Readings: Jeremiah 28: 5-9, Matthew 10:40-42
Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations
of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God, our rock and our
sustainer. Amen.
A debating chamber – two worthy opponents –
the prophets Jeremiah and Hananiah – the moot is ‘Should Judah rebel against
the Babylonians? And Jeremiah takes the
negative. Seems that he often gets on to
that less than popular side of the subject.
Hananiah, arguing for the positive and supporting the view of his King,
passionately believes that he is in the right, is representing the way of God
and the nation, sure of the timing and that right is on their side. Jeremiah, also passionate and articulate,
begins his response with a wee touch of sarcasm (as all good debaters do) and
says that he hopes and prays that what Hananiah says is true and that they
could welcome back the exiles and all the vessels of the House of the
Lord. But no he says we must submit to
the yoke of the Babylonians if we want to stay alive. Wait instead for the prophet of peace.
And when the vote was cast, Hananiah took
the day –war was declared - and Jerusalem was destroyed and the people killed
and scattered.
Both men believed they knew the truth of
God, and yet the way taken was, with hindsight, devastating in its consequences.
How do we decide when we are faced with
those situations, where both options seem to have wisdom and faith and
integrity, where we respect the speakers and can see the possibilities of
both? Is it always the conservative ‘do
nothing’ approach that should win (the Jeremiah way on this occasion), or
should we always step out into adventure sure that God is with us and will
protect and guide us.
God’s people, then and now, called to
discern the truth and act accordingly – yet faced with differing visions of God
and God’s plan for them.
If we dig a bit deeper into the different
approaches of Hananiah and Jeremiah – it becomes a little clearer. Hananiah, and his King Zedekiah, have a
strong focus on the covenantal tie with God, a tie that they believe will
release the people from a yoke that they despise, that they are discomforted
by. You could say they expect
deliverance as a matter of course, prosperity as a direct result of their
established relationship with God.
Jeremiah, on the other hand, sees this
covenantal faithfulness of Jahweh not as an automatic insurance policy but
rather rooted in an ongoing living relationship that requires the question each
day ‘What is it that you ask of us today, O Lord? What is it that we must discern from your
many teachings and your deep wisdom and your spirit in our hearts – for this
day?
On Wednesday night the first of our Winter
Worship series looks at the question of spiritual carelessness or lack of
spiritual discipline in our lives. It
will raise the question of being spiritually fit for making discerning
responses to God’s word for us and challenge us for the times that we make
decisions without thinking through the ramifications for God’s people and God’s
world.
Might I say then that Jeremiah was not as
spiritually careless than Hananiah? He
went deeper that just past relationship – he discerned God’s way by listening
with all his considerable heart, soul and mind to the word of God for this
moment. And that word centred on the
coming of the prophet who would bring peace, not war, love not hatred,
compassion not vengeance. And so he
prophesied – be still and do not rebel.
Decisions face us as a congregation over
the next year or so – the future of the ordained ministry, building issues,
commitments to community and to mission, sustainability - both financial and energy-wise, and others
not yet known. We even need to make decisions about whether we need to make
decisions! Options are always plentiful,
some safe, some scary, some clear whilst others are exceedingly cloudy and we,
as God’s people in this community are to discern God’s voice in our choosing. We will all have varying opinions, we all
would approach things in different ways – by nature some of us are risk takers,
others change adverse, some have a long vision, some a ‘today is enough’ approach. Without the benefit of hindsight, how do we
know what is the ‘right’ thing to do. In fact, is there a ‘right way’ or just
different ways? And how do we creatively and hopefully and
usefully sit in that space between what is and what could be?
Some thoughts. Real discernment begins with silencing our own
voice, being still in the presence of God – as one commentator puts it, when we
are needing to choose a way, the first thing we are to do is “to invite God
into our discernment, to listen more deeply than we have ever listened before,
to pray that we may get far enough out of the way that God’s will may find its
way in.”[1]
Times of prayer, of silent reflection, of
recognising our oneness and shared community in Christ and setting aside, just
for the moment, our own opinions and solutions are the beginnings of discerning
the answer to that question ‘What is it that you ask of us today, God?’
In those times when we put aside personal
agendas and rest quietly in the vision that God has for this world unexpected
and often unwelcome possibilities can arise, can have a voice. Whether it is adventurous or continuing
without change it will be scary and uncomfortable for some of us. But how we be sure that our discernment is
faithful to God?
We examine our vision against our
understanding of God! Are we expecting
some future surety against past faithfulness as Hananiah seemed to? Or do we believe in the living God who asks
us that tricky question each day – what do you want us to do? We believe not because we are owed but
because we love and are loved.
Can we hold our vision up against the teachings
of Christ – where love, mercy, justice, compassion, peace are preached and
lived – and are worth disturbing our comfort for? If the answer is in any way ‘no’ then we should
be concerned, aware of the danger signs.
We all have our special words of teaching
that speak deeply to us. I constantly
anchor in the words from Micah : ‘What does your Lord require of you but to do
justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God.’[2] These words are one of my measures if you
like, a teaching that is so deeply embedded I can and do hold my choices and
actions up to its light. The words from
the Gospel of Matthew that we heard today may well be the ones for you “Whoever
welcomes you welcomes me and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent
me...[3]” And how do they all sit within Jesus’
commandment to us to love God, and our neighbours as ourselves.
So we are quiet in the presence of God, we
discern our way in the knowledge of our understanding of God’s love and justice
and mercy is for all, we look to the teachings and life of Jesus to bring light
to our path and we walk that path in faith.
I want to finish with a story from today of
a decision for action that is being formed.
Last week I talked about the persecutions and horrors within Iraq and Syria
– today I invite us to consider the choice of response that the world has and could
make to this. Jim Wallis, in his regular
blog called ‘God’s Politics[4]’
talks of the situation in Iraq: First he
talks about what I would call the ‘Hananiah’ decision of the US to respond to
9/11 by declaring a war of invasion and occupation, a decision that with
hindsight is patently arrogant, wrong and incredibly devastating for so many
people. Then he suggests that there has
been no moment of reflection on the ‘absolute wrongness’ of this, of some
admission of mistakes made. Then he asks
what is the way of Jesus – what does scripture point us to? He quotes from both Matthew “Blessed are the
peacemakers for they will be called children of God[5]”
and then from Romans where Paul says: “if
your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty give them something to
drink, for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads. Do not be
overcome by evil but overcome evil with good”.[6]
And his conclusion: As Paul suggests, we surprise our ‘enemies’
in ways that cause them to reconsider their actions and their attitudes. Rather that engaging in warfare, making the people
angrier and hungrier, why don’t we engage in giving them something to drink –
give food and medicine, flooding those countries with the things they desperately
need with a generosity that would make them stop and think that maybe there is
another way. Imagine if the billions
spent on war had been spent on feeding the hungry, water to the thirsty
instead. Naive, maybe – but discerning and
practicing the way of Christ? ‘Oh yes! Amen
Margaret Garland
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