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Sermon
What If What They Say Is True?
First Lesson Sermons For Sundays After Pentecost (Middle Third) Cycle C
Some of the hardest weeks of my life were spent in an intensive eight week Hebrew course at Princeton Seminary. For those two months, Hebrew was my life. Morning, noon, and night, my time was filled with mastering vocabulary, deciphering grammar, and conjuring up English translations for this very old, very strange language that the writers of the Old Testament used to describe their experiences of God. Because biblical Hebrew is not something one really has an opportunity to speak these days, the focus of this course was on developing a reading knowledge. We spent lots of time learning about what Hebrew says and means, but very little time practicing how Hebrew sounds. In fact, the only assignment we had in the vocalization of this ancient language was the first few verses of Genesis. Since it's the only Hebrew I can pronounce with any degree of confidence, I have kept those lines close over the years: beresit bara' 'elohim 'et hassamayim we'et ha'ares. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." The next line: weha'ares hayetah tohu wabohu. That last part is probably my favorite Hebrew phrase -- tohu wabohu. It only occurs twice in the Old Testament. Here in Genesis and then about 788 pages of Hebrew later. We'll get to that in a minute.
The meaning of tohu wabohu is not as whimsical as the sound suggests. Tohu wabohu means "formless void." As, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was a formless void." Tohu wabohu means nothingness, a deep, dark chaos where nothing is alive. That is how it was before God started to create. There was nothing: no form, no light, no life -- just tohu wabohu. Until God intervened. And the rest, as they say, is history.
However you want to read the first few pages of Genesis as science, as literature, as history, as myth, as metaphor -- the unmistakable claim of this text is that God created out of nothing, out of darkness, out of chaos. There was just tohu wabohu, there was just a formless void, until God created something. Out of this original nothingness, God brought forth a world; and, from that world, God brought forth a people. God loved these people, cared for these people, rescued them from slavery in Egypt, led them through the wilderness to an abundant land, gave them laws to order their life together. God provided for them in ways great and small, giving himself to them with an almost reckless abandon, hoping that they might abound in faith and love, that they might worship God with heart and soul and might, that they might love their neighbors even as they love themselves.
But it didn't happen. It just didn't happen. God was faithful, but the people weren't. God provided blessing upon blessing, but the people didn't seem to notice. God gave of himself in every way, but the people remained indifferent. They served themselves. They worshiped gods of their own making in the temples of their own hearts. They lived their lives as if all that really mattered was satisfying their own whims and desires. They couldn't see beyond themselves. They couldn't reach out to others. They couldn't reach up to God. All of God's hopes for these people crumbled as they failed to remember who they were, whose they were, and why they had been created in the first place.
In this passage, we witness God confiding in the prophet Jeremiah. God calls these people, "my poor people" (4:11) because their lives are impoverished. And it's not their bank accounts that are suffering. Instead, these people face a poverty of spirit, a poverty of soul. They lack the resources to face the days of trial that are to come. They are foolish people, God says (4:22). Foolish because they do not know God. They know lots of other things, but they do not know the one who formed them out of nothingness. They are stupid people, God says (4:22). Stupid because they do not understand the one who brought forth life from tohu wabohu, the one who gave them life out of the formless void.
Jeremiah hears God's complaints about these foolish, stupid people; and Jeremiah sees these people who "are skilled in doing evil, but do not know how to do good" (4:22). Between the anger he hears from God and the waywardness he sees among the people, Jeremiah catches a glimpse of what is to come. It is a horrifying vision. In it, the fruitful land becomes a desert and the cities are laid to ruin (4:26). There is no one left, no thing left, even the birds flee (4:25). The mountains quake and the hills move to and fro (4:24). The heavens have no light (4:23). And, as for the earth, it is waste and void, or, in other words, in Hebrew words, it is tohu wabohu (4:23). Here is instance number two of that phrase. 788 pages after creation, Jeremiah looks at tohu wabohu, the total undoing of the created order. Nothing is as it should be. Nothing is as it was created to be. So Jeremiah sees waste, void, chaos, tohu wabohu.
God confirms what Jeremiah sees. "The land shall be a desolation," God says. "Yet," God adds, "I will not make a full end" (4:27). Things look bad, things are bad, yet God has not given up on these people. It may be chaos, darkness, nothingness, tohu wabohu, yet God knows how to deal with it. It may be chaos, darkness, nothingness, tohu wabohu, yet God knows how to bring life from it. It may be chaos, darkness, nothingness, tohu wabohu, yet God will not completely let go of these people, God will not let go of us.
The project may have failed, yet God will not let go.
The relationship may be broken, yet God will not give up.
The hurt still lingers, yet God will not let go.
The road may be long and hard, yet God will not give up.
You may not be sure what to do, yet God will not let go.
All the doors seem to be closed, yet God will not give up.
The next step is risky, yet God will not let go.
You didn't do your best, yet God will not give up.
The bitterness remains, yet God will not let go.
The argument only made things worse, yet God will not give up.
The cancer may have spread, yet God will not let go.
Your friend let you down, yet God will not give up.
You feel abandoned, betrayed, alone, yet God will not let go.
The loss was sudden, yet God will not give up.
The pain won't go away, yet God will not let go.
Your performance disappointed you, yet God will not give up.
Nothing seems to be right, yet God will not let go.
The job offer fell through, yet God will not give up.
No one seems to understand, yet God will not let go.
