Prophetic Choices
“Prophetic Choices”
Psalm 13 Jeremiah 28:5-9 Matthew 10:40-42
Fourth Sunday after Pentecost, Year A, June 28, 2020
First Presbyterian Church of Sandpoint, Idaho
Andrew Kennaly, Pastor
This morning we read lament, we read prophecy, we read Gospel. The Psalmist is lamenting, experiencing pain in their soul, sorrow in their heart that seems unending. Yet even in this time when God seems distant and detached, and the Psalmist’s enemies are on the verge of celebration, there is ongoing trust and confidence in God’s character as loving, unfailing, and steadfast. “My heart shall rejoice…” replaces enemies who are rejoicing. “Shall rejoice” is not a future thing, but ongoing, like rejoicing in the moment. What caused this switch? Why is verses one through four so terrible, and five and six so confident and sure? Some people think it’s because the situation changed. Whatever the challenge was got overcome, so the Psalmist is looking back, sharing gratitude. Other people think the situation’s probably the same, yet the Psalmist is looking forward, trusting God’s salvation and deliverance from whatever is causing this pain. No one really knows if they are looking back or forward, to the past or to future. It’s ambiguous.
There is another option, one that resembles the archetypal pattern of the life of faith. Situations are what they are, we face what we face, and the world has suffering, and enemies, and pain. Without minimizing these situations, faith invites us to the awareness of being held, loved, sustained. Faith invites us to trust that God’s character, the nature of God is loving, because without God’s love we would cease to exist. God breathes into each moment no matter what is experienced in that moment. We too may wonder, “How long, O LORD?” even as we give God thanks at the same time for being good to us. It’s God’s goodness that is the focus, the part of our experience that carries the weight of glory, the unending quality of love.
In Jeremiah we hear two prophets sparring in front God and everyone. Hananiah is telling the people what they want to hear. He’s saying their country is special, that God will make them great again, that any losses will be regained, and their conqueror, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, will be defeated. People like hearing those types of things. People like their country to be strong, prosperous, and great. Vulnerability, charity, and humility are generally frowned upon by the general population and especially by those in power who benefit from a defensive posture and aggressive policies.
Jeremiah is not telling the people what they want to hear as he talks about peace. “As for the prophet who prophesies peace, when the word of that prophet comes true, then it will be known that the LORD has truly sent the prophet.” A long line of prophets have spoken of “war, famine, and pestilence against many countries and great kingdoms.” These are predictable outcomes of people who do not have peace in their hearts, peace of mind, peace within their soul that holds them so confidently that they have nothing to defend, nothing to grasp or cling to, and nothing to fear. Jeremiah speaks of peace, deep peace, like the Psalmist whose heart rejoices and whose trust is focused on God’s bountiful, steadfast love.
Like the Psalmist facing struggle, like Jeremiah in the midst of destruction, faith opens the eyes of our hearts to discover that loving union with God is gained largely through diminishment. Our lists of attachments are long, God’s list of what is necessary is short. Contemplation is the life process of learning to release our lists to allow union with God’s list, which is God’s self in Loving Presence. If we keep our lists as life’s priority, then we become our own false prophets, telling ourselves what we want to hear, holding attitudes that are ego-centric, self-referential, and isolated, yet missing the mark of God’s intention for our lives and the collaborative work of creation. If we relinquish ourselves, bowing our heart before God, putting our self-centeredness on its knee, Christ ushers us into a deeper center, falling into the gentle grasp of God’s Spirit. This does not negate uncertainty, or ambiguity, which are other words for mystery. This mysterious grasp holds us, cradles us, shelters us, and is broad enough to hold not only us as individuals, but also others, indeed all created things as fellow held-ones, creatures worthy of divine attention and intention, held together in the relationship of perpetual care.
In Matthew, Jesus says, “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me,” and then goes on to talk about welcoming a prophet “in the name of” a prophet receives a prophet’s reward. He also says this about a righteous person, “in the name of” a righteous person, and he mentions giving a cup of cold water. In other words, we create our own realities; what our heart’s intentions are gets played out in life with ripple effects into the larger world. Living in Christ-like ways is not something that can be manufactured or made up, but it’s the result of giving ourselves over to God, again and again, centering in Christ.
