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Jeremiah 18:18-19:1
Psalm 79:1-9
I Timothy 2:1-7
Luke 16:1-13
Authentic spirituality addresses the totality of life. Today’s scriptures weave together intercession and lament, personal and social transformation, and parable and spiritual counsel.
The passage from Jeremiah presents a moving picture of grief and lamentation. The nation is ravaged and hope is lost. “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” Grief is expressed in multiple voices – in the lament of the prophet, the disappointment of the people, and in the pain of God.
Grief and lamentation point to the recognition of what we have lost through our foolish decisions and misplaced priorities. Authentic grief is an expression of love and an affirmation of beauty. Prophetic grief inspires an awareness of alternative realities that will never be realized as a result of the nation’s refusal to follow God’s aims.
Jeremiah mourns the lost promise of his nation. Decisions have consequences. As Whitehead notes, the root meaning of the word “decision” is to “cut off” possibilities. By our decisions, we open the door to divine abundance or condemn ourselves to a world circumscribed by the interests of the individual or her or his nation. Instead of divine companionship, we experience a famine of hearing the word of God. (Amos 8:11-12)
Jeremiah mourns the death of his nation. He recognizes that idolatry and injustice have jeopardized the nation’s very existence. Today, many Americans mourn the loss of our country’s moral purpose. Following the terrorist attacks on September 11th, the United States was embraced by the world. World leaders proclaimed, “we are all Americans, we are all New Yorkers.” That moment of vulnerability was an opportunity for creative transformation. We were no longer an isolated and feared superpower. Acts of terrorism reminded us of the interconnectedness of all things and called us to join the community of nations as a partner rather than a bully. In the wake of 9/11, our nation was called not only to protect itself from future terrorist attacks and to bring to justice the perpetrators of these heinous acts, the United States was also called to repentance and transformation.
But, at a crucial moment, we lacked the national wisdom and courage to lead the world toward peace and abundance. Instead, we sprung into patriotic and militaristic action rather than soul searching and confession. We looked outward to eradicate our nation’s enemies, but failed to address our own hypocrisy, greed, and violence. The possibility of a world united by a common quest for peace was lost as a result of our nation’s unilateral actions and uncritical patriotism. Jeremiah would have grieved our failure of nerve that led to self-protection rather than global affirmation.
There is much to mourn in life – starvation that leads to premature death, the extinction of species, unrestrained violence in the Middle East, the squandering of natural resources, the persecution of racial, ethnic, political, and sexual minorities. Jeremiah reminds us that God mourns along with us. God feels the pain of lost possibility and the anguish of injustice and destruction. As Whitehead notes, each decision opens the door for a greater or lesser presentation of divine possibility. Surely God feels, along with us, the pain of unborn possibilities and broken hearts. The one who aims at beauty in all things surely mourns the beauties lost by wanton disregard of our human and non-human companions.
I Timothy reminds us of the social and political dimensions of faith. Pray for everyone, not just other Christians. Pray for your national leaders so that you might lead a quiet and peaceable life. Now, I must admit that this is a tall order. I find it exceedingly difficult these days to pray for President Bush. Indeed, the president has been a major component of my recent spiritual discipline practices. My knee jerk antipathy toward the president has challenged me to pray for him even as I actively oppose his national and international policies.
Do our prayers make a difference? Even apart from the recent medical studies on the power of prayer, I believe we can affirm that our prayers transform the universe in often unobservable, but occasionally surprising ways. Non-local in nature, our prayers create a healing field of force around those for whom we pray. While we may not precisely know what is best for our nation in terms of economics and foreign policy, our prayers for the president and other world leaders may be the tipping point toward wise decision-making on their part.
Utterly democratic in nature and bursting beyond religious barriers, prayer connects us to the divine currents of life that flow through all things. The greatest gift of the recent studies of the power of prayer is the invitation to become a self-aware part of an intricate world of relationships in which the smallest prayer, uttered by a child or an atheist, can transform the life of another.
