Have We Been "Slicked"?
Sermon
Sermons on the First Readings
Series II, Cycle C
In many small towns across America the annual Volunteer Fireman's Fair is the social event of the year, or at least it used to be. In days gone by, a typical carnival might have the usual carousel or Ferris Wheel, sometimes pony rides, and always there were the games of chance. (Today we might frown upon these as "gambling" -- but back then it was just small-town fun for a good cause.) Bingo was usually preferred by the adults; but the youngsters had other ideas. For a boy named David in Freeport, Ohio, the hands-down favorite was the nickel toss.
At the time, the county was a world leader in pottery production and the firemen would purchase boxes of "seconds" (dishes and cups with slight imperfections) and extras from the factory in Scio and lay them out on a flat board. The object was to toss a nickel into a bowl or plate or cup or saucer and thus win the dish. One could make an evening of this game and take home a set of dishes to boot. Young David, and others like him, could easily spend $5 worth of nickels for $1 worth of mismatched dishes. Not really a good deal, his siblings tried to convince him, but he kept at it year after year, proudly bringing his treasures home for Mom -- cups and saucers, meat plates and soup bowls, dinner plates and salad bowls.
Today, this mismatched pottery sits amongst the most prized pieces in his mother's cupboard -- to be treasured more than the finest china. But at the time the family had a different attitude.
"You got 'slicked,'" they would say. "Snookered" is the expression used by others. The phrase was a local one derived from one of those town characters found in nearly every community. People called this particular gentleman "Slick" or "Slicky," because he'd developed a reputation as a wheeler-dealer who nearly always got the better end of the bargain he offered. He just had a way of talking people into things. You kind of figured that folks would know better after a while, but they just kept dealing. Fall for the smooth talk once and people might have sympathy, but after that the local folks would just shake their heads and say, "You got slicked!"
We all get "slicked" from time to time. It happens when we give up something valuable in exchange for what is cheap, like tossing away $1 worth of nickels to get a ten-cent coffee cup. Most of us get cheated from time to time regardless of how carefully we live; but sometimes we plunge right into a bad decision based on half-truths and flowery promises we want to believe.
How often in our own lives have we given up what is truly valuable for the cheap stuff -- like routinely giving up time with our children for that time-and-a half overtime pay, or trading fidelity in marriage for a temporary fleeting passion? As one preacher remarked, "I've never heard anyone at the end of their life say 'I wish I'd worked more hours' or 'I wish I hadn't wasted so much time playing with my kids.'" How often have we ourselves exchanged the glory of a sunset for a recliner and the evening news?
Then come matters of the spirit. How easily and readily we exchange an encounter with the Almighty for a sit-com and commercials, or a morning of Sunday worship for an extra hour of sleep. Too many folks have listened to the smooth talk and empty promises in the world around us, and too many of us have invested our lives in that which is useless and fleeting. At day's end, we feel empty and cheated, never daring to admit we've been "slicked."
When the prophet Jeremiah looked around in his own place and time, he recognized that his own people were getting "slicked." Concerned with self-preservation, they were investing their life's energy in the acquisition of material possessions while starving their widows and orphans. In their quest for "homeland security" they were seeking to bolster the military budget but ignoring the sick and the elderly. Kings and courtiers were cutting political deals for profit and safety and then conveniently forgetting their promises when the winds shifted.
The issues were not just secular or political. No such thing as separation of church and state existed in ancient Judah. Cutting a deal for protection with Babylon included honoring their deities in addition to financial tribute to their king. Pledging loyalty to Egypt meant offering obeisance to their gods as well. To those nations who worshiped many gods it was no big deal -- the cost of doing business. But for Judah -- the nation that on Mount Sinai had pledged to serve no God but Yahweh -- such a betrayal amounted to adultery.
Jeremiah spelled out God's grief and anger over the nation's conniving ways. The corruption pervades all levels of the social realm:
The priests don't seek God, the courts don't know God's law, the leaders defy God's rules and even the prophets speak for other gods.... they went after worthlessness and became worthless.... they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.
