Jeremiah 17: 5-10, Psalm : 1-3, Luke 6: 17-26
I heard a sermon some years ago, actually about 15 years ago because we were at a conference and I was watching baby Ariel as Heidi helped with special music. I was reminded of that sermon as I studied this week's readings. The title of that sermon says a lot: “Planting Shade Trees We Will Never Sit Under.” It was about the kind of faith that believes what we do today may not show in immediate results, but God will work good in all things. The only reason to plant a tree we won't see the fruits of is to believe that God and God's people will endure. I'm reminded of this sermon because both Jeremiah and the Psalm compare our faith with trees.
“Blessed are those who trust in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. 8They shall be like a tree planted by water.” says Jeremiah. And “Happy are those who delight in the law of the LORD... 3They are like trees planted by streams of water....” from the Psalm. Two separate passages, two messengers of God, each choosing the metaphor of a tree planted by water. So what is the full meaning of this for us today?
I heard a sermon some years ago, actually about 15 years ago because we were at a conference and I was watching baby Ariel as Heidi helped with special music. I was reminded of that sermon as I studied this week's readings. The title of that sermon says a lot: “Planting Shade Trees We Will Never Sit Under.” It was about the kind of faith that believes what we do today may not show in immediate results, but God will work good in all things. The only reason to plant a tree we won't see the fruits of is to believe that God and God's people will endure. I'm reminded of this sermon because both Jeremiah and the Psalm compare our faith with trees.
“Blessed are those who trust in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. 8They shall be like a tree planted by water.” says Jeremiah. And “Happy are those who delight in the law of the LORD... 3They are like trees planted by streams of water....” from the Psalm. Two separate passages, two messengers of God, each choosing the metaphor of a tree planted by water. So what is the full meaning of this for us today?
And as I said about the tree sermon, these passages too are about believing in God's faithfulness.
We start with Jeremiah. Jeremiah preached in a time when Israel was threatened by the military powerhouse Babylon. Their leaders thought that if they could form an alliance with Egypt to fight off the Babylonians, they'd be safe. Jeremiah brought God's word to the people before the exile urging them to avoid foreign entanglement with the Egyptians. But the leaders didn't listen and this unwise alliance caused the Babylonians to increase their aggression and this led to the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple as well the deportation and exile of the Israelites that would last from 597 to 547 BC. The prophet Jeremiah was one of those exiled. He continued to preach during the exile urging them to look to God for their comfort and hope.
In many ways, this exile sharpened and strengthened the faith of the Jewish faithful. But as is the way of we humans, many understood this exile as a hopeless situation beyond God's control. Jeremiah brought the focus from defeats in battle and worldly troubles to the matter of trust. “The Lord proclaims: Cursed are those who trust in mere humans, who depend on human strength and turn their hearts from the Lord.” Those leaders who put their trust in an alliance that left out their God, well, Jeremiah calls them cursed. Strong words, but remember that despite having kings, Israel was basically a theocracy, a government answerable to God. And what contrasting metaphor does Jeremiah use for those faith-less people? “They will be like a desert shrub that doesn’t know when relief comes. They will live in the parched places of the wilderness, in a barren land where no one survives.” Think of a tumbling tumbleweed.
The psalmist also contrasts that tree of the faithful trusting ones to those without faith, “Sinful people are not like that at all. They are like straw that the wind blows away.” (NIRV) Straw or chaff blowing in the wind is his picture of the faithless. No roots, no stability, no longer connected to their source of life. The apostle Paul used a similar illustration in Ephesians. “The goal is that we would no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching.” (Ephesians 4:14) If we don't have good roots of faith in Christ, if we aren't planted by streams of living water, we can be blown about by questionable teachings and theories and lose our connection to Jesus.
But I don't want us to concentrate on a rootless faith, rather on how we become, like both passages commend, trees planted by the water. Jeremiah tells us that that tree's connection to the source of life continues even when drought comes. Even when the world is facing heat and drought, the tree may thrive. “It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit.” That connection to the source of life, the water, means that when the conditions are harsh, when the rains don't come, the tree does not weaken or die.
