“Something That Does Not Profit”

By Rev. Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, DMin

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership

10th Sunday in Ordinary Time,  June 10th, 2018 

(2-12) Sermon Series: Jeremiah: Prophet to the Nations

A pastor encouraged the reading of the book of Jeremiah for his congregation.  Not long afterwards, one of the church members shared that she tried to read Jeremiah, but did not get very far because she did not like it.   She said Jeremiah is full of too much gloom and doom.   The pastor agreed that words of hope are not that easy to find in the book of Jeremiah, but they are there.  When you do find them, he said, you also discover they are words of true hope.   You might even come to understand, that it is through the gloom and doom that real hope comes.

But before can discover the hope, we have to face reality, and sometimes reality can be hard.  In today’s text the prophet complains that God’s people had forsaken God and chased after worthless idols.  Jeremiah understood that when people desert God, they don’t just leave God, but they exchange their devotion for God for someone or something else.   Jeremiah warns that this is always an unwise ‘trade’ that ‘does not profit’ in your life.  

Such a negative exchange is really nothing new.  It also happened during the Exodus from Egypt. If you recall, before the Hebrews got to the land of promise they violated the first commandment, "You shall have no other gods before me."  The, by the year 600 BCE, they had been chasing idols for so long,  it had become as natural as breathing.   According to Jeremiah, they didn’t know they needed help because they didn’t know they had a problem.  If things were to change for the better, Jeremiah had to let them know what he problem was, and how they could turn back toward God to find God’s help.

I REMEMBER….YOUR LOVE (2)

“I remember the devotion of your youth….,  “You followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown…,  Israel was holy to the LORD…”.    These are words reflecting upon a great heritage with tremendous potential and promise.   That’s why Israel was called the ‘promised land’.   Israel was a chosen, unique, special people, who, as Jeremiah says, was ‘brought…into a plentiful land to eat its fruits and its good things….” (v.7).   As you listen to these words from the prophet, you get the idea that in spite of early challenges, Israel had a great beginning.   She was truly a blessed people.  

When you hear such retrospective language, you can’t help but think about our own heritage as a nation.   We certainly aren’t God’s chosen people above everyone else, just as Israel wasn’t superior to everyone else, which this text makes clear.   But Israel did have a unique calling, just like every nation and all peoples do.  America has had a unique calling too.  When Columbus originally sailed in 1492 on a course to find America, it would have landed him somewhere around or not far from North Carolina.  Instead, a flock of birds flying southward caused him to turn south; thus the Spanish flag was never the predominate flag on American soil.   America was then mostly settled by more humble, religious, God seeking, puritan British people.  They weren’t perfect, but they were unique.  In light of this, someone has asked, “Why is it, that South America, which was settled by Portuguese and Spanish explorers, has far more natural resources and potential wealth, yet North America developed much more quickly and fully?   Could the answer be that, most of those who settled South America were in search of gold, while most of those coming to America were in search of God? (From “Fire in My Bones, by Fred Wood, p. 27, 1959).

I don’t want to over romanticize the founding of America, but I do think that we have had a unique heritage, where the overall emphasize was on being a nation with a special calling, someone like Israel, to be a ‘light to the nations’, even if it has had more of a secular mandate. Our forefathers respected matters of faith, and believed free faith was most important for national freedom, so they wanted to separate the powers of religion and government, so that freedom for life would continue with less human corruption than they had experienced in Europe.  Now, 241 years later, we are learning that this great experiment in freedom has it’s challenges and limitations too.   As we see political corruption increase and religious devotion and ethical morality decrease,  we find ourselves wondering, much like Israel did: "How did we get in the shape we are in” and  “Why has our nation fallen upon hard times?   They believed they were God’s chosen people.  We believe we have ‘great’ purposes ‘under God’ too.  They couldn’t figure out what was happening. We can’t figure out why our own democracy is threatened.  The people were wondering then, we are wondering now, ‘what went wrong’? 

The text opens like divorce court proceedings, like God is filing for divorce against his own people on the grounds of a lack of affection.  Through the prophet God says, “I remember how it used to be, so what happened?  "What wrong did your ancestors find in me?" (vs. 2,5).  The assumption here is that God hasn’t changed.  The fault lies with Israel.   The expectation was that God and Israel would have a special relationship, but now they had become distant.  Israel had become unfaithful in this relationship, chasing after worthless idols and going after other loves.  By doing so, Israel had become just as worthless as they idols she chased after.

A very bashful fellow who was still in high school had a crush on one particular girl. He finally got up the courage to ask her to go to a dance at the school and lo and behold, she accepted. He was all excited. The night of the dance he got all dressed up and took her flowers. Once they arrived at the dance he asked her if she wanted something to drink, and he went to get them each a Coke. When he came back with the drinks she was kissing another guy. He is in his late thirties now and still single. He still hasn’t got over it.  God’s people forgot who brought them to the dance, and God couldn’t get over losing her (From Daniel S. Clark

Waverly Road Presbyterian Church. Kingsport, Tennessee  in a sermon,  Jeremiah: Prophet of Hope).

