I Have Sent You All My Servants And Prophets

I recently came across a little anecdotal story. It said, “I was bouncing an incredibly dull knife against my leg. And when I say dull, I mean that it struggled to cut a banana. A friend happened to notice what I was doing and said, “That’s dangerous.”

I shrugged and said, “It’s too dull to even cut though my apron…See.” At which time I gave the knife an even higher bounce and ended up stabbing myself in the leg (thankfully not too seriously). It turns out that a paring knife without an edge can still have a point.  Much like my friend did!”

I can imagine that if I were the friend – I might be tempted to say, “I told you so…”

Have you ever had that said to you by someone? Have you even said it to someone?

I know that sometimes it is so tempting to want to say that – especially when we clearly know that something bad is going to come of the actions of another who is not heeding good advice.

Today’s readings take us in this direction.

In the first reading from Jeremiah 7, we hear God say, “listen to my voice; walk in the ways I command…” But, of course, the people didn’t, and God says, “but they obeyed not, nor did they pay heed…I have sent you untiringly all my servants and prophets…”

So many of the books of the Hebrew scriptures were written during the Babylonian captivity – when the people of Israel were conquered and doing a lot of introspection. This is one of those passages. The people are collectively wondering, “Where did we go wrong?”

And I can imagine God saying, “I tried to tell you, but you wouldn’t listen…”

One of my favorite poets, David Whyte, has said that humans should not be called homo sapiens (which means “wise person”) so much as homo forgettens because we always seem to forget the important lessons and ignore the warnings. This happens in our personal lives and it happens to us as a collective. We often hear quoted the line from George Santyana’s 1905 book, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.“

If we were all together right now, I’d ask us to create a collective list of the ways that we (in the United States) have moved away from the voice and commands of God. This would not be some kind of dogmatic list, but rather a list of the good advice that we just didn’t take from our scriptural tradition. I’d also ask us all to create a collective list of the prophetic voices and messengers that we did not heed. I wonder what you’d say for either list.

I imagine that it would be quite a long list for each.

I also wonder, “And what does return to listening to the voice of God look like these days? How do we repair the damage that has been done (and the damage that we are currently doing)?”

In the gospel from Luke 11, Jesus is driving out a demon. Some said that he was doing it by the power of the devil, and Jesus gets annoyed with them and says, “How can the devil drive out the devil?” He goes on to say, “But if it is by the finger of God that I drive out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you. When a strong man fully armed guards his palace, his possessions are safe. But when one stronger than he attacks and overcomes him, he takes away the armor on which he relied and distributes the spoils.”

Jesus’ frustration with the people of his day was that there was something happening right in front of them that should have been a clear sign for them. But they were blocked from seeing it. Blocked by their certainty. Blocked by their expectations. Blocked by their past.

Furthermore, those in power were blocked by their own hubris (an ancient word related to excessive pride and thinking that we know more than the gods) and fear of losing their power and privilege. In some ways they knew exactly who Jesus was and they knew that he was the “stronger man” who was coming to balance the scales of justice and equity. And so they resisted him.

So many in the halls of power these days seem blocked by their own hubris and appear enamored with raw power. They aspire to be the strong man who can do as they will. Our current secretary of defense, for example, speaks about strength as being the one who can deliver “death and destruction, all day long,” and the ability to punch your adversary “while they are down, which is exactly how it should be” is celebrated as power. He made those comments just days ago as he spoke about the bombing of Iran.

How is it that we do not see the folly of our ways? We have been warned time and time again about the dangers of war, the perils of excessive greed, the costs of environmental destruction and the social corrosion of injustice.

Jesus knows that he is the “stronger one” but he does not subscribe to the power of domination. He will take a different route. Jesus will be the strong man who calls ordinary people to join him in listening to the prophets and challenging the social order through non-violence. He will not be one who condescendingly says, “I told you so,” to people but instead offers them another chance at redemption through forgiveness and love. His power will come from the vision of the Beloved Community that makes longer tables to invite people in instead of building bigger walls to keep people out. His power will come from unleashing a spirit of generosity and justice where all will have enough.

In my reading of the scriptures, God takes no delight in people’s suffering. In fact, God cries right alongside us. Moreover, God is not waiting for us to screw up again to say, “I told you so,” so much as I think God laments that we keep delaying the dream.

The good news today is that the “stronger man” is in our midst and has been for two thousand years – urging his followers to keep exposing the realities of the systems of power and privilege and to keep practicing the alternatives together.

May our continued Lenten disciplines help us do just this.