In our lives as a tree, we know that times of “drought” will come. The death of a loved one, a bad diagnosis at the doctor's, loss of a job, a painful breakup of a personal relationship, troubles at work, loneliness, pain... these are things that can challenge the strength of our faith. Those times of drought are why where we plant our faith is so important. Is your faith planted in health and wealth and safety and the idea that you are in control of you fate? We can put down roots in wrong places and be drawn away from God; cults, horoscopes, 401k's, spiritualists are places roots can be placed that do not stand strong in the times of trouble. If you are rooted in the wrong things, when those things fall away, when the drought comes, your faith is lost. But if your faith is in the Lord, the one who is the water of life, then you can survive and even thrive in the dry times. But the place that we plant our faith must be in the Lord. And we don't start putting down roots when the trials come, but now, in the day to day life you are living. I just heard the words of a song yesterday that said, “Don't wait until you need God...”
Let's look again at how Jeremiah and the Psalmist explain how to be rooted in the Lord. “Blessed are those who trust in the LORD”, says Jeremiah. And “Blessed are those who delight in the law of the LORD” says the psalmist. Let's look at them separately. Trusting in the Lord is a commitment we make as a Christian. It is grabbing hold of promises in scripture and making them our own. It is being in relationship and sharing our thoughts and our questions and our decisions with the Lord. As Christ enters your life, hear Paul's prayer for believers from Ephesians, “I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, 17 and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love.” Rooted and grounded in love... sounds like Paul saw the idea of roots reaching the source of life as a good metaphor for our faith a well. It comes when we place our trust in the Lord. Faith that our ultimate good is assured. Our faith, rooted in trusting Christ through the Holy Spirit strengthens us for those times of drought.
And the psalmist encourages us to delight in the law of the Lord. We went through this Tuesday in bible study, the law has a couple different meanings in scripture. It can mean the Law, capital L, the Law given to Moses on Mount Sinai which was to be fulfilled in its entirety for salvation. The Law that none can keep fully, but that Jesus fulfilled. But here the meaning of law is God's word, the scriptures. And I didn't read the second part of what the blessed one does, “and on his law they meditate day and night.” It begs the question, how much time are we spending reading or meditating on God's word? Amy's verse of the month, while long, certainly fits in with this thought. “Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; bind them on your foreheads. 19 Teach them to your children, talking about them when you lie down and when you get up.” Day and night, lying down and rising up-fFix God's word in your hearts and minds. Memorizing scripture seems to be a thing of the past. We've put more emphasis on God's word by having a verse of the month. And I admit that I haven't worked at memorizing them in the past.. But I have committed to doing that this year. Last month's was a promise of God's protection. This month's is much more of a challenge for us. But I do recite the month's verse at night and in the morning. I say this not to make myself sound saintly, but as an encouragement that if I can do it with my terrible memory, each and every one of you can do it. Meditate, memorize or read God's word daily to send those roots deep. It says daily, that is the root of the promise. If your only time in God's word is Sunday morning, you will not be able to have the kind of faith that will secure you on Wednesday or Thursday when you face drought. Daily feeding at the water of life, God's word, means you will be securely rooted when the wind blows and the rains cease to nourish.
A couple of connections from this past week come to mind here. One, our Presbytery puts out a weekly newsletter and our acting Executive Presbyter Kathy Terpstra shares a short message. This week she included this quote from Beth Moore whom I believe the PW used as a bible study source before. Moore encourages to learn our scriptures, "I can't recommend scripture memorizing enough. We're going to meditate. Our mind naturally thinks habitually. We ruminate on ourselves, our offenses, fears, cravings, jealousies and how everybody's let us down. But what if we formed a habit of thinking on the Lord's words."
Secondly, at our leadership training yesterday, we used Joan Gray's book on leadership and this is what she wrote about Presbyterian's view on God's word, “The reformed tradition maintains that scripture is authoritative in matters relating to our knowledge of God, salvation, and faithful living. Responsible leaders should be engaged in regular and serious study of scripture to grow in faith and wisdom.”1
One more quick use of these tree metaphors.. Consider roots of the giant Redwood trees in California. The roots intertwine with other trees underground to help them stand in the windstorms they face. It is a picture of our connectedness in the church. Faith shared is faith strengthened. We share common roots in faith. Our journeys are all unique but through fellowship we can support one another in drought or flood or windstorms. We don't face life's challenges all alone, we have the presence of Jesus and the fellowship of the church to support us.
