Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Church Episcopal
August 28, 2016
17 Proper C
When our sons
Slocomb and Caldwell were young, they loved to hear stories about themselves as
babies. They loved to hear about the
power they wielded over us in the middle of the night as tiny little guys. As they got older, they wanted stories about
themselves when they were in preschool or elementary school. They loved hearing about the time they took
the sidewalk chalk outside, got some water, took off their clothes, and painted
their bodies. In the front yard. On a busy intersection. As they grew up, their interests turned more
toward stories about Don and myself when we were little. They pumped our parents, their grandparents,
for stories they could use against us. As
adults, our kids love hearing their grandparents’ stories, stories of an era
very different from theirs in many ways, back before homes had televisions, or
telephones, or even electricity, and when hitchhiking was a viable means of
transportation. As adults, our sons know
that the stories of their parents and grandparents are part of their own
stories, and they recognize common themes, character traits, and skills among
members of our family. Knowing the wider
family story helps them make sense of their own stories and helps them feel
connected to something bigger than their current experience.
When
Jeremiah lights into the people this morning, what is their sin? Their sin is
that they do not know their story. They have forgotten the story of the God who
brought them up from the land of Egypt, led them in the wilderness, and brought
them into a plentiful land. Instead, the people have gone after worthless
things and have become worthless themselves. When times are tough, as they were
in the late 6th and early 5th centuries BC, the
first port in a storm will have to do if the boat is flimsy. The people of
Judah were facing conquest and destruction by the Babylonians. The threat was
grave and the people of God were scared. Because the people had forgotten their
story, forgotten the miraculous and faithful actions of God on their behalf in
the past, their spiritual boat was flimsy and they turned to the easily available
gods that did not actually exist and had no power to save the people from destruction.
They forgot their story and had only water from leaky cisterns to quench their
thirst rather the abundant and available living water. The psalmist echoes the
same cry when God says "I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of
the land of Egypt. Open your mouth and I will fill it. But my people did not
listen to my voice, so I gave them over to their stubborn hearts." The
people had forgotten their story, made bad decisions, and God let them suffer
the consequences.
The book of Hebrews was written to encourage weary but faithful Christians. Our passage this morning appeals to the story of Scripture when the author writes "Let mutual love continue-do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers." The reader is reminded that, in the sacred story, Abraham and Sarah show hospitality to three strangers who turn out to be messengers, or angels, of God. Likewise, Jesus does not just make up his instructions about table etiquette at a dinner party, nor is he simply dispensing common sense advice. The instructions he gives are grounded in the larger story of Scripture. The book of Proverbs has similar instruction about being humble and avoiding arrogance while dining at the table of a ruler. Proverbs 26 says "Do not put yourself forward in the king’s presence or stand in the place of the great; for it is better to be told, ‘Come up here,’ than to be put lower in the presence of a noble.” And throughout scripture, God’s people are called to care for the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. All of our readings this morning point us to the larger story of God and God’s people.
Jeremiah reminds us that when we try to rely only on our personal experience of God in the current moment to get us through whatever predicament we face, we may find the well dry and we will turn to whatever god is convenient even if that god has no power to help us. When we know the story of God and God’s people, we know that our God is the God who more often sustains us for the journey than offers a quick fix. We know that God often uses the least likely people to work in our lives rather than the most likely people. And we know that, in hind sight, God is as often found in the places where God seemed most absent as in the places where God was so obviously present. Above all, the sacred story tells us that our God is the God who loves us unconditionally and that the valley of the shadow of death never has the final word. When we know the sacred story, we can be nourished from fountains of living water even when our thirst is too deep for words. But, as Jeremiah reminds us, we have to know the story.
Amen.
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