Welcome and Prayer: Barbara Dahl
For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross. (Col 1:19-20). I am very thankful that my sin is no longer a barrier preventing relationship with God, that I am reconciled with God and I have his peace in my life. Probably like most Christians, that personal peace is what comes to mind most often when we talk about God’s peace. But that’s not what I am wanting to talk about.
This Advent, like previous years, we have received cards and greetings that include the message of “peace on earth, goodwill to men.” It’s a beautiful scene from the Christmas story – the nighttime sky over the fields outside Bethlehem with the shepherds and a host of angles singing praises to God. I believe that, one day, when Jesus returns there will truly be peace on earth. Yet when I look around at our world now, I see war, violence, so much anger and hatred, prejudice, broken families, broken lives, a broken world. To be sure there are voices for peace and reconciliation, but the voices of conflict and division speak much louder.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a young German pastor and theologian during the 1930s-40s. He spoke out early and publicly against Hitler. For his part in the resistance he was arrested, imprisoned and executed in 1945. In 1934, he gave a sermon at an ecumenical conference in Denmark. In it he said “Peace on earth is not a problem but a commandment given at Christ’s coming.” I first read that sentence last fall and it gave me pause. The idea that we are commanded to be agents of peace, like we’re commanded to love one another, and that it would require something of me is a thought has stayed with me. I realized I viewed God’s peace as a force that exists on its own and to share it with others, I just need to passively get out the way and let it flow to whoever it in its path. (I no longer think of peace that way. )
Bonhoeffer gave his sermon to church leaders, advocating for a strong stance for peace in response to what was occurring in Germany. My sphere of influence is obviously much, much smaller – my family, friends, acquaintances. I have been considering what it would look like, as an individual, to obey a commandment of peace – everyday – when we all seem to be getting along fine, not just when discord or conflict exist. Relationships run into problems typically as a result of small fissures over time, a person feels judged, not heard, not valued. And so, I’ve been trying to pay more attention to my words, actions and attitudes – do they speak love and grace or are they conveying (even unintentionally) judgment, resentment, impatience. When I confront someone with an issue, what are my motives – do I want peace or am I looking to feel the satisfaction of putting someone in their place? In this polarized climate, when discussing issues with someone who does not share my views, are we looking for better understanding, perspective or just venting, encouraging each other to become more intractable in our positions with the result of making it easier to write off those who don’t share our views.
There is no playbook for how to pursue peace. Paul in Romans 12 says, “As much as possible, be at peace with all men.” I love that he said “As much as possible” because I am flawed and I’ll never be a perfect agent of peace. More importantly, as much as possible because sometimes the reasons for a relationship fracturing mean reconciliation will be a tough road or maybe that its not wise to seek reconciliation. Like loving others, walking the path of peace can be hard and it requires prayer for wisdom and guidance. Also intertwined in peace is love and hope; hope that reconciliation is always possible and joy, sharing in the joy or good pleasure God has with reconciliation.
This Advent season has been different for me. As I’ve read Peace on Earth in a Christmas card, I’ve heard it as a personal message – to continue to allow God to transform me to someone less self-serving and someone whose will is more aligned with God’s will and purposes. And a message to consciously, intentionally and humbly walk the path of peace.
Almighty God, Heavenly Father,
Please pour out your peace into our hurting and broken world. We remember those who are suffering from the result of war or violence. We pray for their healing and comfort and ask that you be their safe refuge. Bless those individuals and organizations working to provide aid, comfort and healing to those impacted by violence. May their efforts bear much fruit, provide them with strength and encouragement in their work. We pray for our leaders, inside of government and out. Grant them wisdom and inspire them to work towards peace. For each of us, let your love guide our words and actions so that we also are agents of your peace and reconciliation.
Let your kingdom of peace reign on earth as it does in heaven.
In the name of Jesus, our lord and savior and our Prince of Peace. Amen
Morning Talk: chuck smith, jr.
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is well pleased” Luke (2:8-) 14
Intro: Even in infancy, people discerned that Jesus was extraordinary
Simeon, a righteous and devout man, was led by God’s Spirit into temple
– there he encountered Mary and Joseph and their baby
• taking Jesus into his arms, he prophesied over him
– then the elderly widow, Anna–who was herself a prophet,
• she also encountered the holy family in the temple
And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of [Jesus] to all who were waiting for the redemption of Israel (Lk. 2:38)
– both of these people were keen on God’s will,
• and looking for God’s revelation
• so there’s no surprise they would discern God’s timing; they were primed for this moment
– but the shepherds–were they righteous? were they devout? were they even religious?
• yet it was to them the angels came
◦ they were first to receive the news
• the shepherds were chosen and given this privilege
◦ that’s my first impression–God blessed these nobodies with a heavenly revelation
◦ in my meditation on this passage earlier this month, I noted:
My med: “We can sit in silent prayer waiting for the slightest movement of God, hoping to catch a glimmer of light or discern the sound of a gentle whisper, yet never enjoy the certainty of a divine visitation. Our hunger for God, our devotion to prayer, our desperate seeking for a vision will not make it happen. God chooses when, where, and to whom.
But we are given revelations in which God does present himself to us. What he told to the shepherds, they told to others, and they told others, and eventually it was told to us. If God continues to speak to me through the Scriptures, that is where I will draw close to him and listen. He does visit us in his word.”
My thoughts this morning, aren’t about the shepherds
I won’t ignore them, because they illustrate an important feature of the Christmas story
– note where this chapter begins – with the emperor
• Caesar Augustus issued a decree and all the world jumped
• the center of world power was far from Bethlehem
◦ but this small village could not escape its political force
– the shepherds were at the opposite end of the spectrum in terms of wealth, status, and power
• they were among the poorest and least important members of society
• remember that!
◦ they had no vote, no rights, and no influence
◦ but God recruited them for his public relations team
The angels’ message of “peace on earth” is often mocked
2,000 years later, humankind has advanced in so many ways!
– in knowledge, food supply, health care, technology, and innumerable luxuries
• but we have hardly made any progress toward peace
• we wonder how that can be in societies so advanced,
◦ the Scriptures have something to say about that
What causes war and combat among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel (Jas. 4:1-2)
– James tells us that our warfare is first of all personal and internal
• millions of desperate people, driven by starvation and disease
◦ and billions more driven by envy and greed
• it shouldn’t surprise us that big, powerful nations
◦ invade and exploit the resources of smaller, weaker nations
◦ it’s what happens on the playground every day
To make sense of “peace on earth,” we must listen carefully
First, the angels are not making a promise
– they’re not saying Jesus is going to bring world peace
• their announcement is more like a doxology or benediction
◦ Greek word for “glory” is doxa – doxologies usually contain this word and are praise to God
(there are several doxologies in the New Testament
◦ a benediction is the pronouncement of a blessing
• so “peace on earth” is not a promise, but a possibility
Secondly, the possibility is selective and conditional
– it is possible that the second stanza of their praise should be translated
peace among those of good will
Friedrich Nietzsche claimed that the driving force of all human behavior was what he termed,
“the will to power”
• now that is a recipe for war
• there can be another driving force for human behavior:
◦ “the will to good”
◦ it is the will to good that qualifies those on earth who receive and promote peace
When Jesus sent out teams of disciples, one of his instructions was,
Whatever house you enter, first say, “Peace be to this house!” And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not, it will return to you (Lk. 10:5-6)
– “son of” is a Hebrew idiom that means having the character of
• it is like DNA or a family resemblance
– this is the condition for receiving peace, it being a person devoted to peace and good will
I think it makes sense, that:
If someone is not a good person, he or she should not be at peace
– the person who hates others, intentionally hurts others, who ridicules, insults, and blasts others,
• ought to be troubled about their behavior
“the wicked are like the tossing sea;
for it cannot be quiet,
and its waters toss up mire and dirt.
There is no peace” says my God, “for the wicked” (Isa. 57:20-21)
– peace is a gift – and it is also a responsibility
Strive for peace with everyone (Heb. 12:14)
If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all (Ro. 12:18)
So then let us pursue what makes for peace and mutual upbuilding (Ro. 14:19)
It seems obvious now that “peace on earth” begins in our hearts
If we can’t find peace, we can’t make peace!!!
– we need to bring our restless souls to God – you know these verses already:
do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (Php. 4:6-7)
• Paul told the Colossians,
let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body (Col. 3:15)
• this, then, is the challenge – to let the peace of Jesus rule in our hearts!
◦ in life’s complex structure, nothing comes easy
– can we find authentic peace?
• I can do things to ease my conscience, but that’s not the peace of Christ
• I can do things that gives me temporary relief;
◦ for instance, diversions like entertainment, exercise, food–but that is not the peace of Christ
• I can do things to make me feel better about myself
◦ there are lots of ways to soothe myself (“thumb-sucking” behavior)
◦ but not the same as being at peace with God, within ourselves, with others, and with the world
Peace I leave with you; Jesus told his disciples, my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid (Jn. 14:27-28)
I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world (Jn. 16:33)
I’ll share with you what works for me
When I settle into prayer – or when I sense that I’m uptight
– if I take a slow, deep breath and say to myself “here” (as I inhale) and “now” (as I exhale),
• and focus my awareness on the experience of being in this moment
◦ immediately I sense God’s Spirit around me, calm down, and I’m at peace
• after his resurrection, the first words Jesus spoke to disciples were, Peace be with you (Jn. 20:19, 21, 26)
◦ peace is not the absence of problems, it’s the presence of Jesus
– when Jesus exhaled his breathed on his disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit,”
• do you think maybe the disciples inhaled his Spirit? (Jn. 20:22)
Conclusion: Psalm 34 tells us to seek peace and pursue it (v. 12)
So, tonight–if that is your tradition–or tomorrow look under the Christmas tree for this gift
And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts
Welcome and Prayer: Christine
- The angels said to the shepherds,
“I bring you good news that will cause GREAT JOY for ALL people.” (Luke 2:10-11)
(Hence: the Advent candle for JOY is called the Shepherd’s candle.)
When we look back over time, at the sacred, historic event of the first Christmas, the coming of Jesus Christ to live on this planet with us and showing His great love for us, we can’t help but to REJOICE.
- In the now, sometimes it is difficult to rejoice.
The Bible says, “REJOICE in the Lord ALWAYS!” (Phil. 4:4)
- Experiencing conflicting emotions, that seem to be diametrically opposed to JOY can make it difficult to rejoice.
It’s normal to feel conflicting emotions like depression, grief, sadness, etc.
Perhaps you feel far removed from JOY right now.
- What does being JOYFUL look like to you?
To me, in the past, I had a one-dimensional perception of JOY.
It looked like exuberance, all smiles, laughing, positive in all circumstances, etc.
- In fact, I definitely felt like being joyful was a Christian obligation.
I was told in the past to be sure not to be caught frowning on stage (while in choir) because what if the camera focused in on my frown, then perhaps people would not want to become Christians. No pressure.
- As I matured, I realized that I have an array of emotions that God is well aware of and His love for me is not affected by my “negative” emotions.
- Even in the Bible, conflicting emotions are recorded. For example, the Bible records that the women felt fear and JOY simultaneously after seeing Jesus appear at the tomb.
“The women ran quickly from the tomb. They were very frightened but also filled with great JOY…” (Matthew 28:8)
- Fearful AND filled with great joy.
