Pentecost 12.htm

Jeremiah 23:23-29

Psalm 82

Hebrews 11:29-12:2

Luke 12:49-56

Remember the show “Cheers”? Norm and Cliff are sitting at the bar and Norm asks Cliff, “How long did it take you to create that little world of yours?”

And we laugh. Poor Cliff. Living in his own little world he created. Good line. But like most good laugh lines we laugh because it is the truth. And the truth is Cliff isn’t the only person we know who has created a little world all his own.

I’m sure you know someone like Cliff. Creating a safe little world. Protecting oneself from the outside arena. Coming up with personal myths to help make sense of life. You know, “Success means I’m making more money.” “There is a solution to every problem, I just need to pray harder.” “My kids deserve the very best, what I never had, then they are sure to grow up normal.” “The right technology will solve my problems.” “the War on Terror has made us safer.” “No one has it as good as we do in the good old USA.” Here’s one I actually heard after a news report on children dying of famine in Somalia. “Well, they don’t value their children like we do.”

What myths do you carry around? I’m not saying you are like Cliff. But what do you try to believe to make your life easier? The bigger house will be the answer? Everyone I know already goes to church? If only I eat right and exercise I will live forever. If only I eat less I can fill up on beer, and it won’t hurt me. If I get my kids in the right activities, at least one a night, they will be successful adults. Like junk food, these myths taste great, but kill you in the end.

Because when they crash, we crash.

We all surround ourselves with rationalizations to keep us going. Good, comforting words. Of course, we are surrounded with rationalizations to keep the country going, the economy going. I watched Rachel Ray one day and her guest was a woman who always bought clothes on sale. So, I thought, that’s what I do. More power to her. Rachel made her go out and buy a fancy dress at full price. $400 some dollar full price. Because, after all, she deserved it.

What, I wonder, makes someone “deserve” a $400 dress? What’s wrong with sale racks?

Then again, I “deserve” a bottle of good wine every now and then. We “deserve” a new car. A nice vacation. A splurge on the old credit card.

There’s another little myth, that “deserving” is equated with “spending.”

Our lessons for today punch holes in our little created worlds. Jeremiah is called to preach harsh words to a nation that doesn’t want to listen. “Not listening” Folks listen to the prophets of profit. The don’t worry be happy folk who turn a blind eye/ear to the cries of the poor and the suffering. The popular prophets are the ones who tell the king they are always going win. They are always right. And the king surrounds himself with “yes men”.

And poor Jeremiah keeps plugging away, trying to wake people up and point them to the reality of life. The reality of God. A God who doesn’t give pat answers, who doesn’t guarantee that success and power go hand in hand. A God who sides again and again with the poor and the oppressed.

This God sees through it all. The word comes burning in, like fire, crashing in like a hammer breaking rocks. And you can’t hide in your safe little room.

If that’s not enough, Jesus comes along in today’s Gospel. And this ain’t the sweet little baby or the comforting good shepherd, what-a-friend-we-have-in-Jesus, put-your-hand-in-the-hand-of-the-one-who-stilled-the-waters Jesus.

This is the fire, hammer breaking rocks Jesus. This is the “I’ve had it with pat answers and hypocritical words” Jesus.

“I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which to be baptized and what stress I am under until it is completed!”

Aside: I take comfort in the fact that Jesus knows stress!

I come to bring division! You are all too complacent and too willing to keep everyone happy. At what cost? What is the price you pay for protecting your own little world? Your own little family?

Jesus points to his/ our? Present time. (Catch the earth and sky signs, Revelation folks?) You can interpret the sky signs, but you are missing the signs around you.

The Romans were in charge, wreaking havoc on the land. Collecting exhorbatant taxes, making people into slaves, demanding folks worship the emporer. And the religious leaders were in cahouts. Doing what it takes to keep alive and keep the Romans happy.

The poor were getting poorer, folks would flock to Jerusalem to beg. The rich were getting richer, the poor were getting poorer, and the religious institution was in cahoots.

Jesus was about to shake things up. Not with the violence the Romans used. Not with kissing up to the Roman authorities, or the religious authorities, for that matter.

But Jesus was about to shake up the whole order of the world. To make the undeserving poor rich in faith. To bring the outsiders to the inside. To create a new family, not one of blood ties and marriages….but one of faith where class and race and ability don’t matter.

Jesus is coming to see through our carefully ordered little worlds and to shake us up, to help us see the truth about ourselves and our relationships. To bring healing to brokenness, to bring light into the darkness that it might be transformed. To bring our priorities in line with God’s.

And then Jesus does something that really upsets the social order and the political system. He makes even the poorest deserving of, not $400 dresses, but deserving of love. Pure love…which contains acceptance and gives strength and lets us hold our heads high as we look to the future not with fear, but with hope.

Pure love from God lets us see beyond, reach beyond our own little created worlds, not fearfully…but with courage. Knowing that it is God at work in our actions.

Pure love from God keeps us from being afraid and overwhelmed by the signs of the present time. The wars, famines, violence, poverty. And it moves us to act, knowing that even the smallest actions impact the world.

Pure love from God reminds us that it isn’t about deserving things, it isn’t about protecting our social place or political agenda. It’s about setting priorities that include other people, even outside our own families and this community. It’s about letting everyone, no exceptions, know that it is God that makes us worthy of love.

These words can be hard, fire, hammers….when they destroy our carefully ordered worlds, our consumerist myths.

But only when the cement cracks can the green grass grow. Only when the walnut breaks open can the seedling sprout. Only when the truth hurts can healing begin.

Our self-created worlds really are so fragile. Come, take shelter in God’s world. Open your eyes and live among the great cloud of witnesses.

Trust in the one who breaks into the darkness of our lives and brings light eternal.

Let God bring truth into this world. That we grow and thrive in faith. And by the way, keep coming here and soon everyone will know your name! Cheers!