The next word will be hard to say, yet God will not give up.
You fear the worst, yet God will not let go.
The weight of the world is on your shoulders, yet God will not give up.
Your heart is heavy with grief, yet God will not let go.
The sorrow endures, yet God will not give up.
The tomb may be dark, yet God will not let go.
Death may seem to be the end, yet God will not give up.
Whether we say it in English, or in Hebrew, or in the language of our own hearts, we know about chaos, darkness, nothingness, tohu wabohu. Yet, surely, we aren't so spiritually impoverished, so foolish, so stupid as to forget about the one who will not give up on us, the one who will not let us go.
The meaning of tohu wabohu is not as whimsical as the sound suggests. Tohu wabohu means "formless void." As, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was a formless void." Tohu wabohu means nothingness, a deep, dark chaos where nothing is alive. That is how it was before God started to create. There was nothing: no form, no light, no life -- just tohu wabohu. Until God intervened. And the rest, as they say, is history.
However you want to read the first few pages of Genesis as science, as literature, as history, as myth, as metaphor -- the unmistakable claim of this text is that God created out of nothing, out of darkness, out of chaos. There was just tohu wabohu, there was just a formless void, until God created something. Out of this original nothingness, God brought forth a world; and, from that world, God brought forth a people. God loved these people, cared for these people, rescued them from slavery in Egypt, led them through the wilderness to an abundant land, gave them laws to order their life together. God provided for them in ways great and small, giving himself to them with an almost reckless abandon, hoping that they might abound in faith and love, that they might worship God with heart and soul and might, that they might love their neighbors even as they love themselves.
But it didn't happen. It just didn't happen. God was faithful, but the people weren't. God provided blessing upon blessing, but the people didn't seem to notice. God gave of himself in every way, but the people remained indifferent. They served themselves. They worshiped gods of their own making in the temples of their own hearts. They lived their lives as if all that really mattered was satisfying their own whims and desires. They couldn't see beyond themselves. They couldn't reach out to others. They couldn't reach up to God. All of God's hopes for these people crumbled as they failed to remember who they were, whose they were, and why they had been created in the first place.
In this passage, we witness God confiding in the prophet Jeremiah. God calls these people, "my poor people" (4:11) because their lives are impoverished. And it's not their bank accounts that are suffering. Instead, these people face a poverty of spirit, a poverty of soul. They lack the resources to face the days of trial that are to come. They are foolish people, God says (4:22). Foolish because they do not know God. They know lots of other things, but they do not know the one who formed them out of nothingness. They are stupid people, God says (4:22). Stupid because they do not understand the one who brought forth life from tohu wabohu, the one who gave them life out of the formless void.
Jeremiah hears God's complaints about these foolish, stupid people; and Jeremiah sees these people who "are skilled in doing evil, but do not know how to do good" (4:22). Between the anger he hears from God and the waywardness he sees among the people, Jeremiah catches a glimpse of what is to come. It is a horrifying vision. In it, the fruitful land becomes a desert and the cities are laid to ruin (4:26). There is no one left, no thing left, even the birds flee (4:25). The mountains quake and the hills move to and fro (4:24). The heavens have no light (4:23). And, as for the earth, it is waste and void, or, in other words, in Hebrew words, it is tohu wabohu (4:23). Here is instance number two of that phrase. 788 pages after creation, Jeremiah looks at tohu wabohu, the total undoing of the created order. Nothing is as it should be. Nothing is as it was created to be. So Jeremiah sees waste, void, chaos, tohu wabohu.
God confirms what Jeremiah sees. "The land shall be a desolation," God says. "Yet," God adds, "I will not make a full end" (4:27). Things look bad, things are bad, yet God has not given up on these people. It may be chaos, darkness, nothingness, tohu wabohu, yet God knows how to deal with it. It may be chaos, darkness, nothingness, tohu wabohu, yet God knows how to bring life from it. It may be chaos, darkness, nothingness, tohu wabohu, yet God will not completely let go of these people, God will not let go of us.
The project may have failed, yet God will not let go.
The relationship may be broken, yet God will not give up.
The hurt still lingers, yet God will not let go.
The road may be long and hard, yet God will not give up.
You may not be sure what to do, yet God will not let go.
All the doors seem to be closed, yet God will not give up.
The next step is risky, yet God will not let go.
You didn't do your best, yet God will not give up.
The bitterness remains, yet God will not let go.
The argument only made things worse, yet God will not give up.
The cancer may have spread, yet God will not let go.
Your friend let you down, yet God will not give up.
You feel abandoned, betrayed, alone, yet God will not let go.
The loss was sudden, yet God will not give up.
The pain won't go away, yet God will not let go.
Your performance disappointed you, yet God will not give up.
Nothing seems to be right, yet God will not let go.
The job offer fell through, yet God will not give up.
No one seems to understand, yet God will not let go.
The next word will be hard to say, yet God will not give up.
You fear the worst, yet God will not let go.
The weight of the world is on your shoulders, yet God will not give up.
Your heart is heavy with grief, yet God will not let go.
The sorrow endures, yet God will not give up.
The tomb may be dark, yet God will not let go.
Death may seem to be the end, yet God will not give up.
Whether we say it in English, or in Hebrew, or in the language of our own hearts, we know about chaos, darkness, nothingness, tohu wabohu. Yet, surely, we aren't so spiritually impoverished, so foolish, so stupid as to forget about the one who will not give up on us, the one who will not let us go.
