September 23, 2007
George Bennett - Student Associate Pastor

 

Words for Meditation

“The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.”

Scripture:  Jeremiah 8:18 - 9:1

8:18 My joy is gone, grief is upon me, my heart is sick. 19Hark, the cry of my poor people from far and wide in the land: “Is the Lord not in Zion? Is her King not in her?” (“Why have they provoked me to anger with their images, with their foreign idols?”) 20“The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” 21For the hurt of my poor people I am hurt, I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me. 22Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of my poor people not been restored?

9:1  O that my head were a spring of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears, so that I might weep day and night for the slain of my poor people!  NRSV

Prayer

God of peace and mercy, We pray that this entire service – readings, music and sermon be received today as you intend us to receive them & that our Lord present in the Holy Spirit dwell in our hearts. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Introduction

Rosh Hashanah is past, and the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur ended yesterday at sundown. I feel it is important to know the meaning of these holy days because they say so much about the lives and relationships of the people that we read about in the Bible. The scripture that we are reading in Jeremiah is set at this exact time of year, as you can see from the words "the harvest is past, and the summer is over…" As we passed the fall solstice, yesterday's cool temperatures and rain shower's was a chilling reminder that summer was over and the harvest is past. Now, when we are turning our page on our seasonal calendar, we will look at how our worship lives are forever folded into the seasons of our lives. What does it mean to us that Jesus is our redeemer, or that Jesus was sent to save the world when we live in a world in which so many people are pressed down in poverty, faced with starvation, locked up in prisons, and watching their children go off to war? Do we hear the cries of desperation when they are not our own?

To answer these questions, I will share a vision of atonement. I will often refer to atonement as at-one-ment. The book definition of this word is " the reconciliation of God with humans through the person or work of Jesus Christ. (Clearly, the book I am using is a Christian resource, since the people of Jeremiah's time were obviously engaged in Yom Kippur.) It is hard for me to believe that the reconciliation that is atonement is the image of us on a mountaintop, far from the noise of the restless people of the world, praising God for all of the blessings and grace that God has given us and thanking God that we have been set apart. Instead, I see atonement as the actions that put us in and among the suffering people of the world because God is in and among the suffering people of the world. When we are joined together, restless and struggling for change we are at-one with God and our community. This is not by any means the definitive description of atonement, and I do not believe that anyone will be able to articulate what this word means in a universal way. I certainly hope that these words will encourage you to consider what atonement means to you.

Exegesis

A friend of mine at seminary is a Jewish student studying to serve in a synagogue, and last week she shared with a small group the meaning of the Jewish holy days that occur at this time of year.  I want to pass this on to you because it really makes our lectionary reading from Jeremiah come alive.

Rosh Hashanah literally means "the head of the year," and many of us outside of the Jewish community think of this as being similar to a New Years celebration. But, we need to be very careful about how we look at ancient traditions. They are often nothing like what we experience in our own culture. Sue, my friend at seminary, told us that Rosh Hashanah is a time used for the Jewish community to take stock of all of the offenses that have been committed against God. They say prayers aloud together where everyone in the community takes ownership of the sins of the world (today's meditation is a great example). She says that this gives Jews a sense of true community, and it gives the individual perpetrators of these offenses the opportunity to publicly confess their crimes without being singled out as individual villains. All of this is done so that at Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, a community (at one) can realize that they are also at one with God.

Try to imagine yourself as a member of the world community recalling the sins of the world during this holy season as I read a prayer from Sue's synagogue.

As you can see the Jewish community then and now are not a people who see salvation or redemption as something to seek on an individual basis. They are lamenting for the condition of the Jewish community and the world.

