Deep Witihin
Text: Jeremiah 31:27-34
Jeremiah is a prophet of contrasts. In one moment, he proclaims doom and gloom, while in the next, he preaches hope whilst standing on the brink of disaster. His words are powerful. Jeremiah has an intimate sense of where and how God was working in the life of Israel, even in the face of the greatest disaster that nation had yet known. He preached and proclaimed, and yet it seemed as if no one would listen to him. He was discouraged that no one paid attention… sure they paid lip service to their faith, but when it came down to it, everything he said seemed to go in one ear and out the other. Jeremiah wondered if anything would ever stick with these people. Would anyone hear what he had to say? Did anything he do ever amount to anything? Only history would vindicate him, and in spite of everything that happened, Jeremiah was still able to see and proclaim hope.
It’s no wonder that preachers can relate well to this guy.
When I was a student, I had my first real encounter with a phenomenon known as “Sermon Face.” It’s that kind of glazed-over look that people get when preachers begin to speak. Every church has its own routines and patterns when the sermon starts, where the gathered congregation prepares itself for that long-winded part of the service called the sermon. For instance, how many of you just popped a candy in your mouth? One congregation I served in had the audible crinkle of wrappers that would waft over the people just as the sermon began. I would guess that in this sanctuary, if things get too boring, counting bricks behind the cross might help pass the time. It’s those routines that we get into that maybe we need to shake up a little bit. Otherwise, if things become too routine, too common, we start tuning out the real message. This isn’t a judgement on my part by any stretch, I am just as guilty of tuning out my own share of sermons!
My experience with “Sermon Face” on the other hand, really opened my eyes!
Following my second year of seminary, I had the opportunity to do a summer field placement in the town of Canmore, Alberta. For those of you who watch the Royal Canadian Air Farce, Canmore is mostly known for a fictional resident who was once a major character on the show. I still get jokes about that even today. Though I was a student, I worked as their full-time minister for the summer months, May through August. This was a small congregation, a church extension project that was having a great deal of trouble getting off the ground. Most of the time I could expect to preach to between seven and ten people… fifteen would be a really good day. Fortunately, numbers don’t both me. I have often found that small groups can be a very intimate place in which to preach… or at least that was my experience at the student worship services at seminary.
Yet this place was a bit different. When I was getting ready to preach, pretty much everybody settled into this…
(sit in chair and do sermon face)
No matter how animated I was, no matter how much I moved around, the response was always the same
(sit in chair and do sermon face)
It was like preaching to a brick wall. Most of the time when I preach, I can get at least some inkling as to whether or not the congregation was attentive, or losing focus… not with this group… I could have preached NAKED, and the response would have been…
(sit in chair and do sermon face)
I really had to wonder if anything I actually said sank in. To a young student, this was not exactly good for my self-esteem. Were my sermons not good enough? Were they too academic? Were they boring? I was terrified that I had gone through all of this schooling for nothing… After all, what good was theological education if nobody listened??
I have to admit that sometimes I do occasionally wonder if sermons are the best way for us to really reflect on what God has to say to us.
Well… enter Jeremiah again… and thank God. With no other prophet do we get the same depth of both disappointment and optimistic wonder. His career as a voice for God was long, and with it came both triumph and tragedy… By all accounts, tragedy seemed to win out. Armies from the Babylonian Empire swarmed across the region like locusts, consuming everything in their path. The people of Israel held fast to their faith that Jerusalem, the centre of the universe, would never fall. Yet as the armies of Babylon approached, Jeremiah said that not only could Jerusalem fall, but it would. No one would listen. Jeremiah’s cries and warnings fell on deaf ears. He preached and told people of what would happen, and the response to Jeremiah was always the same
(Sit in the chair and do sermon face)
But… even as the Babylonian armies were tearing down the walls of Jerusalem, even as they were breaking the stone of the great Temple that King Solomon had built, Jeremiah looked to the future with a near-insane optimism. This was not the end, something new would come. Israel had fallen, they would now live in exile, but Jeremiah was now proclaiming hope.
Looking at the shattered walls around him, Jeremiah says, “You know… I imagine a time where these dearly loved buildings won’t matter… I see a time and a place where people won’t have to go to a book to know the will of God. It will simply be a part of who they are. There will be no more sermon face, because there will no longer be a need for sermons! People will simply know, feel, and do the will of God…”
No longer a need for a sermon? Wow… surely that can’t be right!
