Readings for the Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 14) – Track 2
This sermon was preached at Christ Episcopal Church in Eureka CA on August 8, 2021.
I’d like to begin my sermon this morning with a joke that my Jewish father used to liked.
It’s about a Jewish grandmother takes her grandson to the beach. They’re having a great time when a giant wave rushes ashore and sweeps the boy out to the sea. The grandmother is distraught. She looks up into heaven and says, “Please, God, I’ll do anything. Bring back our little boy.” Next second, another wave comes ashore and dumps the boy back on the beach, completely unharmed. The grandmother looks at the boy and looks to the heavens and says, “He was wearing a hat.”
Now Jewish American journalist Andrew Silow-Carroll explains that although this joke might be seen a poking fun at a stereotype of Jewish mothers as never being satisfied, what the joke is really about is “God’s relationship with the Jewish people. The relationship between God and the Jewish people is a covenant. A covenant is an agreement between two people; and in a covenant both sides can complain about the behavior of the other side,” especially if the other side seems to be in violation of the covenant. Old Testament professor Walter Brueggemann calls this a part of “genuine covenant interaction.”
And we see this kind of “genuine covenant interaction,” this kind of complaining all throughout Scripture. In our readings today, we read about the psalmist who complains in his affliction and then the Lord hears him and saves him from his troubles (Ps 34:6). We hear Paul telling the Ephesians, “Be angry but do not sin,” thus inviting them and us to bring our honest anger to God rather than spreading it around like a deadly virus amongst ourselves, because it is by bringing our anger to God that we can put it away, along with all bitterness and wrath and wrangling and slander. And in the Gospel, as we continue read through the Bread of Life discourse, we hear that the Jews began to complain until Jesus says, “Do not complain among yourselves.” A more literal translation would be “Do not complain with each other.” The Greek word used for “complain” is gongoodzo, which is the same word used in the Greek Old Testament when describing the Israelites complaining in the wilderness. If we remember that last week, Moses responded to the complaining of the Israelites by saying, “Bring your complaint to God” and then “Draw near to God for he has heard your complaining.” And here Jesus is saying the same thing. He’s saying, “Stop complaining with each other about me or about God. Rather, bring your honest complaints directly to God. Draw near to God. Draw near to me because I will hear your complaining and I will respond with self-giving nourishment and love and everlasting life. And I will raise you up on the last day.” These Scriptures invite us to not be afraid to bring our honest complaints to God.
Yesterday, several of us celebrated the Feast of the Transfiguration when Jesus was wonderfully transfigured “in raiment white and glistening” alongside Moses and Elijah, two of the great Hebrew prophets who did not die in the conventional way. There were many legends of Moses’s body transforming into light and being brought up to heaven and Elijah, according to 2 Kings, was carried up into heaven on a chariot of fire. However, before riding up to heaven on a fiery chariot, Elijah felt so depressed that he wanted to die, as we hear in today’s reading. He had devoted his life and ministry to liberating the Israelites from the sin of idolatry, but they continued to seek after false gods under the wicked and corrupt leadership of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. In our reading today, Elijah wants to give up and he sounds somewhat melodramatic when he prays for death, saying, “It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life, for I am not better than my ancestors.” God then responds to this miserable prayer with nourishment and love, with cake and water sent by an angel, which was apparently an ancient version of “Angel Food Cake.” Elijah knew how to complain to God and God responded; however, the rabbis argue that Elijah didn’t complain enough and failed to complain about the right things. One of the main jobs of a prophet is to intercede on behalf of God’s people and to sometimes stand in the breach between God’s people and God’s judgment. So, according to the rabbis, Elijah should have been interceding and arguing with God in the same way that Abraham interceded for Sodom and the same way Moses interceded for the Israelites in the wilderness, boldly asking God to rescue God’s people from idolatry and from the clutches of a corrupt king and queen. It was very soon after this prayer that Elijah handed over his mantle to his student Elisha because, according to the rabbis, he had proven unable to continue his role as prophet, he had failed to stand in the breach and intercede and complain on behalf of the people.
There are times to complain to God about our own personal difficulties and frustrations and the story of Elijah teaches us that we can bring even our most self-pitying prayers to God and still receive love and nourishment in response. The story of Elijah teaches us that it’s actually ok for us to sometimes be a community of complainers as long as we are not complaining among ourselves and just spreading misery around like a virus but rather bringing our honest complaints to God in prayer and lament. However, in the story of Elijah, I also hear a call for us to be more than a community of honest complainers. I hear a call for us to be a community of companions who pray for one another and who intercede on each other’s behalf with the same chutzpah of Abraham and Moses, who approach the throne of grace with boldness not just for the sake of our personal hopes and desires but for the sake of others whom we love and maybe even for those whom we struggle to love. For example, some of us might be upset about the large number of people who remain unvaccinated (especially here in Humboldt county), and we might be inclined to pray a prayer of defeat like Elijah. However, the truly prophetic response is to intercede on behalf of the unvaccinated, to pray boldly for all those who suffer whether we agree with them or not. The truly prophetic response is for us to be more than a community of honest complainers. Our call is to be a community of compassionate companions who intercede and pray with chutzpah for all God’s children. May we bring that compassionate and prophetic chutzpah to our prayers this morning.
I invite us to pray now…
Holy and gracious God, we are weary and heartbroken about so many things: our own personal struggles as well as health challenges in our family, including our church family, and the difficulties we continue to face as a county and as a country. We pray for your protection over all of us in the face of COVID and in midst of destructive wildfires. We ask boldly for your compassion upon all victims and potential victims of the virus (the vaccinated and unvaccinated) and all victims and potential victims of the wildfires. Like Abraham and Moses, we remind you and we remind ourselves that you are a God of justice as well as a God overflowing compassion. Pour out your mercy upon us for we are fully dependent on you for every breath we breathe. As we prayed in this morning’s Collect, Lord, we cannot exist without you, so be gracious to us and renew a right spirit within us so that we may live according to your will. Like the Psalmists, I believe that it would actually be in your best interest to protect us and strengthen us so that we may continue to praise and glorify you in all that we do. We ask all this and so much more in the Name of Jesus Christ our Risen Lord. Amen.
DANIEL DeFOREST LONDON 