Proper 17, Year C
Sunday, September 1, 2013
St. Mark’s, Bay City, TX
Jeremiah 2:4-13
Psalm 81:1, 10-16
Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16
Luke 14:1, 7-14
“What have I done,” God asked,
“that my people have gone so far from me?”
This was God’s question in the Jeremiah reading we heard today. What wrong did God do that the people of
Israel abandoned him? Well, God hadn’t
done any wrong. The people forgot the
joy of God, and they abandoned the disciplined life God had given them for an
undisciplined, harmful, and yet highly attractive life of idolatry and shall we
say loose living. Easy sex, false gods,
and living life as though there were no consequences was fun and highly
attractive. It’s still highly attractive
in this day and age, always has been always will be.
A very popular song that is out now
called “We Can’t Stop” expresses this idea of simply wanting to have fun and
not having to worry about the consequences.
It’s
our party we can do what we want. It’s
our party we can say what we want. It’s
our party we can love who we want. We
can kiss who we want. We can see who we
want. Red cups and sweaty bodies
everywhere. Hands in the air like we
don’t care. Cause we came to have so
much fun now. Bet somebody here might
get some now. (Miley Cyrus, We Can’t Stop)
I
heard this song at an Episcopal weekend retreat for high school students, and I
wasn’t overly impressed, thinking the people in the song sounded
irresponsible, entitled, with no respect for themselves, each other, or their
parents, and I realized, “O Lord, I just became old.” How could these kids listen to this music
with such terrible messages?
Then I thought about a song off of
my Beasty Boys cassette which my mom confiscated back in elementary school,
“You’ve Got to Fight For Your Right to Party.”
It was basically the same song, and I never questioned that song. I still don’t, because I don’t look too
seriously. I’m not going to live in the
manner that the song describes, but I of course part of me wants to. Hearing that song and enjoying that song is a
way of catharsis, a way to let out some of my rebellious, irresponsible nature
without actually living out my rebellious, irresponsible nature. It’s a fun song. It’s not necessarily particularly
instructive, but it’s a fun song. I have
a feeling the high school students at the weekend retreat had a similar
experience and joy listening to “We Can’t Stop” as I did listening to “You’ve
Got to Fight For Your Right to Party.”
So, on the one hand there’s music
which describes and even glorifies a way of life which is really rather
reprehensible and irresponsible, but which is highly attractive. On the other hand, I had some Jehovah’s
Witnesses come by our house over the weekend. They knocked on the door, let
some mosquitoes into the entry way as they entered and then said they had some
pamphlets on prayer. I informed them
that my wife and I were Episcopal priests, and they waxed eloquent about how
great that was. Then they asked me the
name of God, proceeded to tell me that I ought to pray to God as Jehovah rather
than the forms of address I use for God, and find the truth. I wasn’t persuaded.
Nothing about their presentation
was the least bit attractive from the mosquitoes on down. They were talking at me from a memorized script
rather than to me. They were in effect
berating me for praying incorrectly having an improper and even hurtful
relationship with God. There was no
sharing the joy they had found in God or the joy that I had found in God for
that matter. My beliefs were irrelevant,
other than as a lead in for the next part of their script.
“What have I done,” God asked,
“that my people have gone so far from me?”
Maybe God didn’t do anything.
Maybe God’s people made God look so unattractive that people did start abandoning
him in droves. Now, I’m not abandoning God
because of the Jehovah’s Witnesses attempt to proselytize me, but I certainly
wasn’t in any way attracted to God by it.
Based on what they said to me, I wondered with Kristin last night, why
anyone would want to follow God?
Look at the general view of God and
of Christianity by non-Christians and the general understanding of Christianity
by the culture around us. We’re all born
with an eternal hell sentence over our heads, and if we end up believing in Jesus,
then we get a “get out of hell free card” and we get to be with God…the same
God who gave us the eternal hell sentence in the first place. That’s basically the popular understanding of
Christianity, the understanding of Christianity by non-Christians, and that’s
basically what evangelicals have been preaching for years. Are we surprised, then, that people aren’t
flocking to Jesus in droves?
Much of non-Christian culture is
very attractive. Have fun without
consequence. Even more deeply, have relationships
without constant guilt. Seek each
others’ humanity, even if you have to break a couple of rules to do so.
Much of Christian rhetoric and
proselytizing, on the other hand, is not especially attractive. Break enough rules and risk going to hell. Don’t follow Jesus and risk going to
hell. Be good or risk going to hell.
It’s rather ironic that Jesus came
to free us from the bondage of sin, and yet here we are, two thousand years
later, and so much of the church seems completely enslaved to sin, our thoughts
consumed by sin, our theology preoccupied with sin, our reason for even wanting
to be with God, presented often as an alternative to sin. Based on how God is often presented, sin just
seems like a better alternative to a lot of folks.
“What have I done,” God asked,
“that my people have gone so far from me?”
Perhaps we have forgotten our original blessedness and become
preoccupied the false notion of our original sin. When God made us, we were blessed by
God. We were declared good. Jesus came not to make us preoccupied with
sin, but to show us our original blessedness and to help us constantly draw
nearer to God and to live out the kind of life which God intends for us to
live, a life of love and concern for God and others.
In our gospel today, Jesus said “when you
give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you
will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the
resurrection of the righteous.” You’ll
also be blessed in this life, and so will they.
The purpose of inviting the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind
is not to win points with God, but to bring blessing to people, to share
humanity and love with those who are downtrodden and cast off. Look beyond the poverty and the physical
malady to a human being, blessed by God, and realize that we are all blessed by
God.
That is the message we need to be
presenting and with which we need to be inviting people…original blessedness,
and if we’re going to invite anyone to share in our faith or listen to our
faith and the ways we find blessing through Jesus, then unlike the Jehovah’s
Witnesses who came by my house, we need to listen to how others find blessing
as well.
There are
folks who are driven by sex, folks who are driven by sports, folks who are
driven by work, folks who are driven by all sorts of things, and those people
are finding something they need in what they are pursuing, otherwise they would
not be pursuing those things. Many of
the things they are pursuing (sports, work, etc.) aren’t bad. We simply find that relationship with God and
each other, loving God, loving our neighbors, and serving others fills us. We have a feeling that loving God and our
neighbors through faith in Jesus might fill others too. So we need to invite them to share in and
hear about the joy and fulfillment we find in Jesus.
Where are
our family and friends who are not here?
Where are the poor, the crippled, the downtrodden? Have they been invited? Have they been invited to share in our lives,
in relationships with us? Have they been
invited to share and learn about our faith and ourselves? Do we find Jesus and our faith in Jesus
attractive, and to we express that to others?
The folks giving out their exceedingly unattractive threats of hell are
doing a great job. “What have I done,”
God asked, “that my people have gone so far from me?” What have we done to help attract God’s
people back to him? Amen.
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