discipleship sermon II

from exodus for exile

 

As we noted during earlier, we're moving through a lot of time, quickly....

Last week we had Exodus, or liberation.

What happened between that story last week and the story of exile this week is that those people of God, after some years wandering in the wilderness did, finally, come into the promised land!

Before the people came into the land, though, Moses stops them and gives a sermon. A sermon reminding the people who they are, and reminding them of the laws God gave them at that mountain.

It is almost as if Moses is saying, it is important to pause before we get to the promise because should we ever forget God's commands, if we should forget who we are and where we came, from it will be all to easy for us to turn into the Egyptians ourselves...

There's the tragedy of the story of exile;

Something happened once God's people finally reached the promise...

Have you ever heard that rhetorical question:

What's worse than getting everything you want?

The answer being, nothing.

That's the problem with folks like us, once we get what we want, we decide it isn't enough... And true as it is for us today, it was the same for God's people so many years ago.

After all those perils faced before finally getting to that land God promised, you'd think God's people would be satisfied once they ultimately reached the promise.

That isn't what happened, though...

What happened, was that God's people looked around them, saw the other nations had kings and grandiose palaces.

The Israelites, despite much protesting from the prophets, decided to become a nation-state, just like their power-house neighbors.

Tragically the Israelites failed to heed that warning of Moses before they came into the land God had promised.

The Israelites gave up the identity God had given them, to be a particular people.  They decided to be like everyone else instead, to become an Egypt in other words...

In that process, of course, the Israelites lost sight of their story...

 

The context for our first reading is many years into this kingdom the Israelites decided they wanted to build, the kingdom they wanted to be...

The Israelites, tragically, have slowly been moving from the story of who they are and whose they are, to a story of a powerful kingdom.

As the Israelites understand themselves more and more through the storyline of a kingdom, they forget the story of who they are, what God has done for them.

 

In the midst of that forgetting, God has sent prophet after prophet to remind the people, to speak to the king, calling God's people back to their true identity, their true story.

Unfortunately, all of those calls from the prophets have been ignored.

This is the context of the first reading...

 

After thePsalm:

What happened is that, indeed, another nation, Babylon, came into the promised land and conquered Israel; destroying the temple, and making the people leave their homes, their nation to live in exile in a foreign land.

In that first reading, Jeremiah spoke to the consequences of the people's action. The Psalm we sang in response to that reading captured the pain and sorrow the Israelites felt after being taken from that land God had promised them, away from their home...

 

Now all too often, the prophets' writings such as the one we just heard are read through a simple formula; follow God's rules, and if this rules are not followed will be this punishment.

You can still see the logic, if that's what you want to call it, operate in those people who say some natural disaster or tragedy is God's punishment for something or another.

What I would suggest is that this kind of reasoning is not true to how the prophets spoke, is not true to how God works, and is not faithful in the least bit.

 

Here is what Jeremiah is doing; as Jeremiah watches the people give up their identity to be like everyone else, Jeremiah describes the consequences of this behavior, of forgetting who we are.

Notice, though, what Jeremiah is not saying; Jeremiah is not saying that because God is upset God is going to rain disaster.

 

What Jeremiah is saying is that tragically the people of God have forgotten who they are, whose they are.

Jeremiah is crying out against God's people grabbing for a story different than the one God is telling about them.

Jeremiah is crying out against the drift from being a particular people of God, toward a nation like the rest,

a nation that is always beset by conflict in a never-ending pursuit of power,

a nation like Egypt, the place they were freed from...

Let us be clear, Jeremiah is not describing God's punishment!

Rather, Jeremiah is describing the terrible world God's people have fooled themselves into believing they want to live in; a world that will inevitably lead to exile from God...

Jeremiah's prophecy we just read is a description of the sad consequences of the people of God forgetting who they are, forgetting the story God calls them to...

I believe that today, here and now we can relate to that sense of confusion of the Israelites must have felt as they drifted away from their identity...

For instance, you know something that has always befuddled me is what people think a pastor is;

a CEO of a church,

a church-builder,

a church-planter,

a property manager,

an organizational manager,

a chair of this-that-or-the-other committee,

an executive or manager.

