Reflections on the Lectionary for September 2007 Filled with Confidence in God By Kirk Woodward

Each of this month’s weekly lectionary selections in different ways takes us through the cycle of sin (Jeremiah), God’s love and redemption (the Psalms), and new life (Hebrews and Timothy), challenging us to join God in action (Luke), a process through which we help our congregations to “hear the word of the Lord.” Can we find variety within this basic pattern? The following commentary focuses on the primary readings for the month. Opportunities abound.

September 2, 2007

Jer 2:4–13; Ps 81:1, 10–16 or Ps 112, Heb 13:1–8, 15–16; Lk 14:1, 7–14

Commentators often mention the “trial” motif in the prophets, in which God details a case against humanity. We see that motif this week in Jeremiah’s words: “Therefore I will bring charges against you.” Yet the tone God uses in today’s passage from Jeremiah is less a legal brief than a pained discussion. God is willing to talk things over with us! God is willing to listen to what we have to say!

Tell me, God says, where have I gone wrong? Don’t you remember how much I have done for you? God asks our congregations, not to mention our nation, the same questions. Why in the world would an individual, or a country, trade the living God for anything less? We may not like to be reminded of sin these days, but a sermon can still point out the contrast between the goodness of God and what we make of ourselves.

The psalmist reminds us that all God wants to do is to bless us abundantly in even the most difficult circumstances with “honey from the rock.” (Ps 81:16) But suppose, in fulfillment of our fondest dreams, that the congregation responds to such a message. What is it then supposed to do? How does it reorient itself to God?

An easy end to a sermon is to announce that the answer is to “have faith” or in other ways to spruce up our personal approach to God. The New Testament tends to give a different kind of answer, one that cannot be categorized as a mental exercise or even a personal one. We do our part to reestablish our relationship to God by serving, by “doing good and sharing,” as we read in Hebrews.

Jesus’ parable of the wedding feast in Luke 14 is a direct instruction to each of us: stop trying to be the most celebrated in the crowd and start taking care of the less fortunate — inviting them to share in our blessings, but also sharing our lives with them, as Jesus does with us.

Is it possible that the congregation is waiting for a signal to serve? More than one observer of today’s churches has noticed a reservoir of eagerness to get involved in God’s work, matched by the church’s reluctance to identify more than a token assortment of opportunities.

September 9, 2007

Jer 18:1–11; Ps 139:1–6, 13–18 or Ps 1; Philemon 1–21; Lk 14:25–33

One view of the familiar image of the potter’s wheel is that God does not owe us anything. This may not be palatable, since we are used to having our votes count, but we need to recall that God does not care about polls. In fact, Jesus says, God can even make the rocks shout out in praise, if we would rather not.

But we must also hear Jeremiah say that God does not want to punish us for our indifference; God wants us to “return now every one from his evil way,” a perhaps more accessible way to tell modern people that we must, in the most literal sense, repent — change our direction, alter our ways.

Jeremiah uses the image of a piece of pottery, the psalmist that of our own bodies. (Ps 139) One does not need to delve into the possible mechanisms of evolution, creationism, or intelligent design to affirm the God that made us.
What sort of response can we ask from our congregations? First, amazement, because we so easily forget how astonishingly we are made; then, humility, awe, gratitude, and a new determination to do what God wants us to do.

Paul’s little letter to Philemon, read in its entirety in the lectionary selection, gives this response a human face. Paul asks Philemon to send his slave back to Paul, and “even to do more.”

The congregation may not recall that one of the sources of strength of early Christianity was that it did not distinguish between groups of people, a social egalitarianism previously unheard of. Slaves were as welcome among the believers as anyone else. We might want to ask whether the church still behaves this way, and if not, what God might be urging us to do about it.

Jesus reminds us in the day’s passage from Luke that everything has a cost, even service to God. Jesus puts the matter in terms that would scandalize today’s church, and certainly shocked his original audience as well. What does he mean, hate our parents, spouses, and children? What sort of talk is that? It is the characteristic way Jesus talks — the Sermon on the Mount is another example. It seems clear that Jesus knows he has to seize the attention of his audience, as we do, in a vivid way.

God’s purpose is not to please us. Our first requirement is to please God, and that goes against the grain for nearly all of us. How can we convince our congregations to take the first step in such a difficult endeavor? Perhaps by being specific, as is Jesus in his illustration of starting a war without considering the nature of the enemy — a powerful illustration we surely can relate to these days.

September 16, 2007

Jer 4:11–12, 22–28; Ps 14 or Ps 51:1–10; 1 Tim 1:12–17; Lk 15:1–10

Jeremiah is not a writer to mine for isolated uplifting verses. Such verses are there; but as a historical matter he is more concerned with looming destruction. The congregation may not want to be battered, and some are more tolerant of the pairing of Old Testament situations and current events than others. But there are times when only Jeremiah will do.
In today’s reading Jeremiah hears God describe the people as silly children, smart about evil but foolish about good. Some may recognize the accuracy of that picture. Jeremiah does not exhort in this passage; he only visualizes the effects of insufficient living, a bleak vision that is easy to picture and to understand.