It’s very normal to feel different emotions this time of year.
- Recently, thinking deeply on JOY, the first few words of a Christmas carol (written in 1719 and based on Psalm 98) really penetrated my heart and challenged me.
- “Joy to the world, the Lord is come!”
I suddenly realized that JOY came to the earth. Jesus is JOY. He lives in us. Christ lives in us (Gal. 2:20). So, JOY is inside of us. Joy lives right in our hearts. He’s not far away. Joy is not far away. Whether we feel it or not. We don’t have to manufacture it. We may not be tapping into it, but we can…
- How might someone who is really down and depressed express their joy?
I picture a woman who feels desperate and utterly hopeless. She is crawling on the ground and using all her strength to crawl over to a pink stone. This pink stone symbolizes joy. (And I found out later that pink is the liturgical color for joy.) She is embracing joy. She is moving toward joy, despite her circumstances.
We need to embrace a broader definition of JOY.
It’s not as much about the outward expression of joy, as the inward embracing of joy.
Jesus lives right here in our heart, and we can embrace Him. We can embrace JOY.
- Simple gesture: I put my hands on my heart. It’s grounding. It helps me remember that He actually does live in me. JOY lives in me.
- Let us pray:
Dear Lord,
Just like it says further on in that same Christmas carol,
“Let earth receive her King.”
“Let every heart, prepare Him room.”
Lord, we want to receive you as King into our hearts.
Maybe some of us have never invited you into our hearts. Maybe we have never welcomed you into our hearts. And we do invite you.
And those who have had you in our hearts for many years, we want to welcome you more. We want to make our heart more welcoming for you.
Lord, we welcome you and we thank you that you live in us and your joy lives in us.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen
Morning Talk: Jim Calhoun
Luke 2:8-19, King James Version
8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
9 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
15 And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.
16 And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.
17 And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.
18 And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.
19 But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.
This is how I first heard the Christmas story.
King James original from Linus van Pelt (from the Peanuts comic strip).
I can’t say it makes me sad.
It was a fine way to be introduced to Christmas.
Later, when I was 11 or 12, I found our family Bible, my grandmother’s Bible and read it for myself. King James again. I loved this story but I didn’t much understand it yet. That was still a few years away. Then I found myself, my life in this story.
I want to go through it today and point to some of the parts that still hold my attention, my affection. Things that continue to make this story so compelling to me.
Shepherds abiding in the field
- The idea that shepherds were shiftless bottom of society seems to come to us from Aristotle.
- He thought that shepherds had it too easy
- “the laziest are shepherds, who lead an idle life, and get their subsistence without trouble from tame animals; their flocks wandering from place to place in search of pasture, they are compelled to follow them, cultivating a sort of living farm.”
- But Abraham, Moses and David had all been shepherds
- The basic expression of human vulnerability
- Often living exposed to the elements
- Often the youngest boy of the family
- Protecting their sheep from lions, bears, cheetah, leopard, wolves
- Ensuring they have sufficient food and water
- Enormous responsibility, few resources a matter of life and death.
- This is the human condition writ large
- Fragile, finite, flawed
- It is in this context of being human that our deepest longings are born
- The deep desires that drive our lives. Of love, of connection, of meaning, of significance , of safety, of peace
- A couple of weeks ago Chuck and I spoke on hope
- I talked about bringing an optimist but not holding that as a virtue
- Chuck talked about how depression dampens his intuitive hopes
- He also said, and I think he was right, that because hope is difficult for him, then he may be best suited to talk about holding hope.
- Afterwards we talked and I lamented that we didn’t have a bit of a public discussion of our differences and our similarities with hope.
- Had we chatted in that setting I would have wanted to point to our shared longing in our hearts and how those deep longings are our hopes.
- One day, in some way, we do not currently understand, or deepest longings will be fulfilled.
- Our faith shared, and worked out individually according to our own capacity and needs, is that Jesus will satisfy our hopes, our deepest longings.
And they were sore afraid
- And into this community of men and boys, as unlikely as it seems, an angel appears
- The glory of the Lord surrounded them.
- I can guess what that was like, but I don’t know.
- It seems that one of the layers was pulled back for a moment
- A part of the mystery was revealed, made plain
- And they were sore afraid.
- Of course they were
- They had seen nothing like it before and we have seen nothing like it since.
- Wonderful, awesome, disorienting, shocking, scary. So very scary. Good tidings of great joy
- Immediately the angel addressed the shepherd’s fear and reassured them.
- Calming them, soothing them with a convincing, compelling “fear not.”
- When My daughter was little, and sometimes even today I offer her my own fear not in many forms. It isn’t surprising we need this since like the shepherds we are also fragile, finite and flawed. Exposed and vulnerable. All of us.
- The angel hasn’t come with a terrible swift sword of judgment and destruction
- But instead with good tidings of great joy.
- Great joy is quite the promise
- Joy usually defined makes us think of happiness and pleasure
- In this case though I think it means something more.
- In this case I see joy being the fulfilling of our hopes, our deepest longings.
- Even when it is just a glimmer. Even when it is just the tiniest taste.
- Then Joy wells up in us. Swells. Nourishes our hope that it wasn’t wasted. Deepens our lives immeasurably.
For all people
- And this joy is for all people.
- These good tidings of great joy are for all people. Today. All people. Today. Really.
- The temptation in this era of polarity, conflict, and division is to withhold this great joy from one of our neighbors instead of living it our freely just as we have received it.
- Can we bring good tidings for all of our neighbors , our transgender neighbor, our Spanish speaking neighbor (or Arabic or mandarin), or our Muslim neighbor, or cranky old man neighbor, or black neighbor, or Sheik neighbor, or neighbor who monitors and judges our every move, our neighbor without a home, our indigenous neighbor, our neighbor who fell off the wagon again, our super rich neighbor, or anxious neighbor, our neighbor who left their manners at home when they got behind the wheel. All of them and all the rest.
- All of them. Good tidings of great joy for all of our neighbors. Everyone.
- But we can afford to freely give truly good tidings. Far more important than a “Merry Christmas” will be our smile, patience, gentle look, our kindness. Our little contribution to offering to them that their deepest longings will one day be satisfied.
This shall be a sign to you
- So the angel tell the shepherds that there is cause for great joy for all peoples.
- But it isn’t left there. The Angel gives them a sign. A baby in a manger. If they see this sign then they will know, deep down, that the angel is telling the truth.
- That their peace on earth is here
- That goodwill to human kind is present
- That their deepest longing will be fulfilled and their hearts filled with joy.
- And then there were more angels. And the skies were filled with phrases to God for all of this.
- And then it was over. The angels went away. All at once or one by one, it doesn’t say.
- And the veil was returned to and the window into another realm was closed.
- And it was over. Let us now go
- The boys, being boys seemed to come to their senses, gathered themself up, and then, as boys will do, decided to see for themselves.
- And they saw the baby in the manger.
- Then the boys, as boys will do, proceeded to tell anyone who would listen. Probably for the rest of their lives.
- “I was in the fields with the sheep. This angel came in the sky. The whole place was glowing. Jacob was there ask him. And the angel told us about a baby in a manger not far away. And there were more angels. Like you can’t imagine. So many. And they were singing to Gods glory. And we went. Not far. And there was a baby in the manger just as the angel said. It must of been from God.”
All they that heard it wondered
- Not wondered like are there guys for real?
- But full of amazement hoping their deepest longings might be fulfilled.
- Maybe already swelling with Joy that just the thought of such an event was proof that their hopes would be satisfied.
- Maybe placing a rudimentary faith in the baby they say or the baby their heard about hoping their deepest longing would be satisfied.
Mary kept all these things
- The section finishes with Mary holding all these things in her heart.
- To remember and rehearse them.
- To recall her own joy and the answers to her own deepest longings.
- We find her doing this in other places in Luke and I am charmed by it. I can see it and feel it.
- It is unlikely that the heavens will open up for any of us today.
- It is unlikely that an angel will speak to us or that we will be surrounded by a glorious glow.
- I never expect you to be caught up into something so big.
- That suits me just fine.
- But remember, the shepherds weren’t at a prayer meeting asking for that.
- They were going about their life, fulfilling their responsibilities like any other day.
- The same for Mary. It came how and when God brought it.
- And they were receptive.
- I want to be like that.
- There may well be a time in the next few days that a tiny corner of the veil between heaven and earth is pulled back. The littlest tiniest bit.
- There will be signs for me as well if I am listening, open.
- These signs can take many shapes. Beauty in a sunrise or a song. A moment of connecting with a mate or a child or a friend. A deep and welcomed laugh. Maybe even a good cry. There are so many things that will point us to the truth of the universe: that God really does love us and is making us whole.
Last week, while Chuck was talking, I heard a low hum quietly vibrating. I rather enjoyed the droning sound of it, but was curious whether it was intentional, someone’s cell phone, or something else. It turned out that the hum was coming from Grendal’s amplifier, and it continued as he was trying to figure out what was causing it.
Songs of liquid days: changing opinion
Gradually
We became aware
Of a hum in the room
An electrical hum in the room
It went mmmmmm
We followed it from
Corner to corner
We pressed out ears
Against the walls
We crossed diagonals
And put our hands on the floor
It went mmmmmm
Sometimes it was
A murmur
Sometimes it was
A pulse
Sometimes it seemed
To disappear
But then with a quarter-turn
Of the head
It would roll around the sofa
A nimbus humming cloud
Mmmmmm
Maybe it’s the hum
Of a calm refrigerator
Cooling on the big night
Mmmmmm
Cooling on the big night
Maybe it’s the hum
Of our parents’ voices
Long ago in a soft light
Mmmmmm
Long ago in a dimmed light
Mmmmmm
Maybe it’s the hum
Of changing opinion
Or a foreign language
In prayer
Mmmmmm
Or a foreign language
In prayer
Maybe it’s the mantra
Of the walls and wiring
Deep breathing
In soft air
Mmmmmm
Deep breathing
In soft air
Mmmmmm
I want to be:
- Becoming aware of these moments. And practicing them
- Becoming aware that the bottom line isn’t really the bottom line but it is just easier to measure.
- And for you too. Little things that will point to your deepest longings
- I want to be there for that.
- I want to be receptive and ready
- I want to know the joy of my deepest longings being satisfied. A bit now and fully in time.
- And like Mary I will hold them close and rehearse them, ponder them. Embrace my joy
- Knowing that what the shepherds saw and what Mary held in her heart and the baby in a manger began a long series of something that will one day make real on earth, peace and goodwill to humankind .
Welcome and Prayer: Karyn Jones
The LORD be with you:
This week’s advent candle represents LOVE. A couple weeks ago I was at a memorial service and during the photo slideshow, the background song “What the World Needs Now, is Love Sweet Love” came up. Because of all the turmoil that was going on in the world (and still is), especially the conflicts in Israel and Gaza, this song really hit me. I remember thinking, “YES”, this is the answer. There was this simple moment of clarity and peace. The world truly needs LOVE. “Love is the Answer” And If we could all just act in love, the entire world could be at peace. (so simple, right? haha)
A few weeks back in Lectio, the phrase that spoke to me was “believe my works” (from John 10:38) As I pondered these words, what I was hearing Jesus say instead was “believe my LOVE”. Works are often the fruit or acts of a person’s LOVE. When God sent Jesus into this world, he was sending LOVE. John 3:16 tells us “For God so LOVED the world, that he sent his only son . . . .”
