Second Last Sunday of the Church Year, 2008
Moreover, you shall say to them, “Thus says the Lord:
“Will they fall back and not rise? Will one turn away and not return? Why has
this people slidden back, Jerusalem, in her perpetual backsliding? They hold fast
to deceit, they refuse to return.
I listened and heard, but they do not speak aright. No man repented of his wickedness, saying,’ What have I done?’
Everyone turned to his own course, as the horse rushes into the battle.
Even the stork in here heavens knows her appointed times; and the turtledove, the swift, and the swallow observe the time of their coming. But my people do not know the judgment of the Lord. Jeremiah 8:4-7
The prophet Jeremiah’s words this morning are for people who have lived too long. You know you’ve lived too long when all you can feel is disappoint, when all you can feel is bitterness about your family and your friends.
People who have lived too long shake their heads a lot. They notice everyone’s shortcomings and hypocrisies. They can smell a lie at thousand yards. They expect betrayal.
Living too long has nothing to do with age. It has much more to do with despair. If you can only see things in others to complain about, you have lived too long.
Today we are not asked to lay down and die because we have lived too long. Nor are we told to give up all hope because the world is very evil. We’re certainly not being asked to tell God something He doesn’t already know about sinners. Instead, we are asked to listen to God’s bitterness and disappointment about us.
“Will they not get up from their sins? Will no one turn back from his sins and return to me?
People often think of the church as a place where the people act better. They are of course disappointed when they find out what sort of rascals we really are. Sometimes it takes them years to figure out the inner power struggles within a congregation, district, a synod; the heartless politics of hard-ball churchmanship. It comes as a shock for them when they do.
Then there are church people who appear not even to notice their own cutting remarks, their unjust expectations of holiness from everyone around them. They never dream that they themselves might need to change. They are in the church because it is the only place where people can stand them. Who else will show mercy to someone who runs others through a grinder he himself would never undergo?
God is watching and listening to us in all of this. He knows our thoughts, what we are saying; He is in our homes, knowing what we do and do not do. He looks hard, He listens hard. And He cannot find anyone who says, “What have I done?” There is no regret, no apology to Him. “The ox knows his master, the donkey knows to return to his Lord’s manger”, says God; “but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.”
There are people in the Church who have forgotten they belong to God. They do not know the way to return to Him. We have a word for it. Impenitence. It is a stubborn sticking to the wrong way, your way, like the horse that takes the bit into his own mouth and charges on the battlefield. Runaway horses in the church who can’t be turned back; sometimes running over everyone. Impenitence.
So God is disappointed. He vents His frustration. He knows how few your regrets over sin, how little your fear of disappointing Him. You stand ready to judge others and then you justify yourself. Do you even fear God’s judgment over you? “Even the stork in her heavens knows her appointed times; and the turtledove, the swift, and the swallow observe the time of their coming. But my people do not know the judgment of the Lord.” The winged and four legged beasts who merely go on instinct return to the Lord. God has a much harder time with us.
What a sorry state we are in! But what an amazing place this is! There is a God here who is honest enough to say what He sees and tender enough to be hurt by it. The potter recognizes the clay is bad, that He must bring it to a new form. But not without judgment. And not by healing lightly with false words. Only real words can fix us.
These real words are the simple words of confession. To recognize them, to say them sincerely is to say something authentic about ourselves, something that stops us in our tracks. It is a small taste of the judgment.
Now here is what is truly amazing. The judgment does not crush us. Is it embarrassing and uncomfortable? Why yes. As uncomfortable as a visit to the gynecologist, a spiritual prostate exam. And then there is the dread over the results of the exam. Will we not be found wanting at confession? What will God say about us there? Probably a harsher judgment, a divine I-told-you-so. Better to stay away in that case.
But confession will surprise you. Judgment does not come upon you at confession. If you want to be judged and put down, stay away from confession. You have friends and colleagues for that sort of criticism. At confession, judgment falls on someone else.
I told you God has it hard with us. I did tell you there must be a judgment. God makes it so. He makes it hard on Himself. God brings the judgment on Himself.
God has drawn a cross across the entire world, over the entire church and best of all, over you. At confession God joins the judgment of Himself to your condemnation. His condemnation of Himself is heavier than yours. You survive the little judgment of confession because on the cross God judged Himself guiltier. He has told you so. You are forgiven. At confession you find out ahead of time how it’s going to be for you on the final day.
Too often we are tempted to think the sins of others are greater than our own. But the opposite is true. Our own sins are the real trouble, not the sins of others. By taking our sins upon Himself, Christ says they belong to Him. He shows that the greatest sins to deal with are the ones that He owns. They have caused Him much trouble. He has brought this trouble on Himself for you. He believes you are worth the trouble. And so are the people who trouble you.
Today is a new start. Imagine what this means. Taking a deep breath, forgive. This end of the church year is our springtime, a fresh beginning of forgiveness.
Today is the new start to put to death bitterness, grudges. Go out today, not tomorrow, make peace face to face, or write a letter, or pick up the phone. Forgive evil men as Christ has forgiven them. Forgive them as Christ has forgiven you. Take on the likeness of God and make His concern your concern: a humble love for the unlovable. Make this your best end-of-the-church-year ever.
Finally, pray that I too may forgive. The cynicism of most pastors is palpable. The temptation to hate is everywhere. The spiritual superiority is a pastime. Pray that I too may live out even a small portion of what I have told you today. We are not men who have lived too long, but too little. The world cannot go to hell in a handbasket - because the Cross of Christ stands squarely in its way. That cross also arrests your and my descent into hell. And the descent of so many who will yet repent and believe. Amen.
The Reverend Sean M. Smallwood
cruxprobatomnia -- the cross tests everything
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