Proper 17
Preaching
Preaching and Reading the Old Testament Lessons:
With an Eye to the New
This passage forms some of the earliest preaching of Jeremiah after his call in 626 B.C. and before the reform instituted by King Josiah of Judah in 621 B.C. The oracle is framed in terms of a court case, in which the Lord is the plaintiff, Judah is the accused, and the heavens serve as the jury (v. 12).
The main theme of the passage is given in verse 5. Judah "went after worthlessness," namely the fertility gods of Baal, "and became worthless." The poem is then divided into four stanzas (vv. 5-6, 7-8, 9-11, 12-13), and each of the last three stanzas or strophes ends with the same thought. In the second stanza, the false prophets "went after things that do not profit" (v. 8), that is, that are worthless. The end of the third stanza reads, "my people changed their glory," that is, their God, "for that which does not profit" (v. 11). And at the end of the fourth stanza, the people have hewed out for themselves cisterns "that can hold no water" (v. 13), in other words, cisterns that are worthless. The whole oracle, therefore, is concerned with the empty, useless worship and service of gods that are worthless.
The poem is a model of rhetorical skill, and when a theme is made so prominent in a poem, that should be the subject of the sermon on it. The preacher therefore will want to speak of our pursuit of worthless gods and goddesses -- not a difficult subject in our time.
As the Lord presents his case against Judah in this text, the people's forgetfulness and ingratitude for God's saving deeds toward them in the past are highlighted. The people have not sought the gracious God who delivered them from bondage in Egypt and led them for forty years through the terrors of the wilderness (v. 6). When the Lord brought them into the promised land, flowing with milk and honey, where Judah inherited abundant water supplies and grain and vines, fig trees and pomegranates, where olives grew on the trees, and from whose hills they could dig copper (Deuteronomy 8:7-10), the covenant people enjoyed all those gifts, but thanked the baals for them instead (cf. Hosea 2:8). Even the priests and prophets, who were supposed to teach the people the traditions about God's saving acts, turned to the worship of the fertility gods. And the rulers acquiesced in such idolatry (Jeremiah 2:7-8).
That a nation should change its gods, however, is unheard of among other nations, especially when the new gods are without benefit for the people (vv. 10-11). Judah's "glory" was the Lord who constantly worked mighty deeds in her life. But Judah exchanged that glory for worthless deities.
All of that presents pictures aptly suited to our society. This nation of ours, founded so largely by Protestants and Catholics, always has pointed in the past to God as the source of its blessings. And certainly the church can tell the long history of God's deeds on its behalf, beginning with the death and resurrection of Christ, that freed us from bondage to sin and death. Through almost 2,000 years of church history, God has guided and sustained his church, raising up leaders in every generation, renewing its life when the church was failing, pouring out his forgiveness and love in countless benefits for individuals and congregations.
But now, what do we find? Very few in any congregation know the story of God's saving deeds preserved for us in the scriptures. Very few can name the Ten Commandments or state the basic doctrines of the Christian Church. Instead, many have made up their own right and wrong, their own beliefs, and yes, their own gods. And syncretism, re-imagining, idolatry, indifference, hedonism, run rampant through a people that is supposed to be the body of Christ.
The Lord calls upon the jury in our text, namely upon the heavens, to be utterly shocked at the condition to which Judah has sunk. Then the sentence is announced in the court case. "Be utterly desolate," God says to the heavens, that is, "dry up the rain." Judah thinks Baal is in charge of the rain that gives the good life of fertility, but the Lord is really in charge. And as the judgment on his faithless people, God takes back his gifts of life (v. 12). "The wages of sin is death" in the Old Testament as well as the New (Romans 6:23).
The sin of the people of Judah is then summed up in the final verse. God is the only fountain of "living waters," the free-flowing stream of grace that can give life to a people. As Jesus tells the Samaritan woman in John 4:14, "Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." From the one God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, comes all life and good and eternity. Let us not exchange that everlasting fountain for worthless deities, broken cisterns in the desert, who have no measure of life-giving grace with which to provide us.
Lutheran Option: Proverbs 25:6-7
This Wisdom saying fits well with the Gospel reading from Luke 14:7-11, and indeed, may have been in Jesus' mind when he told the Lukan parable. If you are invited to the banquet of a king, do not try to sit or stand close to his royal person in order to make yourself noticed and important. Someone a lot more important than you may also be there, and you will be asked to move to a lower station to make room for the other. You will therefore suffer humiliation and be shown up for the self-serving individual that you are.
In the Proverbs text, verses 2-8 form a collection of Wisdom teachings concerned with life in a royal court, and they are meant to give instruction about how to conduct oneself in such a setting. Proverbs, in the Old Testament, are collections gleaned from observation of natural and human life that give instructions about how things and persons normally behave and about how to live a wise and ordered life in relation to them.
By using this Wisdom saying in his teaching, however, Jesus gives it an entirely different purpose. Now it becomes a parable about the Kingdom of God, and it deals with human pride. We see an example of such pride in the story of the disciples James and John who ask to sit at the right hand of Jesus when he comes into his glory in the kingdom (Mark 10:35-37).
The Christian life is not concerned with self-exaltation and self-importance, however. Indeed, Christian discipleship involves letting our selves be crucified -- in Jesus' words, taking up our cross and following him to Golgotha. Discipleship involves giving up our own desires, our own will, our own plans and directions, and letting God in Christ replace them with his will and guidance and goals instead. As Paul writes, "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me" (Galatians 2:20). Christ has taken over Paul's life, and the Lord wishes to take over our lives as well. If we exalt ourselves and are concerned only with our own well-being, we shut out God. But if we humble ourselves and let God rule our days, he can use us in his good purpose.