Though our prayers shape our health and health of others, too often we view prayer as an individual matter when, in fact, prayer is profoundly social in nature. Further, if we truly pray for certain social outcomes, we must be willing to transform our social order through our own prayerful actions. As Gary Gunderson of the Carter Center notes, the long-term health a child is determined primarily by her or his parents’ level of education. If we want answers to certain specific prayers, we must be willing to support the social change necessary for universal health care, stable family lives, and superior education for all children. Our current social inequities and insecurity are not accidental, but the result of our choices, attitudes, and values. They may even block the actualization of God’s aims at beauty and wholeness. Even as we pray for a peaceful and orderly society, we are also challenged to become partners in creating “the beloved community” of justice, affirmation, and love for all persons. Authentic prayer weaves our lives into the tapestry of all life.
A bumper sticker reads, “God bless every nation, without exceptions.” Although we can affirm our national loyalty, we must pray for the well-being of all nations as a reflection of God’s reign of shalom. In personal as well as political affairs, we would do well to follow the advice of Abraham Lincoln, “I do not pray that God be on our side, but that we be on God’s side.” Can we pray for our nation’s soldiers and their families and also for the Iraqi soldier and his family who perceive our nation as the ruthless oppressor?
Our prayers can transform the world. On a bench at Kirkridge Retreat and Conference Center, a plaque reads, “picket and pray.” Our prayers shape the future and connect us at the deepest level with those for whom we pray. But, our prayers are incomplete without faithful action.
At first glance and possibly after significant reflection, the gospel reading does not seem to measure up to the ethical mysticism of Jesus of Nazareth. The protagonist of this parable is hardly moral, in the traditional understanding of the term, and certainly not to be imitated. When alerted to his immanent dismissal, he creatively prepares for his future by reducing the debts of those who may be helpful to him in the future. He will do anything to secure his own and, we suspect, his family’s well-being. Despite its moral ambiguity, the parable challenges us to be resourceful in living out our own faith. What great things are lost because we lack both the will and the methodology for transforming the world.
We must ask ourselves: do we have the passion that will motivate us to transform the world? Do we commit ourselves to responding to the challenges of the church with creativity, tenacity, and wisdom?
The gospel concludes by noting the importance of small things in reign of God. “Whoever is faithful in very little is also faithful in much.” Meteorologists note the impact of the butterfly effect. A monarch butterfly, flapping its wings in California, may be a factor in changing the weather from sunlight to storm in New York City. The smallest of actions can transform the world – a few “hanging chads” and the decision of one Supreme Court Justice determine who will be our president and on that narrow thread suspends the future of the planet. This is not just a matter of fair elections and getting out the vote, but choosing to follow God’s aim at beauty in each moment of experience.
There is much to grieve in our families and nation. Yet, action flowing from deep and heart-felt prayer reminds us that there is much to celebrate, honor, and protect. Our prayers, even for our political and national “opponents,” give birth and nurture to alternative and life-supporting possibilities for ourselves and our planet. Even when catastrophe is immanent or our nation has taken the wrong course, there is hope for new life when persons commit themselves to prayerful action and prophetic transformation. Remember, as Walter Wink asserts, “the future belongs to the intercessors” and, I would add, to those whose grief propels them to join contemplation with acts of healing and justice.
Bruce Epperly is Director of the Alliance for the Renewal of Ministry and Continuing Education and Associate Professor of Practical Theology at Lancaster Theological Seminary. He is the author of nine books, including God’s Touch: Faith, Wholeness, and the Healing Miracles of Jesus and two upcoming books, written with Rabbi Lew Solomon, Walking in the Light: Jewish and Christian Perspectives on Spirituality and Health and Seeing Angels in Boulders: Jewish and Christian Perspectives on Death and Grief. He may be reached at bepperly@lancasterseminary.edu.
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