But in case there is any doubt, here’s the actual quote:
“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 there 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.”
Now this is powerful stuff! This is a hope that some day all people will simply know, feel, and do the will of God… now that really makes it all worthwhile! It’s kind of nice knowing that I am actually here to work myself out of a job!
Yet after some twenty-six centuries since Jeremiah first spoke these words, it doesn’t feel like we’re really any closer. There’s still so much work to be done that we don’t know where to start. There are many examples of injustice that I am sure any one of us can name… but I won’t do that today. When it comes down to it, all we have at the moment are glimpses… small, wonderful examples that somehow God really is there, in and through every moment of our lives, speaking to us in ways we hardly imagine…
This first glimpse is Jesus… Think about it… Jesus of Nazareth was a poor, wandering preacher who simply knew, felt, and did the will of God so intimately that all who encountered him had a profound experience of God. Somehow, through this human life, God walks among us… changing and transforming lives from the ground up. Jeremiah’s hope begins to be realized in Jesus Christ, giving us a glimpse of what we could be… and the glimpse of hope makes it all worthwhile.
Yet for us today, there is more than just a few glimpses of this now distant historical figure. We encounter the living God in people that we meet. We encounter God through serving one another, through seeking justice and kindness. There are many ways in which we see the face of Christ, that speak to us in ways far more powerful than any sermon. We cannot limit our encounter with God to this building and for one hour on a Sunday morning.
One of the things that I did learn from my experiences as a student was this: even what I thought were the most profound of statements fall on deaf ears. Yet I also found that some of my more mundane observations affected people in a way that I never thought possible. It’s really a very humbling experience… so out of that maybe the best that I can do is try to preach with integrity, and do my best. I’ve also learned that a sermon really isn’t a sermon until it touches the minds and hearts of those who listen. It’s not really anything that I do or say, but something that God does in you…
My words and frantic movements up here don’t really do anything by themselves. What makes a sermon a sermon is what God does in us… planting and writing love deep within our own hearts… inviting us to be transformed by that love. All we can do is let ourselves be open to the possibility!
Amen.
Jeremiah is a prophet of contrasts. In one moment, he proclaims doom and gloom, while in the next, he preaches hope whilst standing on the brink of disaster. His words are powerful. Jeremiah has an intimate sense of where and how God was working in the life of Israel, even in the face of the greatest disaster that nation had yet known. He preached and proclaimed, and yet it seemed as if no one would listen to him. He was discouraged that no one paid attention… sure they paid lip service to their faith, but when it came down to it, everything he said seemed to go in one ear and out the other. Jeremiah wondered if anything would ever stick with these people. Would anyone hear what he had to say? Did anything he do ever amount to anything? Only history would vindicate him, and in spite of everything that happened, Jeremiah was still able to see and proclaim hope.
It’s no wonder that preachers can relate well to this guy.
When I was a student, I had my first real encounter with a phenomenon known as “Sermon Face.” It’s that kind of glazed-over look that people get when preachers begin to speak. Every church has its own routines and patterns when the sermon starts, where the gathered congregation prepares itself for that long-winded part of the service called the sermon. For instance, how many of you just popped a candy in your mouth? One congregation I served in had the audible crinkle of wrappers that would waft over the people just as the sermon began. I would guess that in this sanctuary, if things get too boring, counting bricks behind the cross might help pass the time. It’s those routines that we get into that maybe we need to shake up a little bit. Otherwise, if things become too routine, too common, we start tuning out the real message. This isn’t a judgement on my part by any stretch, I am just as guilty of tuning out my own share of sermons!
My experience with “Sermon Face” on the other hand, really opened my eyes!
Following my second year of seminary, I had the opportunity to do a summer field placement in the town of Canmore, Alberta. For those of you who watch the Royal Canadian Air Farce, Canmore is mostly known for a fictional resident who was once a major character on the show. I still get jokes about that even today. Though I was a student, I worked as their full-time minister for the summer months, May through August. This was a small congregation, a church extension project that was having a great deal of trouble getting off the ground. Most of the time I could expect to preach to between seven and ten people… fifteen would be a really good day. Fortunately, numbers don’t both me. I have often found that small groups can be a very intimate place in which to preach… or at least that was my experience at the student worship services at seminary.