So, how do we practice LOVE this holiday season (and always). It’s not like it comes easily and we just spew out rainbows and sunshine everywhere we go. It can be hard! But for me, remembering Jesus’ words “Believe my LOVE”, reminding myself of his infinite LOVE for me, helps me to “BE his LOVE”. Words can be powerful, but showing love by our actions/our works can be more powerful. Anything from a smile, to a hello, to just listening to a person share their story.
Once a month, a few of us from Reflexion do something called “Laundry Love”, which is where we go to the local laundromat and pay for the laundry of people in need (a ministry Reflexion supports). What has struck me the most isn’t so much the appreciation that their laundry is getting paid for (though they are), but that they have someone to talk to. We have made connections with many of the regulars, and they feel comfortable sharing their stories–their heartaches and struggles, as well as when good things happen.
BEING God’s love to others is truly the only part we can play in making this weary world a little better.
Will you pray with me?
LORD- thank you for Jesus. Thank you for loving us so much that you would send your only son in the form of a precious little baby. Open our hearts to however you want to present your LOVE to us today. May we feel the immense, incomprehensible love you have FOR us, so that this week, we can go out and BE your love to others. Bless this weary world and all those who are in conflict. And encourage those who are out there on the front lines, being your love. Allow us today, to take a breath, a pause, and trust that one day there will be “Peace on Earth, Good Will toward men”
Morning Talk: chuck smith, jr.
Intro: The Christmas story is compressed into a few pages in New Testament
For instance, no sooner do the birth announcements arrive than the babies are born
– first John and then Jesus
• in Luke chapter 2 Jesus is born, and by end of the chapter he’s already twelve years old
◦ though the magi are often pictured alongside the shepherds at the stable,
◦ when they actually arrived in Bethlehem, Jesus was already two years old
• through all the personal and political movement going on during this time,
◦ a variety of human emotions surface
– shame was a factor and fear was frequently present or assuaged
• more than once, someone was troubled, and Herod was furious
◦ but there is also joy and rejoicing, and people are blessed
• but in all these alternating feelings and emotions, there is no mention of LOVE!
– the main characters in the story are husbands and wives, facing challenges together
• they were two couples, blessed with miraculous pregnancies and births
• and still, there is no mention of LOVE
So how did we get an Advent Sunday whose theme is love?
– we have to look elsewhere in the New Testament to find that Christmas theme
• and especially in the writings of John
In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the means by which we are forgiven.
So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
We love because he first loved us (1 Jn. 4:9-10, 16, and 19)
One Sunday early in October, Ed Piorek came and spoke to us
His talk was about God’s love – do you remember?
– it wasn’t like he was teaching or preaching, but more like he was opening his heart,
• and allowing the thoughts to flow out of him
• since then, I read his book, The Eclectic Contemplative
– just the title resonated with my own experience
• to be fully devoted to a life of contemplative spirituality,
◦ we would have to live in monastery or convent
• for us normal folks, our spirituality must be a blending of contemplative practice and active participation in daily duties
Ed Piorek, “If there is one thing that I have become more aware of in recent years, it is how big the love of God is. Although I can’t quite get my mind around the magnitude of this love, somehow my heart is becoming more and more aware of it through contemplation. It seems that once my heart was secured in the Father’s love, I was freed from frenzied efforts to earn love, and from a newfound place of calm I embarked on a great spiritual exploration of what I now call ‘Big Love.’ . . . It was this Big Love that inaugurated the Creation of all things, both in heaven and on earth, and is actively redeeming it from its fallen state.”
“Paul prays for the Ephesian believers to fully experience the Big Love of God. A love that flows out of the Father’s riches, is appropriated by faith in Christ, and is empowered by the Spirit. . . . This love that permeates the very universe itself, this profound mystery of the vastness of love is somehow understood by the soul that searches for it in contemplation. Making this heart connection has beautiful and profound results.”
This is Advent love
God’s infinite love, wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger
– Christmas is the incarnation of love – love made flesh
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son (Jn. 3:16)
• now that Jesus has come and revealed the love of the Father, God has never turned off the tap
. . . God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Ro. 5:5)
– Christmas is our reminder of God’s infinite and eternal love
• that love enters our lives, then moves outward to others
• at least, that is what is supposed to happen
(In the 1960’s Dionne Warwick sang, “What the world needs now is love, sweet love.” Here in 2023, that is what the Church needs!)
The season of Advent was put on the calendar in the 4th century
Initially, it was observed like the season of Lent, with prayer and fasting
– people used that time prepared spiritually themselves to observe the arrival of Jesus–past, present, and future
• they did this in the same way that the forty days of Lent prepared them to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus
• from the 17th to 19th centuries, the observance of Advent began to shift: from holy days to holidays
• it was in 20th century that Christmas became totally commercialized
– now, like archeologists, we have to di g through all the ornaments and colored lights to find the Christ child
• some of us have memories of people being extra polite around Christmas time
◦ extra friendly and nice to their neighbors and strangers
◦ now we expect crowded malls, frenetic freeways, and a large assortment of worries
(especially over gifting and debt)
It took our modern era to commodify Christmas and create The Holiday Blues
– there shouldn’t be any such thing as Holiday Blues
– the Advent themes are Hope, Love, Joy, and Peace
• perhaps now, we need not so much to celebrate them,
• as to work to recover the reality of these Christmas gifts and live in them
I read a love story this week in the Gospel According to Luke
Jesus had performed a notable miracle–he raised a dead boy to life
– Luke says that those present,
glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has risen among us!” (Lk. 7:16)
• sometime later, a Pharisee whose name was Simon invited Jesus into his home
• perhaps he heard what the crowd had proclaimed and wanted to see for himself,
◦ whether Jesus was a prophet
– you remember, Pharisees were those rigid, uptight believers
• for them, everything was by the book
◦ they had a long list of rules – and made many more rules about their rules
• while sitting at table together, a woman entered the house
◦ she was a local, and Simon recognized her for her rotten reputation
– at first, she stood behind Jesus and started weeping
• when her tears fell on his feet, she let down her hair to dry his feet
◦ then she started kissing his feet
◦ she brought with her a jar of scented oil, which she opened and poured over Jesus’ feet
• this woman’s public display offended and displeased Simon
◦ he started thinking to himself,
“If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner” (Lk. 7:39)
Then they had a conversation that went like this:
Jesus: Simon, I have something to tell you
Simon: Tell me, Teacher
Jesus: There were two debtors who both owed money to a creditor; one owed five hundred dollars ad the other owed fifty dollars, but neither one of them was able to pay off the debt. So the lender cancelled both debts. Which of those two debtors will love the lender more.
Simon: The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt
Jesus: Do you see this woman? (Of course we know that Simon did see her.) When I came in, you did not show the common curtesy to give me water to wash my feet, but she has washed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. You did not greet me with a kiss, but she has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with scented oil. So I am telling you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little loves little.” (Lk. 7:47)
In the story Jesus told, there was a real difference between debtors
– but between Simon and the woman, there was only a perceived difference
• we have no idea how great Simon’s sins actually were
◦ we know that Jesus took a dim view of self-righteousness and judgmental attitudes
• in light of Jesus’ ministry, Simon’s need was as great as hers
◦ but Simon didn’t think he needed much forgiveness
◦ in fact, Simon didn’t even know that he needed Jesus
• do I know how much I need forgiveness?
◦ if so, I can sense how great God’s love for me must be
◦ how could I not love Jesus, who loves and accepts me as I am? Who forgives my many sins
As I read this story, I was stung by something in it
– Jesus compares forgiveness to cancelling debts
• I think I’ve forgiven people, but have I cancelled their debt?
◦ or, in the back of my mind, do I still think they owe me?
• if God’s Big Love embraces me, if it permeates me, cancelling debts will be one of the ways I love others
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love (1 Jn. 4:7-8)
Conclusion: In their last evening together, Jesus told his disciples, “the Father himself loves you” (Jn. 16:27).
Ed Piorek says that God internalizes this truth in contemplative prayer
That our heart receives what our minds cannot comprehend
If that is so, then the Father’s Big Love truly can transform our lives
I have a friend with whom I’ve been meeting for several years
For the last two or three years I’ve been visiting him in his home
Whenever I’m there, his Bible is always on a stand next to his chair
Each time I’m there, he picks it up and says, “Chuck, I love the Bible”
Then he asks, “What’s your favorite verse?” (It’s always a different verse for me)
He says, “Mine is in 1 Corinthians 13” – and he reads:
So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love (1 Cor. 13:13)
Welcome and Prayer: Jim Calhoun
Advent
I’m an optimist
I’m inclined to believe it is all going to be okay.
It isn’t like I am endlessly happy.
I know disappointment, tragedy, loss
I know betrayal, broken relationships
I know insecurity, uncertainty and fear.
I am worn down and worn out by the normal experiences of life.
I am worn down and worn out by difficult relationships and the stories of my friends and their difficult relationships.
I am worn down and worn out thinking about the war in Ukraine, the war in Gaza and the endless war of words in our country.
I grieve, I weep, I lose sleep.
But being an optimist I let these things run their course, have a good meal, get some sleep, and in time I am back to the sense that everything will be okay.
Maybe in a short time.
Maybe after a longer time.
That is my set point.
Optimism is not a virtue,
Optimism is a psychological trait.
It probably has a genetic element.
It isn’t anything to brag about.
Christian hope is different
Christian hope is rooted in our understanding of who God is and what God intends for us.
Christian hope is available to all despite our psychological traits.
It is available to optimists and pessimists alike.
In advent we celebrate the coming and the coming again of Jesus. It is our hope.
But what do we hope for?
My favorite part of the Christmas story is the angels proclaiming “Glory to God in the highest. Peace on earth, goodwill to humankind.”
Christian hope is the notion that God will make all things right. True, good and beautiful
That all shall be well.
We have old theological words that capture the flavor of this hope. Salvation, redemption, transformation, the forgiveness of sin, holiness, and sanctification to name a few. All of these point to hope that I will be better person less inclined to hurt others with my ignorance, arrogance, fearfulness, resentments or selfishness. They all point to a world where these qualities are tamed and replaced for each of us.
My favorite theological term for this is shalom. A Hebrew word meaning peace. But more than peace. More like wholeness. Over time we become increasingly whole and so we bring greater wholeness to others as well.
It works like this, God brings wholeness to us in the form of loving us. In time we, bit by bit, become more whole. Less hurtful.
Less self-absorbed. Lest toxic. And we bring this into our communities to our families and to our neighbors. This is the way we are part of the coming of Jesus and the coming again.
Let’s pray;
Come Lord and join us here today.
Fill our hearts with a longing for wholeness.
And cause us to be your instruments of peace and hope in our circles with our families, our neighbors and in our communities.
Thank you
Amen.
Morning Message: chuck smith, jr.
Intro: A few months ago, my grandson Calum began telling me what he wanted for Christmas
Do you remember when it took forever for Christmas to get here?
– now it’s like, “Is it that time again already?”
