Don’t Believe Everything You Think

Jeremiah 23:23-29     Luke 12:49-56

Lectionary 20 in Ordinary Time;  13th Sunday after Pentecost

People lie.  When we talk about lies, what first comes to my mind, and I would guess yours, too, is politicians.  But we all lie. I do.  You do.  We tell ourselves things like, “I have to be perfect.”  “My worth is determined by my work, by my finances, by my friends.”  “I don’t judge people.”[1]  We might not recognize these as untruths, but they are.  Don’t believe everything you think.

Some lies are more dangerous than others.  Some lies have enough truth that they are believable.  Some lies are meant to be comforting, like the answer to the question, “Does this make me look fat?”  My husband would tell you that the mirror in our bathroom lies every time he looks in it.

There are mistruths that people tell about the Bible and Jesus. Over the course of time, people have used, or misused the Bible to justify slavery and hatred of same-sex love. Using Jesus’ words to exclude and judge others is a part of the lies we humans tell.

You may have heard the expression, “God won’t give you more than you can handle.”  That is not in the Bible.  It is an inaccurate interpretation or a misquotation from 1 Corinthians.[2]  The passage refers to temptation, not to suffering. While people intend for this to be comforting, to say God won’t give you more than you can handle to someone whose child just died or to someone who is suicidal is cruel.

Some of the more popular prophets and preachers of today love to tell false prophesies.  If you work hard, God will reward you with more money.  If you pray enough, or say just the right words, God will heal you.  Of course, God’s ultimate healing is death, but that is not what these contemporary prophets mean.  Listen to Joel Osteen or Benny Hinn and you would believe that all health and prosperity is yours simply for the asking.  These are lies. Our illnesses and our finances cannot be equated to or measured by our faith.[3]  God’s promise through Jesus Christ is to be present with us in our suffering.

The priest and prophet, Jeremiah, was a truth teller.  He lived through the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, and the beginning of the Babylonian exile. God called Jeremiah to prophesy the destruction as God’s divine judgement for the people’s unfaithfulness to God. He spoke God’s truth to the people.  It was hard for them to hear that God would bring punishment for their sin.  Speaking his personal truth, Jeremiah expressed his outrage to God for having him speak words of judgment against his own nation.

People didn’t react well to Jeremiah’s bad news.  For telling God’s truth, he was imprisoned, received death threats, he was beaten, left in the bottom of a water tank, and was confined in stocks, among other things.  People did not want to hear God’s truth.  False prophets told them what they wanted to hear, that everything would be just fine. The whole situation crushed Jeremiah’s heart and made all his bones shake.[4]  The lies that these prophets told caused God to lament, “How long?  How long will I have to listen to the things they dream up?  How long will I have to listen to their lies?…Is not my word like fire…?”

“Jesus said, ‘I came to bring fire to the earth….’”  God’s fire, and Jesus’ fire are purifying.  David Lose writes, “Across the Old Testament, the purifying fire Jesus seems to reference here is most often associated with the fire that burns away impure religious practices. Not impure as in “not liturgically correct,” but rather impure in that they tended to make religion a source of false comfort.”[5]

Maybe easy lies make for easy comfort.  God’s words of fire, and the fire Jesus came to bring, is an invitation for us to live differently.  God calls us to be truth-tellers, to our community, to the world, and maybe most importantly to ourselves.  God calls us to see all people, including ourselves, as God’s beloved.  God’s desire is for relationship, with each other and with God through Christ.

We have done a lot to mess that up, but the fire of which we read this morning is evidence of the promise that God does not give up on us. God’s fire brings hope and possibility for healing and redemption.   It is a promise that when we don’t get it right, when the church doesn’t get it right, Jesus is still present in our midst.  When we vilify our neighbor, when we ignore our poor, when we neglect those who are sick, we miss out on participating in bringing in God’s kingdom. We miss out on relationships.

But God through Jesus does not give up on us! The power of Jesus’ life, suffering, death and resurrection will not be diminished by our gossip, our failure love our neighbor, or our failure to give back to the church or give to those in need.  Jesus is here in the bread and the wine, for us, for we who do not deserve it.  Jesus promises to be here with us despite our denials and our mistruths.

I love the prayer of St. Augustine. “Lord Jesus, don’t let me lie when I say that I love you…and protect me, for today I could betray you.”[6]

~Pastor Cheryl Ann Griffin

[1] http://www.inc.com/lolly-daskal/the-9-most-damaging-lies-we-tell-ourselves-daily.html accessed August 16, 2016.

[2] See 1 Corinthians 10:13.

[3] Nadia Bolz-Weber refers to this kind of thinking as “spiritual narcissism.”

[4] Jeremiah 23:9

[5] http://www.davidlose.net/2016/08/pentecost-13-c-pursuing-a-faith-that-matters/

[6] http://topfamousquotes.com/augustine-of-hippo-quotes-on-hen/

 

Author: Pastor Cheryl Griffin

Pastor Cheryl Ann Griffin thinks God has a sense of humor for leading her into ministry, but can’t imagine doing anything else! Pastor Griffin received her BA degree from the College of William and Mary. She worked as an accountant before God led her to the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, where she received her Master of Divinity degree. In the Virginia Synod, Pastor Griffin is a member of the Ministerium Team and frequently leads small groups at synod youth events. She is also a representative to the VA Synod Council.

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