Sermon, 10/16/22. The Mirror on the Wall: Abolishing the Escape Clause

19 Pentecost

Psalm 119:97–104; Jeremiah 31:27–34; II Timothy 3:14–4:5; Luke 18:1–8

In those days they shall no longer say: ‘The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’ …The teeth of everyone who eats sour grapes shall be set on edge.  Jeremiah 31:29

It is not usual that, as I read silently the lessons appointed for our hearing at Eucharist, I often chuckle aloud.  Most of the time, I am alone in my study at home.  Many may find it perhaps not amusing that a man of the cloth should find humor in the Bible, our Book of Records, for we confessed at our ordination, as I heard this week at an ordination and consecration of a bishop, that we ‘hold the Bible to be the Word of God, containing words needful for our salvation.’  And as every serious believer knows, faith is no laughing matter.  One should not laugh at God’s word.  The Word of God is deadly serious, so say we.

With this latter opinion, that we have much to learn from the Bible, I agree actually100%.  But the question which races around in my head is surely one which every Christian is bound to ask him- or herself: How do I digest and implement that which I take so deadly seriously.

Jeremiah tells us, regarding the weight of Holy Writ, in no uncertain terms:
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.  (Jer. 31:33f.)

Paul, in his letter to Timothy, reaffirms the truth and seriousness of the word of God:
All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work…. I solemnly urge you: proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable… with the utmost patience in teaching. (II Timothy 3:14f)

Luke illustrates, in the story with which Jesus admonishes his disciples always to pray, the seriousness of the Word of God and what can come of faithful observance to that word:
Will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night?  Will God delay long in helping them?  I tell you, God will quickly grant justice to them.  (Luke18:7f.)

On the surface, there is perhaps nothing humorous or funny in these three excerpts from Scripture which I have just offered, such that one could imagine picking oneself up from the floor.   And certainly, there is nothing in these excerpts just cited, which would qualify as script to be used in a one-person stand-up comedy act.  Still, as I often read the proclamations of the prophet Jeremiah, I find myself amused by his colorful language, thinking those must have been some mightily sour grapes, that the children, yet to be born, or even if born, should find their own teeth chattering due to the sour taste.

The humor is, nevertheless, there, and we need not look far.  It is subtle, especially, as Jeremiah chooses how best to get God’s message across.  Surely Jeremiah could have been direct in his speech: “Listen!  You have made missteps.  Stop blaming your mistakes on others.  Stand up and take your responsibility onto yourself!”  Instead, using a more colorful, figurative, attention-grabbing language, Jeremiah chooses a less abrasive approach.  He chooses something out of his hearers’ knowledge and experience.  For, who has not on some occasion eaten sour grapes?  It is perfectly clear that those who heard Jeremiah were aware that what they consumed, namely the sour grapes, could not be passed down to their children, as they had been already eaten. 

Jeremiah, lacking 21^st century terminology but possessing the intuition and insight of a 21^st century child psychologist, admonishes his listeners that how they live, is a more-lasting, impressionable teaching tool than they would admit, and for that reason, among others, as elders in the tribe of Israel were to lead exemplary lives.  Imagine now, if you will, many centuries removed from Jeremiah—imagine the Pharisee who, like the evil queen in the fairy tale “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” stands before his mirror in the marketplace and prays to God, not for the forgiveness of his oversights and neglects, for his self-reflection had informed him that he was all but flawless.  His job was to remind God just what a fine person he has been and is.  As a Pharisee, the upholder of the faith of his fathers, a member of the elite, learned society of Israel, thus thoroughly familiar with the Scriptures, he should have been familiar with the words of Jeremiah.

However, Jeremiah was “old school,” so that what the Pharisee viewed in that mirror of self-reflection, was himself, the fairest of them all.  He had no prayer of confession, but only a prayer of thanksgiving that, praise God, he was not like other people.  Rather, he was far better.  Like the “judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people,” he, too, needed neither.  And this attitude, this behavior was anathema, an abomination to God who, according to Judaic tradition recorded in the psalms, knows us even in the womb, before our birth, and thereafter every secret of our hearts. 