Years ago a retired couple came and asked if I would talk with their son.   They said he was having trouble in his marriage.  We set up an appointment and had several sessions together with him.   He seemed like a very nice guy, but his heart was breaking.  He wanted his marriage to get better.  We talk a lot about things he could do better to save his marriage, but his wife never came.  Her heart was already elsewhere.  To her, the marriage was already over.   Her focus was already elsewhere, and she was already trying to find another place to live.  All the counseling sessions were useless, because she no longer cared. She found someone else.

Remembered love can be heart-breaking.    You can hear the pain and hurt in God’s voice repeating itself throughout.   “I remember…your devotion…. your love as a bride….” (v2),    “Israel was holy….”(3).   Israel had a faithful partner in God, but she engaged in partner swapping.   Jeremiah even suggested that other nations were faithful to their gods, even though they were really no gods at all, while the people of Israel, who had a relationship with the one true God, became unfaithful (vs 11).  The end result was not just how God had lost his people, but that Israel had chased after what was empty and meaningless for so long, they could no longer distinguish between what was true and what was false, what was real and what was fake, what was life-giving and what was brought destruction and death (vs., 11, 13, 17).  In short, Jeremiah was trying to help the people see how they had been swindled, gipped, and cheated, going after something which ended up being ‘nothing’ (11b).

…GONE AFTER WORTHLESS THINGS (5)

In many small towns across America some kind of annual County Fair used to be the social event of the year.  A typical carnival or Fair might have the usual carousel or Ferris Wheel, sometimes pony rides, fireworks, and always there were all kinds of games of chance.  Pick a Duck,  Waterguns, Pellet Guns, Ring or Coin Toss.   With all the ‘games’ you could play, you would purchase a ticket at a chance to win.  If you played long enough at any of these games, you would probably win and impress your girlfriend.   The problem was, you might spend $10 to $15 dollars to win a prize that wasn’t worth $5.00 or less.   But when you are young, you just want it to look like you ‘mastered’ it.

There are lots of ways to express what happens when you spend $15 dollars and come away with a prize with less than $5.00.    In the south, we might say you got cheated, gipped, or ripped off.   In other parts of the country they might say "You got 'slicked,' " or "snookered."  People who do this to you are called ‘wheeler-dealers’, ‘con-artists’ or ‘snake oil salesmen’, because they nearly always got the better end of the bargain they offered.  Their skill is that they have a way to get you ‘hooked’ and then make you feel good, even when they take get money.   If you fall for the smooth talk they spew out once, people might have sympathy, but after that the local folks would just shake their heads and say, "You got slicked!"

We all get "slicked" from time to time. Most of us will get cheated from time to time regardless of how carefully we live; but sometimes we plunge right into a bad decision based on half-truths and flowery promises we want to believe.  How often in our own lives have we given up what is truly valuable for the cheap stuff — like routinely giving up time with our children for that time-and-a half overtime pay, or trading fidelity in marriage for a temporary fleeting passion? As one preacher remarked, "I've never heard anyone at the end of their life say 'I wish I'd worked more hours' or 'I wish I hadn't wasted so much time playing with my kids.' " How often have we exchanged the glory of a sunset for a recliner and the evening news? (“You Got Slicked.” CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Sermons for Sundays after Pentecost (Middle Third): The Hard Task of Truth-telling, by Lee Ann Dunlap).

In matters of the spirit and faith, how easily and readily we might exchange quiet moments with God for a wasted hour on social media, (which statistics say makes you feel worse), or some exchange Sunday morning worship for an extra hour of sleep.   Too many times haven’t we all listened or given in to the smooth talk and empty promises of the world around us, investing our lives in stuff and activities that are meaningless, useless and fleeting.  Is it any wonder that many feel empty and cheated by life, by the media, by the establishment, never daring to admit we've in what we have wrongly chosen, we’ve been "gipped," ‘ripped-off’, or ‘cheated’?

When the prophet Jeremiah looked around in his own time, he recognized that his people were getting "cheated" too.   What was really going on wasn’t a pretty picture.   People had become obsessed with security (Jer. 49:30), self-preservation (2:18), self-indulgence (2:13), investing their lives in material possessions, while neglecting and starving their widows and orphans (Jer. 49:11).  In their quest for "homeland security" they bolstered defense budgets but ignored the sick and the elderly.  Professional politicians cut deals for profit and safety then conveniently forgot their promises when the winds shifted (Jer. 23:27). 

