The Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

JEREMIAH 2:4-13: The heart of the prophesy in this early poem by Jeremiah comes in its last verses:

Be appalled, O heavens, at this,

be shocked, be utterly desolate, says the Lord,

for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me,

the fountain of living water,

and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns,

that can hold no water.

The imaginary setting of the prophesy is that of a law suit. Yahweh is questioning Judah: What did I do that was wrong? He asks. Then Jeremiah quotes a creed of the Judeans that they used to remind each other of the works of Yahweh, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage:

"I am the Lord

who brought (you) up from the land of Egypt,

who led (you) in the wilderness,

in a land of deserts and pits,

in a land of drought and deep darkness,

in a land that no one passes through,

where no one lives?

And I brought you into a plentiful land, to eat its fruits and its good things."

In repayment for this, Yahweh says, "When you entered you defiled my land, and made my heritage an abomination." Yahweh blames all the leaders of Judah for this. The priests are at fault. "The priests did not say, 'Where is the Lord?'" Those in charge of Judah's law, the great law found in Deuteronomy, are equally at fault. "Those who handle the law did not know me." Rulers and kings likewise had turned away from the Lord: "The rulers transgressed against me." Even the prophets were prophesying in the name of the wrong god: "The prophets prophesied by Baal, and went after things that do not profit." Those who have the most obligation to Yahweh, and should remember him most fully, have forgotten their God.

Yahweh then asks: "Has any nation ever changed its gods,

even though they are no gods?" The word for "baal" does not mean "a God like Yahweh." The word simply means "owner" or "lord." The god for which Judah has exchanged its God is not even a god, merely a lord who promises them rain and fertile fields. Yahweh's anger shows itself: "My people have changed their glory for something that does not profit."

Yahweh is simply appalled at what the people have done, and he calls all others to look upon their shame: "Be appalled, O heavens, at this, be shocked, be utterly desolate," says the Lord. "For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and have dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns, that can hold no water." These are two sides of the same act. The living water is there, streams in the desert, rivers and waterfalls in the mountains. But God's people have contented themselves with the brackish water of cisterns, and even there the water is not safe. The cisterns are cracked, and the water leaks out, and the people are without that precious resource. What nation, God asks the heavens and the world's peoples, would do such a thing? What nation is there like Judah whom God has favored and who will not respond to that favor?

This poem, according to Holladay, was probably spoken by Jeremiah in 608 BC. King Jehoiakim has just come to the throne, and in the early part of his reign the people have been playing again with the baals. The setting may even be the feast of tabernacles in the fall of that year when the Law of Deuteronomy was read again to the people. You read the Law, said Jeremiah, but you do not hear it. You worship the baals. "Tit for tat," you say to these lords. "You give us rain and crops, and we give you worship." But Yahweh is not like this. Yahweh deals with us graciously, gives us more than we deserve. How can we exchange our worship of this gracious God for the worship of the gods who do not care for you at all? Jeremiah's question is a question for all times and ages.

PSALM 81:1, 10-16: This psalm begins on a festal occasion. Timbrels, lyres, harps, and trumpets, along with the human voice, sound forth in praise of God. The reason for the celebration? God says to them, once more, as he had said on that great day when through Moses on Sinai God had initiated his covenant with his people: "I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt."

The second part of verse ten articulates a new promise: "Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it." But the people did not listen. So God gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels.

God then reminds the people of the things he would have done if the people had listened and walked in his ways. He would have subdued their enemies, until they would cringe in the presence of the Lord. He would have fed them not with manna but with the finest of wheat and honey.

All this would have happened if only Israel had listened to the Lord. The whole of the Old Testament would have been different, had they been an attentive and faithful people.

HEBREWS 13:1-8, 15-16: The thirteenth chapter of Hebrews is the only place in the letter where usual epistolary forms are employed. Other than in this chapter, the "Letter" much more resembles an essay than it does a letter. In this closing chapter, however, we find the kinds of instructions and miscellaneous theological themes that we associate with many of Paul's letters. Like Paul's genuine letters, this one also closes with an extended benediction and some personal remarks.