• I used to be amused by people who left Christmas lights up all year
• now I get it – they’re not lazy, they’re just old
– we’re about to complete another lap around the sun
• we pull out the old boxes, look at our bank statement to see what we can afford, and I take us back to the familiar story
◦ of angels and shepherds, mother and child, magic and miracles
This week I began reading through Luke’s Gospel again
So deciding which Christmas story to tell was easy
– it was right there in the episode with Zechariah and Elizabeth
• they are like the Abraham and Sarah of the New Testament
◦ the history of Israel begins with that old, childless couple
• similar to them, Zechariah and Elizabeth, who were also old and childless
◦ and the history of the Christian church begins with them
– being a priest, it was Zechariah’s turn to light incense in temple
• Matthew and Luke are only writers who tell us the Christmas story
◦ they each emphasize different details, but both emphasize worship
◦ worship is the only correct way to approach the birth of Jesus
with prayer and praise, with songs of thanksgiving, with lifted hands or bent knees
• Elizabeth’s neighbors and friends came to celebrate the birth of their miracle baby
◦ that’s when she and Zechariah gave him the name John
(John is a translation of the Greek word. The Hebrew name combines two words: the name of God and grace or favor)
◦ at that moment, the old priest became a prophet
Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for he has visited and redeemed his people
and has raised up a horn of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David,
as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,
that we should be saved from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us;
to show the mercy promised to our fathers
and to remember his holy covenant,
the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us
that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies,
might serve him without fear,
in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
to give knowledge of salvation to his people
in the forgiveness of their sins,
because of the tender mercy of our God,
whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high
to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace Luke 1:68-79
Christmas is God’s answer to a problem
For centuries, Israel had lived as an oppressed people
– now, at long last, God was again “visiting” Israel
• that is, he was coming to redeem them as he had when they were slaves in Egypt
◦ Zechariah’s prophecy celebrates this great event
◦ and he especially celebrates the role his son will play (v. 76)
• John the Baptist would prepare God’s people,
◦ for the arrival of Jesus
Okay, I’ve brought you this far to get to these beautiful verses (vv. 78-79)
– what is at work here is the tender mercy of our God
• what that does is bring the sunrise for which we’ve been waiting
• at last we are given light to find our way
to guide our feet into the path of peace
– the theme for this first Sunday of Advent is hope
• hope arrives with the dawning of a new day
• hope arrives with the coming of Jesus into our world
I did not want to give this talk today
I’m the last person to present myself as an expert on hope
– before Luke, I had read through the Gospel of John
• last Tuesday morning I was feeling hopeless when I began reading John chapter 19
My meditation: “Here in John’s story, from the cross Jesus speaks in short, clipped sentences. I imagine that his intense pain, brutalized body, and dehydration made speech extremely difficult. Now at the end of his mission, with shallow breaths he takes care of the last bit of family business. Seeing his disciple standing beside his mother, Jesus commits Mary to John’s care: ‘Woman, behold, your son!’ and to John he says, ‘Behold, your mother!’
The next words from his lips were, ‘I thirst.’ Then, after a sponge of sour wine was pressed to his lips, John tells, ‘he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit’ (Jn. 19:26-30).
My meditation today is morbid. I wish I could right now say, ‘I’m done,” bow my head, and let go of my life.’ I just don’t have it in me to go on.”
• of course, things got better as the day went on
– then Friday I was here in Luke chapter 1, reading,
“to give light to those who sit in darkness”
and my meditation was: “It is not strange to sit in literal darkness. Safer to sit than to move around, trip and fall. But it is strange for me that I would sit in my psychological darkness. This is something I should want to escape. I should want to turn to an uplifting or joyful activity. But instead, the darkness incapacitates me, death casts its shadow over me, immobilizing me. There is so much that needs to be done, and plenty that I could be doing, but–well, it’s just too dark to do anything. I sometimes push myself to go for a run. However, if I just go for a walk, I tend to take my despair with me.
Jesus is daybreak–always and forever. ‘God is light,’ John says, ‘and in him is no darkness at all’ (1 Jn. 1:5). I choose today to turn toward the light of God in Jesus. I choose to do as Peter instructs us, to ‘pay attention [to the prophetic word] as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in [my heart]’ (1 Pe. 1:19).”
Conclusion: Maybe I am the person to talk about hope
Not because I have so much of it,
but because I have to work at it–every day
Hope is critical for me
My mind is often caught in a riptide of despair
and every morning I have to fight my way to the surface
So I know something about hope
I know where to find it
The old priest prophesied that the light would
“guide our feet into the way of peace”
That’s what hope does,
it gets us on our feet and then gets us moving
Hope is Christmas morning
It’s a warm fire in the dead of winter
Hope is the sun
Still rising on the coldest day of the year
We do not journey to its light;
we do not travel east looking for the sun or trying to make it rise
The light of dawn comes to us
Hope is spiritual energy
It’s the smile that comes naturally when we greet a stranger
It’s the feeling that tomorrow is going to be better
It’s the life of Jesus Christ made real to us,
because we are not alone
not forgotten
not unloved
Welcome and Prayer: Nancy Lopez
Welcome RefleXion Community! The Lord is with you!
My husband and I recently watched this teen movie—you know where troubled teens have an adventure together and end up falling in love? There was a line in the movie that was woven in again and again: “There will always be somebody somewhere who is happy that you were born.” This week as I was remembering what I was thankful for, I remembered that line, but saying it to myself seemed harder than I would have thought. Who is happy that I was born?
We may remember that during one period of his life, Jeremiah was so unhappy that he didn’t even want his parents to be glad he was born! Jeremiah 20, vv. 14-15: Cursed be the day on which I was born! The day when my mother bore me, let it not be blessed! Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father, “A son is born to you.” But we are glad that Jeremiah was born and for the faithful life he lived. There are periods where we can’t see the whole picture and can’t recognize the others who have benefited from our lives. We can always know that God is happy that we are born and has a wonderful plan for our lives. At any time, I think we can ask God to remind us why He is glad we were born. And then, to live life so He continues to be glad that we were born!
It’s good to remember to tell others that we are not only thankful for what they have done for us, but for who they are–especially children. Words spoken to us as children have stayed with us a long time, haven’t they? I think we all find that being deeply known and deeply loved is so important, and just the best gift. Let’s be mindful to love people in a way that will make them grateful for their lives and for God’s purposes for them.
And while we’re at it, be grateful for your own gift of life; be grateful for yourself. Be grateful that’s there’s more to come, and believe that somebody, somewhere is happy that you were born.
Will you join me in prayer?
Father of us all, thank you for life and for your enduring love. May we learn to number our days, each one bringing gladness to your heart. Thank you for gathering us here. Let us rejoice in our new covenant and for your faithful presence. Amen
Morning Talk: chuck smith, jr.
Intro: Chapter is not what we’ve come to expect from Jeremiah
It is a short piece of autobiography,
a personal episode in the life of the prophet
Background
King Zedekiah was the end of the line for the kings of Israel and Judah
And he was in the last full year of his reign
Jerusalem, the capital city of Judah, was under siege
the army of Babylon was at their gates
Meanwhile, Jeremiah was behind bars “in the court of the guard that was in the palace of the king”
King Zedekiah placed him there after interrogating him
“Why do you prophesy our defeat? Why did you say I would be handed over to the King of Babylon?”
While sitting in prison, the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah
Not like any time before–at least not at first
This word was not a prophecy like the others.
It was a personal prediction with instructions regarding a family matter
Jeremiah’s cousin, Hanamel, needed to sell a property
God told Jeremiah that Hanamel would come and ask Jeremiah to buy it
Jeremiah had the “first right of refusal”
As Robert Alter said, if Jeremiah purchased the property, that would keep it in the family
While Jeremiah was musing over this message from God, Hanamel arrived and his question was almost word-for-word what God had told the prophet
“Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD”
Jeremiah walks us through the transaction:
Hanamel counted out the money – Jer. signed the deed – then sealed it – rounded up witnesses
Then he gave the paperwork to Baruch (his sidekick) “in the presence of Hanamel my cousin, in the presence of the witnesses who signed the deed of purchase, and in the presence of all the Judeans who were sitting in the court of the guard” (Jer. 32:12)
Jeremiah told Baruch to put documents in earthenware jar, “that they may last for a long time”
(the Dead Sea Scrolls were preserved in earthenware jars for almost two thousand years)
“For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land” (Jer. 32:15)
Soon Jeremiah was left alone again in his confinement
And then he prayed
“Ah, Lord GOD! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you” (Jer. 32:17)
This sounds like the beginning of a very reverent prayer
Jeremiah praises God who made the heavens and the earth,
and who had revealed himself through history;
a God who shows kindness and mercy to thousands, but who is also a God of justice
Then Jeremiah’s prayer retraces Israel’s history from Egypt
Through signs and wonders, God set his people free from slavery,
he brought them to the land he promised Abraham, and settled them there
But the sad news is that they turned away from their God–generation after generation
Eventually, their sins caught up to them, and that led up to their current situation
At that moment, the Babylon army was piling up dirt against the city wall
“Behold the siege mounds have come up to the city to take it, and because of sword and famine and pestilence the city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans” (Jer. 32:24)
It was all happening just like God had said it would
Now comes a twist – beginning with the word “Yet”
“Yet you, O Lord GOD, have said to me, ‘Buy the field for money and get witnesses–though the city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans” (Jer. 32:25)
Jeremiah’s prayer is done – there’s nothing else to say
He just leaves his complaint hanging in the air
What use was it to purchase property and file a deed if the people of Judah were soon to be removed and the land was going to be taking over by Babylon?!
The impression I get from Jeremiah’s prayer that it is like saying:
“Lord, I just received word that the Titanic is sinking,
but You’re telling me to go buy stock in the company that built it!”
At that point, God takes over the conversation
He begins with a line from Jeremiah’s prayer
Jeremiah (in verse 17): “Nothing is too hard for you”
God: “Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?”
That is the first “behold” – it begins the introduction to his answer
The word Behold is always an invitation to the reader, to enter the story as if we were there,
and to look, see, and feel the scene for ourselves
There will be two more “beholds,”
both of them will introduce two parts of God’s speech
The “Behold” in verse 28 begins a section of God’s complaint
It is a list of all of Israel’s violations against the Lord,
beginning from the time they entered the land to the present
His accusations culminate in what may be their worst atrocity;
offering their children as sacrifices to the god Molech, which God says,
“though I did not command them, nor did it enter my mind, that they should do this abomination” (Jer. 32:35)
The third “Behold” appears at a turning point in God’s speech
“Behold, I will gather them from all the countries to which I drove them . . . . I will bring them back to this place and make them dwell in safety. And they shall be my people and I will be their God” (Jer. 32:37-38)
God follows that promise with a series of “I will” promises:
“I will give them one heart and one way”
“I will make with them an everlasting covenant”
“I will put the fear of me in their hearts”
“I will rejoice in doing them good”
“I will plant them in this land in faithfulness”
“I will bring upon them all the good that I promise them”
I want to make a quick stop here
– when God said he would “plant them in the land in faithfulness”
• he added, “with all my heart and soul”
• here in our little group, we like to emphasize the two greatest commandments
◦ first, love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (Mt. 22:37)
◦ second, love your neighbor as yourself (Mt. 22:38)
– so to hear that God acts on behalf of his people, with all his heart and soul, affects me in a special way
• it tells me that God is all-in the way he wants me to be all-in
Back to the story
The chapter ends with God saying,
“Fields shall be bought in this land . . . . Fields shall be bought for money, and deeds shall be signed and sealed and witnessed”
The land deal that Jeremiah negotiated was a prophetic drama
It portrayed a scene of future real estate deals
The fall of Jerusalem was not the end of Israel!
