Prayer, Praise and Thanksgiving – Sermon Oct 10, 2010
October 10, 2010
Scriptures
Jeremiah 29: 1, 4-7, 11 : These are the words of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the remaining elders among the exiles, and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. It said: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.
Luke 17:11-19: On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”
Sermon: Prayer, Praise and Thanksgiving
Rev. Doreen Oughton
I was so affected by the words of Jeremiah in today’s Hebrew scripture reading. I kept trying to imagine the life of the exile, to put myself in the shoes of someone who had been banished from their homeland, from their community and country. I have trouble imagining what it is like for people forced to leave their dwelling places – by poor conditions, increased rents, balloon interest payments due, inability to pay rent or mortgage for various reasons. I have moved many times in my adult life, but always by choice, always based on my own or my family’s needs and desires. I’ve never had to leave a place because a job loss or health crisis made it impossible to stay where I was. And whenever I did move, I managed to stay connected to what I considered my community – my friends, family, and work. But today’s scripture passages challenged me to consider the plight of those forced away, those without a choice. First we heard about the Israelites in exile who receive a letter from the prophet Jeremiah. Here’s the story behind his call to them to build houses in Babylon and live in them, to marry and have children, to see their children marry and have children.
Though Israel had long had her own kings, she was usually under the control of a larger nation. For a few decades before Jeremiah sent this letter, some 2600 years ago, Israel had been under the control of Egypt, and control passed to Babylon when Egypt was defeated by the Babylonians. After a few years of peaceful coexistence with the Babylonian rule, the king of Judah rebelled. Jerusalem was besieged, the Temple plundered but left standing, and many Israelites were exiled to Babylon, including the rulers, the religious leaders such as priests and prophets, and all the skilled artisans and laborers. Psalm 137 gives a hint of the terrible grief of those in exile: By the rivers of Babylon— there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion. On the willows there we hung up our harps. For there our captors asked us for songs, and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” How could we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither! Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy. Can you imagine the shell shock, the sense of loss, both for those in exile and those left behind in Israel? A nation broken, a way of life forever gone. The Temple had been integral to the religious life of the Israelites. It was where God resided. It held the sacred documents and contained all the mysteries. It was the place where sacrifices were offered, rites of passage conducted, where people studied scripture and mined its riches. The Jewish people did not believe they could truly worship apart from the temple. They didn’t know how to have a relationship with their God without it. Such a terrible loss for those in exile.
Now Jeremiah was not such an important prophet at the time. The Babylonians didn’t see him as worth the trouble of deporting him from Israel, so he stayed in Jerusalem for a time, until his some of his followers convinced him to go with them to Egypt. There were other prophets who were saying that the exile to Babylon would be very short-lived, just a few years and they would be released. God would not let his people stay so far from him for so long, but would gather them back home. Jeremiah had a different prophesy. He got word to the community in exile that it was not to be short-lived, that the exile would in fact last for generations. He cautions them not to hang their hopes on a quick release, but to settle in, figure out how to be a community, how to worship God, how to practice their faith right there in Babylon. Their exile, he tells them, was God’s will.
The Israelites were captives in Babylon, but the conditions they lived in were not so terrible. They hadn’t been sold off into slavery, were allowed to keep their families, their communities, their public gatherings and their worship services. They now had the chance to learn new ways to connect with God, to live out their faith. They were being given the chance to show that the people of God can bloom wherever they are planted. Take this chance, says Jeremiah, build houses, take spouses, have children, have grandchildren. Don’t just hang in there and wait, let yourself blossom. Don’t spend all your time weeping and mourning, live now, live as fully as you can, even if the situation is difficult. Don’t forget Jerusalem, but pick up your harps and sing your songs and be who you are, people of God.