Lamenting is just where we find Jeremiah in our scripture. It is fall, the end of the Jewish year, and Jeremiah is intensely aware of the devastation that war has brought to his people. The Babylonians had recently conquered Israel, and Jerusalem has suffered a siege, which meant that armies surrounded the city until the inhabitants became victims of starvation and disease. After the city dwellers were brought to their knees by the siege, the warriors entered and viciously killed the remaining inhabitants until there was absolutely no sign of resistance. Then the victors divided the spoils and shipped the leaders to Babylon. What is more, Jeremiah is aware of a future season of desperation and starvation that will be the result of the crops ruined by war.

This scripture does not simply stop at the lament of Rosh Hashanah, it also makes clear the at-one-ment of Yom Kippur. Scholars say that we cannot tell if the words of Jeremiah's deep sorrow are the words of the prophet or the words of God. This scripture ends with all-in-one People/Prophet/God in a declaration of sorrow, "so sick at heart that there are not enough tears to convey the sorrow (NIB)." Imagine again this lament happening in community with the people, the prophet and God all declaring as one.

^20:  The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” ²¹For the hurt of my poor people I am hurt, I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me. ²²Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of my poor people not been restored?

Hermeneutic

When we started, I asked the question, "Do we hear the cries of desperation when they are not our own?" The people in our own towns that live without healthcare, home or even food, and the people of the world who suffer under the oppression of war and economic imperialism. Well, if we do, I would suggest that the cries are often muted by the self-image that we construct in our modern culture. By this, I mean that our sensitivity to the world is manipulated by who we think we are.

Many of us have been born into, or have chosen to live in, the culture of the west. A culture that tells us that we are first and foremost individuals, that survival is a matter of fitness, that the wealth of men and the wealth of nations are based upon productivity, and that Jesus Christ can be our personal Lord and Savior. But, notice that these are not atoning statements. These statements do not make us at one with each other, and they do not make us at one with the God described in Jeremiah, a God who mourns in unison with those who suffer. These statements set us apart, so that if we hear the cries of desperation from others, we hear them from afar.

So, what does it mean to us that Jesus is our redeemer, or that Jesus was sent to save the world when we live in a world in which so many people are pressed down in poverty, faced with starvation, locked up in prisons, and watching their children go off to war? I am inspired to answer this question with the words of Mohandas Gandhi, who was an avid student of Christianity, and called himself a man of all religions. Gandhi was in a conversation about Christianity with some western friends who had told him that if he believed in Jesus he would find redemption. However, Gandhi was able to see the world through the eyes of a man living in an oppressed culture, and he said, "I do not seek redemption from the consequences of my own sin. I seek to be redeemed from sin itself….Until I have attained that end, I shall be content to be restless.^[1]"

This to me is a statement of atonement, an at-one-ment that declares that God is not satisfied with the world the way that it is. The people of the world who suffer are not satisfied with their conditions either. Moreover, because the world is not what it ought to be, we will not find comfort in a salvation that is meant for the individual alone. Instead we will find our comfort in the struggle; knowing that we struggle alongside our God and the parts of creation that suffer injustice.

Do we see Jesus in this position of atonement? Absolutely! Jesus did not own land or command wealth or warriors. Jesus did not hold any position in his culture that would be cause for esteem. Jesus was content to be restless, and to address the sins of the world. He healed people that were rejected because of their illness, he found refuge in the homes of the outcastes, and he called attention to the shame of the privileged people that found his restlessness so inappropriate.

I also see this position of atonement in our own worshipping community. We are restless when we are banging pots and pans in protest of the war. We are restless when we are bagging food for the hungry, and we will become more restless through the P.O.V. program as we seek to better know the issues of the world that are causing suffering. It is our mission at the Reno First UMC to seek justice, love mercy and walk humbly with the Lord. As we do this, let us allow the voices of the oppressed hold us accountable. Let us hear the cries of desperation that are not our own.

Amen.

Offertory prayer

Restless creator, as we return these tithes and offerings to your service, keep our hearts mindful of the ways that you will use our gifts and our selves in the struggle to make this world a better place. Bring your spirit upon us that we may always be open and willing to your work in this world.

Amen

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