Sixth Sunday after Epiphany

It’s weird to be married to a priest.

Straight off there’s the fact that our more numerous Catholic brothers and sisters call their CELIBATE-ONLY clergy, :priests,: So my response to the question, “What does your husband do?” can cause consternation or scandal. Sometimes, I feel I should be wearing a Scarlet Letter along with Hester.

And then there’s the “What do you get your husband on their birthday?” question. Definitely not a tie. And dress shirts aren’t really needed except once a decade due to his “work uniform.” As a spouse who has a Master’s in Old Testament theology, there is something I can give that he is happy to receive: the gift of delivering a sermon in his place on Sunday morning. So today, “happy birthday.”

I don’t know how familiar you are with the concept of the Sunday lectionary readings. But the Lectionary is a 3-year compilation of various portions from the Bible that are organized thematically around the special days of the liturgical year. Each Sunday, for three years, we read different portions of the Bible. Even with the three-year cycle, with reading from the OT, NT, the Psalms, and Gospels each Sunday, you hear all four Gospels but only 20% of the remainder of the Bible. By Year C of the 3-year of the cycle, it’s sometimes harder to find the thematic thread of the readings. Guess which year we are in? Yep, Year C. So I turned to today’s Lectionary readings with a little trepidation.

The first reading is in Jeremiah. Now I personally really like Jeremiah. He is the prophet whose background and personal life we know the most about, thanks to his scribe, Baruch. Jeremiah is prophesying to a politically failing nation (which also failed on a spiritual level). They are about to be invaded by the Babylonian Empire where many are killed and a remnant is carried into exile. Today’s reading from Jeremiah uses the imagery of a tree planted by a river to talk about trusting in God versus trusting people.

Then the Psalm echoes the “tree imagery,” but within the context that the wicked don’t last but the righteous persevere. Moving onward to the Corinthian passage, we find a bit of a ramble that repeats itself saying if Jesus wasn’t resurrected then that’s the ballgame for Christians. But lucky for us, Jesus really was raised from the dead, so everything’s okay. Then, finally, we end with Luke’s gospel reading, which is a shorter version of Matthew’s Sermon of the Mount. No trees mentioned.

So what is the connecting theme? In reality, it feels more like a helping of leftovers.

The passage from Jeremiah opens with God saying, “Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength.” Now isn’t that true? My personal experience brings me to the same conclusion. No matter who you put your trust in, they are going to let you down! Whether it’s Obama or Trump; your doctor, your therapist or your trainer; your parents or your children . . . your best friend or your lover – mere mortals are going to let you down. Sometimes they don’t mean to . . . maybe they don’t even want to – are trying their best not to – but still, they do. Either they say or do the wrong thing or they say and do nothing when you need something. Whether from selfishness or just being unaware, we let each other down. It is a common human trait. Because we aren’t all-knowing or all-powerful. We are simply walking this journey too.

Jeremiah says trusting in a mere mortal is like a shrub trying to live in the desert – there just isn’t enough water to live on. Then he juxtaposes this image with the image of a tree planted by a stream. That’s what it’s like to trust in the Lord. Even when the heat comes (whether physical or metaphorical), the tree that trusts in the Lord has green leaves – even in drought. It’s not anxious because it knows that it has an ample supply of water. It’s at peace in its circumstances.

While God does use those around us – like our siblings, our friends, our priest – we can’t live our lives dependent on them. We have to be planted in the waters of the stream. That’s what feeds us. The cup of water they bring can remind us of the unlimited sustenance found in trusting in God, but their cup of water alone won’t get us through a drought.

Jeremiah also says our hearts must be engaged. When our hearts are turned away from God we start using other relationships to try to fill the God-sized gap in our heart. Maybe we were angry at God for something God did or didn’t do, or maybe we were just bored. For whatever reason, we can’t just go through the motions as a follower of Christ. Nor can we stretch some other relationship to fill the hole. Our hearts have to be engaged in trusting God – to be nurtured by him.