Perhaps what is most important for us realize about this social, spiritual and political decline, is that this was not something that just happened over night.  It began as soon as they entered the land of promise seven hundred years before (Exodus 32:4). To put that in a little bit of perspective referring to Columbus again, Columbus discovered this land in 1492.  Based on what is happening in our political world today, as defense budgets climb and Medicare along with Medicaid continue to receive cuts, what do you think our nation will look like, 700 years after 1492, in 2192?   Is it possible that in 2192 we will be a land that has completely lost its value because we have chased after so many empty idols for so long, that we can no longer tell the difference between what is good and what is evil (Daniel Clark).   Will we, like the people of Israel, have forgotten the story of our own freedom, how God was with us to give us this wonderful land ‘flowing with the milk and honey’ of freedom and opportunity, which can be lost by us, when we go after the things that don’t really matter, except that they cause us to end up with nothing?

MY PEOPLE…HAVE FORSAKEN ME  (13)

While we aren’t really a ‘religious’ nation like Israel, we have been a predominately religious, if not Christian-value dominated people, building our lives on the Judeo-Christian ethic.  But when we go after lesser things, we not only lessen our desires and values, but we eventually lose faith, and head toward more trouble too, don’t we?    This is the same point Jeremiah is trying to get across to Israel.  When God’s people go after ‘other gods’ which are worthless idols, they become like the gods they go after, and they become a worthless people too.  This is exactly what Jeremiah means when he says, “My people have committed two evils:  they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and (they have) dug out cisterns (wells) for themselves, cracked cisterns that can hold no water” (13).  When you are living in a desert where it sometimes rains less than an inch from May to October, you’d better have something that holds water.  Does our ‘faith’ hold water?  How to we return to a faith that does?

So, when people lose their ‘devotion’ (2:2) to what matters most, and seem doomed to having a greater past than they have a future,  what is the hope?  Is there anything we can learn from this great prophet to help us ‘turn’ from the ‘disasters’ that will come (2:3)?

Through everything, Jeremiah says, God remains faithful.  The people of Israel could not save themselves. But their faithful partner, God, had the power to save them.  In the midst of unfaithfulness, God allowed the people to learn and know what is true, what is real, what is life-giving and what matters most.   They could only learn this by realizing that they had ‘forsaken’ God himself, who is their ‘fountain of living waters’ (13).  

Second,  they also needed to realize that in a world where spiritual ‘water’ was just as much a matter of life and death as physical water, that they mistakenly traded the ‘wells of God’s love and mercy’ for ‘barrel of fun’ that would hold no water.   It wouldn’t hold any water because it was a ‘cracked pot’, broken, and full of holes.    God sent Jeremiah to remind the people that the only true hope was the faithfulness of the God who was calling them ‘return’ to him so God could heal their ‘unfaithfulness’ so they could be ‘blessed’ again (3:22, 4:2).

Is this a realistic ‘hope’ for our times too?  Well, actually, the prophet Jeremiah believed this wouldn’t happen in Israel either.  Jeremiah said: “I thought after she has done all this she will return to me”; but she did not return…she did not return with her whole heart, but only in pretense…” (3:7, 10).   The book of Jeremiah is full of doom and gloom, because this was the people’s choice.  God said ‘return to me’ (3:14), but God’s children did not return (3:20-25).

A few years ago, Richard Sheffield tells of how he attended a Citizens Committee in Lima, Ohio met to ensure that the relationships between people who make decisions in business, and the people who make things in business, made sense. One of the speakers in the meeting, said, in terms of business opportunities and community development and labor-management relations, "We have the chance of a lifetime!"  The truth is, ‘a lifetime’ is the only chance we have to do the right thing!

Interestingly, another speaker at that meeting was talking about the "transformation" of American business.  But that speaker said he felt that ‘transformation’ isn’t a strong enough a term.  He wanted to talk about "metanoia" in American business. "Metanoia" is a word you can find on the lips of Jeremiah, John the Baptist and on the lips of Jesus.   These Biblical people didn’t have M.B.A.s, but they knew something about life, and what ‘good business’ means.  It means REPENT!  Without having the ability to ‘turn’ the right way in our lives, whether personal or business, we will keep going the wrong way.  Repentance is good for business, and it’s good for life.  Without the ability to ‘repent’, your business and your life will no longer ‘hold water’ and you will be living a ‘cracked pot’ life.

Six-hundred years after God spoke to Jeremiah God spoke again, and finally, in the person of Jesus Christ.  When we turn toward Jesus, we say we are tired of chasing after gods that are no gods, because we too have been fooled many times by idols that are worthless which leads to ‘cracked pot’ lives with lesser value.   Jesus said he came not just to give us ‘living water’ (John 4:10), but he said, ‘let everyone who is thirsty come to me’ (John 7:37).  Jesus is the living water because he is the one who remained faithful still teaches us how to return to living faithful, meaningful, and abundant lives.  Amen.