Hebrew Scripture for Sunday 16 October 2022

 Jeremiah 31:27-34        The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of humans and the seed of animals. And just as I have watched over them to pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring evil, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, says the Lord. In those days they shall no longer say:

"The parents have eaten sour grapes,
and the children's teeth are set on edge."

But all shall die for their own sins; the teeth of everyone who eats sour grapes shall be set on edge.

The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt-- a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, "Know the Lord," for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.

Reflection       The prophet Jeremiah gives voice to one of my favorite scriptures. “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”  What more could a woman (or man) possibly want? This all inclusive, unconditional promise is everything we humans need ; God’s law, God’s wisdom written on our hearts. What more could we possibly want?

Of course we have to ask ourselves,  if God’s law is written on our hearts, “Why do we keep tripping all over our selves and one another, aligning our will with everything but God? Why do we have so much difficulty mercifully navigating life?”

I believe the answer is simple and demanding. Instead of putting our heads in our hearts,  listening to and acting on God’s will and wisdom, we are captivated by whirlwinds of words and destructive distractions shrewdly scheming for our attention. Every day we are assaulted by our country’s ceaseless litigation over matters of law, alarming news cycles, inflammatory humor and profane politics all crafted by humans in alignment with their partisan will and ploys for power. In the midst of our dis-ordered distractions the question we keep forgetting to ask is,“What is the will or the wisdom of God?” 

According to the Hebrew Scriptures our first human attempt to record the will or wisdom of God is scratched in stone as the Decalogue, the Ten Laws given through Moses to our ancestors. (Exodus 20.2-17) But as the prophet Jeremiah reminds us, our ancestors broke the laws (which of course none of us have) and so, speaking on behalf of God Jeremiah makes a new covenant with the people of God. “I will put my law within (the people), and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”

This marks an incredibly important moment in which the source of authority is reimagined. Whereas Divine Law was once understood as being external or outside of humanity, the purview of a distant transcendent  God, now we recognize it as being sourced inside our selves. Jeremiah explains, “No longer shall (the people) teach one another, or say to each other, "Know the Lord," for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest…”  We are all meant to know God from the inside out because the will and the wisdom of God is written on each of our hearts.

New Covenant

As early as the third century Christian hermits living in the desert understood the heart to be an organ of perceptivity, the site of engagement with Divine Wisdom. The well respected theologian, Episcopal priest and teacher of non-dual consciousness, Cynthia Bourgeault writes, “According to the great Christian, Jewish and Islamic wisdom traditions, the heart is first and foremost an organ of spiritual perception.” (The Heart of Centering Prayer, p54) 

When we turn our minds to read the law written on our hearts we penetrate the surface of things to access Divine wisdom and every single one of us has direct access to it.

Human access to Divine Wisdom is always available. But, driven my profit and power motives, religious and political institutions have appropriated and buried Divine Wisdom beneath doctrine and partisan politics. Still, Divine Wisdom is accessible to all us all of the time. Borrowing language from early Eastern Orthodox spiritual writings  Bourgeault counsels, “Put the mind in the heart…. Put the mind in the heart…. Stand before the Lord with the mind in the heart.”(p53) 

When we consciously and conscientiously endeavor to “put the mind (or head) in the heart” to actually direct our attention to experience our hearts beating, we begin to break through the constructed boundaries and barriers that prevent us from accessing wisdom. When we regularly take time to pause and plant our heads in our hearts we make ourselves available to experience Divine Wisdom. In Jeremiah’s words, “To know the Lord.” 

Every day we wake up to a world bombarding us with breaking news and boundless disaster. Our affections are disordered, our wills weakened and our patience worn thin. Rather than looking for the latest shout out telling us what we ‘need to know’ about the stock market, coronavirus, midterm elections, atrocities of war, conspiracy theories, rumors of disaster, whatever sound byte pokes our emotional buttons and puts cash in the pockets of a few, it is time to break through the noise that bars us from directly experiencing the promise Jeremiah made to humanity twenty six hundred years ago. It is time to commit to putting our heads in our hearts.

 “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, (in other words, no longer will we give priority to laws contrived by humans and our institutions…) for (we) shall all know (God), from the least of (us) to the greatest…”  We will all know God in the wisdom written on our hearts.

This all inclusive, unconditional promise is everything we humans need to live and thrive in peace.  God’s law is written on our hearts. Which is why we must turn away from media and marketing meant to deceive, distract and divide us. Here is a secret the media and our institutions do not want you to know. Whenever you experience yourself swept into a maelstorm of thoughts infused with fear, anger and judgment you can be sure your head is not in your heart and you are not accessing the will and the wisdom of God.

In the run up to midterm elections, emotions are high, tempers are hot and the need for us to resist the wily ways of pundits and politicians could not be greater.  If ever we needed to keep our heads in our hearts, now is the time because God’s will is written on each one of our hearts. The way we know that our will is aligned in the will of God is by the quality of our thoughts, words and actions. When our thoughts, words and actions are brimming with mercy and breathing in peace, we can be assured, our heads are in our hearts and our will is aligned in the will of God. 

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Hebrew Testament Text for Sunday 3 June 2018

Bishop Michael Curry, center, leads an interfaith march during a Reclaiming Jesus event in Washington on May 24, 2018. RNS photo by Jack Jenkins

 1 Samuel 3:1-20         Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord under Eli. The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.

