From Life To Death To ...
Sermon
Sermons on the First Readings
Series III, Cycle C
Object:
How many of you remember the movie Duck and Cover? It really wasn't a movie but more of a "short" -- just over nine minutes in length. But don't sell it short -- it featured a great leading role, Bert the Turtle, and a very catchy theme song:
There was a turtle by the name of Bert
and Bert the turtle was very alert;
when danger threatened him he never got hurt
he knew just what to do ...
He ducked!
And covered!
Ducked!
And covered! He did what we all must learn to do
You and you and you and you!
Duck, and cover!1
In what looks like a dramatized cartoon, Bert the Turtle follows the "duck and cover" rule when a monkey dangles a firecracker over his head and survives the blast. But then the movie takes a more serious tone as live footage of a nuclear blast is run, and viewers are assured that the way to survive such a blast is to "duck and cover."
Duck and Cover was produced by the United States Civil Defense Administration in 1951, about two years after Russia detonated its first nuclear device. As the Cold War between the United States and Russia grew, Civil Defense began designating fallout shelters and devising other means for protection from nuclear attack.
Other films addressed the threat of nuclear attack. On the Beach in 1959 and The Day After in 1984 imprinted terrifying images of the complete destruction and desolation that would occur after a nuclear holocaust. Those of us who came of age in the 1970s and 1980s seriously questioned whether we would live to see forty years of age. We seriously feared the total annihilation of the world, the undoing of God's good creation. It wasn't until later in the 1980s that concentrated efforts toward peace between the United States and Russia eased the fears of nuclear destruction of our nations, and ultimately our planet.
When I read this passage in Jeremiah, I cannot help but see the terrifying images of The Day After and the films I viewed when I visited Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, as a high school exchange student in 1976-77. In Japan, the only nation to have been attacked with nuclear bombs during World War II, the memorials to those who died and those who survived are surrounded by pictures taken as the bombs detonated and in their aftermath. A burning hot wind ignited fire upon anything that remained standing after the massive blast. Entire neighborhoods were laid waste, all structures destroyed. The cities lay in ruins and the fruitful foothills looked like a desert.
As I walked through the halls of the memorials in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there was nothing to be said. There was only a deep, deep silence as we viewed the black and white photographs completely absent of human or any other visible life.
The verses of Jeremiah 4 are some of the bleakest images in all of the Old Testament. This is not the kind of text most pastors will choose as fodder for preaching. The nation of Israel had been duly warned of their continuing sin against God and the judgment facing them. God had pleaded with them to repent and return to God, but to no avail.
Jeremiah may have believed that Judah would choose repentance after watching its neighbor to the north fall to Assyria. He may have hoped that all he would need to do would be to remind Judah of the fall of Israel and their choice would be clear. They would choose God and choose life.
But Judah will not choose life, and Jeremiah laments their ignorance:
For my people are foolish, they do not know me; they are stupid children, they have no understanding. They are skilled in doing evil, but do not know how to do good.
-- Jeremiah 4:22
Had I never visited Hiroshima or Nagasaki, or toured the concentration camp in Dachau, Germany, I am not sure that I would hear this text in the same way. Because I have no fears regarding adequate food or safe water for my household and my community, I am not sure that, today, I can begin to grasp the gravity of destruction and desolation in this text.
The tragedy of this text today is that despite the fact that millions of people claim faith in God, are readers of the Holy Bible, and are baptized into the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, there are still places around the world where this kind of destruction and desolation are the norm. There are millions who are dying of starvation and disease. Most, if not all of this starvation and suffering could be alleviated and prevented if we were all committed to living in harmony with God's will for creation.
As stewards of God's creation, we are entrusted with the care of the environment. We are charged with the responsibility of fair distribution of its resources. We are called to provide for those who are at greatest risk -- the "widows and orphans" of our world and our day.
But as Adam and Eve, and the people of Israel and Judah before us, we choose to tend to our own needs and wants first. We have bought into the ungodly premise that "God helps those who help themselves." Trust me, you can look all you want for this modern, North American Christian commandment in the Holy Bible, but you will not find it. It is not there. What you will find are commandments like these:
Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.