After the tragedies of war, after the loss of their nation, after the long exile,
God would restore the land to his people,
and restore his people to himself
Chapter 33 continues the same theme regarding the future
There would be a national restoration,
– but first God would bring a spiritual restoration
• in verse 6, God promises to bring “health and healing” and in verse 8 he says,
“I will cleanse them from all the guilt of their sin against me, and I will forgive all the guilt of their sin and rebellion against me.”
• God is fixing the problem (that Israel could never fix within themselves)
– the last line of chapter 32 is the theme of chapter 33
“I will restore their fortunes”
Robert Alter, says this phrase is “More literally, ‘restore the former state.’”
• in verse 7, “restore” has to do with rebuilding the nation (cities and villages and their repopulation)
• in verse 11, “restore” refers to the joyful sound of celebration and worship
“The voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voices of those who sing, as they bring thank offerings to the LORD . . . .”
(Remember, these are precisely the sounds that had been banished previously–7:34; 16:9; & 25:10)
• in verse 26, “restore” is applied to the government under Israel’s ultimate and perfect King
Conclusion: When God told Jeremiah to buy that field,
It seemed a ridiculous thing to do while his entire world coming down around him
– Israel was losing its independence, their land, their homes, and their temple
• but they were not losing God — the Babylonians could not defeat or abolish him
• and God’s plan for Israel and all humankind was not abandoned, just postponed
What might God be saying to us?
The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah a second time, while he was still shut up in the court of the guard (Jer. 33:1)
Jeremiah was “shut up” but the word of the LORD was not confined
God’s word found Jeremiah where he was
Paul knew this same liberty that God’s word has everywhere and all times
“Because I preach the Good News, I suffer and I am even chained like a criminal. But the word of God is not in chains” (2 Tim. 2:9 GNB)
I can imagine that next year will bring a pandemic of insanity
– people on the political right will fear that the continuation of a Democratic president will take the nation on a downhill slide into communism
– people on the left will fear that a return of a former Republican president will the day after his election result in the Constitution being scrapped, a new autocratic government, and the president’s vowed revenge on all those he feels have betrayed or opposed them (lining them up against the wall)
But no matter how dark our world gets, there is always an “after this”
That’s the lesson Jeremiah learned when he purchased real estate that was doomed to foreign occupation
We may be confined temporarily to our present circumstances,
but we have a destiny that reaches far beyond them
We can find peace even in the furor of political instability and possible collapse
We know how to turn from the world’s distractions to the ever-present Spirit of God
Frank Tuoti wrote, “How we respond [to distractions] will determine whether or not we progress in prayer and advance along the spiritual journey.”
What might God be saying to us?
Take slow, gentle breaths
Gratefully receive the word of the LORD as it comes to us
(listening closely for that still, small voice
God tells us,
“Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known (Jer. 33:3)
This how we survive – and thrive – and overcome the world
Welcome and Prayer: Nancy Lopez
Good Morning, Friends. Welcome to RefleXion! The Lord is with you.
I was thinking about gratefulness this week, not so much the act of giving thanks, but the heart posture of being grateful. I remembered a book that I had read years and years ago titled, “Gratefulness, the Heart of Prayer, an Approach to Life in Fullness,” by Brother David Steindl-Rast. In it, there’s a wonderful chapter on Prayer and Prayerfulness, and I want to share some of the ideas found there.
We’ve all probably had moments that just stopped us, where we were caught up in the present moment, in awe, in recognition, in gratitude; would you call those moments prayer? Well, we weren’t “saying prayers.” Br. David speaks of both saying prayers and prayer.
In meditation, for example, we concentrate/focus on a word or a phrase, an image. In our prayers we also focus on our praise, our petitions….and those types of practices are intended to focus one thing and eliminate all else. It narrows our field of attention; we might say it’s like a magnifying glass or a flashlight. And when we are meditating or saying our prayers, we want it to be that way.
Prayer as a state of prayerfulness, the fullness of prayer, is wholehearted attention; it is concentration without elimination because it is concentration plus wonderment, Br. David says (we might call it awe). Well, that makes no sense to our rational mind…a paradox our head cannot hold, yet our heart can. The eyes of our heart can see something we can’t see with a flashlight. Paul prayed that the eyes of our heart would be enlightened, enabled by another kind of light, by the Spirit of wisdom and revelation.
We can get a little lost with all these words, which of course are only concepts, attempting to describe the indescribable. My understanding is that my life of prayerfulness is a life of presence, a wholehearted awareness where gratefulness comes naturally. It is God’s gift to me. My prayers (me “saying my prayers”) are my gift to God because God gives me faith so I can pray, recognizing my dependence on Him. We offer our prayers to God; we receive our prayerful life in God. May we recognize His Presence in awe and gratitude, especially this week.
Our opening prayer today is a prayer of thanksgiving from The Book of Common Prayer. Please join me.
Accept, O Lord, our thanks and praise for all that you have done for us. We thank you for the splendor of the whole creation, for the beauty of this world, for the wonder of life, and for the mystery of love.
We thank you for the blessing of family and friends, and for the loving care which surrounds us on every side.
We thank you for setting us at tasks which demand our best efforts, and for leading us to accomplishments which satisfy and delight us.
We thank you also for those disappointments and failures that lead us to acknowledge our dependence on you alone.
Above all, we thank you for your Son Jesus Christ; for the truth of his Word and the example of his life; for his steadfast obedience, by which he overcame temptation; for his dying, through which he overcame death; and for his rising to life again, in which we are raised to the life of your kingdom.
Grant us the gift of your Spirit, that we may know Christ and make him known; and through him, at all times and in all places, may give thanks to you in all things. Amen.
Morning Talk: chuck smith, jr.
Hear the word of the LORD, O nations,
and declare it in the coastlands far away;
say “He who scattered Israel with gather him,
and will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock.”
For the LORD has ransomed Jacob
and had redeemed him from hands too strong for him.
They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion,
and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the LORD,
over the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and over the young of the flock and the herd;
their life shall be like a watered garden,
and they shall languish no more.
Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance,
and the young men and the old shall be merry.
I will turn their mourning into joy;
I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow.
I will feast the soul of the priests with abundance,
and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness,
declares the LORD Jeremiah 31:10-14
Intro: Two weeks ago, I pointed out a shift in Jeremiah’s prophecies
Until now, his message was a reminder to Israel of all their failures
– they had turned from their God and were rushing downhill
• so Jeremiah delivered a message of condemnation, rejection, of doom and gloom
• but now a light breaks through the dark passages
◦ there is hope for Israel after all
– but if God made it possible for his people to return,
• could they maintain a relationship with him this time?
◦ their history had indicated otherwise
◦ was it enough for God to say, “Come home. I forgive you?”
• something had to happen that would change his people
◦ something radically new in the history of Israel
The idea of an “Israel,” a people of God, began in Genesis
There we meet Abram, who later became Abraham
– he lived in a world filled with gods
• in fact, prior than his encounter with Yahweh, Abraham and his family “served other gods” (Jos. 24:2)
◦ but the God who has revealed himself in Genesis spoke to Abraham
◦ he was to leave his family and travel to a new land with God’s blessing
• at this point, Abraham doesn’t know God’s name
◦ unlike all the other deities in the nations around him
◦ later, Abram’s God is referred to as El Elyon, God Most High (but it’s a title, not a name)
◦ sometime after that,
When Abram was ninety-nine years old the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty . . .” El Shaddai (Gen. 17:1)
• other titles were added as Abram discovered new dimensions of God
– when God made promises to him, Abraham asked for a guarantee
O Lord God, how am I to know . . . ? (Ge. 15:8)
• God told him to fetch a calf, a goat, a ram, a dove, and a pigeon
◦ he was to cut all but the birds in half and lay them out in two rows
◦ that night God restated his promises, and caused a “torchlight” to move through the path between the severed animals
On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram (Ge. 15:18)
• the strange ritual was how covenant agreements were ratified
◦ in fact, the Hebrew words translated “made a covenant” literally mean “cut a covenant”
◦ covenants created a relational bond
– in Genesis 17, God extended the covenant to include Abraham’s descendants
I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you (Gen. 17:7)
Leaving Abraham, we come to Moses
The mission God gave Moses was based on his previous covenant
I am the LORD. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the LORD I did not make myself known to them. I also established my covenant with them . . . . I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel . . . and I have remembered my covenant (Ex. 6:4-5)
– at Mt. Sinai, God presented his covenant to the nation
Now therefore, if you will . . . keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine (Ex. 19:5-6)
• now this is important–it’s the essence of God’s covenant — the reciprocal relationship:
I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God (Ex. 6:7)
◦ the core of Israel’s relationship with God was the covenant
◦ and the heart of the covenant was mutual belonging
– do you know what a sinkhole is?
• an underground vault created by water erosion
◦ the surface area sometimes becomes so thin that it collapses
• I sometimes think of my mental state as a sinkhole
◦ it may not show on the surface, but it’s liable to give way
◦ Israel’s sinkhole was an internal weakness
◦ when God laid out his covenant with the people, they responded with enthusiasm
Go near and hear all that the LORD our God will say, and speak to us all that the LORD our God will speak to you, and we will hear and do it (Deut. 5:24)
◦ God’s response:
And the LORD said to me, “I have heard the words of this people, which they have spoken to you. They are right in all that they have spoken. Oh that they had such a heart as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments, that it might go well with them . . .” (Deut. 5:28-29)
– Israel’s sins against the Lord their God were a relational failure
• that’s why prophets referred to it as adultery and prostitution
The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant that I made with their fathers (Jer. 11:10)
In spite of Israel’s disloyalty, God hangs onto his covenant
It was not merely a matter of him being faithful to his word or his vows,
– it was his crazy love for his people – he could not let go
• listen to how God describes the situation:
I have heard Ephraim grieving,
[now Ephraim speaks] “You have disciplined me, and I was disciplined,
like an untrained calf;
bring me back that I may be restored,
for you are the LORD my God.
For after I had turned away, I relented,
and after I was instructed, I struck my thigh;
I was ashamed, and I was confounded,
because I bore the disgrace of my youth.”
[God speaks] “Is Ephraim my dear child?
Is he my darling child?
For as often as I speak against him,
I do remember him still.
Therefore my heart yearns for him;
I will surely have mercy on him,”
declares the LORD (Jer. 31:19-20)
◦ God expresses himself in a similar way in Hosea
How can I give you up, O Ephraim?
How can I hand you over, O Israel?
How can I make you like Admah?
How can I treat you like Zeboiim?
My heart recoils within me;
my compassion grows warm and tender.
I will not execute my burning anger;
I will not destroy Ephraim;
for I am God and not a man,
the Holy One in your midst,
and I will not come in wrath (Hos. 11:8-9)
• God’s love is not fickle or transient – 31:2-3
– but what hope is there for a covenant relationship, when God cannot trust his people?
