Sermon Am I a God Near By? First Congregational Church of Gray Tenth Sunday after Pentecost August 18, 2019
On this date in 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, giving women the right to vote. The first national constitutional amendment had been proposed in Congress in 1878, and in every Congress session after that. Finally, in 1919, it narrowly passed both houses of Congress and was sent to the states to be ratified. Most Southern states opposed the amendment, and on August 18, 1920, it all came down to Tennessee. It was a close battle and the state legislature was tied 48 to 48. The decision came down to one vote: that of 24-year-old Harry Burn, the youngest state legislator. He had been expected to vote against it, but he had in his pocket a note from his mother, which read: “Dear Son: Hurrah, and vote for suffrage! Don’t keep them in doubt. I noticed some of the speeches against. They were bitter. I have been watching to see how you stood, but have not noticed anything yet. Don’t forget to be a good boy and help Mrs. Catt put the ‘rat’ in ratification. Your Mother.”
He voted in favor of the amendment.
On August 26, 1920, at 8 a.m., Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby signed the amendment into law because President Wilson was ill. Only a few newsmen were present. He cleared his throat and said, “Women of America you have been given the right to vote. You may fire when ready.”
Two or three weeks ago I announced that I would deliver a series of sermons on peace for the month of August. It seemed an appropriate topic for this precious time of year when we cherish being outdoors and being with our families and friends, these Halcyon days when we don’t really need much entertainment and we are pretty happy just being at peace, when we listen to the birds or the lake water lapping or the ocean splashing. Several of the readings that first week related directly to the topic and I just assumed that whatever was in the lectionary to come would be relevant to peace. It is after all a rather broad topic and the Bible has a to say about it.
Imagine my chagrin this week when I first seriously read the lessons and found Our Lord himself exclaiming:
“I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!” . . . and
“Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!”
Not only that, but I read the Old Testament lesson and found Jeremiah in his usual bad mood and saying:
“Is not my word like fire, says the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?” (Complete texts below.)
Remember that our primary text for this whole month of reflection is the exclamation of Jesus upon gazing at Jerusalem from afar:
"Would that even today you knew the things that make for peace! But now they are hid from your eyes.” (Luke 19:42)
We get sayings like this from God when things have really gone badly awry. If we do our job decently everyday, and most of us do, we avoid disaster and we live in peace. We pay our bills on time, so the lights stay on, the fuel gets delivered and we are not left freezing in the dark. We buy things at regular intervals and do not run out. We maintain good relationships with our neighbors. We maintain good relationships individually and communally. A stitch in time saves nine. A good relationship does more than avoid trouble, it creates good. And that is true peace – not just the absence of conflict but a feeling of being buoyed up, perhaps even on the wings of angels.
Most of the time we do know the things that make for peace and do them, but sometimes, well, there are only so many hours in a day, we forget something important, some problem suddenly rears its ugly head and there we are and God reminds us, not so gently:
“Is not my word like fire, says the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?” Am I a God near by, says the Lord, and not a God far off? Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them?
In order to avoid this sort of talking to, we plan ahead. Two friends of mine happened to be pastors a while ago of a Presbyterian and a Congregational Church right across the street from each in Berkeley, California. They disagreed with each other on any number of things, but they agreed on one thing: that they would meet periodically and be good neighbors for each other.
One night I went to a concert at one of the churches. When I arrived, all the lights were out and people were milling around in front. There was a series of blackouts in the city that evening, for I forget what reason. Within minutes, however, word came that we should walk across the other street to the other church, where the power was still on. Within a few minutes the sanctuary was full and the concert went on. This happened because the pastors had been proactive and had worked out a procedure for this potential problems.
The pastors were not just at peace with each other in the sense that they did not denounce each other from their respective pulpits, they had a good working relationship that paid off for the public in general on that evening when the lights went out.
We do this as a church community. We pay the church’s bills on time. We raise money every year. We are fixing the roof on the Parish House - soon I believe – so that water will not drip through roof. We are fixing the roof before it leaks. It will be a stitch in time. The roof will not look drastically different, but I believe that it will look new. And that is a plus – it sends a message to the community that something is going on over here.
We have another opportunity in this church to create some good, to add some value to our town, namely the town has formed a Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee. They had a booth at the Blueberry Festival and asked for ideas. Our own Natalie Blake is a contributing member of this committee. She is pastor of the church in East Baldwin and attends church with us when on vacation. She lives in Gray and regularly attends Thursday morning Bible Study. She would be happy to meet with us individually or in a group to hear our ideas.
I suggest we take this opportunity to think and talk about what we want our town to be like in the next five, ten, fifteen years; and what role our church in the heart of Gray Village can play in the growing and changing town of Gray.
The Bible tells us in one of its most familiar stories that sometime time long, long ago things on earth really fell apart and the word of God to humankind was not just a fire, not just a hammer, but a great flood. After the flood God gave a commandment to Noah and all of the creatures that survived the flood, a commandment that we usually translate as “be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth.” My rabbi friends tell me, if I remember correctly, that the word translated as ‘replenish’ implies fixing, maintaining, caring for the earth.
Thus the Lord wants our help in regularly maintaining the world. The Lord also promises to help us if we regularly do our part to maintain the world and build the sort of relationships that make for a growing and evolving peace.
?- Psalm 82 Deus stetit
God takes his stand in the council of heaven;
he gives judgment in the midst of the gods:
"How long will you judge unjustly,
and show favor to the wicked?
Save the weak and the orphan;
defend the humble and needy;
Rescue the weak and the poor;
deliver them from the power of the wicked.
They do not know, neither do they understand;
they go about in darkness;
all the foundations of the earth are shaken.
Now I say to you, 'You are gods,
and all of you children of the Most High;
Nevertheless, you shall die like mortals,
and fall like any prince.'"
Arise, O God, and rule the earth,
for you shall take all nations for your own.
Jeremiah 23:23-29
Am I a God near by, says the Lord, and not a God far off? Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them? says the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the Lord. I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in my name, saying, "I have dreamed, I have dreamed!" How long? Will the hearts of the prophets ever turn back-- those who prophesy lies, and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart? They plan to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell one another, just as their ancestors forgot my name for Baal. Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let the one who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? says the Lord. Is not my word like fire, says the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?
Luke 12:49-56
Jesus said, "I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; they will be divided:
father against son
and son against father,
mother against daughter
and daughter against mother,
mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law
and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law."
He also said to the crowds, "When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, `It is going to rain'; and so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, `There will be scorching heat'; and it happens. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?"