Recognition
“Recognition”
Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost, Year C, September 1, 2019
Jeremiah 2:4-13 Luke 14:1, 7-14
Pastor Andy Kennaly
Sandpoint, Idaho
Jeremiah is a very brave prophet. He’s going about the task that really good prophets do: pointing out discrepancies, calling people to account, showing them how their lives, even as a nation, have lost track of God’s purposes and intentions and they’re conducting injustice and causing harm. Prophets, such as Jeremiah, are supposed to sound challenging because the issues they’re up against are major, like economics, religion, politics, violence, families; lots of major strands in the fabric of life.
Most people are not open to critique or even constructive criticism, and since prophets expose hypocrisies, people tend to reject not only the message but also the messenger. A good prophet knows that a prophet is especially rejected by the hometown crowd, mostly because its from the inside that the most scrutinizing critiques are possible, and when an insider criticizes, they are labeled as a traitor. But only when you really know someone do you see how they’re not living up to their potential, and be able to speak about change from a sincere desire. Though the message may sound harsh, the sincere prophet is to not just focus on judgement, but on the deeper care and love that is able to hold such judgement with the best interest of the people in mind.
David Frenchak looks at this passage in Jeremiah, and says, “Patriotism is a principality and power that all prophets, whether biblical or contemporary, have to face if they are going to speak truth to power. Prophets must accept the fact that they will be without honor in their own country. This is not just an axiom but a fact. Anyone who dares to speak a prophetic word that is in any way political, or that can be condemned as unpatriotic, is in trouble. Chapter 2 of Jeremiah contains some of the harshest words any of the biblical prophets had to say about Israel. […] Jeremiah saw guilt on both sides of Israel’s divided kingdom […and] calls into question the practices of the spiritual and political leaders of the country […]. Jeremiah does not shy away from naming evil [and] identifies the evil ways of the people of God. […] We see in this text that it is evil to forsake God and it is evil to seek to replace God, whether for reason of insecurity or profit – and Jeremiah makes clear it was for both.”
The psalmist is similar, only instead of using water as the metaphor they use food. God “promises to meet all their needs and God invites them to open their mouth widely so God can fill it. God is offering to feed them “the finest of the wheat, and with honey from the rock” to satisfy them. But the people don’t listen to God’s voice, so God “gives them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels.”
In Luke we see the Pharisees showing stubborn hearts and misdirected counsel as Jesus goes to “to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath.” Remembering that hospitality is a core of that culture, being invited to share a meal is big deal, and on the sabbath, even more important. But hospitality is not behind this invitation. “…they were watching him closely” means they are testing Jesus or trying to trap him.
Like Jeremiah and the Psalmist, Jesus is speaking from the inside, pointing out to the leaders that “they are the ones not following Scripture.”
This passage has to do with those in high places of privilege selfishly ignoring the humble and those in need. Jesus tells parables to point out God’s intent and the people’s failure to live into that intent. As one commentator mentions, “the meal table was closely tied to one’s social standing. The pecking order reflected the position one held at the table. Places at the table […] showed rank [and] Pharisees who attended this meal seemed to think that one’s table position not only reflected one’s position, but may indeed have created it. Thus, the people jockeyed for position at mealtime, so that they could end up in a seat of honor. … Imagine…everyone milling about in a casual manner, in the hope that they just might be standing beside a chair of honor when it was time for dinner. How subtle it was supposed to be, but Jesus saw it and exposed it. […] Behind all this behavior is the underlying dynamic of privilege or entitlement that comes with power and wealth. […] There is evil to be exposed with privilege, and Jesus acts boldly to expose it.”
What’s really at the heart of this morning’s texts? The water, the food, the privilege; none of these hold the importance of relationship. They are extensions, illustrations, means but not the ends. The purpose, which Jesus points out in this prophetic tradition, is waking up to a deeper wisdom, one which claims unity, equality, and the sacredness of all things. When he tells the Pharisees to invite “the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed,” he is pointing out the absurdity of social posturing, the emptiness of seeking out prestige, while reminding them of their original purpose to honor God and honor all people, to love God and love your neighbor as yourself.
(Most quotes up to this point are from Preaching God’s Transforming Justice, A Lectionary Commentary, Year C, by Dale Andrews, Dawn Ottoni-Wilhelm, and Ronald Allen, editors, Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville KY, 2012, Proper 17, pgs. 366-371).
Another aspect to Jesus sharing parables comparing people, suggesting some are more distinguished than others, involves the very mindset that sees such distinctions. That those who are humbled will be exalted and those who are exalted will be humbled, this is another way of saying that we’re all on the same level and any kind of stratifying is a false model. We tend to live mostly in our judging mind, in dualism, continually contrasting one thing against another. The parables of Jesus short circuit this system, calling us to a larger mind that is blessed through a unitive consciousness. But to get to that type of mindset, we become our own hurdle and the fears which create the perceived need to have distinctions must be overcome. We need to re-discover the grace that we, and all things, are created in and share the image of God.
A story of St. Francis illustrates this. As G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936) illustrates, “Francis was riding listlessly in some wayside place, apparently in the open country, when he saw a figure coming along the road towards him and halted; for he saw it was a leper. And he knew instantly that his courage was challenged, not as the world challenges, but as one would challenge who knew the secrets of the heart of a man. What he saw advancing was not the banner and spears of Perugia, from which it never occurred to him to shrink; nor the armies that fought for the crown of Sicily, of which he had always thought as a courageous man thinks of mere vulgar danger. Francis Bernadone saw his fear coming up the road towards him; the fear that comes from within and not without; though it stood white and horrible in the sunlight. For once in the long rush of his life his soul must have stood still. Then he sprang from his horse, knowing nothing between stillness and swiftness, and rushed on the leper and threw his arms around him. It was the beginning of a long vocation of ministry among many lepers, for whom he did many services; to this man he gave what money he could and mounted and rode on. We do not know how far he rode, or with what sense of the things around him; but it is said that when he looked back, he could see no figure on the road.
(-G.K. Chesterton 1874-1936, Saint Francis, as quoted from Suzanne Guthrie’s Edge of Enclosure online preaching resource, Proper 17, http://www.edgeofenclosure.org/proper17c.html).
What is your priority in life? What does the structure of your day or your week reflect? What does your pocketbook or receipt trail suggest? Where are you in stories like the ones we read today? On a horse, watching Jesus closely, stopped in your tracks, digging cisterns, stuck in your pride, which is rooted in dualism and fear? Or are you running for the leper, or hungry, or not able to repay as one humbled? As one of the scriptures from the Catholic Bible, the book of Sirach, mentions in a way that summarizes the themes of judgement among God’s goodness, it says, “The beginning of human pride is to forsake the Lord; the heart has withdrawn from its Maker.”
Recognition of the importance of humility is one of life’s most difficult lessons because it usually involves getting knocked off our high horse, so to speak. Recognition that most of our culturally conditioned categories are ultimately empty is a lesson that most people would gladly ignore as they prefer climbing ladders without checking what wall they lean upon. Yet mutual love, doing good, sharing what we have, and pleasing God by living into our True Self promises sure and certain righteousness because these are based on God’s creative power, and we can trust God’s creative power, in Christ. Jesus notices the guests in the home of that leader. Jesus notices us now, and continues to invite us to follow, even as we pray such words as we did earlier in the prayer of confession, “Merciful God, give us confidence in the assurance that your designs are best, your provisions most bountiful, and your glory our greatest joy.” Humbly live into that joy, as God’s vulnerable love is given, both NOW, and forever. Amen.