Secondly: preaching. Jeremiah 2.4-13; Psalm 81.1,10-16; Hebrews 13.1-8,15-16; Luke 14.1,7-14
"But my people have changed their glory for something that does not
profit. Be appalled, O heavens, at this, be shocked, be utterly desolate, says
the Lord, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the
fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns
that can hold no water."
TWO EVILS. Harsh words.
Yet this is
what God has shared. And this is not just a part of history, I think it's a
continual part of everyday. Because this happens when people do two things:
The first this we hear
about is forsaking God. Forsaking is not just forgetting - it's about
intentionally abandoning. This is not the "oops I forgot my morning
prayers" - this is the purposeful choice to put God behind you; to refuse
to acknowledge God. This is like disowning your loved one - a complete
estrangement.
Ouch.
And this is
not good. Obviously. Because when we reject God, it means we're putting
ourselves in a higher place than the Almighty. That we're turning our backs on
the Divine. That we're acting as though we've got it all sorted out - we don't
need God anymore.
Hmm.
Reminds me of
a joke - some scientist had decided that they could master all the mechanics of
life, and so they had a chat with God. "Thanks ever so much" they
said "but we can take it from here. We can create life on our own. We
don't need you anymore."
To which God
replies "really? Hmm. Tell me more."
The scientist
goes into great detail, saying that Genesis was the inspiration - life from
earth - adam literally means of the earth - so the scientist
goes on about the biological and chemical aspects that they've been working on
in the lab - they can now take dirt - DIRT! - from anywhere, clone the
necessary particles, and grow life in a petri dish. Ain't it grand. Starting
from the very earth, they can create a human life from dirt - like in Genesis -
so God has become obsolete.
So God says
to this person "okay. Humour me. Let's have a contest - right now, right
here - let's both build life."
So the
scientist is all ready, all full of themself, and starts to reach down and pick
up a handful of the soil...
at which point
God says "Um, no. That's my dirt. You get your own."
When we try
to put ourselves above God, we fall. Hard. Because the very core of our being is
from God. It's of God. It is of and from the fountain of all life, which
connects us all.
And then we
turn our backs on that.
No wonder God
finds this evil - and problematic.
And it ties
in directly to the next evil we heard about in Jeremiah... that we have chosen
cisterns for ourselves – ones that we had to dig, and they're cracked, and can
hold no water.
The water
that's leaking away here, obviously, is not the living water - the connection
to God - because that is so abundant, so profound, that we don't need to hold
it and store it - we can find it anywhere and everywhere when we open our eyes
to it. We find it in and with and from one another - we share it - because God
is constantly sharing it with us. Living water - grace - perfect
sustenance.
But. We still
think we can do better. We think we can do it without God. We think we can do
it without depending on one another, helping one another, connecting with one another.
We think we can make a cistern for ourselves, save up water - earthly,
temporary, water - keep it for only ourselves, and never share.
But.
It never
works. That type of selfishness, that type of arrogance, that type of ego is
just .... wrong. Ineffective. Useless. Pointless.
It's that
type of all-about-ME! attitude that we hear about in the other
readings, too, where we learn more explicitly that God wants us to share what
has been given to us. God wants us to share the living waters; he wants us to
share the grace, he wants us to share our abundance. And my goodness, friends,
we live in an abundant society.
So in Hebrews
we're invited to do good to others, because Jesus has done good to us. We're
invited to offer hospitality to strangers - STRANGERS! That's hard. There are
fear-based reasons we don't want to share this hospitality - this week I heard
"I won't give that man money in case he spends it on booze" and
"We won't accept any refugee that isn't Christian" and "Food
bank?! Let the bum get a job." - and those were within this community.
BUT - no
matter how hard it is, no matter how intimidated we are, we are called to
share. And we try - look at our community share programme. Look at our refugee
sponsorship initiative. Look at all the varied ministries of giving that happen
regularly around here. We are called to share, to "say with confidence
'The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.' - as the letter to the Hebrews
reminds us.
Because when
we don't, what we're doing is spiritually digging our own cisterns, telling God
that those living waters aren't good enough for us. We're acting in ways that
suggest that we don't fully trust in the promise that God will never leave nor
forsake US. We're putting ourselves in that high and mighty spot, that place of
honour.
And the fall
will be hard, and it will hurt. As we hear about in the Gospel - when we put
ourselves in that position, we will be knocked down a peg or two. We'll be reminded
that we're not as important as we may think we are. We'll not be dismissed -
but we'll be invited to re-locate ourselves at the proper spot. And that would
cause humiliation, and pain, and embarrassment.
And that's
not what God wants.
So instead,
Jesus lets us know what IS wanted. We're wanted to come to the table - where
there is ALWAYS room - but to come as a guest, like everyone else. To remember
that we're not the host of the banquet - that's God's place of honour. We're
there as a guest, coming as we are, with humble heart and genuinely pleased to
be receiving this great gift.
So let us
come to the table - as we are, gently, humbly, prayerfully. Let us come to the
table having received the fullness of God's grace in this life, having left the
cistern digging of our own egos aside. Let us come to the table as invited
guests, with our guests, in the beautiful mix of both receiving and sharing
hospitality from the host of Hosts.
Let us come
to the table - there's a place for us all.
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