St. Paul’s Church in
Bergen, Jersey City NJ
September 1, 2013
Year C, Proper 17:
The Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Jeremiah 2:4-13
Psalm 81:1, 10-16
Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16
Luke 14:1, 7-14
Restless Hearts
The
other day we celebrated the feast of St. Augustine of Hippo, who lived a long
time ago, around the year 400. Augustine is one of the all-time greatest
Christian thinkers. His influence can still be felt in the Church.
Augustine
came up with one of my favorite quotes:
“You
have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest
in you.”
Through
hard experience, despite many wrong turns, after a lot of his own restlessness,
Augustine came to understand this great truth.
We
are made for God. And it’s only with God – it’s only by doing God’s will –
that we find true peace. It’s only with God – it’s only by doing God’s will –
that we find true satisfaction. It’s only with God – it’s only by doing God’s
will – that we find true rest.
“You
have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest
in you.”
We
witness restless hearts in the lives of people around us – and, of course, we
experience a restless heart in our own lives.
And
we hear about lots restless hearts throughout the Bible.
In
today’s Old Testament lesson from Jeremiah, the restless people of Israel seem
to have abandoned God – or at least have looked elsewhere – have turned to
other gods – for peace, for satisfaction, and for rest.
And
so, speaking through the Prophet Jeremiah, God begins a kind of divorce
proceeding against God’s people.
God
accuses the people of being unfaithful.
God
accuses the people of having forgotten all the good things that God has done
for them – most especially liberating them from the bondage of slavery in Egypt
– of having brought them over forty years through a “land of deserts and pits,”
“a land of drought and deep darkness,” “a land that no one passes through,
where no one lives.”
God
accuses the people of having forgotten that God brought them “into a plentiful
land” filled with fruits and other good things.
God
accuses the restless people of Israel, including the priests, the rulers and
the prophets, of having defiled this good land by turning away from God.
God
spoke to the people of Israel through Jeremiah a long time ago.
But,
what about us today?
I
wonder if God might want to begin divorce proceedings against us.
Have
we forgotten the great truth that St. Augustine recognized? We are made for
God. And it’s only with God – it’s only by doing God’s will – that we find true
peace. It’s only with God – it’s only by doing God’s will – that we find true
satisfaction. It’s only with God – it’s only by doing God’s will – that we find
true rest.
Have
we restless people, like the people of ancient Israel, also abandoned God?
Have
we restless people looked elsewhere – have we turned to other gods – for peace,
for satisfaction, and for rest.
Have
we restless people forgotten all the good things God has done for us? Have we
restless people forgotten that God calls us to live lives of mutual love – love
for God and love for each other?
On
the same day the Church honored St. Augustine, the country also commemorated
the fiftieth anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
Martin
Luther King, Jr. and most of the civil rights leaders of his generation were
deeply rooted in Christ – knew and remembered that we – all of us – are made
for God.
Dr.
King and most of the other civil rights leaders knew and remembered that it’s
only with God – it’s only by doing God’s will – that we find true peace. It’s
only with God – it’s only by doing God’s will – that we find true satisfaction.
It’s only with God – it’s only by doing God’s will – that we find true rest.
The anniversary gave us the opportunity
to take stock of how far we have come – a reminder of how much of Martin Luther
King’s dream has become real – and also acknowledge how much of that dream
remains a faded, if cherished, hope for the future.
On
the one hand, everyone was keenly aware that, fifty years after Dr. King shared
his dream with the country and the world, a black man is President of the
United States – something maybe even Dr. King couldn’t have dreamed - a living
symbol of the progress we have made.
But,
there are plenty of reminders all around us of how far we still have to go.
There are reminders like the stark divisions and deep mistrust between the
races exposed by the shooting in Florida of Trayvon Martin and the acquittal of
the man who shot him, George Zimmerman.
There
are reminders like the outbreak of violence on the streets of our own city,
where young men are wounding and killing each other relentlessly and
senselessly.
There
are reminders like police tactics that single out innocent people minding their
own business – stopping and frisking people based only on the color of their
skin. There are reminders like the unbelievably high incarceration rates in our
country, the warehousing of an entire generation of young men in jails and
prisons all across this land.
The
author of the Letter to the Hebrews writes, “Remember those who are in prison,
as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though
you yourselves were being tortured.”
I
wonder. I wonder, now that the anniversary has passed, if most of us restless
people will move on to the next thing - once again forget Dr. King’s dream – or
dismiss it as a faded, if cherished, hope.
I
wonder if, like the people of ancient Israel, we restless people have abandoned
God.
I
wonder if we restless people have looked elsewhere – have turned to other gods
– for peace, satisfaction, and for rest.
And,
yet, and yet…look around - here we are.
Even
if we are sometimes restless – even
if sometimes we restless people have
abandoned God, here we are.
Even
if we restless people have sometimes looked
elsewhere – have sometimes turned to
other gods for peace, for satisfaction, and for rest, here we are.
Even
if we restless people have sometimes forgotten
the good things God has done for us - even if we restless people have sometimes forgotten that God calls
us to live lives of mutual love – love for God and love for each other, here
we are.
Here
we are to listen to the old, old stories, to beg forgiveness, to extend our
hands in friendship, love and peace. Here we are to take the Body and
Blood of Christ into our bodies and into our hearts.
Here
we are because we haven’t quite forgotten – here we are because,
like St. Augustine long ago, we know deep down inside that it’s only with God –
it’s only by doing God’s will – that we find true peace. It’s only with God –
it’s only by doing God’s will – that we find true satisfaction. It’s only with
God – it’s only by doing God’s will – that we find true rest.
Here
we are because we haven’t quite forgotten that our hearts only find rest
with God.
Long
ago, through the Prophet Jeremiah, God began divorce proceedings against the
people of Israel.
But,
of course, God never did follow through on the divorce.
God
never divorces Israel – and God never divorces us.
Instead,
through Jesus, God continues to reach out to us restless people – God continues
to invite us to find peace, to find satisfaction, to find rest with God.
God
continues to reach out to us restless people – God continues to invite us – to
do God’s will: to show hospitality to strangers – especially those who can’t ever
repay us, to remember – to identify with
- those in prison and those being tortured.
God
continues to reach out to us restless people – God continues to invite us – to
do God’s will: to keep our most sacred promises, to love one another and not
love our money or our things.
God
continues to reach out to us restless people – God continues to invite us – to
do God’s will: to take care of each other, to love one another, and to love
God.
“You
have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest
in you.”
Amen.
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