Today's readings are all about being blessed. Luke shared the beatitudes, "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.” The Psalmist and Jeremiah tell us we are blessed by God's word and by trusting the Lord. Jesus Christ is the one in whom we put our trust. You are here in response to the call of the source of life-- Jesus Christ. Our faith rooted in Jesus brings life eternal and supports us in the whelming flood and the drought. The tree planted in faith by the waters of life grows strong. And our faith, planted by the river of life grows and strengthens our relationship with the Lord and with those around us. Walk daily with the Lord, meditate on and learn God's word and you will grow deep, strong roots of faith. Amen. Hymn: My Hope is Built on Nothing Less 379 PH
1Joan Gray, Spiritual Leadership for Church Officers pg 43
We start with Jeremiah. Jeremiah preached in a time when Israel was threatened by the military powerhouse Babylon. Their leaders thought that if they could form an alliance with Egypt to fight off the Babylonians, they'd be safe. Jeremiah brought God's word to the people before the exile urging them to avoid foreign entanglement with the Egyptians. But the leaders didn't listen and this unwise alliance caused the Babylonians to increase their aggression and this led to the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple as well the deportation and exile of the Israelites that would last from 597 to 547 BC. The prophet Jeremiah was one of those exiled. He continued to preach during the exile urging them to look to God for their comfort and hope.
In many ways, this exile sharpened and strengthened the faith of the Jewish faithful. But as is the way of we humans, many understood this exile as a hopeless situation beyond God's control. Jeremiah brought the focus from defeats in battle and worldly troubles to the matter of trust. “The Lord proclaims: Cursed are those who trust in mere humans, who depend on human strength and turn their hearts from the Lord.” Those leaders who put their trust in an alliance that left out their God, well, Jeremiah calls them cursed. Strong words, but remember that despite having kings, Israel was basically a theocracy, a government answerable to God. And what contrasting metaphor does Jeremiah use for those faith-less people? “They will be like a desert shrub that doesn’t know when relief comes. They will live in the parched places of the wilderness, in a barren land where no one survives.” Think of a tumbling tumbleweed.
The psalmist also contrasts that tree of the faithful trusting ones to those without faith, “Sinful people are not like that at all. They are like straw that the wind blows away.” (NIRV) Straw or chaff blowing in the wind is his picture of the faithless. No roots, no stability, no longer connected to their source of life. The apostle Paul used a similar illustration in Ephesians. “The goal is that we would no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching.” (Ephesians 4:14) If we don't have good roots of faith in Christ, if we aren't planted by streams of living water, we can be blown about by questionable teachings and theories and lose our connection to Jesus.
But I don't want us to concentrate on a rootless faith, rather on how we become, like both passages commend, trees planted by the water. Jeremiah tells us that that tree's connection to the source of life continues even when drought comes. Even when the world is facing heat and drought, the tree may thrive. “It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit.” That connection to the source of life, the water, means that when the conditions are harsh, when the rains don't come, the tree does not weaken or die.
In our lives as a tree, we know that times of “drought” will come. The death of a loved one, a bad diagnosis at the doctor's, loss of a job, a painful breakup of a personal relationship, troubles at work, loneliness, pain... these are things that can challenge the strength of our faith. Those times of drought are why where we plant our faith is so important. Is your faith planted in health and wealth and safety and the idea that you are in control of you fate? We can put down roots in wrong places and be drawn away from God; cults, horoscopes, 401k's, spiritualists are places roots can be placed that do not stand strong in the times of trouble. If you are rooted in the wrong things, when those things fall away, when the drought comes, your faith is lost. But if your faith is in the Lord, the one who is the water of life, then you can survive and even thrive in the dry times. But the place that we plant our faith must be in the Lord. And we don't start putting down roots when the trials come, but now, in the day to day life you are living. I just heard the words of a song yesterday that said, “Don't wait until you need God...”