The main theme of the passage is given in verse 5. Judah "went after worthlessness," namely the fertility gods of Baal, "and became worthless." The poem is then divided into four stanzas (vv. 5-6, 7-8, 9-11, 12-13), and each of the last three stanzas or strophes ends with the same thought. In the second stanza, the false prophets "went after things that do not profit" (v. 8), that is, that are worthless. The end of the third stanza reads, "my people changed their glory," that is, their God, "for that which does not profit" (v. 11). And at the end of the fourth stanza, the people have hewed out for themselves cisterns "that can hold no water" (v. 13), in other words, cisterns that are worthless. The whole oracle, therefore, is concerned with the empty, useless worship and service of gods that are worthless.
The poem is a model of rhetorical skill, and when a theme is made so prominent in a poem, that should be the subject of the sermon on it. The preacher therefore will want to speak of our pursuit of worthless gods and goddesses -- not a difficult subject in our time.
As the Lord presents his case against Judah in this text, the people's forgetfulness and ingratitude for God's saving deeds toward them in the past are highlighted. The people have not sought the gracious God who delivered them from bondage in Egypt and led them for forty years through the terrors of the wilderness (v. 6). When the Lord brought them into the promised land, flowing with milk and honey, where Judah inherited abundant water supplies and grain and vines, fig trees and pomegranates, where olives grew on the trees, and from whose hills they could dig copper (Deuteronomy 8:7-10), the covenant people enjoyed all those gifts, but thanked the baals for them instead (cf. Hosea 2:8). Even the priests and prophets, who were supposed to teach the people the traditions about God's saving acts, turned to the worship of the fertility gods. And the rulers acquiesced in such idolatry (Jeremiah 2:7-8).
That a nation should change its gods, however, is unheard of among other nations, especially when the new gods are without benefit for the people (vv. 10-11). Judah's "glory" was the Lord who constantly worked mighty deeds in her life. But Judah exchanged that glory for worthless deities.
All of that presents pictures aptly suited to our society. This nation of ours, founded so largely by Protestants and Catholics, always has pointed in the past to God as the source of its blessings. And certainly the church can tell the long history of God's deeds on its behalf, beginning with the death and resurrection of Christ, that freed us from bondage to sin and death. Through almost 2,000 years of church history, God has guided and sustained his church, raising up leaders in every generation, renewing its life when the church was failing, pouring out his forgiveness and love in countless benefits for individuals and congregations.
But now, what do we find? Very few in any congregation know the story of God's saving deeds preserved for us in the scriptures. Very few can name the Ten Commandments or state the basic doctrines of the Christian Church. Instead, many have made up their own right and wrong, their own beliefs, and yes, their own gods. And syncretism, re-imagining, idolatry, indifference, hedonism, run rampant through a people that is supposed to be the body of Christ.
The Lord calls upon the jury in our text, namely upon the heavens, to be utterly shocked at the condition to which Judah has sunk. Then the sentence is announced in the court case. "Be utterly desolate," God says to the heavens, that is, "dry up the rain." Judah thinks Baal is in charge of the rain that gives the good life of fertility, but the Lord is really in charge. And as the judgment on his faithless people, God takes back his gifts of life (v. 12). "The wages of sin is death" in the Old Testament as well as the New (Romans 6:23).
The sin of the people of Judah is then summed up in the final verse. God is the only fountain of "living waters," the free-flowing stream of grace that can give life to a people. As Jesus tells the Samaritan woman in John 4:14, "Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." From the one God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, comes all life and good and eternity. Let us not exchange that everlasting fountain for worthless deities, broken cisterns in the desert, who have no measure of life-giving grace with which to provide us.
Lutheran Option: Proverbs 25:6-7
This Wisdom saying fits well with the Gospel reading from Luke 14:7-11, and indeed, may have been in Jesus' mind when he told the Lukan parable. If you are invited to the banquet of a king, do not try to sit or stand close to his royal person in order to make yourself noticed and important. Someone a lot more important than you may also be there, and you will be asked to move to a lower station to make room for the other. You will therefore suffer humiliation and be shown up for the self-serving individual that you are.
In the Proverbs text, verses 2-8 form a collection of Wisdom teachings concerned with life in a royal court, and they are meant to give instruction about how to conduct oneself in such a setting. Proverbs, in the Old Testament, are collections gleaned from observation of natural and human life that give instructions about how things and persons normally behave and about how to live a wise and ordered life in relation to them.
By using this Wisdom saying in his teaching, however, Jesus gives it an entirely different purpose. Now it becomes a parable about the Kingdom of God, and it deals with human pride. We see an example of such pride in the story of the disciples James and John who ask to sit at the right hand of Jesus when he comes into his glory in the kingdom (Mark 10:35-37).
The Christian life is not concerned with self-exaltation and self-importance, however. Indeed, Christian discipleship involves letting our selves be crucified -- in Jesus' words, taking up our cross and following him to Golgotha. Discipleship involves giving up our own desires, our own will, our own plans and directions, and letting God in Christ replace them with his will and guidance and goals instead. As Paul writes, "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me" (Galatians 2:20). Christ has taken over Paul's life, and the Lord wishes to take over our lives as well. If we exalt ourselves and are concerned only with our own well-being, we shut out God. But if we humble ourselves and let God rule our days, he can use us in his good purpose.
