Worship > Sermon Archive

The Reverend Beth Fain
October 28, 2007

October 28, 2007, Pentecost 25c: Trust God? Trust Self?
(Jeremiah 14. 7-10, 19-22; Luke 18. 9-14)
"Lord, you are in the midst of us, and we are called by your Name: Do not forsake us, O Lord our God."
Where have you heard that passage before?
Just a few moments ago when our Lector read these words as part of our first reading.
We also hear it as one of the choices of lessons to be read during Compline, nighttime prayers in our Prayer Book. The Prayer Book even says where we can find it in the Bible--Jeremiah 14. 9, 22.
"Lord, you are in the midst of us, and we are called by your Name: Do not forsake us, O Lord our God."
It's such a word of comfort-that God is always in the midst of us, and we are always called by God's name.
Except that the comfortable sentence of scripture we read during Compline is a little out of context; we need to read what comes before, what comes after, and what comes in the middle between verse 9 and 22.
Judah is in the midst of a terrible drought and famine.
The people call out to God, Lord, you are in the midst of us and we are called by your Name? Do not forsake us!
The Judeans have been pretty much doing as they've wanted as far as their relationship with God is concerned.
Prophets have come time and again and reminded them to stop doing what they want to do and to turn back and let God do what God does best.
But they think, It's okay. I can take care of myself. That advice isn't for me.
Now that things are a mess, they realize they could use a little God-help.
They are in a position where their own best efforts aren't working anymore.
So they remind God, Lord you are in the middle of our lives. Don't let us down.
Well of course God does not let them down.
God never does.
God does stay in the midst of their lives.
But God also let's them suffer the consequences of thinking they can do life in their own way.
Before their day to day lives will get better, their country will be overthrown by enemies, and most of them will be sent into exile.
Where they do learn that God is very much in their midst and that God still calls them by name.
Even though they are in captivity and far from the Temple in Jerusalem.
God is faithful and stays with them, and eventually brings them back home again.
Where as people do, they stay true to their relationship with God, for a while.
Then once again they are off doing as they please, thinking that they can work on their relationship with God later.
Until they get into trouble again.
Overrun first by Greeks and then by Romans.
And God comes to them once again, this time not through prophets but through God's son, Jesus.
To show them that when they are constant in their relationship with God, that no matter what happens, they will know and feel the truth of God being in the midst of them and calling them by name, and that God never, ever forsakes them.
Even if the Romans are ruling over them and taxing them unjustly.
Jesus teaches them, and us, about this trusting God/trusting self through a parable.
A parable about what it looks like to rely on God rather than ourselves. There's a Pharisee-a man who practices a most devout form of Judaism.
He goes to the Temple to pray at the appointed time-twice each day.
At the same time there's a tax collector-a person who has sold out his own people by collecting money for the Romans and adding insult to injury by collecting more than is due so that he can have a pretty good life, financially at least.
Tax collectors in the hierarchy of sinners being paired with prostitutes.
The twist is that in Jesus' day one would expect the Pharisee to have a deep relationship with God and the tax collector not so much.
But Jesus reminds that God looks not just at what we do on the outside, but also at whom we are on the inside.
Almighty God to whom all hearts are open, all desires know, and from whom no secrets are hid…….
At the core of our being, do we rely on ourselves? Or do we rely on God?
I've found that when we listen to people pray, we get a pretty good idea of what's going on with their heart relationship with God.
Even if they are "reading" printed prayers, people who have regular conversation with God and have an abiding relationship with God pray differently -it's not about eloquence but how those words come out.
The Pharisee through his prayer shows what his relationship with God is really like.
Thanking God, yes, but not for God creating him, but for the good status he's gotten by his own good works.
And in case God's forgotten, reminds God how well he keeps that status up by his regular acts of piety.
I'm not saying that regular acts of piety aren't a good thing.
Praying, giving, fasting can be part of having a deeper relationship with God.
Jesus uses the Pharisee in our parable to show a person who is doing the right thing for the wrong reason, and the fruit of that is being very full of himself-rather than God.
Nobody would look at the tax collector and assume he has any kind of a relationship with God-he's a cheater in a class with prostitutes.
But if we listen to his prayer-we know that there's something happening deep within his heart-beating his chest (a penitential posture usually done by devout women in Jesus' day, and only done by men when they are really, really remorseful), the tax collector prays, God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
For the Pharisee, his prayer is all about himself and what he has done; for the tax collector, it is all about God and what God would/could do.
Jesus says it's all about humility.
Sister Meg [Funk], a Benedictine nun, says that humility is the abiding disposition that accepts life as it is, and lives it consciously, fully embracing its burdens and its gifts. (Humility Matters for Practicing the Spiritual Life, p. 31) Humility is being full present in whatever situation we are in, knowing that God is with us and is working in our lives.
A person who is humble puts God first, and trusts that God is with him whether he can feel it or not, no matter what the situation.
A person who exalts herself figures that she can take care of herself.
A person who has humility places her relationship with God over every other thing and relationship in her life.
A person who exalts himself says that it's all right to triage his relationship with God; that God will be there no matter what, so it's okay to tend to that relationship later.
A person with humility calls on God each and every day.
A person who exalts himself is more likely to call upon God after his life is really, really in a mess in order to get out of that mess; not to change his relationship with God.
We all do both.
Sometimes we put God first. Sometimes we don't.
Sometimes we tend our relationship with God. Sometimes we don't.
God will never leave us or forsake us, but God will allow us to experience the consequences of valuing other relationships more than we value God.
I am especially mindful of this because in the past two weeks, I have been part of the Burial office of three people, the oldest of which was only in her 60's.
Intimately with people who died and the people who loved them.
So I am especially mindful of people who have nurtured their relationship with God and others who have said later….God will be there.
All grieve. All suffer.
God is with all of them.
But some were already holding God's hand.
Others were flailing, looking for that Hand that was open and ready to grasp.

Please take an inventory of how you spend your life. I am, too.
Please don't wait for famine and invading armies to seek a relationship with God.
God is more ready to give than we are to ask.
But we have to choose God to receive God.
What do you trust? Whom do you trust?
Where does God fit on your life list?
God, you are in the midst of us and you have called us by name, let us not forsake you, O Lord our God.
AMEN

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