Yet this place was a bit different. When I was getting ready to preach, pretty much everybody settled into this…
(sit in chair and do sermon face)
No matter how animated I was, no matter how much I moved around, the response was always the same
(sit in chair and do sermon face)
It was like preaching to a brick wall. Most of the time when I preach, I can get at least some inkling as to whether or not the congregation was attentive, or losing focus… not with this group… I could have preached NAKED, and the response would have been…
(sit in chair and do sermon face)
I really had to wonder if anything I actually said sank in. To a young student, this was not exactly good for my self-esteem. Were my sermons not good enough? Were they too academic? Were they boring? I was terrified that I had gone through all of this schooling for nothing… After all, what good was theological education if nobody listened??
I have to admit that sometimes I do occasionally wonder if sermons are the best way for us to really reflect on what God has to say to us.
Well… enter Jeremiah again… and thank God. With no other prophet do we get the same depth of both disappointment and optimistic wonder. His career as a voice for God was long, and with it came both triumph and tragedy… By all accounts, tragedy seemed to win out. Armies from the Babylonian Empire swarmed across the region like locusts, consuming everything in their path. The people of Israel held fast to their faith that Jerusalem, the centre of the universe, would never fall. Yet as the armies of Babylon approached, Jeremiah said that not only could Jerusalem fall, but it would. No one would listen. Jeremiah’s cries and warnings fell on deaf ears. He preached and told people of what would happen, and the response to Jeremiah was always the same
(Sit in the chair and do sermon face)
But… even as the Babylonian armies were tearing down the walls of Jerusalem, even as they were breaking the stone of the great Temple that King Solomon had built, Jeremiah looked to the future with a near-insane optimism. This was not the end, something new would come. Israel had fallen, they would now live in exile, but Jeremiah was now proclaiming hope.
Looking at the shattered walls around him, Jeremiah says, “You know… I imagine a time where these dearly loved buildings won’t matter… I see a time and a place where people won’t have to go to a book to know the will of God. It will simply be a part of who they are. There will be no more sermon face, because there will no longer be a need for sermons! People will simply know, feel, and do the will of God…”
No longer a need for a sermon? Wow… surely that can’t be right!
But in case there is any doubt, here’s the actual quote:
“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 there 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.”
Now this is powerful stuff! This is a hope that some day all people will simply know, feel, and do the will of God… now that really makes it all worthwhile! It’s kind of nice knowing that I am actually here to work myself out of a job!
Yet after some twenty-six centuries since Jeremiah first spoke these words, it doesn’t feel like we’re really any closer. There’s still so much work to be done that we don’t know where to start. There are many examples of injustice that I am sure any one of us can name… but I won’t do that today. When it comes down to it, all we have at the moment are glimpses… small, wonderful examples that somehow God really is there, in and through every moment of our lives, speaking to us in ways we hardly imagine…
This first glimpse is Jesus… Think about it… Jesus of Nazareth was a poor, wandering preacher who simply knew, felt, and did the will of God so intimately that all who encountered him had a profound experience of God. Somehow, through this human life, God walks among us… changing and transforming lives from the ground up. Jeremiah’s hope begins to be realized in Jesus Christ, giving us a glimpse of what we could be… and the glimpse of hope makes it all worthwhile.
Yet for us today, there is more than just a few glimpses of this now distant historical figure. We encounter the living God in people that we meet. We encounter God through serving one another, through seeking justice and kindness. There are many ways in which we see the face of Christ, that speak to us in ways far more powerful than any sermon. We cannot limit our encounter with God to this building and for one hour on a Sunday morning.
One of the things that I did learn from my experiences as a student was this: even what I thought were the most profound of statements fall on deaf ears. Yet I also found that some of my more mundane observations affected people in a way that I never thought possible. It’s really a very humbling experience… so out of that maybe the best that I can do is try to preach with integrity, and do my best. I’ve also learned that a sermon really isn’t a sermon until it touches the minds and hearts of those who listen. It’s not really anything that I do or say, but something that God does in you…
My words and frantic movements up here don’t really do anything by themselves. What makes a sermon a sermon is what God does in us… planting and writing love deep within our own hearts… inviting us to be transformed by that love. All we can do is let ourselves be open to the possibility!
Amen.
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