Is God the Least Successful Entity Of All Time? March 18, 2018 Sermon on Jeremiah 31:31-34

Rev. George Miller
March 18, 2018
Jeremiah 31:31-34

How do we define success?

Is it arriving at a place you set out for? Is it following through with something you said? Is it having a long career?

How do we measure the worth of a journey, a goal, a calling?

And if the journey, goal, or vision is not achieved as we might have assumed or anticipated is it folly, worthless, or bitter defeat?

I ask this because as Americans living in a technological age, with Common Core Classes, job performance reviews, and a whole industry based on polls and opinions,

we seem to be so, so focused on end products, bottom lines, and seeable results…

…and yet, we are said to be a largely Christian country, in which our beliefs are based on a book full of failure.

Moses- never did get into the Promised Land.

Paul- never did get to visit that church in Rome as planned.

Jesus- barely got to see more than Jerusalem before he was crucified.

Would you call men who were hung on a cross, incarcerated by the state, or died in the wilderness as success stories?

Yet we base our entire faith on these 3 individuals.

We believe in Moses, a man who set out to bring people to the Promised Land, who fooled a Pharaoh, met with the Mighty upon a mountain, who never, ever got to step a single, solitary foot into the Land of Milk and Honey.

We believe in Paul, a world traveler, who wrote to a congregation that soon he’ll be traveling to Spain and he’ll see them right after he takes a collection for the poor.

Instead, he is arrested in Jerusalem, taken to Rome as a prisoner, and is executed.

Who was it that once said “I like people who weren’t captured.”?

We believe in Jesus, a man whose entire ministry was no more than 1-3 years.

He had no church, no home, no wife, no kids, no real career, who purposely journeys to the place he know he will be captured and killed, hung between two common thieves.

Who does that?

How is that success?

Imagine what the trolls on FaceBook would say if Moses, Paul, or Jesus were alive today!

Since we’re talking about failed missions- what about God?

God is perhaps the least successful entity of all time.

Why do I say that?

Look at God’s track record-

Creates a garden that is so, so good, yet brother kills brother, while Adam and Eve eat from the one tree they were told not to.

Makes a promise to Abraham and Sarah that they will have land, have descendents more numerous than the stars, and a family that will bless the world.

Yet it takes decades before they even have one child, and both die centuries before any of the promises come true.

Then there is the whole fiasco about God looking down upon a raggedy bunch of no-counts, hearing their cries, delivering them from slavery, giving them clear instructions on stone, leading them to a land that already had homes and farms built and ready to go…

…and then watching as they turn their back on everything, act as if they have amnesia, and cheat on God with false gods full of flash and fake promises.

God gives them chance after chance after chance to get it right, and they keep cheating, and cheating, and cheating.

Does that sound like a healthy, successful track record or relationship to you?

Then there’s today’s reading, Jeremiah 31. Oh, it sounds lovely; sounds beautiful. But it’s based on yet again another failed attempt of faithfulness.

The people of Judah were supposed to live a life focused on God, a life in which they were to do justice, love kindness, and humbly walk with the Lord.

But they continued to miss the mark, they continue to rebel, they continued to do things that twisted and contorted their spirits, and caused them to be bowed down with sin and shame.

This makes them vulnerable to outside forces, and they fall victims to their enemies who come and destroy all that God has worked so hard for.

Though this is another failure, akin to Adam and Eve being expelled from the garden, God chooses not to give up on the people.

He comes up with a new plan, a new attempt to win them over.

God says “Don’t worry. I’m about to do something new. Instead of stone or papyrus that you got to lug around, I am going to make a new covenant with you.”

“This covenant, this promise, will be written with your heart, inside of you, so that as long as you live you will never be without it.”

“Like permanent eye-liner, or a pacemaker, you don’t have to worry because this new covenant will act like a spiritual GPS that will always lead you home and will always lead you right back to me.”

“And you and I, me and thee- well we will be happy, happy, happy for the rest of eternity.”

….How do you think that went for God?

Think it worked?

Think that 2,500 years ago, when this was most likely written, the people unequivocally did get right with God in which they did justice, loved kindness, and walked humbly with the Lord?

Think they stayed faithful to God and didn’t wonder back to false idols and worship foolish deities?

Think they honored the elderly, cared for the children?

Think they welcomed foreigners with open arms, provided food and medicine to the hungry and sick?

Think they paid a living wage, charged fair prices, and kept the covenant in their heart???

…Heck no!!!

They went right back to the same ol’, same ol’, eventually leading God to send God’s Son, to do what?

Walk in our midst. Share in our joy. Point us towards heaven. Turn little into much.

How did that turn out???...

…Yes, Moses never did make it into the Promised Land. Paul never made it to that church on his way to Spain.

Jesus ended his mortal ministry nailed to a cross.

All while God’s people kept doing what they do.

So- is God the biggest fool?

The ultimate enabler?

Least likely to run a successful cooperation?

Thought about these things on Tuesday, after our Bible Study.

What is this written on the heart thing and is a worth a darn?

Then Wednesday came along; the day we stood in solidarity with our students.

Would it make any kind of difference? Standing outside for 17 minutes? Silent? White shirt? Chime?

Most of my adult life I’ve wondered if things like vigils, marches, and letters to the editor, do a nab dab thing.

Come to discover it does.

Please allow me a few more minutes to explain. I can’t speak for the others who were there. But for me this is how Wednesday went-

We gather in a circle. Say a few words. Offer a prayer. Walk to the corner of Hammock and Hope. Close our eyes.

1st minute- I got this.

2nd minute- am I keeping correct time?

3rd minute- ooh, the sun feels good, and someone just honked their horn.

4th minute- wind.

Following minutes-
sound of cars passing, so many cars
a bird chirping
Am I ringing too loud, too soft?

My heart…

…is this writing on my heart?

Stand tall.
Shoulders back.

It doesn’t matter how many people are here- There are cars seeing us
There are people in those cars
What are the people thinking?

Will their seeing us standing in silence affect how they will interact with the next people they meet?

Writing on my heart…is this God writing on my heart?

Chime
Breath

Open my eyes to get a peek-
We’re all together
Silent
Still.
Strong.
Real strong

Done.
Glow on faces
Smiles
Sense of zen for the rest of the day

During this time, it felt like God was writing on my heart. And at least for that one day, I felt like I was more present, more at peace, more nice.

Perhaps this scripture is not meant to be taken concretely as a one-time deal.

Perhaps Jeremiah 31 is about how God writes on our heart again and again, non-stop, every day.

Again and again and again, God is writing on our heart.

And why not- God’s got all day.

God’s got all night.

God’s got all time.

God’s in no rush.

God’s got no quota to fill. God’s got no set place to be.

God’s got no employer; God’s got no board of directors to answer to.

What God DOES have is GRACE.
Abundant.
Limitless.
And amazing…

What may appear to be folly, God sees as wisdom.

What we see as worthless, God sees as more precious than diamonds and pearls.

What we see as bitter defeat, God claims as sweet, sweet victory.

So as we continue the Lenten Season, as we look at events like Marjory Stoneman, as we look at events that are unfolding here or at nations abroad,

As we look at events in our own lives, our own family, our own local community,

May we realize it is not always about the getting there. It is not always about the follow through. It is not always about the accomplishments we can check off our list.

It’s that YOU began. It’s that YOU were HERE at all!

It’s the blessed assurance that God is not located in a book, or locked in a box, or controlled by a bishop-

But that God is right here; right here in YOUR heart.

And her heart, and his heart, and in my heart.

And no thing, no event can ever, ever make that fact untrue, or foolish, or unwise.

And for that, we can say “Amen” and “amen.”