The readings for Sunday, 28 August, are as follows (to read them, click HERE):
Jeremiah 2:4-13
Psalm 81:1, 10-16
Hebrews 13:1-8 15-16
Luke 14:1, 7-14
Sermon
Jeremiah is having a rough time this morning. He’s been watching the behavior of the people of Jerusalem and Judah, and these words from the Lord come out of his mouth:
“But my people have changed their glory
for something that does not profit….”
He means the glory of being the people of God, who were led from slavery to freedom in the Promised Land. They have just forgotten the wondrous gift of freedom they were given. So Jeremiah continues,
“…Be appalled, O heavens, at this,
be shocked, be utterly desolate,
says the Lord,
for my people have committed two evils:
they have forsaken me,
the fountain of living water,
and dug out cisterns for themselves,
cracked cisterns
that can hold no water.”
It’s an arid land they live in, Jeremiah and the people of Jerusalem. Water is essential to survival, and they would certainly be aware when water was lacking. They needed cisterns in order to catch and hold water through dry times, when the heavens were not pouring down rain. No one in their right mind would let a cistern become cracked, if they could help it, because of the risk of losing that life-sustaining water. The water at the bottom of a cracked cistern would be stale and stagnant.[1] Jeremiah’s image of water and cisterns is one the people can understand.
Jump ahead 600 years or so and we come to the time of Jesus. He also walked that dry and dusty land. And one of the ways that he described himself was as life-giving water. In John’s Gospel, we hear Jesus say, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty” (John 6:35). And also, “Those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life” (John 4:14). The water that he gives us is not one that we drink from a glass so that it soothes our throats and fills our bellies. Instead, the water that he gives us fills our hearts and minds and souls. It is as though we ourselves are the cisterns, and we have to make sure that we are not cracked cisterns that cannot hold the life-giving water offered us by Jesus Christ. For Jesus, in his life and teaching, in his death and resurrection, offers us true and life-giving water, so that we will never thirst again.
Our readings offer us a contrast between what life is like with and without this life-giving water. In the Gospel reading, Jesus is there, at the house of a leader of the Pharisees, for a meal on the Sabbath. In our terms, it would be like he went to the house of someone important, a pillar of society, for Sunday dinner. Jesus may have been a guest there, but it does not seem that anyone was considering him as anyone special. In fact, there was a certain amount of resentment towards him. In verses we did not hear, Jesus heals a man, but the lawyers and the Pharisees who are present do not respond to Jesus’ question whether it is lawful to heal on the sabbath, or not. They do not wish to acknowledge that he has done something wondrous and awesome and life-giving.
And next Jesus notes that everyone is choosing the places of honor, and he tells them not to do this. Kirk and I are well-acquainted with this particular lesson. We often quote it to one another, generally under our breath, when we are invited to houses for a special meal. We tell each other to take the lowest place, if we have a choice of seats, rather than presume that we are entitled to a seat of honor.
The people at this meal at the Pharisee’s house are like cracked cisterns. The cisterns of themselves has been cracked by concerns with status and social standing, and by hard-nosed adherence to the rules about the Sabbath, and by being blind to just who Jesus is. Jesus’ very presence could fill them up. They see a wondrous healing. He teaches that they will be exalted if they but humble themselves. They are in his very presence and could soak it up, as other people in the Gospel stories do, so that the crack in themselves is healed and they are filled by his holy and life-giving presence.
Jump forward a few decades to a group of new Christians. They are of Jewish descent, and now a mentor in the faith, you might say, is writing them a letter to tell them how to live this new Christian life and to encourage them to hold firm in the faith despite difficulties and persecutions. We have this letter as the Letter to the Hebrews. And here, near the end of the letter, the author is telling them how to live. These are the practices that will keep them whole, that will keep the cistern of themselves from becoming cracked and instead will fill it with the holy and life-giving water of Christ. The way of life that the author holds before them is one of respect for one another, love of God, humility, gentleness, and freedom from fear. He mentions a few specifics:
Let mutual love continue.
Show hospitality to strangers. You might just be entertaining angels without knowing it.
Remember prisoners. Have compassion on them.
Honor marriage. Do not defile the marriage of another.
Offer your praise to God.
Share what you have with others.
Do not neglect to do good.
As the author gives this advice, he uses words to suggest that it would be easy to forget all this. He says things like, Remember this. Don’t forget to do that. Do not neglect such-and-so. It is as though he recognizes it would be easy to fall into patterns of living that would lead us to becoming a cracked cistern, and then we would lose out on the holy and life-giving water of Christ. It’s just like Jeremiah saying to the people of Jerusalem that they have forgotten the glory of God Almighty leading them from slavery to freedom in the Promised Land. The author of Hebrews is holding a way of life before us and saying, Do not forget the promise. Do not forget the way to life and freedom. Do not let yourself become a cracked cistern. Jesus offers us so much. His is the way to life and freedom. And it is never-ending, for, he says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever.” No matter what the stage of your life, no matter what is happening, no matter where you are or who you are, Jesus offers us holy and life-giving water so that we will never be thirsty again.
[1] Comment in Oxford RSV.