Scriptures: Jeremiah 1:1-10, Psalm 103:1-8
Hebrews
12:18-29, Luke 13:10-17
Let me begin by saying once again what a tremendous pleasure
it is to be back at Emanuel Church. I
greatly appreciate the time I had off, and I was able to find renewal and
restoration of my sense of mission. And
it’s wonderful to be back on this Backpack Sunday, when we are helping to equip
the children of our church and of our community for the upcoming school year.
Our Old Testament and Gospel readings this morning function
like bookends, in a way. In our Old
Testament reading, we are listening in on a conversation between God and a young man named Jeremiah. And in our Gospel reading, Jesus performs a
miracle for an elderly woman who had been bent over for many long years. God called on youth, and Jesus ministered to
an elderly woman. Maybe, if we take
nothing else home from today, maybe we can say that wherever we are on life’s
journey, whether we are just beginning our journey, as the children who got
their backpacks are, or whether we sense we’re nearing the end of our journey,
God cares for us, and God has plans for us.
We are never to young or too old for God to remember us and love us.
For the next several Sundays, the Old Testament readings
come from the book of the prophet Jeremiah.
Jeremiah prophesied during the final years of Judah’s independence,
leading up to the conquest by Babylon and the exile. Jeremiah preached to a religious and
political leadership who were, to borrow the words of Lincoln Steffans’ famous
description of Philadelphia, “corrupt and contented” – even as the country was
surrounded by enemies without and collapsing from corruption within. And Jeremiah’s message, over and over, can be
summarized in six words: “Clean up your
act – or else!” The children among us,
and the former children among us, all remember when our parents said, “or else”,
and what that could mean – and it generally wasn’t good. Speaking on God’s behalf, so did Jeremiah. And for Jeremiah, “or else” meant conquest and
exile. Jeremiah spoke very harsh words
against this leadership, making devastating indictments against them. He did so not because he hated the leaders or
the people, but it was as if a building was going up in flames and Jeremiah’s
own hair was on fire, and he was trying to wake up a nation of sleepwalkers and
get them to leave the building…perhaps we can think of Jeremiah as a sort of
spiritual firefighter, trying to rescue the people from a religious and
political system whose corruption and
greed were consuming it from within like a fully-involved five-alarm fire. And in
return, the leaders accused Jeremiah, in essence, of being a spiritual
arsonist. As we read the words of
Jeremiah in coming weeks, I’d challenge us to imagine what would happen if he –
or some modern-day Jeremiah - were to say them on Wall Street or in Washington
DC, or in front of the megachurches who never challenge their flocks, but
proclaim only unconditional blessing.
Because Jeremiah’s words, as we hear them over these next few weeks, may
be very relevant, uncomfortably so….to the extent that you may wish I’d go back
on sabbatical, the sooner the better.
God is calling Jeremiah – the son of a priest – a preacher’s
kid or PK, we might say – to proclaim some very unwelcome truths to those in
power. God told him, “Before you were
formed in the womb, I knew you”…..today we might say, “Before you were a gleam
in your parents’ eyes, I had plans for you.”
And Jeremiah responds with a very practical objection: “Yo, God, I’m
just a kid! I’m wet behind the ears! Who’s
going to listen to me?” I should note
that this is a mark of many who are truly called by God, that they are
initially reluctant to respond to God’s call because of a sense of their own
unworthiness. In response to God’s call,
Abram said that he had no children, Moses said that he was a lousy public
speaker, Isaiah said that he was a man of unclean lips from a people of unclean
lips – just for a few examples. The
first response of those called by God is often a profound sense of their own
inadequacy – which God then steps in to relieve. We should question those who rush into one
situation after another claiming to speak for God – often they are speaking
only for themselves. As the saying goes
in some church circles, “Some were sent, and some just went.” But Jeremiah was truly sent. He did not want to go, but was compelled by
God to do so. Jeremiah was gripped by a
sense of his own inadequacy, and we’re told that in response, God touched
Jeremiah’s mouth and said, “Now I have put my words in your mouth”.
In our Gospel reading, Jesus is teaching in a synagogue, and
he sees a woman with a spirit within her that had bent her over. And as an experiment, I’d like us to get up,
as we’re able, and then bend over, from the waist - I can’t begin to touch my toes, but maybe
if we put our hands on our kneecaps it’ll give us a sense of what that woman
felt. And how does it feel? Is it easy to see what’s in front of
you? To keep your balance? How about breathing? All of what you’re feeling, this woman felt –
for eighteen years. And Jesus healed
her – he said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” And the woman began to stand up and praise
God.
