Date:
January 4, 2009, The Second Sunday after Christmas
Author: The Rev. Dr. James D. Kegel
GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST AND ON EARTH, PEACE, GOODWILL TO ALL. AMEN.
I miss the bulletin covers we used for so many years here at Central Lutheran Church —a photo of the chancel. I am not sure when the picture was taken but it impressed me with how much the same the front of this church looks after many years. There were subtle differences—the armed chairs were turned to face the congregation rather than lined up along the wall with the sedalia — the benches. There were two small hassocks in front of the altar—I remember when pastors would kneel before the altar before the service started or kneel for confession of sins. Those kneelers are now in storage. Oh, and it seems that when the picture was taken for the bulletin cover, there were no altar frontals, the paraments hanging from the altar. Things change, but they also stay the same.
This past week I read two different magazines highlighting “Then and Now ” articles with pictures. One was of Abraham Lincoln's Washington —fitting that we are now celebrating the two hundredth anniversary of Lincoln 's birth and we are preparing for the presidential inauguration of a senator from Illinois . When Lincoln was inaugurated the capitol dome was still being built and the Washington Monument ended abruptly—Mark Twain called it a chimney. But other scenes of our capitol were just the same. As we begin this New Year, I am reminded that many things change but most stay the same. Plus ça change, plus ça meme—isn't that what the French say, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.
“We are the change we are seeking.” That was a slogan from the last presidential campaign. I would like to disagree strongly with that idea. I am looking for something better than just more of me. We just received a Christmas letter from a friend in Chicago whose daughter quit her job in the garment district in New York City this year. Carolyn wanted to work in the fashion industry but was disgusted with the corruption; she could no longer stand it. I am not sure that Carolyn is moving back to Chicago . No one ever thought the Chicago machine politicians were not corrupt but never as blatantly as Illinois ' Governor Rod Blagojovich seeking to sell a senate seat to the highest bidder. The beauty of the American government system is the checks and balances it puts on office holders. The founders were aware of the danger of corruption from power and money. We are hopeful that a new president will make things will be better, less driven by various interest groups, more concerned with those who have no power and little money. It is my hope that the common good, the common weal as the founders put it, will outweigh private interest. I am looking for change but left to our own devices I am not sure we are the change we are seeking.
All people are sinful and fall short of God's glory. The story of the Bible is the story of war and violence, corruption and selfishness. It is David taking Uriah's wife and Jezebel persecuting God's prophet Elijah. God despaired of creation because of wickedness that resulted in violence. The seven deadly sins are still with us and no political change or social change ever results in human change. The poor we will always have with us; wars and rumors of wars will be the human lot until the end of time. Every year at the first of January we have great hopes for the year but very quickly those New Year's resolutions are put aside and nothing really changes. With humans real transforming change seems impossible; with God all things are possible.
Our text this morning comes from the prophet Jeremiah. It is one of the clearest passages in the Scripture of joy after sorrow, of hope in the midst of life's difficulties. It is a wonderful message of homecoming after exile, merriment after suffering, being found rather than lost. This chapter of Jeremiah is much different from the rest of the prophet's book. Most of Jeremiah foretells judgment and wrath. The ten northern tribes had been sent into exile and lost to history. The people of Ephraim (another name for Israel ) were disbursed and the kingdom of Israel was no more. The message of Jeremiah was that Judah would likewise be destroyed and it was. Jerusalem was sacked and the king blinded, the people sent into exile in Babylon . Jeremiah himself fled to Egypt . God's Word is both Law and Gospel. God is not mocked; sin and evil will be avenged. The people of Israel and Judah had sinned. They had turned to other gods. Their leaders were harsh and corrupt. They mistreated the poor and lowly. We can only understand our message of hope in the context of the entire book of Jeremiah which proclaimed God's word of judgment.
The message of the prophets to Israel and Judah was of God's judgment upon sin and wickedness. It was judgment on those who mistreated the poor, who acted unjustly, who neglected God's Word. But Jeremiah also spoke a word of grace to those who had been judged and were repentant. God's final word is not destruction and sorrow but redemption and consolation and life. God does not forget the covenant made with the ancestors or the promises made to God's people. God's last word is life in all its fullness.
Jeremiah proclaimed a homecoming for God's people: “See I am going to bring them from the land of the north and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, those with child and those in labor, together; a great company, they shall return back.” It is a message like that of the prophet Isaiah: “Strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble knees, say to those of fearful heart, ‘Be strong, fear not! Behold your God will come with vengeance with the recompense of God. God will come and save you…And the ransomed shall return, and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness and sorrow and sighing shall feel away.” God promises that sadness will turn to joy, exile to homecoming, poverty to abundance, despair to hope. All people will be part of God's salvation—the blind and the lame, those with child and those in labor, together. No one will be left behind or forgotten. The earliest commentator on our passage was Rashi —Rabbi Scholomo Yitzhak—who lived in France in the 1100s. He wrote that this passage means that God will never leave the staggering behind. John Calvin called it a wonder for the blind can not walk without stumbling and the lame could never make this long journey nor could those pregnant or about to deliver. Jeremiah describes that they will come with weeping and consolations—weeping in repentance and weeping in joy along straight pathways, by streams of living water. From coastlands and nations far away they will return to Zion to dancing and singing, abundant crops of grain and wine and coil, with flocks and herds—their life will become like a watered garden and they shall never languish again.
These words recall the beginning of human history to the time when God placed the man and woman in a garden, where a tree of life grew, where animals and birds were friends and helpers, where the soil yielded great abundance. Then the gates to Eden were closed with a fiery soil to keep the man and woman from returning. Humanity has been in exile ever since but there is also hope for a new heaven and new earth, for a river of life, where leaves will be for the healing of the nations—paradise a walled garden. We look to a return to Zion , to a life without sin or sorrow or loss in the presence of God. We look back and we look forward.
There is an adage that offers the reminder, “No family can hang out the sign, ‘Nothing the matter here'.” I hospital chaplain, Dennis Lynn writes of the proverb, “I have been wrong on many occasions when interacting with hurting families, especially parents in pain. I have thoughtlessly piled on the guilt and assaulted with advice that hurt more than it helped. I know better now. I have less criticism and more comfort to extend. I have fewer answers and less patience with those who believe they have all the answers. I often see, in many eyes, the confusion that comes to those whose life and family has gotten much more complicated than they could ever have imagined. I sense the crushing weight of unfulfilled expectations and the heavy burden of life not turning out like it was supposed to. I know there are many living under a hovering cloud of disappointment, frustration and regret. I remind you again, ‘No family can hang out the sign, “Nothing the matter here”.' We all have wounds and hurts and history we'd like to forget. We are all just trying to make it the best we can.”
None of us makes it through life without difficulty, loss, regret. We like the ancient Israelites need to repent and return to God but we very much need to hear the Gospel message that God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. We need to hear over and over again that our sins are forgiven because of Christ. We can not save ourselves, we can not reform ourselves, we can never be the change we so earnestly desire. We know what the New Year will bring: triumphs and tragedies, sorrows and joy. Most likely 2009 will bring more of the same—wars, famines, earthquakes, financial trouble, sickness and death; births, graduations, marriages, victories. Things will change and they will stay the same. But we do not lose heart for we look forward with hope. We look behind the events of the front page to the marvelous wonders God is working in our lives. We look forward to the time when the lame will leap and the blind will see; the exiles return and all will live in abundance. We look forward to the day when the Savior will wipe away every tear from our eyes and we will join all God's people in dancing and singing, praising our God in Zion.
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