A few years ago Dana conducted a wedding for the
daughter of an elder in her church.
Though the bride’s parents were quite active in the congregation, this bride
(in her mid-20”s) was not. The bride’s
parents were pretty adamant that Dana should come to the wedding reception and
should bring me. They liked Dana and wanted her to be a part of their family’s special
day like a friend of the family, and, of course, have some fun.
Well, guess where our assigned seats were?...a table
off in a corner right under an always blaring speaker. Our tablemates were the photographer, who was
up and down and up and down, and the two barmaids who were half our age. I felt sorry for them. It was difficult to talk to two ministers without
it feeling like God is asking you “what are you doing with your life?” and
“what do you want to be when you grow up?”
I do not wish to sound obnoxious or self-important,
but in my experience as a minister, I was usually seated with out-of-town
family or friends of the parents. This
wedding was the first time I had ever seen the minister get seated with (and
forgive my terminology) the “hired help”.
Just to be clear, if it were a matter of me myself choosing where I sat
and the choice was to take a seat that prevented family or friends who haven’t
seen each other for years from catching up or to sit with the “hired help”, I
would sit with the “hired help” every time.
But, to be seated by the hosts with those who were just there to provide
services…hmmm.
Well, I won’t speak for Dana, but this seating
arrangement said a lot to me. It
reflected the disesteem of clergy that inhabits our society these days. We clergy are not as welcomed into community
life as we once were. It’s not that we
are anything special. A few obsequious
jerks aside, we are just normal people with a calling on our lives to lead
others by example in becoming more Christ-like in love and service. But the thing is, in a complicated way clergy
represent God and the way people regard clergy is so often indicative of how
they regard God. If you tuck the
minister away in a corner at your wedding, maybe that is what you do with
God. I am surprised that people still
ask clergy to conduct their wedding, but they do and not because they believe
God has anything to do with life and marriage, but because they are looking for
an officiant.
In our reading from Jeremiah, God brings a pretty
graphic case against his people in ancient Israel that just might ring true
today. God’s case has two charges: His
people have forsaken him and exchanged him for worthless things. He starts making his case by reflecting on the
loyal devotion they once had for him as they followed him in the wilderness
like a betrothed bride as he provided for them in impossible situations. But once they entered the Land and
experienced prosperity their ancestors, for no wrong done by God, turned and
went far from him. The priests, the
rulers, the prophets, they all turned to the Canaanite god Baal and became
worthless. He says no other nation has
done what they did; exchanged their gods for the gods of others. But Israel had exchanged their glory, God’s
presence with them, for gods that are not gods but just worthless things. He tells the heavens to be appalled and to
shutter in terror and to be in utter ruins because of what Israel had
done.
God had brought this people into existence, the
descendants of Abraham. They were to be
his people among the nations. He loved
them preferentially and was faithful to them preferentially. It was his hope that from this relationship peaceful,
fair, just, and compassionate community would arise among them that would
reveal his love for humanity and prove him to be God alone. But, here they had turned away from him and made
themselves worthless by devoting themselves to worthless things. If it is true that we become like that which
we worship, then ancient Israel’s pursuit of worthless gods had in turn created
worthless community among themselves. The
rich and powerful in Israel were taking advantage of, abusing, and enslaving
the poor, the widowed, the orphaned, the immigrant in their midst. The rulers and the wealthy were even
sacrificing their own children believing it would make them more powerful.
Back to the reception, I remember sitting under the
speaker trying to make small talk with the rest of the “hired help”. The
reception was turning into a fest of drunken selfie-takers; loud, shallow
music; painfully embarrassing speeches; a decent meal; men growing ever-more
inebriated; a bride and a groom – will they someday seek a more worth-filled
life than the cracked cistern of the shallow community endemic to our society
that has grown brackish with consumerism, materialism, and narcissism; a
society that keeps God far off at a corner table.
Back to Jeremiah, God said that to his people he was
a fountain of living water, but they had forsaken him for cracked cisterns that
they had dug for themselves. My
great-grandmother got her water from a cistern that collected rain that fell on
her tin roof. It was good water, but
whatever was on her roof was also in the water and you had to make sure you
didn’t drink what was in the bottom of the glass. There might be something living in it. On the other hand, when I lived in West
Virginia there were places alongside the road where a pipe was sticking out of
a rock face with water running out of it.
At some point somebody had tapped a spring in the rock and made it so
that people could come and get water…and people did. There was one in particular that it seemed
every time I drove by it somebody was filling a few jugs. I even did it a time or two. There’s nothing like water from a mountain
spring.
I don’t know about you, but speaking for myself I am
pretty familiar with life in my self-dug, cracked cistern. Yet, I have also drunk from the Fountain of
Living Water. I have sat in the presence
of God and been renewed, refreshed, restored and walked away assured that I was
his beloved child. Among God ‘s people I
have found friends whom I can trust to accept me and to be for me even when I
cannot accept myself and I’m being my own worst enemy. I have friends in Christ who give me living
water to drink rather than just shove a drink in my hand. Among his people God has given me work that
has purpose, work that makes a difference.
My life has value.
It is not my intent to sound spiritually snobbish or
be judgemental with respect to my experience at that wedding. I can and do quite often keep God sitting far
off at a corner table as one of the hired hands who make my life the way I think it ought to be possible. But he has taught me to realize when I’m
thirsty and that when I’m thirsty I need to seek him. When I feel worthless, I find the Fountain
among my friends in Christ. I’ve got a
couple of discipling groups going (Bible study and prayer groups). Meeting with them helps quench the
thirst. Taking time to read Scripture
and to pray on a daily basis helps quench the thirst. Visiting people and doing kind things helps
quench the thirst. Taking time to sit
and ask questions, “Who are you, Lord Jesus?” and “What are you up to with me?”
can be staggeringly good time taken.
Lastly, Friends, drink from the Fountain of Living
Water. I make that invitation to you not
just for your own sake. You will find that
the more you drink of the Fountain, the more you become like the Fountain. God will change you and make you a channel of
his presence and like a roadside mountain stream people will seek you out to
help them drink from the Fountain. Amen.