The story in the Gospel is some 600 years after Jeremiah’s prophesy, and tells of another type of community in exile. The lepers were sent from their homes and communities, unable to live with their families, unable to participate in any worship life. They were to announce their status as a warning to those who were not infected, calling out “unclean, unclean,” as they passed through. There was no obligation on anybody to care for them, to make sure they ate, had shelter or any modicum of safety. They were completely dependent on kindness of others. Now since they didn’t have great diagnostic tools in those days, it was thought better safe than sorry, so anyone with a bad skin condition was exiled from the community. If the condition improved, they could show themselves to the temple priests to be declared clean again, and restored to the community. And so when the group of 10 lepers asked Jesus to show them mercy, he sent them to the priests so that they could be declared clean and return to their families and communities.
Both of these scripture readings deal with situations that are truly beyond my grasp, situations that seem so devastating and difficult that I don’t have any personal experience with which to connect. And what strikes me in these readings is how little awfulizing there is in them. Now perhaps the horridness of the situation was apparent to the original listeners of the story without any need for embellishment. But to me they sound very matter of fact. Jeremiah says, you people in exile, settle in. Jesus says, you lepers who are on the outs, go see the priest and be restored. I can’t help but contrast that with what I see going on in our times.
I know these are difficult years for many people. I know that even in this day and age, in this country, people are driven from their homes. Job loss or medical expenses make it impossible to stay. People have been displaced from jobs that are outsourced, the security we counted on is threatened. We are confronted with more and more people who are different from us, whose ways and customs may be making such inroads in our society that some feel our land is being taken over. Things are so different from the way they used to be, when children could safely go out and play on their own, when almost every family we knew went to church together on Sunday, when parents and teachers had not only the right but the responsibility to discipline their children. Things have changed over the decades, eroded over the years. And I hear a lot of awfulizing. I hear a lot of blame.
I hear a lot of it especially around election time, and with mid-term elections just a few weeks away, it is really amped up. I hear people talking about what a terrible mess these ones got us in, and what a terrible mess it was leading up to that, and how horrible it will be if those people stay in power, or if those ones get in power. We’ll be come a socialist nation, it’s an elitist agenda, crime will rise, we’ll be overrun by immigrants, we’ll have more children starving and dying, the government will take all our savings, we’ll be taxed at 90%, it will be a police state, we’ll lose all our civil and even human rights. That one’s a liar, this one’s a hypocrite, they’re all corrupt and only in it for themselves. Awful, awful, awful!
If you have fears about this election, about what is going on in this country, I urge you to hear Jeremiah’s words: Make a home for yourself and live in it, raise up the next generation, and witness the one after that. And not only that, but pray for the place of your exile. Wherever you feel you have been displaced, put out, threatened by, pray for that place. Seek your welfare in its welfare. Seek your welfare in the welfare of the governance of this land, no matter which party has more representatives. Pray for the success of this place, the well-being of people of this time. Show that you are people of God who can bloom wherever you are planted.
Now I am not saying you should be resigned or fatalistic. I am not saying you should not work to change or improve things for yourself or for others. I’m not saying that things aren’t difficult and couldn’t very well stay that way for some time. I am also aware that in 2010 there are real, frightening, international conflicts. There are nations and communities that would see others destroyed and would see us destroyed – nationally, politically, religiously, socially, and economically. But still, God’s word is to pray for our enemies, for in their welfare we will find our welfare.
How would things be different if what we focused on was who we are as people of God? How would things be different if we truly invested ourselves into whatever life situation we find ourselves in, praying for the community around us whether it is the one we are most comfortable and secure in or not? How would things be different if instead of just accepting the healing gifts of God and moving right back into our familiar communities, we let ourselves be struck with awe and gratitude over what we have been given? What if we were over-the-top effusive with our praise and thanksgiving? What if we sought not just cleansing, but a healing and wholeness that makes us well, exceedingly well? What if we trusted that God’s plan truly is for our welfare, not for harm, and that our future is full of hope? Is this not the good news we are called to witness? Is this not the promise of the resurrection? Let us not forget it as we go out into the world, but let our trust and hope in God’s promise shine through like a beacon in difficult times, as we invest ourselves where we are, planted by God, primed to blossom and bloom. Amen.
