you thought God was an architect,

now you know

He’s something like a pipe bomb, ready to blow

A sermon on that time Jeremiah's sermon was destroyed:

Why is it, do you suppose, that at the time we should be most open, we are so often most closed off?

It’s happened to us all. Hasn’t it? We all have times when we should have listened, but instead, we raised our voices. We all have times when we should have softened, but instead, we stiffened our spin. We all have times when we should have opened our hands, but instead, we balled them into fists. We all have times when we should kept an open mind, but instead, we were hardheaded.

There’s no shortage of times and places when we did the basically exact wrong thing. Don’t we? We were closed off when we should have been open. We were stubborn when we should have been understanding. We were firm when we should have been tender.

Why is that? Why are we most closed off when we should be most open? And why do we tend to do this at the most inopportune time, too?!? Tell me! Why is it, do you suppose, that at the time we should be most open, we are so often most closed off?

You don’t have to live more than a little to realize that so much of life is so terribly fragile. But for all that insight, we don’t often act that way. Do we? No, we tend to ride roughshod through this, yes, helter-skelter, but also precious and miraculous little existence of ours. And all we have to show for all our doggedness are all the bodies and broken relationships left in our wake.

Speaking for myself, these are the source of some of my greatest regrets. “If only I had listened.” “If only I had said something.” “If only I hadn’t.” “If only I had done something.” “If only I hadn’t.” “If only that hadn’t happened.” “If only it had.” If only. 

If only I had been more considerate. If only I had been more caring. If only I had been more kind. If only.

It’s tragic. It’s heartbreaking. It’s common. But worst of all, it’s altogether unnecessary.

…It’d be a whole heck of a lot easier if we knew when we were staring down one of those moments. Wouldn’t it? And sure, sometimes we can tell a moment is significant. However, those are also the times we’re most liable to lose our head! Aren’t they?

Be that as it may, the crucial moments are so often so humdrum. Aren’t they? At that time, the momentous moment seems altogether insignificant. It’s only after the damage has been done that we realize what thin ice we were skating. You never know you are on a razor’s edge until you fall and hurt yourself or someone else.

It’s like Jason Isbell sings on the song 24 Frames. “You thought God was an architect, now you know / He’s something like a pipe bomb, ready to blow / And everything you built that’s all for show goes up in flames / in 24 frames.” Twenty-four frames, by the way, is the standard frame rate for movies and television. Twenty-four frames is what ticks by in a second. In other words, Isbell is saying it only takes an instant for everything to go to pieces. 

It’s taken me a while to realize this. I thought life was mostly odds. But then I’ve been with you through the excruciating exceptions that prove the rule. In those awful instances, I learned we’re all on the brim all of the time.

Yes, I might be relatively healthy right now. But all it takes is one little change, and it all goes right out the window. A diagnosis, freak accident, what the insurance industry calls an “act of god,” (and we know how real those are. Don’t We?) or even just a subtle shift in my brain chemicals, and it’s all up for grabs. Isn’t it? As the saying goes, we’re all only one bad day away from being in the tabloids. 

Yes, it’s tough to face your mortality little by little, but you also learn to live in reality. The rest of us are just pretending. We’re all acting like we’re holding our lives down. In truth, we’re all just hanging by a thread. 

It goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway. Acting as if we’re immortal doesn’t make life any easier. If anything, it just makes it more painful. No, you can’t protect yourself from life’s heartbreaks. That’s the price of love. However, you can prepare yourself for its inevitability. You can understand it’s not an anomaly when mortality comes your way.

This isn’t morbid, either. Remembering your mortality is faithful. It’s how we kick off Lent. Isn’t it? And it also helps you cherish the wonder of this dear ol’ world, too. Recognizing the fleeting nature of this mortal coil engenders due nurture, humility, wonder, and care.

…This seems to be everything King Jehoiakim lacks in today’s Scripture, too. Doesn’t it? If he knows he’s hearing holy writ, he sure doesn’t act like it! He casually sits there and cuts and burns up the word of God!

