The Rev. Austin K. Rios
16 October 2022: Proper 24
All three of our scripture readings from today are messages of hope to individuals and communities that are in danger of losing it.
Jeremiah is addressing the people of Israel who have endured the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, and have found themselves wrestling with their identity in a foreign land.
Last week the Lord speaking through the prophet told the community in exile to build houses in Babylon and live in them—a call to engage the reality of their current situation instead of simply looking backward to what once was.
This week the prophet’s words instruct the community to expect a new covenant that God is making with them.
The days are surely coming when God’s law will move from the realm of exterior symbols to becoming an interior compass that guides each human heart.
The old covenant, which was broken as clearly as those first stone tablets Moses cast down in anger upon witnessing the idolatry of the people in the glow of the golden calf, is giving way to a new relationship between God and God’s people.
For a people whose most powerful and identifying exterior symbols, Jerusalem and Solomon’s Temple, had been laid waste by the Babylonian armies, this promise that God would dwell in the sanctuary of their hearts, and both guide them and forgive them, must have been fortifying.
When I look back over the entire witness of scripture, one of the most enduring themes is how much God longs for an authentic and intimate relationship with humanity.
Creation arose out a desire for relationship between Creator and created—and the original breaking of this bond in the Garden of Eden led to repeated attempts by God to simultaneously maintain our free will and walk with us as a people.
The Exodus saga is an extended meditation on both God’s power to free us from the systemic chains and prisons of this world, and a record of how stubborn and ungrateful we humans can be.
Prophets like Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Ezekiel spend their energy calling the people of God to return to the Lord who has always been faithful to them, and to both repent of the myriad ways we have sinned and impeded this divine project and to keep our sights set on how, with a change of heart on our part, this relationship can be different now and in days to come.
Jesus’ life and movement participated in this larger prophetic call to return to the Lord, and his insistence that the kingdom of God was not someplace far off, but presently among us, was and is an appeal to further open ourselves to an intimate and authentic relationship with the God who loves us and ultimately, saves us.
In the scene right before the Gospel today, Jesus has been telling the Pharisees and his followers that “the kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed…for, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you[1],” and he has forewarned his followers of the trials that will accompany the end of one age and the dawning of another.
Jesus’ words today about praying, being relentless for justice, and about not losing heart are a reminder that God’s ways are not like the ways of the world, and that even though his followers will face opposition and oppression from those who wish to maintain and profit from the lie that we are separate, they must keep pressing on in faith together.
Surely the days are coming when the divisiveness and despair of this age will give way to the renewed relationship and joy of the next one.
Surely the days are coming when the death that accompanies our privileging of superficialities will give way to the resurrection of reconnection to God, our fellow human beings, and all creation.
Surely the days are coming when those who commune with God in spirit and in heart will gather under the banner of love and march forward as a people in order to transform this broken world into a foretaste of the eternal reality we call the reign of God.
This is the message of faith that echoes through scripture, that arises in Paul’s mentoring words to Timothy today and the whole fledgling Christian community, the faith that was lifted high by the prophets, and for which Jesus lived, died, and rose again—Alleluia.
The questions each one of us must answer today, and all the days of our life are: Will we give ourselves over to this kind of relationship with God, and will we let that interior intimacy with God change the way we love and work with others?
We come here each Sunday in order to remember the truth of this relationship and to gain strength and tools to deepen it as we each walk through the week ahead.
We are bombarded by so many contrary messages that would have us believe that we are separate from one another, that encourage us to say the right words about God so others can hear them but to secretly shield our truest selves from God’s guidance and compassion.
The mission of God lived out in the community called the church is multi-faceted.
But at the heart of that mission is the call to an authentic interior life that flows into an authentic exterior life.
When we allow our soul relationship with God to deepen and expand, then the exterior world around us begins to change.
We gravitate toward allies who have done the same, and we gain the strength to turn our energies toward the social transformation that God’s justice demands.
Of course, we expect resistance—but we are not so easily deterred by it, because we have companions on the journey who can support us when we are weak and who remind us of the truth of our mission.
That is the kind of community we long to be here at St. Paul’s, and we want to be a gathering point where those who are seeking to live authentically from the interior world outward can find sustenance and support.
God’s law has been written on our hearts, we seek to proclaim the message and be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable, and we know that prayer and actively working for justice are inseparable components of our life in God.
What, if anything, is preventing you from embracing a deeper, and more intimate relationship with God?
How might you retreat from superficialities and any exterior facades that you’ve erected to publish your faith, and invest in the hard soul work of authentic prayer this week?
Who can you turn to in this community of faith to support you in this journey, and are you willing to be a support to others?
Surely the days are coming when the same Lord that rules in our hearts will gather us into one body and work through us to reconnect the broken parts of our world.
If we but take the risk to open ourselves to God’s expansive law of love written on our hearts, and allow what’s inside and what’s outside to harmonize, then surely those days are near.
[1] Luke 17:20-21.