And after the healing, we hear from the synagogue
leader. You’d think he’d be happy that
Jesus healed the woman, but instead, we learn he is unhappy because Jesus
healed the woman on the wrong day. And
then Jesus justified his healing – as if it needed justification – by engaging
in a classic rabbinic technique, arguing from lesser to greater, telling the
synagogue leader and congregation, “You untie your donkey to feed it on the
Sabbath, don’t you? And you don’t
consider that prohibited, do you? I untied this woman who had been tied up in
knots for eighteen long years.” Jesus
recognized a kairos moment – a divinely appointed moment, where the
synagogue leader did not. So often, I
think we go through lives on autopilot, almost sleepwalking through our days. God invites us to engage with life, to
awaken, to recognize the Kairos moments in our lives that may bring God’s
teaching or healing to us.
God appointed the young Jeremiah to speak hard words of
truth to his hard-hearted people, and appointed Jesus to release the captives,
including a woman captive to a crippled body. God had plans for Jeremiah at the beginning of
his adult life and for the bent over woman late in her journey through life. As
followers of the Risen Christ, God has also appointed us. We too, like Jeremiah, may have to go against
the current of our society, stand up for those who have been crushed, stand up
against those who are crushing them. We,
too, like Jesus, may be called upon to bring liberation to those who are
heavily bent under life’s burdens – and be willing to catch some flack for
doing so.
The burden of life that bend us over come in many
forms. The woman in our Gospel reading
was bent over by physical illness, that apparently had a spiritual component –
we’re told that it was a spirit that bent her over. We all
carry heavy burdens, whether physical, or economic, or social, or spiritual,
burdens that weigh us down, that leave us feeling bent over, that make it hard
to breathe. Some of these are forced on
us by our life circumstances, some we impose on ourselves through bad choices,
and some are imposed on us by the actions of others and by systemic
injustice. For example, in our city, the
life expectancy of the wealthiest and poorest of our citizens may vary by 20 years
or more. It shows up by neighborhood, by
zip code. According to a study published
in 2016 in the Philadelphia Inquirer, in the North Philadelphia neighborhoods
of Strawberry Mansion and Swampoodle, near where I work at my day job, a baby
born today can be expected to live just 66 years. Five miles south, downtown in Society Hill, a
baby born today can be expected to live 88 years – a difference of over 20
years.[1]
Bridesburg is sort of in the middle, with a life expectancy of 74 years.[2]
Smoking, neighborhood stress and
violence, environmental factors such as access to clean air and water, access
to healthy food and health care – many of these factors driven by economics - account
for much of the difference – in effect bending over entire neighborhoods, to
the extent of driving residents to early graves. But as Jesus released the woman in the
synagogue from her bent-over condition, Jesus also wills for us to be freed
from the baggage that weighs us down, and for us to help bear the burdens of
others.
Before God sent Jeremiah on his mission, God put his words
in Jeremiah’s mouth – that is to say, God equipped Jeremiah for ministry. And today we are helping to equip the young
people in our midst. What God has
appointed for them, we cannot know – the year ahead is like the blank pages in
the notebooks we’re giving them - but think of the potential these young people
hold in their hands. Imagine where their
lives may go. We may have future
doctors, future engineers, future teachers, future leaders in our midst. And
today we are privileged to be able to take some tiny part in preparing them for
their life’s journeys, as they begin another school year. With these backpacks go our blessings and
prayers for their health and safety.
As a boy, Jeremiah was appointed by God to speak hard truths
to kings and priests. Now, this doesn’t
mean that the children among us are appointed to try to boss their parents
around…..that wouldn’t end well. But God
does have plans for them, just the same – and for all of us, whether we’re just
beginning our earthly pilgrimage, or are further along in our journey.
May each of us be receptive to the call to which God has appointed us,
and may we as the gathered people of Emanuel United Church of Christ carry out
the ministry to which God has appointed us. Amen.
[1] https://www.inquirer.com/philly/health/20160418_In_Philly_your_zip_code_sets_your_life_expectancy.html
[2] https://www.arcgis.com/apps/Embed/index.html?webmap=ea95572f9a0644269f123e81d2692c35&extent=-75.2944,39.917,-74.9412,40.0927&zoom=true&scale=true&disable_scroll=true&theme=light
