can do a new thing; that God could teach the people of faith: humility and woundedness; as well as to plant seeds offering hope and a foundation of the Blessings of God to all the world. Part of the difficulty for Jeremiah, was that the Hebrew word for “Other Nations,” for anything and everything “Non-Jewish,” to whom he was to offer promise, was GOYIM which is the same word as Enemy. Whenever Nations adopt a world view that everyone else is our enemy, whenever we believe everyone else is to be feared and conquered, we are in trouble. But Jeremiah was promised that he was not alone, the words he would be given were not his words but were from God. Throughout the Scriptures there are descriptions of prophets receiving “A Calling”, Moses at the burning bush, Amos to leave the herds and sycamores to plead for the poor, Isaiah with Vision of the Kingdom of God with seraphim that touch his lips. For me, it was in High School and College being taken aside by adults I respected who affirmed different gifts and the challenge of using these through the church to care for people in need. And again over and over throughout the experience of ministry. For Jeremiah, it was assurance that before he was born God had given him all he needed to possess, in order to preach and prophesy. This is not an arrogant thing, of wanting to get one's own way so claiming “God told me” or “My words are God's words” but rather realization that you can do nothing else but respond. One of everyone's favorite stories has become The Wizard of Oz, whether Frank Baum's story for children, or Judy Garland's Movie, this has become part of American culture of the 20th and 21st Centuries. SO much a part of who we are, that there are now pre-quills Wicked telling the story of how the Witches came to be, and The Great & Powerful Oz telling of how the Wizard came to be. Throughout the original, the Scarecrow searches for Proof of a Brain, the Tinman for the sound of a Beating Heart, the Lion for Courage, and Dorothy for a Home. In the end, the Wizard gives the Scarecrow a Diploma in assurance of the wisdom he possesses; the Tinman is assured of having a heart with a ticking watch that different from a human heart can never be broken; the Lion is assured of his courage under fire with a Medal for his Bravery; and if only the child wishes and opens their eyes they will see, we will see, we are already HOME. Paying attention to what is said in the Gospel of Luke, it is not that the people suddenly were rude and challenging to Jesus; but that this one of their company, Mary and Joseph's little boy, chastises and challenges his community. “Doubtless you will ask me to do for you, miracles done elsewhere. Recall that when a 7 year drought happened to all Israel, the only place God provided rain was to one who was not like us. When so many had leprosy, Naaman a Military Officer from the Syrians was healed by the Prophet.” Speaking as an insider, Jesus revealed to his own community that the point of miracles was not power for the Elect, but a witness for all the World. The greatest challenge for the Church today is not our own survival, but rather demonstrating to the world what we believe as why they should believe. We have in our possession stories of those who were described as LOST receiving a HOME; stories of those with CANCERS going on to live full and vital lives; those who in other times and other communities might have been ABANDONED instead being REDEEMED. Are our examples of faith like a diploma mounted on the wall, like a watch in our pocket, like a medal in a box? Or can we be challenged to reflect on our experience, to grow in faith and witness to others. Recognize when doing so, that these are not stories of accomplishment and self-congratulating, but rather that the reason why churches have had abuses happen was that we could not believe our leaders could do wrong. And that when there was crisis and conflict, we had difficulty trusting.