-- Jeremiah 2:8, 5, 13
Rural folk who have lived in a dry country such as Palestine get the picture. A functional cistern holds water for a time, just to get you by during a dry spell. It will do for bathing and watering crops and livestock, but its contents are stale and even brackish -- certainly not preferable to fresh well water. Abandoning an artesian spring for even a good cistern is definitely a bad choice -- but exchanging it for a cracked cistern? That idea just doesn't hold water -- literally! That is a bargain that can cost you your life. It's bad enough to trade our treasures for the cheap stuff -- even worse to exchange it for toxic waste.
"If you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve," Joshua had challenged the covenant people when they settled the promised land. "Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods," the people had sworn (Joshua 24:15).
"Sweet talk" we call it today: Promises made in the passion of the moment only to be forgotten when commitments become inconvenient or unprofitable.
Do we behave any differently?
In our war against terrorism we are trading personal liberty for a promise of safety, the living water of our nation's history for the cracked cistern of national security. "You made my heritage an abomination."
We wave the flag with public ceremony and sing "God Bless America" but remove the Ten Commandments from the public courthouse. "Those who handle the law did not know me."
We have traded biblical truth for political correctness. "The prophets went after things that do not profit."
Precious nickels for cheap pottery. Let's face it: We've been "slicked."
Atheism (literally "no god"), is no more viable an option for our nation's survival than polytheism ("many gods") was for Judah. Both options leave us dry and dusty as a leaky cistern amidst the summer drought. Only God's living water can sustain. Only God's power can protect. Only God's righteousness can withstand the assault of the enemy. Anything or anyone else brings certain destruction.
So where can we go to find the good stuff -- the fresh sparkling water that gives life?
"Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters," our Lord invites us (Isaiah 55:1).
Centuries after Jeremiah's time another "young and fearless prophet" would again come to God's people offering the "good stuff." "If you knew who it was [that you are dealing with]," he invited a Samaritan woman at Jacob's well, "... you would have asked, and he would have given you living water."
The invitation is for us as well, and the living water is nothing less than the Spirit of Christ himself. "Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty" (John 6:35). He redeems our broken lives, our fractured integrity, and our empty promises and offers us joy and peace and truth. The bitter waters of despair are made sweet by hope and the toxic waste of anger and resentment is replaced by forgiveness and love. Cheap pottery becomes priceless treasure as he trades our useless attitudes and behaviors for what is precious and enduring. "Invest in me, and you'll never get 'slicked'; trust in me and you'll never lose out."
At the time, the county was a world leader in pottery production and the firemen would purchase boxes of "seconds" (dishes and cups with slight imperfections) and extras from the factory in Scio and lay them out on a flat board. The object was to toss a nickel into a bowl or plate or cup or saucer and thus win the dish. One could make an evening of this game and take home a set of dishes to boot. Young David, and others like him, could easily spend $5 worth of nickels for $1 worth of mismatched dishes. Not really a good deal, his siblings tried to convince him, but he kept at it year after year, proudly bringing his treasures home for Mom -- cups and saucers, meat plates and soup bowls, dinner plates and salad bowls.
Today, this mismatched pottery sits amongst the most prized pieces in his mother's cupboard -- to be treasured more than the finest china. But at the time the family had a different attitude.
"You got 'slicked,'" they would say. "Snookered" is the expression used by others. The phrase was a local one derived from one of those town characters found in nearly every community. People called this particular gentleman "Slick" or "Slicky," because he'd developed a reputation as a wheeler-dealer who nearly always got the better end of the bargain he offered. He just had a way of talking people into things. You kind of figured that folks would know better after a while, but they just kept dealing. Fall for the smooth talk once and people might have sympathy, but after that the local folks would just shake their heads and say, "You got slicked!"
We all get "slicked" from time to time. It happens when we give up something valuable in exchange for what is cheap, like tossing away $1 worth of nickels to get a ten-cent coffee cup. Most of us get cheated from time to time regardless of how carefully we live; but sometimes we plunge right into a bad decision based on half-truths and flowery promises we want to believe.
How often in our own lives have we given up what is truly valuable for the cheap stuff -- like routinely giving up time with our children for that time-and-a half overtime pay, or trading fidelity in marriage for a temporary fleeting passion? As one preacher remarked, "I've never heard anyone at the end of their life say 'I wish I'd worked more hours' or 'I wish I hadn't wasted so much time playing with my kids.'" How often have we ourselves exchanged the glory of a sunset for a recliner and the evening news?