• when their promises are empty, and their revivals are short-lived?
• since Israel is incapable of permanent devotion,
◦ God has to provide the solution
Although this is a short passage, it is among the most critical in all of scripture
Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, “Know the LORD,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more Jeremiah 31:31-34
God presented Israel with a new covenant
– the first covenant was written to them, engraved in stone
• the new covenant will be written within them, on their hearts
– this is a profound revelation
• people would no longer be dependent on others–priests, scribes, or prophets–,
• because everyone would know him
◦ this relational knowing would be inserted into every heart
This is a new and improved covenant
– the writer of Hebrews explains,
Christ has obtained a ministry that is much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises (Heb. 8:6)
– it’s at this point that we enter the story
Conclusion: We join Jesus and disciples in their last meal together
Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.”
And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you for this is my blood of the covenant poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. . . .” Matthew 26:26-28
When we receive the bread and the cup, we are entering this new covenant with God
Jesus provides us the means to say “Yes” to God’s invitation
From this point on, we belong to God
I want this bond with our Lord Jesus
I want this everlasting love of the Father
Here is what we need to know:
God, in his crazy love for us, offers us a covenant relationship with him
The ritual of the bread and the cup seal the relationship
We do not have to be righteous people to say yes to God
Jesus came to invite sinners into relationship with God
By receiving the bread and cup, we allow God to enter us
There he works in our hearts and minds –
To know him
And to receive his Spirit,
who brings God’s will into our hearts
God himself enables us to keep covenant with him
Through this covenant ritual, God becomes ours and we become his
So we can sing, “I am my Beloved’s and my beloved is mine”
Welcome and Prayer: Nancy Lopez
Good Morning RefleXion! The Lord is with you!
A couple of weeks ago, in a Jeremiah passage, Chuck taught about the two baskets of figs – one good and one bad; do you remember? This was helpful to me because I’d already been thinking about Good and Evil. I heard Chuck say that Evil does not always refer to moral wickedness. It can be fruit gone bad.
I came across a similar idea from David Benner that Evil can be seen as an anti-life posture. He says, “It is that which kills the spirit, deeply wounds the soul, and sometimes destroys the body.” It is not Good. Goodness is deeper and broader than morality. It is the radical out-pouring of God’s character and life. Evil is not only the absence of Good; it is the fruit of a lie. Satan is called the Deceiver; the Father of Lies can never be trusted that his ideas will end well, or Good.
Last week, Chuck said that we can be “increasers of Goodness.” I want to be that; and I know you do too. How can we BE Goodness? It starts with abiding in Truth (God’s Reality). If we don’t start with Truth, we start with a lie, and this outflow (we can call it rotten fruit) is Evil. As maturing Christians, we are more and more able to, and called to, discern Goodness. If something that “looks good” is the product of a lie, can it ever be Good? Will you think about that?
And these ideas are not just external phenomena; we must remember to recognize our capacity to deceive ourselves. The lies we tell ourselves – the subtle ways in which we bend reality, the masks we create to defend against knowing our own capacity for evil, these things require hard work, radical honesty, and courage under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit.
And, finally, we remember that love will always triumph over evil, for it is the heartbeat of Christ that holds everything in the cosmos in love, and that draws everything forward into fullness of being in Christ. Let’s be a part of that evolution by being increasers of goodness, based on Truth.
Will you join me in Prayer?
Heavenly Father, deliver us from evil, from the lies and deceptions surrounding us and from our own Ego’s deceptions. May our new hearts beat more and more to the drum of Truth and Goodness. May Goodness overwhelm us and cause the fruits of the Spirit to sprout, bloom, and propagate. We remember that you said, Lord Jesus, that you chose us and appointed us that we might bear fruit, much fruit, and fruit that will last. May it be so. Amen
Morning Talk: Steve and Oddny Gumaer
This week, November1-18 you can view the service by clicking on the “watch life” tab in the right column. You can also listen to the Podcast, but miss the visual references.
Morning Talk: chuck smith, jr.
These are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders of the exiles, and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.
“Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles who I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their 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” Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7
Intro: A god who never surprises us nor could ever surprise us, a god we could know perfectly well,
whose every move we could predict, who has no secrets, so there’s no mystery, no confusion, no missing pieces, is not the God of the Scriptures
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,
declares the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts (Isa. 55:8-9)
– the only gods that never surprise us are the ones we make
Their idols are silver and gold,
the work of human hands.
They have mouths, but do not speak;
eyes, but do not see.
They have ears, but do not hear;
noses, but do not smell.
They have hands, but do not feel;
feet, but do not walk;
and they do not make a sound in their throat.
Those who make them become like them;
so do all who trust in them (Psa. 115:6-8)
– when it comes to living with God, however, we don’t like surprises
• we would prefer to be dogmatic and sure of ourselves
• if so, God may have to pry open that god-box in our brains
Jeremiah’s prophecies turn a corner in chapter 29
For the next five chapters, he delivers messages that are positive
– this new tone begins with a letter Jeremiah sent to the Jewish exiles in Babylon
• he told them that they were to make themselves at home in their captivity
◦ “build houses . . . plant gardens . . . multiply”
◦ these words echo what God told Israel before entering the promised land
• they were also to pray for the cities where they were settled
for in its welfare you will find your welfare
◦ welfare translates that rich Hebrew word shalom
◦ their peace and prosperity was tied to those foreign cities where they now lived
– seen from God’s perspective, the exile was their punishment
• but it was also a time of purification (never again would they turn to idols or other gods)
◦ once they had served their sentence, they would return
For thus says the LORD: When seventy hears are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope Jeremiah 29:10-11
◦ then they would walk with God like before
Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile Jeremiah 29:12-14
• “restore your fortunes” is a catchphrase that refers to the restoration and rebuilding of Israel
◦ it will appear seven more times in the positive outlook of these chapters
To say Jeremiah’s letter was controversial would be a gross understatement
It was scandalous and could even be perceived as treasonous
– Babylon was their nation’s enemy – their masters and oppressors
• it was a pagan nation, devoted to foreign gods
• how could a devout Jew embrace Babylon as their home?
◦ life in Babylon was the epitome of misery
By the waters of Babylon,
there we sat down and wept,
when we remembered Zion.
On the willows there
we hung up our lyres.
For there our captors required of us songs,
and our tormentors, mirth, saying,
“Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
How shall we sing the LORD’s song in a foreign land? (Ps. 137:1-4)
– remember how it felt when defectors left the USA to live in Russia during the Cold War?
• the reaction to Jeremiah’s letter would be like that
• in fact, there was a complaint in Babylon, carried all way back to Jerusalem
◦ letters were sent to priest in charge of the temple
The LORD has made you priest . . . to have charge in the house of the LORD over every madman who prophesies, to put him in the stocks and neck irons. Now why have you not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth who is prophesying to you? For he has sent to us in Babylon, saying, “You exile will be long; build houses and live in them, and plant gardens and eat their produce Jeremiah 29:26-28
◦ even in Babylon, they still resisted God and the reality of their situation
With a bit of imagination, we can identify with the Jews in exile
This was suggested by Stanley Hauerwas, a Christian intellectual
– he says that Christian believers are “resident aliens” in the world
• we do not belong to the State nor any institution
◦ our ultimate loyalty is to God and his son Jesus
◦ Paul made a similar statement in his letter to Philippians
But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ (Php. 3:20)
• but saying this today is as controversial as Jeremiah’s letter, and to some people, a scandal
– many Christians in the U.S. are engaged in “culture wars”
• the battle fields include the media, the entertainment industry, politics, and education
◦ they want to enforce Christian standards throughout society
◦ ironically, they use the world’s methods to fight the world–unlike Paul who said:
For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds (2 Cor. 10:3-4)
and we do not wrestle against flesh and blood . . . . (Ep. 6:10-12)
• there are lots of problems with this way of thinking and acting
◦ but pointing them out, you run the risk of them turning guns on you
There is no such thing as a “Christian” culture
– there are Christian subcultures–even movements that have become Christian subcultures
• but culture does not define a Christian or a Christian community
◦ culture is a human artifact
◦ it has to do with how a group of people behave and interact
• no culture on earth is perfectly good nor all bad
– Christian faith is something that is to be lived in every culture
• culture is not the problem – culture is not the enemy
◦ Christianity’s finest hours have emerged in the darkest cultures and darkest times
◦ the challenge is to live in a culture or cultures without being conformed by them
We will never find our true home anywhere in the world
– we are benevolent strangers in our culture
• the heroes of faith that are listed in Hebrews chapter 11
all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth (Heb. 11:13)
◦ and Peter wrote:
Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul (1 Pe. 2:11)
• our not belonging to this world, but to Jesus, exempts us from engaging in unnecessary conflict
– we can build our home here in popular culture
• it is just a temporary home
Conclusion: These are the thoughts that I draw from Jeremiah
Sometimes God shocks us with his openness and generosity
– Jesus shocked the religious folks in the way he treated the Sabbath
“The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath (Mk. 2:27-28)
• Jesus also told us that our heavenly Father
makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust, and in the same way that he is merciful, even as your Father is merciful (Mt. 5:45)
◦ and for that reason we are to love our enemies (Lk. 6:35-36)
Sometimes God pushes us into places we would avoid
– a powerful example of that is God sending Peter to Caesarea
– the story is told in such a way that we feel Peter’s discomfort
• entering the home of a Gentile felt repulsive to him (Acts 10:28)
• he had to get over that
◦ the entire community of disciples had to get over it (Acts 11:3 & 16-18; Acts 15:1-2 & 13-19)
God sometimes opens a door that we didn’t even know existed
– our awareness of where God works and with whom he works is constricted and narrow
– what God has to say to us is vast, beyond our comprehension, but within the scope of our potential awareness
We need a different vision of our role in world besides culture wars
If we can become free from worldly attachments, we will be able to learn to love everyone
William James gave a lecture on “The Value of Saintliness”
he said saints were sometimes excessive in their charity,
but he also said at times, their excessive love was a “genuinely creative social force”
William James, “The saints are authors . . . increasers, of goodness.”
That is what we can be – increasers of goodness in the world
And that is the reflection of Jesus that the world needs in his followers
Welcome and Prayer: Nancy Lopez
Welcome, RefleXion Community. The Lord is with you!
Have you read about the 32,000-year-old seeds found in Siberia that are now growing, blooming, and are themselves seed-bearing? And squirrels had something to do with this. The story begins in 2007, when a team of scientists recovered the frozen seeds. They were buried 125 feet beneath the Siberian permafrost. The discovery was made while the team was investigating the burrows of ancient squirrels. The squirrels’ burrowing techniques had perfectly sealed the fruit and seeds from the elements. The burrows of hay and animal fur were a natural cryobank. Seeds are amazing, aren’t they?
It got me thinking about what scripture says about seeds starting in Genesis–plants yielding seed, fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, and the seed of a woman. There are several verses about seeds in Jeremiah, by the way. My very favorite passage is in 1 Corinthians 15, and I wanted to remind all of us about the seed we carry, the seed that’s been planted in us, and our resurrection bodies. Forgive me for just reading a bit of that chapter today, but, oh, please read it all for yourself!