That’s not all, either. King Jehoiakim isn’t just playing fast and loose with the word of God. No, he’s also careless with his own kingdom! The enemy Jeremiah warns of it already at the gate! Yet, for all that, Jehoiakim just sits there like he doesn’t have a care in the world!

If anything, the king appears to believe he’s the arbiter of reality. He acts as if he’s the one who decides what’s important. The king is indifferent to the cries of the prophet, the people, and even his own problems, too! King Jehoiakim seems to think he’s calling all the shots. In reality, though, he’s just sealing his own fate.

In a tragic twist, the very same thing happens to King Jehoiakim that he did to the word of the Lord! Like the Scripture Jehoiakim so carelessly tossed in the fire, so is the kingdom burned to the ground. When it’s all said and done, nothing is left. No one even knows what became of Jehoiakim himself. He may have been assassinated. He may have died naturally or been a casualty of war during Babylon’s invasion. Either way, like the Scripture, Jehoiakim, too, is cut off.

It’s strange, though. Is it not? Here we are, hearing of this incident! But think of it! We shouldn’t! We shouldn’t!

For one thing, the kingdom was sacked! For another, so was this very Scripture! This incident should be lost to the happenstance of history. Yet, somehow, here we are, listening to it!

…Today’s Scripture has just caught up with us! Hasn’t it? Incredibly, we’re hearing tell of the demise of the king who destroyed this very record! Impossibly, this passage speaks of its own silencing! 

But lo! Despite that wintry fire and smoldering fury—we have in hand the very Scripture the king sought to destroy! His fires have long since burnt out. Yet, alleluia, the word of God blazes forth! Does it not?!?

A miracle! You are hearing what the king would censor! You are hearing what the years would quell! At this very moment, the word of God is rearranging time itself! The past is no longer past! The past is now present! And with it, the future swings wide open, too!

This, by the way, is all eternity is! Eternity is not a long stretch of time. No, eternity is the end of time! Eternity is the unlocking of past, present, and future forevermore, kingdom without end!

But here’s the thing: you don’t have to wait for eternity anymore. No, God is making it happen right now! God is bringing the past into the present! And in the process, God is giving the future, as well! No longer is the future something that’s determined by the past. And no longer is it something you must carve out yourself. No, now the future bursts with unanticipated possibilities all by itself, without any help from you or me!

And if you’re not so sure, I get it. But just get a load of this: + In the mercy of almighty God, Jesus Christ was given to die for us, and for his sake God forgives us all our sins! As a called and ordained minister of the church of Christ, and by his authority, I therefore declare to you the entire forgiveness of all your sins, in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit! Amen. Right?

…Now, don’t go thinking I just repeated some mere words, either! No, God has moved heaven and earth to make them ring out just now! It’s no accident you just heard this! God planned it! What you just heard is henceforth the truest thing about you!

With those words, Jeremiah’s prophecy is fulfilled! God has forgiven your iniquity and remembers your sin no more! Now, past sins are presently forgiven! Now, future impossibilities become present realities! Or, to put it another way, apocalypse now! Apocalypse now. You don’t even have to wait for the world to go to pieces. Christ brings it to you today in his pierced hands! Apocalypse now.

This is who Christ is, people of God! Christ is the alpha, and he’s the omega! Christ is the beginning, and he’s also the end! Christ is the firstborn of creation. He’s the lamb slain from the foundation of the world! 

Christ holds time in his hand. And he gives it free and easy, too! And he gives it right now! He gives it right here! Or did you forget? Wherever two or more are gathered in his name, there Christ is! Christ is the word of God! And in these very words, the Holy Spirit makes Christ present! 

That’s what our window depicts! Our window is not a mere artistic rendering. No, it’s a window to heaven! Our window is a glimpse of what really happens here in worship! 

And what really happens is that Christ steps out of eternity to give us all of himself! Yes, this includes his very body and blood. But it also includes all his blessings that always follow in tow, including the fullness of time itself! Apocalypse now!