At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his room; the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was. Then the Lord called, “Samuel! Samuel!” and he said, “Here I am!” and ran to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call; lie down again.” So he went and lay down. The Lord called again, “Samuel!” Samuel got up and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call, my son; lie down again.” Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. The Lord called Samuel again, a third time. And he got up and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

Now the Lord came and stood there, calling as before, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.” Then the Lord said to Samuel, “See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle. On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. For I have told him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them. Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be expiated by sacrifice or offering forever.”

Samuel lay there until morning; then he opened the doors of the house of the Lord. Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli. But Eli called Samuel and said, “Samuel, my son.” He said, “Here I am.” Eli said, “What was it that he told you? Do not hide it from me. May God do so to you and more also, if you hide anything from me of all that he told you.” So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. Then he said, “It is the Lord; let him do what seems good to him.”

As Samuel grew up, the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba knew that Samuel was a trustworthy prophet of the Lord.

Reflection      This is the story of God and God’s people. It is a story of call and response, and in order to respond we must first be listening which is why Eli counsels Samuel, “Go, lie down; and if (the Lord) calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’ But listening is not enough. Like Samuel we must also transfer alliance from our worldly teachers and authorities to the presence of God with us, even when it means speaking hard truths out loud, even to our teachers and authorities as did Samuel with Eli.

Recently 1.9 billion people were blessed to listen to the call of a present day prophet, the Episcopal Church’s own Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, who preached at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in what one news source described as “a moment of divine intervention.” 

The progressive Christian leader Jim Wallis wrote, “God used a royal wedding to have the gospel preached probably to the largest audience at one time.” Then speaking about his commitment to join with faith leaders to promote the Reclaiming Jesus Movement Bishop Curry explained, “My hope and prayer is that what we’re really doing is helping the average Christian person of faith find their voice. We’re trying to find a way to bring people together and the values that we share is our starting place for doing that. We don’t tell people how to vote,” Curry said. “We don’t tell people exactly what policies they must stand for. We identify what are the values that will guide you in your life. But the rest? That’s between you and God.”

What are those values? As the voice of today’s prophet Curry preaches,“Love the neighbor you like and the neighbor you don’t like. Love the neighbor you agree with and the neighbor you don’t agree with. Love your Democrat neighbor, your Republican neighbor, your black neighbor, your white neighbor, your Anglo neighbor, your Latino neighbor and your LGBTQ neighbor. Love your neighbor! That’s why we’re here!”*

He concludes, “In these incredibly polarizing and frankly demoralizing times we need a moral message that’s anchored in faith not ideology and politics.” Essentially Curry is counseling us to transfer our alliance from the voices of politicians, ideologues and the media to the interior voice of the Word God with us, a Word we hear from trustworthy prophets. 

Like Samuel I believe our Presiding Bishop is a trustworthy prophet and I pray that “none of his words will fall to the ground.” God is not silent, remote or uninterested even though we may look at our lives or the world in which we live and want to shout, “O God, where are you in this? “ It is time for us to stop listening to media campaigns and political posturing and transfer our alliance to the Word God with us and love our neighbors, especially the ones that are most difficult for us to love. 

When we lay down our politics and personal predilections to embody the values proclaimed by our prophets, we too will be trustworthy. 

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* https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/27/bishop-michael-curry-reclaiming-jesus-trump accessed 31 May 2018.

Gospel text for Sunday 9 July 2017

Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30        Jesus said to the crowd, “To what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another,

‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.’ For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon’; the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.”

At that time Jesus said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Reflection        Jesus’ yoke is easy, his burden is light because he is not weighed down with the baggage of pride, insolence, disrespect and acrimony. Because Jesus consents to the present moment exactly as it is, he is not troubled, irritable, harsh, disagreeable or unkind.  Thus unburdened, Jesus is soft spoken, unpretentious and respectful. He is merciful, “gentle and humble in heart.”

As the prophet Zechariah proclaims, “The king comes humble and riding on a donkey… He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall command peace to the nations…” (Zech 9.10-11) This is a great paradox. The true king, the one who rules and commands peace in all nations, is humble, rides a donkey not a limousine; is soft spoken not disagreeable;  unpretentious not disdainful;  respectful not unkind. The true king is merciful, “gentle and humble in heart.” 

The psalmist makes the same point, “The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and of great kindness. The Lord is loving to everyone and his compassion is over all his works.” (Ps 145.8-9) Here is the thing. Like Jesus we are made in the image and likeness of God and intended to embody and express the attributes of God, the true king. We are intended to be slow to anger and of great kindness, full of compassion, gentle and humble in heart. We are intended to command peace in all nations.

How are we to do or be this? How are we to ward off the news and the uncivil discourse that assaults and carries us away? We are steeped in a world that endorses pride, insolence, disrespect and acrimony. We are constantly bombarded by troubled, irritable, harsh, disagreeable and unkind words and images. If we allow this negativity to grab us and sweep us away we will not be “gentle and humble in heart.”  We will lose all hope.  

But, we are people of God and we find our hope by choosing to live “with-God lives.” So we come together to worship, study and learn from Jesus.  We come together to exchange our  troubled, irritable, harsh, disagreeable and unkind thoughts, words and actions for Jesus’ gentle and merciful ways. We come together to relieve and replace the burdens of our pride, insolence, disrespect and acrimony with Jesus’ compassion and humble heart. 

No, this is not easy, in fact we probably cannot do it by our will alone.  That is why we put our faith in Jesus’ teaching, “For humans it is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matt 19.26)

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