Readings for the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 14 Year B Track 2)
1 Kings 19:4-8
Psalm 34:1-8
Ephesians 4:25 – 5:2
John 6:35, 41 – 51
This sermon was preached at Christ Episcopal Church in Eureka CA on August 12, 2018.
By now, you know how much I like to glean wisdom from our Jewish brothers and sisters, especially when it comes to reading the Hebrew Scriptures. This is partly because I have Jewish background on my father’s side. My great grandfather grew up in a shtetl in the Ukraine (similar to the one portrayed in the musical Fiddler on the Roof); and I have memories of colorful Yiddish words and phrases that my grandfather would frequently use. Whenever my grandpa found himself doing something that he thought was boring or useless he would say he was “shlug zich kop in vaunt,” which means, “banging his head against the wall.” And whenever my dad (as a young boy) complained or whined to my grandpa, my grandpa would tell him “don’t hak mir in tchainik” which literally means “stop banging my tea kettle,” and is a colloquial way of saying, “stop making a tempest in a teapot.” And if my dad would persist in his whining, my grandpa would tell him to stop being such a “nudnik,” which is someone who is so annoying that it is becoming boring. My dad recalls his uncle referring to him and his sisters as “nudniks” so often that he’s not sure if his uncle ever really knew their real names (!).
This is an image of the wooden synagogue from my great grandfather’s shtetl called Yarmolintsy in the Ukraine
There are many other popular Yiddish words my grandpa would often use, such as “klutz” and “schlep” and “mensch,” but there is one particular Yiddish word that I especially like and that is the word “kvetch”, which means “to complain, whine or fret” or “someone who tends to complain, whine or fret.” And in today’s readings, there is a lot of kvetching.
In our reading from First Kings, we witness the kvetching of a very hungry and histrionic prophet Elijah. In the Epistle, Paul encourages his brothers and sisters in Ephesus to put away all of their bitterness and negativity and to essentially stop being such nudniks. And in the Gospel, Jesus preaches a challenging message that makes his listeners complain so much that Jesus has to say to them, “Do not complain among yourselves.” Ironically, the one reading that has the least kvetching is the Psalm, which comes from the book most replete with complaints.
Now honestly, I’m personally comforted by all of these biblical kvetches (and there are many more throughout Scripture) because they remind me that God remains faithful and gracious to his people, even when they seem to be always complaining. They remind me that I am held by God whenever I complain and, since God’s amazing grace appeared to eventually save all of these kvetches, I am encouraged to believe that God’s amazing grace can save a kvetch like me.
In the Gospel, Jesus’s listeners grumble among one another because Jesus is preaching a very challenging message. The Greek word for “grumble” is gongoodzo, which is almost as much fun to say as “kvetch.” This is the same word used in the Greek translation of Exodus 16 to describe the Israelites as they were complaining (diegongoodzen) to Moses and Aaron about not having enough food in the desert. By using this same word, the Gospel is actually reminding us readers and listeners of these grumbling Israelites and inviting us to understand this teaching of Jesus in light of that ancient story. The story is recounted in Exodus chapter 16, which was actually the proper reading assigned for last Sunday, but we didn’t hear it because we rebelled a bit by celebrating the Feast of the Transfiguration, which includes different readings. In Exodus 16, Moses responds to the Israelites’ grumbling by saying, “Why are you all complaining to me? Bring your complaints to the One who can actually do something about it. Bring your complaints to God in prayer.” (Exodus 16:7-8). I personally think this is a pretty brilliant way for a spiritual leader to respond to complaints, especially when the issue is beyond the leader’s control. God then responds to the people’s prayerful complaint and rains bread down from heaven to nourish them as Moses says to them, “Draw near to the Lord for he has heard your complaining.”
In our reading from First Kings, Elijah also brings his dramatic complaint and kvetching directly to the source when he says, “God, I give up. I’m done. Take my life.” And how does God respond to the prophet’s complaint? Instead of chastising Elijah or telling him to stop all his groveling, God responds in the same way that he responded to the complaints of the Israelites, by bestowing gifts of love and nourishment. God does not necessarily encourage the whining, but God does seem to create a space for it and does seem to honor its authenticity when it is brought to him directly. God responds generously to Elijah by sending the gracious touch of an angel and some miraculous instant hot breakfast pancakes.
Biblical Scholar Walter Brueggemann explains that our failure to bring our complaints to God in prayer leads to “both psychological inauthenticity and social immobility.”[1] [1] By not confronting God with our frustration, we lose our voice and our capacity for what Brueggemann calls “genuine covenant interaction.”[2] We also lose “the ego strength that is necessary for responsible faith”[3] and our prayers become “a practice of denial, cover-up, and pretense.”[4] If we fail to be honest with our frustration and refuse to bring our complaints to God in prayer, we fall into “civility …docility…grim obedience and eventually despair.”[5] But if we are honest with our frustration and bring our complaints to God in prayer, then we will experience the generosity and love of God in response.
Throughout Scripture and throughout the history of Christian spirituality, those who complain to God tend to draw closer to God as a result. As Moses said, “Draw near to the LORD for he has heard your complaining.” Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel said, “I have not lost faith in God. I have moments of anger and protest. Sometimes I’ve been closer to him for that reason.”
This is why Jesus says, “Do not complain among yourselves.” Instead, he says, “Draw near to the Father and bring your grumbling and kvetching directly to him in honest prayer, because God is the one who can actually do something about it.” This is also why Paul says, “Stop spreading bitterness around. Let no evil come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up the community.” Paul says, “If you have complaints, then pray!” That’s how he sums up the entire letter to the Ephesians: “Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests (and kvetches). With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.” (6:18).
When we bring our complaints to God in prayer, God does not respond to us by saying, “Quit banging my tea kettle” or “Stop being such a nudnik.” Instead God holds us lovingly in our anger and frustration the way a parent holds a child who is screaming or throwing a temper tantrum. Even as the child is kicking and screaming, the parent still holds the child lovingly, knowing that the child does not (and perhaps cannot) understand. Although I myself can be a real kvetch to God in prayer, I have found that, through all my grumbling, God remains patient and loving and gracious. And I actually grow closer to God, maybe even because of my honest complaining. And God invites me to realize that for every one thing about which I complain, there are ten thousand other things about which I can be thankful. That is why the most frequent command in all of Scripture is the perfect antidote to complaining: Give thanks and praise the Lord. And when we do need to complain, I invite us to be honest with God in our prayers, to engage in “genuine covenant interaction” with our Lord. I invite us to draw near to the LORD for he will hear our complaining. I invite us to draw near to the Lord for his amazing grace continually saves a kvetch like me. Amen.
[1] Walter Brueggemann, The Psalms & the Life of Faith (Minneapolis MN: Augsburg Fortress, 1995), 111.
[2] Brueggemann, The Psalms, 102.
[3] Brueggemann, The Psalms, 103.
[4] Brueggemann, The Psalms, 100.
[5] Brueggemann, The Psalms, 102.
DANIEL DeFOREST LONDON 