The whole tree imagery resurfaces in Psalm 1. Those whose “delight is in the law of the LORD and on his law they meditate day and night” are the trees planted by streams of water. The wicked on the other hand will be destroyed and blown away like chaff. If you are nervous about “delighting” in all the laws of the Old Testament, remember what Christ said, all the laws and the prophets can be summed up in two dictums: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind and love your neighbor as yourself. Focus on loving God and your neighbor and you are delighting in the laws of God.

Other similarities: Jeremiah and the Gospel were both written during politically turbulent and oppressive times. In Jeremiah, Jerusalem is about to be attacked and defeated by Nebuchadnezzar; whoever isn’t killed will be carried off into exile. While in Luke, the nation has already been conquered and is living under Roman rule. Luke says the people “came to Jesus . . . to hear what he had to say and to be healed. They came to him,” as verse 19 says, “for power came out from him and healed all of them” Power.

In the midst of the hard political reality of Roman rule, did Jesus use his power to overthrow the Romans? To change the political situation? To rescue them? No. He healed the ones that were there and he gave them a new way to see and interpret their situation – an “upside down” way to look at things.

It’s interesting to contrast the words of the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew with Luke’s version. Matthew says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God.” And “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” It’s almost like Matthew’s version is the “spiritual” version of the Beatitudes while Luke’s feels more stark – like it’s better to live a poor, weepy, hungry life than to have food, money and laughter. And then there are the Woes: Woe to the rich, the well-fed and the popular.

So what do I do with this Jesus-given perspective on life? Because, let’s be honest, I had personally rather laugh than cry; be rich than poor. Since God gave riches as a sign of his blessing in the Old Testament, simply being rich can’t in itself be a bad thing. And what constitutes being “rich?” Compared to some we are all rich and to others we are all poor. What is Jesus trying to tell us?

For me, there is an underground river flowing through the Luke reading that makes sense of all these dichotomies: Better to be hungry, weeping, and poor – while firmly trusting in God, planted in Jesus – than to have a heart that loves and has money, fame, or entertainment.

Jesus says in Luke, “Blessed are you when people hate you, exclude you, defame you because you trust in me.” Jeremiah tells us to trust in the Lord. So what are we trusting God for? To be God.

That as miraculous and far-fetched as it may sound to modern ears, there is a loving God who created us. That there is a purpose to all that we call life and this creation. That Jesus is God incarnate. Sure – it sounds crazy; but is true nonetheless.

Dear family of God, we are going to hurt and weep and mourn in this life. It is hard, but there is also joy in this journey. In the times of pain, no matter what happens, we can experience the peace of God – a peace not because our circumstances are good, but because God is.. . . God is good.

And Jesus is that stream feeding us through all that happens in our lives. As we are nurtured by Christ, fed on who he is, what he taught us, we become more like him. And we work to see his kingdom completed on this earth.

One of my professors spoke of the “inbreaking” of the Kingdom of God into our world. It is when the precepts and values of God are realized in our daily world, when justice is for the rich and poor alike, when we share with one another in our need and in our plenty, when we love our neighbor as ourselves, when the lion lies down with the lamb and we are at peace with one another and all see, recognize and experience the goodness of God. During our time on this precious planet, each day we either bring the kingdom of God closer or we push it further away. How? By our choices: how we spend our money, how we spend our time, how we use our resources. God has given each of us a specific task to make the Kingdom of God more substantial, more realized. And we must give our all in fulfilling the task we are given. That is part of being planted by the stream.

And now finally, the rambling passage in Corinthians makes sense. We aren’t trusting God for a “good life,” a life without pain and hardship, while we live our time on this planet. As 1 Corinthians 15:19 says, “if for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.” We trust that this short, precious life is not the end, that what we are experiencing now is only the beginning of our life in Christ, that as Christ was raised from the dead, so shall we be raised, as will all those we know and love. This is only the first inning, the first act of our story – of God’s story.

If I could add one reading to the lectionary today, it would be from Revelation and echoes the tree and river motif which are so beautifully depicted on the Resurrection Doors at the back of the church, a memorial for Mike Broun, the doors that lead to the Memorial Garden where we remember our dead. From the Revelation of St. John:

He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making all things new!. . . To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. . . Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb . . . On each side of the river stood the tree of life. . . and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.

Let those who are thirsty come; and let all who wish take the free gift of the water of life.”