1 Cor. 15, The Message version, begins in v. 35 this way as Paul is preaching to the Corinthians: Some skeptic is sure to ask, “Show me how resurrection works. Give me a diagram; draw me a picture. What does this ‘resurrection body’ look like?” If you look at this question closely, you realize how absurd it is. There are no diagrams for this kind of thing. We do have a parallel experience in gardening. You plant a “dead” seed; soon there is a flourishing plant. There is no visual likeness between seed and plant. You could never guess what a tomato would look like by looking at a tomato seed. What we plant in the soil and what grows out of it don’t look anything alike. The dead body that we bury in the ground and the resurrection body that comes from it will be dramatically different.
Paul continues–This image of planting a dead seed and raising a live plant is a mere sketch at best, but perhaps it will help in approaching the mystery of the resurrection body – but only if you keep in mind that when we’re raised, we’re raised for good, alive forever! The corpse that’s planted is no beauty, but when it’s raised, it’s glorious. Put in the ground weak, it comes up powerful. The seed sown is natural; the seed grown is supernatural – same seed, same body, but what a difference from when it goes down in physical mortality to when it is raised up in spiritual immortality!
This is what I’ve been reflecting on this week. Let us be in wonder about these things which are too marvelous for words. Will you pray with me?
O Lord, how gracious you are to us. We need you now more than ever. Thank you for being near. As we welcome your Spirit this morning, we ask that we be enabled to receive all that you have for us. Prepare our hearts in this time of quiet. Still our minds. Come and remind us that our resurrection has already begun, though not yet complete. We have come together to hear from you and to allow you to prepare us for glory. Amen
After Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken into exile from Jerusalem Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, together with the officials of Judah, the craftsmen, and the metal workers, and had brought them to Babylon, the LORD showed me this vision: behold, two baskets of figs placed before the temple of the LORD. One basket had very good figs, like first-ripe figs, but the other basket had very bad figs, so bad that they could not be eaten. And the LORD said to me, “What do you see Jeremiah?” I said, ther good figs very good, and the bad figs very bad, so bad that they cannot be eaten. (Please read the entire passage.) Jeremiah 24:1-10
Intro: One thing we cannot say about prophecies of Jeremiah
We cannot say God was silent –he did not sit back and watch passively,
– as his people destroyed their religion, their nation and themselves
• Jeremiah says God rose early to send all his prophets (Jer. 25:4)
◦ in the Old Testament, to rise early signifies eagerness, a compelling energy
• God eagerly sent his word to his people
◦ they would have heard him if there were equally eager to listen
– but we also notice, God had a funny way of speaking at times
• for instance, the chapter I read begins with two baskets of figs
◦ we can’t help but wonder, Where is God going with this?
• this is not unusual, but how God spoke frequently to his prophets
◦ he begins by showing the prophet a vision, then asks “What do you see?”
◦ the message was in the object or scene, which God used for its symbolic value
I spoke to the prophets;
it was I who multiplied visions,
and through the prophets gave parables (Hos. 12:10)
Matthew quotes a collection of Jesus’ parables, and at the end explains,
All these things Jesus said to the crowds in parables; indeed, he said nothing to them without a parable. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet:
“I will open my mouth in parables;
I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world” (Mt. 13:34-35)
– Jesus doesn’t use many parables in John’s gospel
• instead we find “hard sayings”–i.e., ideas difficult to grasp
◦ he later admitted to his disciples that he had not spoken plainly to them, but in “figures of speech”
◦ Jesus would use familiar words, but they did not mean what we assume (“birth,” “water,” “bread,” “vine”)
• Evangelicals seem to prefer learning doctrine over parables
◦ but I think literalness is overrated
◦ symbolic use of words creates space for greater meaning
– symbols and metaphors call attention to themselves
• they work our brains differently than reading and memorizing
• quite naturally working out symbol or parable becomes a spiritual exercise
◦ the spiritual truth and reality God wants to reveal to us, but that we could not understand rationally
In chapters 24-28 there are three prophetic dramas involving “stage props”
Two of the props are not physical, but found in visions shown to Jeremiah
– the third is a literal contraption God had Jeremiah construct
• first: two baskets of figs – as a side note, tov and rah are the same words used in Genesis 2
◦ planted in Eden was the tree of knowledge of tov and rah (“evil” does not always refer to moral wickedness)
◦ the good figs represented the people who did God’s will and surrendered to the Babylonian army
the bad represented those who resisted God’s will and remained in Jerusalem to fight the Babylonians
• second: a cup of wine, filled with God’s wrath
Thus the LORD, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take from my hand this cup of wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. They shall drink and stagger and be crazed because of the sword that I am sending among them Jeremiah 25:15-16
◦ about 17 nations are listed in this chapter that were eventually conquered by Babylon
◦ their drunk-like behavior explains why they were disoriented, weak, and unable to defend themselves
• third: Jeremiah was to make and wear a yoke
Make yourself straps and yoke bars, and put them on you neck Jeremiah 27:2
◦ again, Judah and the surrounding nations were warned of Babylon’s coming conquests
◦ each nation had a choice: resistance and be destroyed or peaceful surrender
if any nation or kingdom will not serve this Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, I will punish that nation . . . declares the LORD . . . . But any nation that will bring its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, I will leave in its own land, to work it and dwell there, declares the LORD Jeremiah 27:8 & 11
– there’s more to this story in chapter 18
• another prophet, Hananiah, shows up with a prediction that contradicts what Jeremiah proclaimed
Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. Within two years I will bring back to this place all the vessels of the LORD’s house which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place and carried to Babylon Jeremiah 28:2-3
Jeremiah’s response: “Amen! May the LORD do so; may the LORD make the words that you have prophesied come true . . . . Jeremiah 28:5-9
◦ it didn’t end there
Then the prophet Hananiah took the yoke-bars from the neck of Jeremiah the prophet and broke them. . . . But Jeremiah the prophet went his way Jeremiah 28:10-11
◦ in other words, Jeremiah had no immediate comeback
• Jeremiah was the prophet who brought bad news
◦ Hananiah was telling the people what they wanted to hear
◦ how could Jeremiah compete with the man of the hour?
– in the summer of 2000, after meditating on this passage, I wrote to myself:
“Expect to lose heart at times. Flat-out lies will be published as ‘God’s word.’ These lies will gain popularity, because they will affirm what people want to believe. Millions will line-up to buy the lie. Perhaps you will be overwhelmed by the temporary success of the lie, and like Jeremiah you will walk away with nothing to say. The lying prophet will win the public’s ear. Like Jeremiah, you won’t be able to compete with that. Keep in mind that your objective is not popularity, but speak the truth of God’s word with integrity. Make sure you do that and leave the results with God.”
Jeremiah 23:28, “Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully . . . .”
• later, God sent Jeremiah to Hananiah with a personal message
◦ first, You have broken wooden bars, but you have made in their place bars of iron (Jer. 28:13)
◦ second, “Listen, Hananiah, the LORD has not sent you, and you have made this people trust in a lie. Therefore thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, I will remove you from the face of the earth. This year you shall die . . . .” In that same year, in the seventh month, the prophet Hananiah died (Jer. 28:15-17)
(Previously, when other prophets predicted that the vessels from the temple that Babylon had already looted and taken to their land, would “shortly be brought back from Babylon.” Jeremiah told the people these prophets were lying to them and suggested, “If they are prophets, and if the word of the LORD is with them, then let them intercede with the LORD of hosts, that the vessels that are left in the house of the LORD, in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem may not go to Babylon–Jer. 27:16-18. As it turned out, everything Jeremiah mentions was plundered and nothing was returned for seventy years.)
– the last verse of chapter 28 tells us, “In that same year, in the seventh month, the prophet Hananiah died.”
So far, I haven’t drawn anything from chapter 26
There is a different image presented here–and we’ve seen it before
– it is a barren landscape where Israel’s first temple had been built
• Shiloh was now an image branded on Israel’s heart and mind
◦ it symbolized God’s rejection and abandonment of his people and their sacred shrine
◦ it stood for what their past sin had cost them
• hundreds of years later, Jeremiah stands in courts of new temple and announced:
“Thus says the LORD: If you will not listen to me [and to] the words of my servants the prophets . . . then I will make this house like Shiloh, and I will make this city a curse for all the nations of the earth” Jeremiah 26:4-6
– this message was so shocking and offensive, that
the priests and the prophets and all the people laid hold of him, saying, “You shall die!” (Jer. 26:8)
• and they would have killed him too if others had not intervened
• images we hold dear or sacred are capable of stirring up powerful feelings and reactions
◦ of course, that’s one reason why God speaks to us through symbols
Our brains do not process parables the same way as lectures
Think of how you read a technical manual and read a novel
– a lecture or manual requires more activity in the brain’s left hemisphere
• a parable or novel involves more of the brain’s right hemispheric activity
◦ that’s because as we read we’re seeing pictures, not just words
• we don’t notice everything that parables manage to slip into our mind
◦ some details lie on the periphery of our focused attention
◦ so the benefit of the analogy is not always immediate
– if parables were Jesus’ preferred form of communication,
• it might be helpful for us to understand what parables do
Parables communicate paradigms–i.e., a mental model of reality
The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows, he knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come (Mk. 4:26-29)
– what are the elements here?
• a deliberate action – an invisible process – tangible results
◦ this is a pattern that the parable plants in our brain
• the parable gives us, not just aa new perspective, but a new way of seeing
The pattern within the parable stays with us
– one day we come to situation where we recognize the pattern (whether or not we remember the parable)
• only this time, we do not react in our usual programmed way
• instead, the pattern creates awareness of other dimensions of our experience
◦ now we have options and freedom to choose our response
A power of parables, is that they lead us to discovery
– what we discover for ourselves, we own – it stays with us
Frequently a parable requires time to work through it
– we may realize there’s more than one layer of meaning in it
Jesus’ parables open windows to the kingdom of God
– once God’s word gets in us, it has a life of its own
(see the parable of the seed and the soils, Mt. 13:3-9 & 18-23)
Jesus’ parables open our eyes to our true self, our spiritual self
– we see both the false self and the true self reflected in his parables (e.g., Mt. 7:24-27)
Conclusion: I encourage you to spend time in parables this week
I am adapting the following quote from Arthur Deikman, “[Parables] may be more practical for most people than meditation because they address behavior in everyday life where wisdom must be applied and tested.”
So if you find it difficult to sit silently in God’s presence, holding your attention on him,
it may be that soaking your heart and mind in the parables is better suited to you
When it comes to spending quality time in the parables,
“to the one who has, more will be given and [they] will have an abundance” (Mt. 13:12
Welcome and Prayer: Nancy Lopez
Good morning! Welcome to RefleXion. The Lord is with you!
Life is difficult. For some of us, this week that’s never been truer. Life is difficult. That’s the first sentence of one of my favorite books, A Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck. Sometimes we get the impression that life is not supposed to be difficult. Well, maybe in the beginning, it wasn’t…but it is, isn’t it. Last week Chuck mentioned one of his favorite books, The Sacrament of the Present Moment. That is one of my very favorite books too. My translation titles the same book as Abandonment to Divine Providence.
“Divine Providence” is the term used to describe God’s intervention, governance, and care for all things in the universe. It implies that God is in complete control of the natural order and the destiny of people. Chuck also mentioned the word “Surrender”. This is how we might surrender, by considering each moment a sacrament, surrendering not only to the will of God but to his providential care.