What is not so easy to remember is that God always holds out hope as well, even in the bleakest times. In Psalm 14 the psalmist pictures God searching the earth to find even one person worth saving, and failing in his search; yet even here there is hope. Preaching in a similar way is not letting the congregation “off the hook”; it is sharing the merciful nature of God that cannot look away from our sin, but continues to love us.

Paul uses himself as a personal example of this pattern in 1 Timothy 1: he was the worst of the worst, and his evil directly assaulted God, and yet God turned him around. The church does not always seem to believe that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” Does the congregation believe that it is basically a collection of people saved because of their goodness? Paul knows better.

So does Jesus. He uses the simplest metaphors — a sheep, a coin — to show us that God is not surprised by our sin. Sheep get lost, coins roll under the table. The point is that God desperately wants to “find” them. Our preaching must follow Jesus in convincing the church of the directness of God’s love for us, sinners though we are.

September 23, 2007

Jer 8:18–9:1; Ps 79:1–9 or Ps 113; 1 Tim 2:1–7; Lk 16:1–13

One topic guaranteed to gain the congregation’s attention is health. The key to happy living these days, it appears, is medical benefits. People can be productive into their very latest years — if they are healthy. Practically every product advertised on TV promises physical, mental, or emotional health. Jeremiah, that killjoy, looks around and sees only illness. Why?

The answer, Jeremiah says, is the absence of God — or, we should say, the feeling that God has withdrawn from us. There will be at least some listening to us who feel that way. The problem, as the psalmist confirms in Psalm 79, is not in God but in ourselves: in our refusal to let God be God, in our “former iniquities,” in (that word again) our sin.
The preacher should connect the two themes of health and sin, and with today’s increasing acceptance of the relation of mind and body, the connection may not be very hard to make. Few of us are not nursing some resentment, irritation, or hatred that is corroding our lives in some way.

Paul’s advice to Timothy about praying for everyone, including “all who are in authority,” may be brought into the picture here. Naturally the verse has been most often used by those in authority as justification for political actions. But the passage taken as a whole has a wider application. Prayer is a means God has given us to bring us back to health, and Jesus is the guarantee of that prayer.

The story of the unjust steward in Luke 16 may also be useful here. This notably difficult parable has as many interpretations as it has readers, but clearly one thing Jesus says is: Get busy! Take action! If you have a situation you need to deal with, do not be passive in the face of it. Verse 13 makes it clear that Jesus is not urging us to get busy making money — “you can not serve both God and mammon” — but to get busy serving God.

A sermon might note how often Jesus ends a discussion with a call to action. He is not exclusively inward-focused. No navel-gazing for him. God calls us to act, and offers to act right along with us.

September 30, 2007

Jer 32:1–3a, 6–15; Ps 91:1–6, 14–16 or Ps 146; 1 Tim 6:6–19; Lk 16:19–31

In today’s reading, Jeremiah, that man of weeping and sorrow, does a counterintuitive thing: he buys property. The recent real estate boom and slowdown make his action topical. He speculates in the worst of down markets — the city is under siege! But God is leading Jeremiah to focus his eyes on the future, beyond war and desolation to a time of rebirth.
The message here is a spiritual one; the Bible is not giving investment advice. The practical way the situation is described may, however, strike a chord. Psalm 91 is a useful corrective against the temptation to apply Jeremiah’s text too materially. The only safe place to invest, it tells us, is under God’s protection.

Does the psalm offer the congregation deliverance from trouble, as do certain preachers of prosperity? It does not, and if it did, it would not be credible. The perilous pestilence, the terror by night, the arrow by day —believers face them as much as anyone else, perhaps even more, if they put their faith into practice.

No, what the preacher can promise is what Jesus promises: that God can take away our fear. “Fear not, only believe.” “You shall not be afraid,” says the psalmist, joining hands with Jesus. Paul gives the same advice to Timothy. Do not trust the uncertain things of this world, he says; trust instead in the living God.

We may not be able to convince our listeners to trust God no matter what happens. We may, in fact, have trouble convincing ourselves. We can, however, present the alternatives: the things of this world will decay and disappear, but God will not.

Some such thought may lead effectively to Jesus’ parable of Lazarus and the rich man. Unpacking such a story for a congregation is truly unpacking a treasure. Jesus gives us so much here: hope for the poor; faith in God’s justice; the need for real, not just ceremonial or “religious,” belief in God, and more.

But in relation to today’s other readings, one message of this parable is the importance of holding on in faith, no matter what. Lazarus has a wretched life, and we all know people of whom we can say the same. But, Jesus says, do not give up on God. Against all odds, against all appearances, hang on.

As bleakly as Jeremiah sees his world, he still holds out hope, buying property for a future he knows he will probably not see in this life. As aware as the psalmist is of the terrors of existence, the psalm is yet full of confidence in God. As desperate as Paul’s situation is, he still tells Timothy to “fight the good fight of faith.” And Jesus tells us that preaching God’s Word can help and heal. “They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.”