And one of the secrets of his heart was that he believed himself better than the sinner who stood off to the side and did not raise his glance up to heaven.  Thus, it is that Jeremiah, long since off the stage, had spoken, nevertheless, directly to the Pharisee, for it was this attitude of the Pharisee, which would be passed down to his children’s children.  It was this attitude of self-righteousness and an ingrained disregard for God’s commandment were the sour grapes which had caused God, in Jeremiah’s day, to declare that the Hebrew had defaulted on the Covenant.

Jeremiah could not have known Jesus personally, although as a prophet he did anticipate God’s Messiah.  These are the scriptures, of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos and Micah, to which Paul refers in his letter to Timothy.  However, it was another gospel writer, John, who records that someone had listened to the words of Jeremiah as read in synagogues and in the Temple.  John records how Jesus, God’s Messiah, bridges the gap between Jeremiah’s pronouncement and the situation of his time, and in so doing makes clear the intent of Jeremiah’s prophecy. 

Consider the record in John’s gospel: When Jesus saw a man who had been blind from birth, he saw a member of God’s created order, in need of healing.  Jesus’ response should not surprise us; yet, it often does:
‘And his disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’  Jesus answered, ‘It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but tat the works of God might be made manifest in him.  We must work the works of him who sent me, while it is day; night comes, when no one can work.’  (John 9:2f.)

Because of what those in authority had taught in the synagogues and the Temple, even the disciples of Jesus were tied down in pre-Jeremiahian thinking.  They saw not what good could come out of the new condition of the blind man: that, no longer a blind beggar or a dependent on the goodwill of his parents, he could become a contributing member of society. 

Jesus addressed both his disciples and the Pharisees who were assembled.  They could not think forward, because it was more comfortable to assign guilt, easier to assess blame and/or guilt, than to rejoice that there was one in their midst who could bring about a positive, constructive change into the community.  A new way, a new message, was being presented to them.  Jesus, through his words and actions, validates the words of Jeremiah.  The prophet Jeremiah, speaking the word of God, eradicates the escape clause of old, whereby the ability of an offender to escape direct accountability, and forward correcting forces onto future generations, was no longer valid, no longer acceptable to God, and nor should it be tolerated by his own generation. 

By an act of serendipity, in my library I came across a work written by the Latin poet Terrence, who lived between 185 – 159 B.C.  In his work, Adelphoe, transl. Henry Thomas Riley [1816 – 1878], Terrence has written, “I bid (each man) look into the lives of men as though into a mirror, and from others to take an example for himself. (Adelphoe. Act III, Sc. 3, line 61)

I cannot repeat often enough that Christianity is a religion about joy and celebration, a religion that teaches, even when we cannot produce hard scientific data, that there is more to life than just passing through, as a train passes through the countryside.  However, being a Christian, attired in our human clothing, requires effort.

That effort causes us to want to make it right.  And so, once a week we approach God’s altar to seek amends for the hurts we caused, intentionally or unwittingly, for the times we failed to love, for the moments we stayed silent, instead of speaking out.  We can look at our lives in the light of Christ’s teaching.  Then our prayers will be fulfilled, as we ask God’s assistance, to change us, to place us once again facing the right direction, in order that we might come to join in the celebration of the great creation, on earth as in heaven.  Without an honest self-reflection, we will stay as we are, fooled by ourselves, like the Pharisee, into believing we reflect already the best that we can be, even though that is not where God, in Christ, would have us to be.  So say Jeremiah, Paul, and Jesus Christ.

Thomas A Kempis, ca. 1420, wrote in his Imitation of Christ [Book I, Chap. 16]: “Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be.”  Better and truer advice could not be given as we look into our individual mirror on the wall.  That is exactly what God requires, if we are to follow God.  God requires that we have the courage of self-honesty so we can be changed.  When we see ourselves honestly, we learn to rely on God’s strength to become the person we were meant to be.   AMEN