The contemplative journey of mystical faith, embracing mystery and experientially trusting God’s presence invites the confidence of the Psalmist and the perception of the prophet. As we learn to see with the eyes of the heart, spiritually perceiving steadfast love grounded in God; this is the archetypal stance of faith, a faith that leads to action.
Richard Rohr founded the Center for Action and Contemplation in New Mexico. In that title, he says the most important word is the word, “and” as contemplation is linked, expressed, and lived through action that’s grounded in the Christ-consciousness. That we share in Christ’s consciousness is what Matthew’s talking about as Jesus says, “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me,” and the one who sent me. Relational sharing and living in the love of God in Christ Jesus is the source of peace. This gift grace invites awareness of the union of all things, in Christ.
Father Richard explores this, saying “When God manifests spirit through matter, then matter becomes a holy thing. The material world is the place where we can comfortably worship God just by walking on it, loving it, and respecting it. Everything visible, without exception, is the outpouring of God. What else could it really be? The incarnation is not only “God becoming Jesus.” It is a much broader event, which is why John’s Gospel first describes God’s presence in the general word “flesh” (John 1:14). This is the ubiquitous Christ that we continue to encounter in other human beings, in a mountain, a blade of grass, a spider web, or a starling.
“When we can enjoy all these things as holy, “the world becomes a communion of subjects more than a collection of objects” as the “geologian” Fr. Thomas Berry (1914–2009) said so wisely.” https://cac.org/a-communion-of-subjects-2020-06-26/
“The world becomes a communion of subjects more than a collection of objects.” “We can enjoy all these things as holy.” This is what our scripture passages today are about as they mix a sense of time, or movement, or action mixed with promise, an active hope, and an unfolding and expanding peace. There’s an evolutionary aspect in recognizing, like Jeremiah and the Psalmist do, ones place in a larger arch, a larger purpose getting lived into over time.
Rohr quoted Thomas Berry (November 9, 1914 – June 1, 2009),
a cultural historian, world religion scholar, and Catholic Priest in the Congregation of the Passion of Jesus Christ. Dr. Berry called himself a “geologian” as he “proposed the need for a ‘New Story’ of evolution in 1978. “Berry believed that,
humanity, after generations spent in despoiling the planet, is poised to embrace a new role as a vital part of a larger, interdependent Earth community, consisting of a ‘communion of subjects not a collection of objects.’
This geologian “felt that we were at a critical turning point, moving out of the Cenozoic era and entering into a new evolutionary phase, which would either be an Ecozoic Era, characterized by mutually-enhancing human-Earth relations, or a Techozoic Era, where we dominate and exploit the planet via our technological mastery. […] Berry said the transformation of humanity’s priorities will not come easily […and] requires what he called “the great work” […] in four institutional realms: the political and legal order; the economic and industrial world; education; and religion. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Berry).
Friends, we are extensions of the biblical narrative, and dynamics of faith at work in the life of the Psalmist, Jeremiah, and Jesus, are at work in our lives and our times too. Is the Living Christ calling us to “dominate and exploit the planet via our technological mastery?” Is this the beginning of the Techozoic Era? Or is the voice of a geologian like a prophet speaking peace, describing an Ecozoic Era based on mutual relationship, welcoming others through human-Earth relations? Anyone can predict rising sea levels, wars over diminishing availability of fresh water, famine, and pestilence, as Jeremiah puts it. But when God’s vision of communion, of subjects in relationships of mutual respect, of balanced systems of biodiversity are restored, then one will know that the LORD has truly sent the prophet.
As we live into the invitation to be Christ-centered, by grace may we participate in the certainty of God’s love for the world. As we claim through faith the steadfast surety of being held by the LORD of all creation, may we heed the call to deeper trust. As we contemplate mystery and uncertainty in the midst of daily struggles and what seems like overwhelming odds, may our actions be grounded in the experience of loving Presence so we may share a greater peace as a prophetic voice echoes from one age to the next. May we treat each cup of cold water as the sacred gift it is, one that reflects transformed hearts in the name of the vulnerable, charitable, humble, love of God in Christ, both NOW, and always. Amen.