Verses one through seven contain instructions for the Christian life. There is no particular order among them, though in other Greek letters some of these appear in the same order. The instructions are as follows:

Love the brothers

Love the aliens

Remember the prisoners

Hold marriage in honor

Do not love money but be content with what you have

Remember your leaders

Verses one and two use words compounded with "philia," a form for "love" in the Greek language. "Love the brothers" is the first injunction. "Do not neglect to love the aliens" is the second. This is translated as "do not neglect to show hospitality." That is an adequate translation, except that it does not show the relationship between the two admonitions. "Hospitality" was an exceptionally important trait of the early church. Christians would travel from city to city. Unless they had relatives in the city to which they would come, they would have no place to stay. As I wrote concerning the Parable of the Good Samaritan, inns in the first century were notoriously poor places to stay. They were dirty, they were dangerous, they were little more than brothels. If a traveling Christian was to have a proper place to stay, the Christians in the receiving city would have to supply this. The claims of hospitality were even greater than this. Christians began to receive into their own homes and care the immigrants to cities. According to Rodney Stark, this hospitality was the reason that the church grew with such rapidity in the second and third centuries; in the face of the hostile environments that cities afforded, the Christians alone provided food, lodging, and health care for the immigrants moving into the rapidly expanding cities of that era. "Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers" became one of the most important trademarks of Christian life in the first and second centuries.

Verse three: Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them. Prisons at this time were hardly more than restraining hovels. No services were provided to prisoners. The prisoner had to provide his own food and his own clothing. Since most of them could not do this, it fell to friends and relatives to furnish these. I know of instances in contemporary Egypt in which Christians were placed in jail, and they would have been in dire trouble had not their congregations stepped forward to supply these needs. How much more important in the first century! Imagine that you are the one in prison, and imagine what you would do in order to meet your needs, says Hebrews. Then do this for your Christian friends.

In the same way, remember also those who are ill-treated, said the Letter.

Verse four spoke of respecting marriage and the marriage bed. Divorce and adultery were to be avoided at all costs. God will judge those who do not do so.

Verse five spoke of greed and loving money. "Be content with what you have," wrote this author. The author felt it important to add two passages of scripture to this admonition. To deserve this attention underscores the magnitude of this problem throughout the church. The scripture passages both spoke of the faithfulness of God. "The Lord is our helper. God will never fail or forsake us." God will provide what we need for our life. We need not store up for ourselves more than we need.

Verse seven talks of "remembering our leaders, those that spoke the word of God to us." The word for leaders makes no differentiation between political, economic, or religious leaders; it is the addition of the words "who spoke the word of God to you" that tells us that the author has leaders of the church in mind. "Imitate their faith," we are told. Verse seventeen, not in our lection, speaks of "obeying your leaders and submitting to them." This is probably an over-interpretation of the Greek passage. The author of Hebrews urges the readers "to be persuaded" by their leaders and to "yield" to them. "Obey . . . submit" suggests a legal-rational type of authority, whereas in reality Hebrews is suggesting a situation filled with discussion and the swaying of opinions.

Verses fifteen and sixteen speak of worship. Offer praise to God and do good to one another. Both these are acts of worship. We can never separate our words of worship from our deeds of service. Sacrifices of word and deed together are pleasing to God.

I have left verse eight until the end: "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." This is the conviction upon which Christian life is based. Leaders of the church may change, teachers may die, preachers may move on to another congregation, beloved members of the church may leave us and themselves must die. The church changes its shape and form and membership in each generation. What does not change is Jesus Christ. His sacrifice continues to impact all of us. His resurrection opens the heavens to every one of us. His spirit never leaves us. His covenant reaches out to each of us. The foundations of the church may shift and change under our feet, but Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Look then, always, to Jesus, for he is the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.