Then come matters of the spirit. How easily and readily we exchange an encounter with the Almighty for a sit-com and commercials, or a morning of Sunday worship for an extra hour of sleep. Too many folks have listened to the smooth talk and empty promises in the world around us, and too many of us have invested our lives in that which is useless and fleeting. At day's end, we feel empty and cheated, never daring to admit we've been "slicked."
When the prophet Jeremiah looked around in his own place and time, he recognized that his own people were getting "slicked." Concerned with self-preservation, they were investing their life's energy in the acquisition of material possessions while starving their widows and orphans. In their quest for "homeland security" they were seeking to bolster the military budget but ignoring the sick and the elderly. Kings and courtiers were cutting political deals for profit and safety and then conveniently forgetting their promises when the winds shifted.
The issues were not just secular or political. No such thing as separation of church and state existed in ancient Judah. Cutting a deal for protection with Babylon included honoring their deities in addition to financial tribute to their king. Pledging loyalty to Egypt meant offering obeisance to their gods as well. To those nations who worshiped many gods it was no big deal -- the cost of doing business. But for Judah -- the nation that on Mount Sinai had pledged to serve no God but Yahweh -- such a betrayal amounted to adultery.
Jeremiah spelled out God's grief and anger over the nation's conniving ways. The corruption pervades all levels of the social realm:
The priests don't seek God, the courts don't know God's law, the leaders defy God's rules and even the prophets speak for other gods.... they went after worthlessness and became worthless.... they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.
-- Jeremiah 2:8, 5, 13
Rural folk who have lived in a dry country such as Palestine get the picture. A functional cistern holds water for a time, just to get you by during a dry spell. It will do for bathing and watering crops and livestock, but its contents are stale and even brackish -- certainly not preferable to fresh well water. Abandoning an artesian spring for even a good cistern is definitely a bad choice -- but exchanging it for a cracked cistern? That idea just doesn't hold water -- literally! That is a bargain that can cost you your life. It's bad enough to trade our treasures for the cheap stuff -- even worse to exchange it for toxic waste.
"If you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve," Joshua had challenged the covenant people when they settled the promised land. "Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods," the people had sworn (Joshua 24:15).
"Sweet talk" we call it today: Promises made in the passion of the moment only to be forgotten when commitments become inconvenient or unprofitable.
Do we behave any differently?
In our war against terrorism we are trading personal liberty for a promise of safety, the living water of our nation's history for the cracked cistern of national security. "You made my heritage an abomination."
We wave the flag with public ceremony and sing "God Bless America" but remove the Ten Commandments from the public courthouse. "Those who handle the law did not know me."
We have traded biblical truth for political correctness. "The prophets went after things that do not profit."
Precious nickels for cheap pottery. Let's face it: We've been "slicked."
Atheism (literally "no god"), is no more viable an option for our nation's survival than polytheism ("many gods") was for Judah. Both options leave us dry and dusty as a leaky cistern amidst the summer drought. Only God's living water can sustain. Only God's power can protect. Only God's righteousness can withstand the assault of the enemy. Anything or anyone else brings certain destruction.
So where can we go to find the good stuff -- the fresh sparkling water that gives life?
"Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters," our Lord invites us (Isaiah 55:1).
Centuries after Jeremiah's time another "young and fearless prophet" would again come to God's people offering the "good stuff." "If you knew who it was [that you are dealing with]," he invited a Samaritan woman at Jacob's well, "... you would have asked, and he would have given you living water."
The invitation is for us as well, and the living water is nothing less than the Spirit of Christ himself. "Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty" (John 6:35). He redeems our broken lives, our fractured integrity, and our empty promises and offers us joy and peace and truth. The bitter waters of despair are made sweet by hope and the toxic waste of anger and resentment is replaced by forgiveness and love. Cheap pottery becomes priceless treasure as he trades our useless attitudes and behaviors for what is precious and enduring. "Invest in me, and you'll never get 'slicked'; trust in me and you'll never lose out."