Sadly, though, not often do we describe a pastor as a spiritual advisor, a shepherd, or something of that nature.

Sure there may be lip-service to these roles, but more often than not we expect our pastors to act like a of a small business manager, and not someone called to walk with God's people to live out that challenging calling to be a church.

Here's the tragic thing, at some point in the history of the church in North America, we decided we would rather have the church be like a big business.

We built centralized headquarters, hired executives and professionals, forgetting the central calling of the church, to be a people shaped by the cross, a people spreading the good news, a people who give themselves away.

 

Notice how similar our situation is to those Israelites who found themselves in exile. These Israelites decides being a particular people wasn't enough and tried to be like everyone else; only to find themselves away from home and wondering who they were...

That strikes close to home...

 

Today, as we watch so many large corporations fail, many of us in the church wonder why we're failing too, forgetting we've tied our fate so closely to theirs...

See Jeremiah's words are as apt today as they were then.

As we try to be like the power-players in our world, tying our fate to theirs; it becomes all too easy to forget who we are, whose we are - just like those Israelites in exile.

Jeremiah spoke to remind God's people, God's people of every time, that as we forget who we are, we run the risk of finding ourselves exiled from the places God promises to us.

Not because God wants to punish us, but because when we forget who we are we’re all too likely to act out of character, and give away God's promises for some other dream...

The light shines in the darkness, though.

Thankfully.

You know, Jeremiah didn't stop prophesying once the people found themselves in exile.

That is the context of our next reading...

After SecondReading:

In the midst of that exile, right in the middle of the consequences of trying to be like every other nation, God still speaks...

God still speaks to the people who have turned from God!

God doesn't give up on God's people.

Not only that, though, God also insists that God plans for the Israelites' welfare.

And just in case that wasn't enough, God even doubles-down, insisting that God will get the people back to the promised land yet.

Wow...

 

Here is why it is so important for disciples like us to be so familiar with these stories of God; because we can relate to living in exile.

As we've found ourselves estranged from home, wondering who we are now, we have wondered if God will ever lead us back to that promised land

See this story of exile can give us hope, it can help us understand where are now.

Here is the million-dollar question this story prompts; if God spoke to those people in exile then with good news, could God speak to us in our exile today with good news too?

What this story insists is that God does speak to us, to God's people, in the wilderness, in exile, whenever and wherever they're estranged.

Let us move on to our last reading.

Let us hear, finally, why God is so persistent with God's people...

 

After Last Reading:

That prophecy is just incredible.

Perhaps it is the strongest proclamation of Good News, Gospel, in the entire Bible.

"I will put my law within you, and I will write it in your hearts;" God declares. "I will be your God and you will be my people. No longer will you need to teach one another, or say things like 'know The Lord,' for you shall all know me."

Wow

 

This prophecy captures why God is so persistent with us, with disciples, with God's people.

God isn't interested in some nation, that we act in some prescribed way, that we have so much power, that things go a certain way.

No.

No, what God is interested in being God, and that God be a God who is for us, our God.

God wants to rule in our hearts

That is why God is so persistent.

That is why God doesn't give up the first time, or all the other times that God's people decide being God's people isn't enough, and try to be a nation-state, a corporate church, try to be something or someone else.

God comes to us, in our wilderness, in our exile to make us people of God, to renew us.

God comes to God's people over and over again to make us new in a final, in a complete way; in a way that will lead us through the wilderness, call us back from exile.

God comes to dwell so deeply in us that we can't lose sight of who God makes us into.

God comes to dwell so deeply in us that our internal compass is clear, so we are able to navigate any wilderness, any exile.

God comes to dwell so deeply in us, that we will be sustained as we journey to God's promises, whatever trials we face.

In other words, God comes to us to make us into disciples...

As all of us in the church struggle to live into this new era of God's work, this new era where we are no longer a large corporation, but rather a small band of God's particular people, it can feel like we are in exile.

Let us recall, though that God's plan is always for our good and that God does come to us in our exile to make us new, to be our God.

God comes to us, where we are, lost, confused, smaller, and God comes to us.

Amen