This morning I would like to highlight the “to Whom” we surrender. If you’re like me, to surrender might seem like giving in or giving up. As Christians, this thought of surrender seems to me to be the giving-up of our illusions, our demand for privilege and position, the expectation of freedom from pain. That still doesn’t seem to satisfy me.
Another one of my favorite books, and favorite authors, is Surrender to Love by Dr. David Benner. “There’s a difference between a white-knuckled obedience and a willingness to live in God’s love and God’s knowing,” it says. This is where our faith must take us, but it’s not a straight road. This is where, as it must, not only be an idea but become our personal experience of God’s love, our own knowing of it.
Is this shattering to our Ego – oh, yes. Is it beyond our present understanding of love – yes. And of goodness – most definitely. It is not the fact that we are loved that will transform us, but the experience of being loved in vulnerability, in doubt, in confusion, in grief, and deep neediness. Let’s look for love in whatever various forms it presents itself. Let’s help each other find it. With love, we can always find the spark of divine presence. May we be the glad recipient of it.
Our opening prayer, please join me:
Be with us today, Lord. You have made a way for us. We go together. We thank you for Jesus, who is the Way, and for the Spirit who leads us. May we encounter Truth and the Grace it brings as we come together this morning. Help us to realize your great love for us. Amen
Morning Talk: chuck smith, jr.
Intro: One of the challenges I’ve wrestled with in Jeremiah,
Is that it is so distant and unpleasant that it seems irrelevant or offensive
– distant, because we are out of sync with that period of time and culture
• we don’t share their norms, values, or kinship structures
◦ their geopolitical context was nothing like ours today
◦ their hardships are not our hardships
• their language is foreign, their names are foreign, their cities are foreign
◦ moreover, they had ruined their relationship with God
◦ Israel had violated and broken God’s covenant
And many nations will pass by this city, and every man will say to his neighbor, “Why has the LORD dealt thus with this great city?” And they will answer, “Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God and worshiped other gods and served them” (Jer. 22:9)
– it’s unpleasant, because hell-fire preachers have capitalized on damnation
Chuck Fromm, “There are lots of angry men behind pulpits”
• they shout at us like abusive parents who take their anger out on the children
• this has left us with an unpleasant taste in our mouths
◦ we’ve become sensitive to these passages of doom
◦ on other hand, do we want a God who has no anger?
a God who doesn’t grieve? Doesn’t react? Doesn’t care?
To benefit from these ancient and abrasive chapters, one of our tasks is to find points where we can relate,
– and where we can hear what God has to say to us through his prophet
In chapter 20, Jeremiah suffers the fate of many prophets
Now Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer, who was chief officer in the house of the LORD, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. Then Passhur beat Jeremiah the prophet and put him in the stocks that were in the upper Benjamin Gate of the house of the LORD Jeremiah 20:1-2
It was not some hillbilly or lowlife criminal that attacked Jeremiah
– the temple had its own security guards and Pashhur was the “chief officer”
• the Hebrew word for “stocks” suggests a painful contortion of his body
◦ this officer was authorized by priests and the king
• historically, whenever any religion influences government,
◦ government becomes more repressive
◦ like Rome once Constantine ruled, or today’s Iran, Sudan, Myanmar
(in fact, the highest ranking Patriarch in the Russian Orthodox church supports Vladimir Putin’s military assault on Ukraine)
– when released, Jeremiah came back at Pashhur with a sharp reprimand
• he prophesied a bleak destiny for him, his family and friends
◦ all the people to whom he had prophesied falsely (v. 6)
◦ we’ll soon take a closer look at false prophets
• by contrast, here is what a true prophet looks like:
For whenever I speak, I cry out,
I shout, “Violence and destruction!”
For the word of the LORD has become for me
a reproach and derision all day long.
If I say, “I will not mention him,
or speak any more in his name,”
there is in my heart as it were a burning fire
shut up in my bones,
and I am weary with holding it in,
and I cannot Jeremiah 20:8-9
◦ Jeremiah was struggling with the work God assigned him
◦ but he was unable to stop – it was God’s word and work that defined him
All through his prayer in verses 7-18, Jeremiah is vacillating
O LORD, you have deceived me,
and I was deceived;
you are stronger than I,
and you have prevailed.
I have become the laughing stock all the day,
everyone mocks me Jeremiah 20:7
– now only someone who knows God well can pray like this (and get away with it)
• Jeremiah wanted to quit, because he had been fiercely attacked,
◦ yet he goes on in his prayer,
But the LORD is with me as a dread warrior;
therefore my persecutors will stumble Jeremiah 20:11
• in verse 13 he is singing God’s praises
◦ then in verse 14 he says,
Cursed be the day
on which I was born!
– this kind of fluctuation is characteristic of depression
• depression is more common among people in ministry than you might think
◦ Charles Spurgeon, a renown British preacher delivered lectures to ministerial students
◦ when his lectures were published in book form, and entire chapter was devoted to the minister’s depression (“Fainting Fits”)
• Paul shared with the Corinthians his struggles with despair
◦ it seems that the minister’s highs reach to the heavens and the lows sink into hell
Chapter 21 begins with a surprise
This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, when King Zedekiah sent to him [two men], saying, “Inquire of the LORD for us, for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon is making war against us. Perhaps the LORD will deal with us according to all his wonderful deeds and will make him withdraw from us Jeremiah 21:1-2
King Zedekiah, who has paid no attention to Jeremiah until now, sought his help
– in football, this desperate move is known as a “Hail Mary”
• it would be amusing if it weren’t so sad
• Zedekiah had in mind a specific role for God – perhaps he would work a miracle for them as he did for King Hezekiah (Isa. 37:37)
◦ how great if we could invoke a miracle whenever we get ourselves into trouble!
◦ it would be like Jimmy Olsen having Superman on-call
– we must live in world as it is and trust God for all that happens
• our trust is unconditional – even if we don’t get our miracle
• it is not God’s will that bad things happen in our lives
◦ that is simply life in an uncertain universe (and some our troubles we have created ourselves)
◦ regardless of what happens, God’s will opens a way through
◦ and if we ask, Jesus will join us and walk us through the dark valleys
God had a personal message for the king
O house of David! Thus says the LORD:
“Execute justice in the morning,
and deliver from the hand of the oppressor
him who has been robbed,
lest my wrath go forth like fire,
and burn with none to quench it,
because of your evil deeds” Jeremiah 21: 12
– this theme is continued into the next chapter
Thus says the LORD: “Go down to the house of the king of Judah and speak there this word, and say, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, who sits on the throne of David, you, and your servants, and your people who enter these gates. Thus says the LORD: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place . . . .’”
“Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness,
and his upper rooms by injustice,
who makes his neighbor serve for nothing
and does not give him his wages” Jeremiah 22:1-3 and 13
Robert Alter, “Throughout the Bible, this Hebrew word, ger, designates a resident alien, who as someone without inherited land or the protection of a clan is vulnerable, as are the widow and the orphan.”
• care for these weakest members of society included not only food and shelter, but justice
• God never takes his eyes off and those who help the poor and needy
◦ or off of those who could help but do nothing for them
Two verses in this chapter deserve serious meditation
– I’ll point out the statements that I find insightful in verses 15-16
Do you think you are a king
because you compete in cedar?
Did not your father eat and drink
and do justice and righteousness?
Then it was well with him.
He judged the cause of the poor and needy;
then it was well.
Is not this to know me?
declares the LORD Jeremiah 22:15-16
First, we learn that there are things that do not make you a king or queen (cedar paneling)
• every culture we know of has status symbols
◦ it’s easy to mistake the symbols for real status
◦ driving a Maserati doesn’t make you a Maserati
(Or someone says, “I can go from 0 to 60 in three seconds”
We respond, “O yeah? Let’s see you do it without your car”)
– when I was a child, I was impressed by evangelist who drove a nice car, wore nice suits, and sported shiny watches and rings
• I assumed we would hear great sermons and get closer to God with a person like that leading our “revival” week
• having thousands of followers, huge income, a private jet, while keeping the poor and needy at a distance,
◦ doesn’t make anyone a gifted minister, or evangelist, or a true servant of God
Second, the way Josiah is characterized reveals God’s ideal king
– devoting himself to justice and righteousness came to him as naturally as eating and drinking
• not only that, but he judged the cause of the poor and needy
– our court system today makes it difficult for the poor to get the same treatment as the wealthy
• few poor people would know where to begin a legal suit or defense
◦ even fewer have money for a retainer of a good attorney
• lawyers who help the poor pro bono are unsung heroes
The third insight, and this I find shocking, is what God says regarding Josiah
Is not this to know me?
declares the LORD
– there are few evangelical churches where you will hear this
• what you’ll hear, is that if you want to know God you have to study the Bible, attend seminars, go on retreats, and maybe take a course in biblical theology
• what we don’t hear is, “You don’t know God if you’re not doing good for others and adding goodness to the world”
◦ Jesus expects his followers to share a family resemblance with their heavenly Father
But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons [and daughters] of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful (Lk. 6:35-36)
◦ if we’re not this, we don’t know God, regardless of how much we read the Bible
The message in chapter 23 is not only relevant, but much needed
Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD. They say continually to those who despise the word of the LORD, ‘It shall be well with you’; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, ‘No disaster shall come upon you.’”
For who among them has stood in the council of the LORD
to see and to hear his word,
or who has paid attention to his word and listened? Jeremiah 23:16-18
One of my old meditations: “The false prophet smooths his hair with his hand and clears his throat. He tilts his head back and lifts his eyes upward. Then he speaks in a strange voice, as if someone or something were speaking through him. Promises are made–in fact, the very things people want to hear. The message delivered is encouraging. They can go on exploiting others and ignoring the alien, widow, and orphan with God’s blessing. No need to repent or change. Forget what is written in God’s law or what previous prophets have said in God’s name. Enjoy your prosperity and share it with no one. You’ve been blessed.”
– I have tried to warn people about false prophets – to catch them in their failed predictions
• they’re everywhere, but especially among Pentecostals and Charismatic preachers
They have seen false visions and lying divinations. They say, ‘Declares the LORD,’ when the LORD has not sent them, and yet they expect him to fulfill their word (Eze. 13:6)
◦ isn’t that a great exposé? They invent prophetic predictions, then expect God to fulfill them
• I believe the spiritual gifts Paul mentions are vital
◦ they often come to people in exciting and dynamic encounters
• but more important than the gifts of the Spirit, is the fruit of the Spirit
◦ the fruit comes gradually through the slow growth of lived experience of trials and blessings, failures and successes
◦ in other words, in the normal progress of our spiritual journey
Conclusion: God warned the false prophets that there was nowhere to hide from him
Am I a God at hand, declares the LORD, and not a God far away? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the LORD. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the LORD Jeremiah 23:23-24
The false prophets assumed God was far away or absent,
so they could say whatever they wanted and he would not speak up to contradict them
But those same verses are for us today a promise
Slowly draw a deep cleansing breath
Exhale slowly
As you exhale, remind yourself, “The Spirit of God is here, now”
The big idea today, is no matter the situation,
our concern is to find our way to God in it
Daily Meditations From the Scriptures