LUKE 14:1,7-14: This story turns on questions of honor and shame, the two driving forces of society in Jesus' day. Shame and honor are seen in two ways, from the point of view of the Pharisees, the prominent culture of the day, and from the counter point of view of Jesus himself.

As the story opens, Jesus is still on his journey from Galilee to Jerusalem. On the way he is invited for a meal at the house of a leader of the Pharisees; no name is given for the man. It is the day of Sabbath, and the people who are present at the meal are watching Jesus closely. As the meal continues, a man with dropsy appears. Dropsy is the swelling of the body, "edema" we would call it, and it can be the result of a serious illness. Jesus asked a question of the lawyers and Pharisees present: "Is it lawful to cure people on the Sabbath?" Jesus received no answer to his question, so he proceeded with a cure. He healed the man and sent him away. Jesus asked another question: "If your child fell into a well on the Sabbath, could you not pull him out?" Obviously the Sabbath law allowed them to do this. The second part of the question was more difficult: "If your ox fell into the well, could you pull him out on the Sabbath?" Sabbath law was divided on this point. In some ways it seemed to say yes, in other ways it seemed to say no. But there was no argument over the point from the people present. If a man could rescue his child on the Sabbath, God could rescue his child, the man with dropsy. This incident supplied the context to the remarks that Jesus was about to make.

Jesus noticed how the guests chose places of honor at the table. This was important to them. Eating in itself was important to sustain life. But "community" was sustained by the places at which people sat around the table. Those of highest honor sat at the most honorable places; those who were not so honorable were placed at the foot of the table. Where one was placed at the table by the "guest chart" was extremely important in determining one's honor in the community.

So Jesus told them a parable. "When you are invited to a wedding banquet, do not seat yourself at the place of honor. Someone more distinguished than you may come to the feast, and the host will say to you, 'Give this person your seat.' What shame, what disgrace is yours, as you leave your place of honor and move to the lowest place." So, said Jesus, "When you come to the wedding feast, seat yourself at the lowest place. Then, when the host comes, he may say to you, 'My friend, move up higher.' Imagine the honor that follows you as you move from the lowest place to a higher one." Nothing happier than this could happen to the man who was invited to the wedding feast.

There are nuances in Jesus' words. When the man is told to move to a lower place, he is told this bluntly and without ceremony: "Give this person your place." But when he is invited to move higher, the host treats him with dignity: "My good friend, move on up." Any guest would long to hear those words. But then Jesus moves beyond nuance to principle: "All who exalt themselves will be humbled. All who are humbled will be exalted." Now it is not a human host who is speaking but God the host of the transcendent banquet. "Whoever claims first place in the kingdom of God will be given last place. Whoever comes to the kingdom of God making no claims upon God but who quietly trusts God will be given first place in the kingdom." This was a lesson that James and John, the Sons of Thunder, were soon to learn in Jesus' presence. Never ask for first place. Simply trust God to honor you, and in his own way and time God will do it.

The next statement Jesus made to the host of the dinner carried an even more stinging point. "When you give a dinner, do not invite your friends or brothers or other relatives or rich neighbors. They will invite you to their own banquets, and then you will be repaid in kind, with no further honor due you. Instead invite the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind. Invite them," said Jesus. "Since these people cannot repay you, you will be blessed by God,"

This was an impossible request to be made to a Pharisee. These four classes of people were by law unclean; no Pharisee could possibly eat with them. But Jesus invited them to his feasts. His meals by the seashore and in the wilderness included them. In his resurrection he was to invite them to share in the supper of the Lord. "Inclusion" is the key. Jesus desired to include all persons in the kingdom of God, and his is the honorable way. The Pharisees moved to exclude from their meals anyone whom they deemed unworthy, and they did it to their shame. "You look for the resurrection of the righteous," said Jesus to them finally. "But that resurrection is reserved for those whom God honors, and those whom God honors include the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind in their fellowship."