-- Genesis 1:28
He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
-- Micah 6:8
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
-- James 1:27
In his public ministry, Jesus also shows clear preferential treatment for the poor, the suffering, the disenfranchised, and the outcasts. In his storytelling and in his encounters, he readily embraces those whom the rest of his society would prefer to forget. His teaching in the sermon on the plain pronounces blessing on those who are poor, promising them nothing less than the kingdom of heaven (Luke 7:20). The parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin in Luke 15:1-10 clearly communicate Jesus' intent that no one be excluded from God's banquet table. The story of Lazarus and the rich man in Luke 16:19-31 paints a tragic picture of a man who has the means to deliver another from poverty and death, but cannot be bothered to do so. When he later finds himself in torment, and sees Lazarus at peace at Abraham's side, the rich man pleads for mercy for himself. When the barrier between them cannot be traversed, the rich man begs that a warning might be given to his brothers about the afterlife they may face.
Abraham replied, "They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them." He [the rich man] said, "No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent." He [Abraham] said to him, "If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead."
-- Luke 16:29-31
Brothers and sisters in Christ, we worship and are disciples of someone who has risen from the dead -- Jesus of Nazareth, Son of God, and Savior of the world! Are we convinced? Are we willing to trust this one who has given his life for us and to us? Will our hearts beat with his? Will we align our values with his? Having been made right with God through his cross, will we dare to confess our selfishness and offer to others the love and mercy God has shown to us?
Even in the determined decree of God in Jeremiah 4:22-28, God utters a mere breath of mercy:
For thus says the Lord, "The whole land shall be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end."
-- Jeremiah 4:27
God breathes a word of mercy in the midst of the harsh, hot heat of his anger. God pledges that humanity will not be utterly destroyed. God suggests that there is breath and space to turn around, to take our attention off ourselves and onto the broken in body and spirit, in the desolate places of our world.
We need not duck and cover from God as Adam and Eve did after their sin. Let us return to God. Let us trust God with our needs and the needs of those around us and dedicate ourselves to the care and redemption of all whom God has made.
In the name of Jesus. Amen.
_____________________
1. Archer Productions, Inc., Duck and Cover (Distributed by the United States Federal Civil Defense Administration, 1951).
There was a turtle by the name of Bert
and Bert the turtle was very alert;
when danger threatened him he never got hurt
he knew just what to do ...
He ducked!
And covered!
Ducked!
And covered! He did what we all must learn to do
You and you and you and you!
Duck, and cover!1
In what looks like a dramatized cartoon, Bert the Turtle follows the "duck and cover" rule when a monkey dangles a firecracker over his head and survives the blast. But then the movie takes a more serious tone as live footage of a nuclear blast is run, and viewers are assured that the way to survive such a blast is to "duck and cover."
Duck and Cover was produced by the United States Civil Defense Administration in 1951, about two years after Russia detonated its first nuclear device. As the Cold War between the United States and Russia grew, Civil Defense began designating fallout shelters and devising other means for protection from nuclear attack.
Other films addressed the threat of nuclear attack. On the Beach in 1959 and The Day After in 1984 imprinted terrifying images of the complete destruction and desolation that would occur after a nuclear holocaust. Those of us who came of age in the 1970s and 1980s seriously questioned whether we would live to see forty years of age. We seriously feared the total annihilation of the world, the undoing of God's good creation. It wasn't until later in the 1980s that concentrated efforts toward peace between the United States and Russia eased the fears of nuclear destruction of our nations, and ultimately our planet.
When I read this passage in Jeremiah, I cannot help but see the terrifying images of The Day After and the films I viewed when I visited Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, as a high school exchange student in 1976-77. In Japan, the only nation to have been attacked with nuclear bombs during World War II, the memorials to those who died and those who survived are surrounded by pictures taken as the bombs detonated and in their aftermath. A burning hot wind ignited fire upon anything that remained standing after the massive blast. Entire neighborhoods were laid waste, all structures destroyed. The cities lay in ruins and the fruitful foothills looked like a desert.
As I walked through the halls of the memorials in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there was nothing to be said. There was only a deep, deep silence as we viewed the black and white photographs completely absent of human or any other visible life.