We tend to think the future is what we have some say over. And the past is what’s over and done with. But that’s actually all backward! First of all, and we’ll keep miracles out of the picture—but first of all, the future always comes of its own accord. You can’t make the future come to pass any more than you can retrieve the past. Can you?

Don’t go thinking the present is what you have control over, either. You don’t! And if you don’t believe me, just try to stop the present. Hold this moment still in your hands right now!

Go ahead! I’m waiting! 

…You can’t. Can you? Of course, you can’t! Whatever else the present is, it’s both over and done with and still to come, too. You can’t control the present any more than you can capture the bird in flight. Either you freeze the thing, or you paint a blur. Regardless, it’s a far cry from the glory of the real deal. Isn’t it?

Back to my original point, though. It’s not the future we have control over. It’s the past. Now, let it be said, on our own, this isn’t true. None of us can revive the past.

Do you know who can, though? Were you thinking Jesus Christ? I hope you were! I hope you were because that would be exactly right! Christ is the one raised from the dead! By his resurrection, Christ stands on the other side of time itself! Now, Christ can redeem your past! And this redemption, it’s your future unfurling before you in less than twenty-four frames!

This is no abstract sentiment, either! You can put it to good use right now! You can ask for forgiveness for past sins. And you can ask the party you wronged, too!

Yes, this is a risky proposition! But that’s what it actually means to be free for the future! In Christ, you’re not doomed to your past. And neither do you have to protect your future, either! Instead, you can ask for forgiveness, come what may!

And this, “come what may,” it’s truly free, too! Maybe the other party won’t forgive you. But maybe they will! Maybe it will be the beginning of a testimony of what God’s love can do.

…But then again, maybe not. Maybe they’ll hold their grudge. Who knows! Do you know what, though? That’s not your problem! 

The future isn’t something you have to control anymore! No, the future is what God, the Holy Spirit, freely gives! And you, you’re free from that burden you were never meant to bear! Instead, you simply get to exist as a creature beloved by your creator!

Go ahead and risk mercy. Maybe you’ll take one on the chin for it. But do you know what? It’s a whole lot better than a little life of tit for tat! 

Best of all, though, it’s obedient to Jesus! You can’t lose more than he’ll give. There’s no end to God’s goodness! As the beloved hymn puts it, “When we’ve been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we’d first begun.”

There’s more, too! You are now freed from your grudges! Now, you can preemptively tell someone you forgive them! You don’t have to wait for that so-and-so who did you dirty to ask for forgiveness! You don’t have to make them hang on that line you know is so miserable! No, now you can just go out there and forgive as willy-nilly as you please!

That’s not all, either! You can even do one better! Now, you can just go out there and like others! You don’t have to make people prove themselves to you! Instead, you can just decide that you’re fond of them simply for the fact that God is over the moon for them! It’s like they say in some churches, “I love you and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

I’ll admit, it’s a risky proposition. But isn’t that half the fun? Now that the future isn’t in your hands, it’s all a gift! It can go right, it can go wrong, but in Christ, it’s all home free in his resurrected body presently seated at the right hand of the Father in our midst!

…And there it is. Isn’t it? In Christ, the one who lives life backward, that life we all desire comes as naturally as a good tree bearing good fruit. Now that you need take no thought for morrow, you become that gentle creature who is congenitally conscientious, considerate, and kind!

And if that wasn’t enough, even though it plainly more than we deserve, God has even provided for all those times we fall short of this glory, too! As we said, in Christ, you can ask for forgiveness when you fail to love. But now I’m repeating myself. Aren’t I?

I guess the hymn was right. Isn’t it? “When we’ve been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we’d first begun.”

Let’s not talk about it, though. Let’s sing it! And let’s sing it for ourselves! Our Hymn of the Day is hymn number 779, Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound. 

I know that’s not what’s in the bulletin. But hey, the Holy Spirit is free to forge a new future any time! We’re just following God’s lead! Hymn number 779, Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound. Let’s sing!