Jeremiah 17:5-10
Year C, Epiphany 6
Our
Gospel reading for today is part of the Sermon on the Plain, which is similar
to a more familiar passage in the Gospel of Matthew called the Sermon on the
Mount. In the Sermon on the Plain, Jesus
is speaking to a large group of people about what it is to be blessed. He has come down the mountain to be with the
crowd and share a message of both blessing and woe. Typically the readings for
every Sunday are picked in such a way that there will be connections between
them. Sometimes these connections are rather muddy. Sometimes, like today, they are quite
clear. The Old Testament reading, the
Psalm, and the Gospel all talk about what it is to be blessed. Unfortunately the concept of blessing has
become quite misunderstood in popular culture.
You see it all over the place on social media (facebook, twitter,
Instagram). People talk about their most
recent accomplishment and end with #blessed.
What they should really be writing is #lucky because blessing has
nothing to do with personal accomplishments, fame or fortune.
The
way the Bible describes blessed is far different than the way most people use
the word. Jeremiah wrote, “Blessed are
those who trust in the Lord…” The Psalm
tells us that the people who are blessed are those whose delight is in the law
of the Lord. The Gospel reading takes it
a few steps further from our common understanding, “Blessed are the poor, the
hungry, those who weep, those who are hated…”
Let’s start with Jeremiah…
Jeremiah
is best known as the weeping prophet in that he was often predicting
destruction. He faced persecution and at
one point, was actually dropped in a big well and left to die. He knew what it
was to suffer, to face hardship. The
imagery Jeremiah used in the text for the day is of foliage. He wrote that those who trusted in mortals
(themselves or others) as opposed to God were cursed. They were like shrubs in the desert. Those who were blessed were those who trusted
in God. They were like a tree in the
desert. At first glance, you might think, well both of these are in deserts and
probably struggle in the same ways. But
if you look at the text more closely, you will see that the shrub is in a
parched place in an uninhabited salt land.
The tree is planted by water. Its
roots can reach toward that source of water.
Plants
often depend on rain and dew to keep them alive. We all know that we have to water plants to
keep them alive. I have tried the not
watering route and that really doesn’t work.
Even desert plants require some kind of water. However, the desert tree
planted by water is not as dependent on the weather. Even if the water is not right next to it, its
roots can still reach toward that water for sustenance. Sometimes you might see a grouping of trees
or plants in the desert with no visible water.
That usually means there is a hidden stream that these plants are
drinking from.
Jeremiah
pointed out that these desert trees still encountered scorching heat and
drought, but they had this alternate source of water keeping them alive. It was their deep roots reaching out to the
water that nourished them and kept them safe.
So it is with people. We all face
adverse situations in life. Bad things
happen to all of us. Some of those bad
things are avoidable, but much is not.
Jeremiah never said that blessed people didn’t face hardships. Of course they do. The difference, is that
those who are blessed, those who trust in the Lord do not let those bad things determine
whether or not they are blessed. The
blessing is not exterior---it is deep within the soul.
Often
times, when things are going well for me, I get this nagging feeling in the
back of my mind that things might turn bad at any minute. I get so anxious about the bad thing that
might happen, that I have a hard time enjoying the good things that are
happening. I am always waiting for the other shoe to drop. Then I get so anxious, I get almost greedy
with my good fortune and I cling to it for fear of losing it. Yet what I have learned is that as long as I
depend on good things happening to feel blessed, well I am always going to be
in that state of anxious grasping for good things. I know I am not alone in this.
Yet,
what if…what if we could find contentment not in what is happening to us or
around us, but in the source of all peace and joy…God. That doesn’t mean you will never be sad or discouraged,
but it does mean that deep within you will reside this inner peace. We have all known that person who seems to
carry that serenity and joy. We
think…how did they get like that? What
is their secret? It’s not a secret.
These people have found their source of life. They have tapped into that
inner stream so that the drought will not parch them. Those are the people who
know what it is to be blessed.
Blessing
is not about prestige, money, success or even health. To be blessed is to be in
relationship with God. We are all
blessed. God wants to have that relationship with all of us. In case I have not convinced you about what
blessing really means, let’s consider out Gospel reading. Blessed are the poor,
the hungry, those hated…Why would Jesus say those people are blessed if
blessing is supposed to be a gift of fortune or happiness? Yet Jesus called them blessed because despite
their hardships, they were still loved by God.
In God’s eyes, they were equal to all the people around them who acted
as though they were superior.
In those days (and
today as well) people often associated prosperity and health with one’s
goodness or sinfulness. If you were
good, good things happened. The more God
loved you, the better you were treated.
So not only were you suffering because you were hungry or treated
unfairly, you were suffering because you thought it meant that God didn’t love
you.
Most likely, the crowd
Jesus was talking to were full of people who were suffering. These weren’t the
important people of the community. These were the desperate people. He was assuring them that they were blessed
because God loved them. And no human
wielding any worldly power could take that away from them. It might have been the first time they had
ever heard that. It’s not that hard to imagine.
I think we all have those moments when we feel as though we could not
possibly deserve God’s love. Imagine
being in that moment and being told by God in the flesh, that God does love you
and that no matter what happens here on earth, one day you will rejoice.
I learned an
interesting thing about trees while preparing this sermon. Most of us learned in school that trees pull
in water from their roots and then some of that water is released from the
leaves the next day. In the 1990’s,
scientists discovered that not only did trees release the water through the leaves,
but through their shallow roots, which then watered the ground around them,
providing nourishment to the plants around the tree.[1]
The next time something
gets you down---I want you to imagine for a moment a stream dwelling within
your soul, a stream that never goes dry.
In that stream, God’s love flows. It courses through you. Then act like that tree and release some of
that light and love to the people around you.
The best way to understand what it is to be blessed, is to be a blessing
for others, to be that stream that carries God’s love to the people who need it
that most.