Let's look again at how Jeremiah and the Psalmist explain how to be rooted in the Lord. “Blessed are those who trust in the LORD”, says Jeremiah. And “Blessed are those who delight in the law of the LORD” says the psalmist. Let's look at them separately. Trusting in the Lord is a commitment we make as a Christian. It is grabbing hold of promises in scripture and making them our own. It is being in relationship and sharing our thoughts and our questions and our decisions with the Lord. As Christ enters your life, hear Paul's prayer for believers from Ephesians, “I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, 17 and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love.” Rooted and grounded in love... sounds like Paul saw the idea of roots reaching the source of life as a good metaphor for our faith a well. It comes when we place our trust in the Lord. Faith that our ultimate good is assured. Our faith, rooted in trusting Christ through the Holy Spirit strengthens us for those times of drought.
And the psalmist encourages us to delight in the law of the Lord. We went through this Tuesday in bible study, the law has a couple different meanings in scripture. It can mean the Law, capital L, the Law given to Moses on Mount Sinai which was to be fulfilled in its entirety for salvation. The Law that none can keep fully, but that Jesus fulfilled. But here the meaning of law is God's word, the scriptures. And I didn't read the second part of what the blessed one does, “and on his law they meditate day and night.” It begs the question, how much time are we spending reading or meditating on God's word? Amy's verse of the month, while long, certainly fits in with this thought. “Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; bind them on your foreheads. 19 Teach them to your children, talking about them when you lie down and when you get up.” Day and night, lying down and rising up-fFix God's word in your hearts and minds. Memorizing scripture seems to be a thing of the past. We've put more emphasis on God's word by having a verse of the month. And I admit that I haven't worked at memorizing them in the past.. But I have committed to doing that this year. Last month's was a promise of God's protection. This month's is much more of a challenge for us. But I do recite the month's verse at night and in the morning. I say this not to make myself sound saintly, but as an encouragement that if I can do it with my terrible memory, each and every one of you can do it. Meditate, memorize or read God's word daily to send those roots deep. It says daily, that is the root of the promise. If your only time in God's word is Sunday morning, you will not be able to have the kind of faith that will secure you on Wednesday or Thursday when you face drought. Daily feeding at the water of life, God's word, means you will be securely rooted when the wind blows and the rains cease to nourish.
A couple of connections from this past week come to mind here. One, our Presbytery puts out a weekly newsletter and our acting Executive Presbyter Kathy Terpstra shares a short message. This week she included this quote from Beth Moore whom I believe the PW used as a bible study source before. Moore encourages to learn our scriptures, "I can't recommend scripture memorizing enough. We're going to meditate. Our mind naturally thinks habitually. We ruminate on ourselves, our offenses, fears, cravings, jealousies and how everybody's let us down. But what if we formed a habit of thinking on the Lord's words."
Secondly, at our leadership training yesterday, we used Joan Gray's book on leadership and this is what she wrote about Presbyterian's view on God's word, “The reformed tradition maintains that scripture is authoritative in matters relating to our knowledge of God, salvation, and faithful living. Responsible leaders should be engaged in regular and serious study of scripture to grow in faith and wisdom.”1
One more quick use of these tree metaphors.. Consider roots of the giant Redwood trees in California. The roots intertwine with other trees underground to help them stand in the windstorms they face. It is a picture of our connectedness in the church. Faith shared is faith strengthened. We share common roots in faith. Our journeys are all unique but through fellowship we can support one another in drought or flood or windstorms. We don't face life's challenges all alone, we have the presence of Jesus and the fellowship of the church to support us.
Today's readings are all about being blessed. Luke shared the beatitudes, "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.” The Psalmist and Jeremiah tell us we are blessed by God's word and by trusting the Lord. Jesus Christ is the one in whom we put our trust. You are here in response to the call of the source of life-- Jesus Christ. Our faith rooted in Jesus brings life eternal and supports us in the whelming flood and the drought. The tree planted in faith by the waters of life grows strong. And our faith, planted by the river of life grows and strengthens our relationship with the Lord and with those around us. Walk daily with the Lord, meditate on and learn God's word and you will grow deep, strong roots of faith. Amen. Hymn: My Hope is Built on Nothing Less 379 PH
1Joan Gray, Spiritual Leadership for Church Officers pg 43