The verses of Jeremiah 4 are some of the bleakest images in all of the Old Testament. This is not the kind of text most pastors will choose as fodder for preaching. The nation of Israel had been duly warned of their continuing sin against God and the judgment facing them. God had pleaded with them to repent and return to God, but to no avail.
Jeremiah may have believed that Judah would choose repentance after watching its neighbor to the north fall to Assyria. He may have hoped that all he would need to do would be to remind Judah of the fall of Israel and their choice would be clear. They would choose God and choose life.
But Judah will not choose life, and Jeremiah laments their ignorance:
For my people are foolish, they do not know me; they are stupid children, they have no understanding. They are skilled in doing evil, but do not know how to do good.
-- Jeremiah 4:22
Had I never visited Hiroshima or Nagasaki, or toured the concentration camp in Dachau, Germany, I am not sure that I would hear this text in the same way. Because I have no fears regarding adequate food or safe water for my household and my community, I am not sure that, today, I can begin to grasp the gravity of destruction and desolation in this text.
The tragedy of this text today is that despite the fact that millions of people claim faith in God, are readers of the Holy Bible, and are baptized into the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, there are still places around the world where this kind of destruction and desolation are the norm. There are millions who are dying of starvation and disease. Most, if not all of this starvation and suffering could be alleviated and prevented if we were all committed to living in harmony with God's will for creation.
As stewards of God's creation, we are entrusted with the care of the environment. We are charged with the responsibility of fair distribution of its resources. We are called to provide for those who are at greatest risk -- the "widows and orphans" of our world and our day.
But as Adam and Eve, and the people of Israel and Judah before us, we choose to tend to our own needs and wants first. We have bought into the ungodly premise that "God helps those who help themselves." Trust me, you can look all you want for this modern, North American Christian commandment in the Holy Bible, but you will not find it. It is not there. What you will find are commandments like these:
Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.
-- Genesis 1:28
He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
-- Micah 6:8
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
-- James 1:27
In his public ministry, Jesus also shows clear preferential treatment for the poor, the suffering, the disenfranchised, and the outcasts. In his storytelling and in his encounters, he readily embraces those whom the rest of his society would prefer to forget. His teaching in the sermon on the plain pronounces blessing on those who are poor, promising them nothing less than the kingdom of heaven (Luke 7:20). The parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin in Luke 15:1-10 clearly communicate Jesus' intent that no one be excluded from God's banquet table. The story of Lazarus and the rich man in Luke 16:19-31 paints a tragic picture of a man who has the means to deliver another from poverty and death, but cannot be bothered to do so. When he later finds himself in torment, and sees Lazarus at peace at Abraham's side, the rich man pleads for mercy for himself. When the barrier between them cannot be traversed, the rich man begs that a warning might be given to his brothers about the afterlife they may face.
Abraham replied, "They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them." He [the rich man] said, "No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent." He [Abraham] said to him, "If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead."
-- Luke 16:29-31
Brothers and sisters in Christ, we worship and are disciples of someone who has risen from the dead -- Jesus of Nazareth, Son of God, and Savior of the world! Are we convinced? Are we willing to trust this one who has given his life for us and to us? Will our hearts beat with his? Will we align our values with his? Having been made right with God through his cross, will we dare to confess our selfishness and offer to others the love and mercy God has shown to us?
Even in the determined decree of God in Jeremiah 4:22-28, God utters a mere breath of mercy:
For thus says the Lord, "The whole land shall be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end."
-- Jeremiah 4:27
God breathes a word of mercy in the midst of the harsh, hot heat of his anger. God pledges that humanity will not be utterly destroyed. God suggests that there is breath and space to turn around, to take our attention off ourselves and onto the broken in body and spirit, in the desolate places of our world.
We need not duck and cover from God as Adam and Eve did after their sin. Let us return to God. Let us trust God with our needs and the needs of those around us and dedicate ourselves to the care and redemption of all whom God has made.
In the name of Jesus. Amen.
_____________________
1. Archer Productions, Inc., Duck and Cover (Distributed by the United States Federal Civil Defense Administration, 1951).
