Speaker 1: See, even in this moment, we can build homes. And even in this moment, we can plant gardens. And perhaps it's tough to get married right now, but even in this moment, we can fall in love all over again. Welcome to the Commons cast. We're glad to have you here.
We hope you find something meaningful in our teaching this week. Head to commons.church for more information. Alright. Welcome to Church Online. Wherever you are joining us from, we are glad that you're here.
Especially during this time, we really don't take it for granted that you make time to worship with us. So thank you for that. We continue to be blown away by the support of the community, both your encouragement and your donations. We really do feel blessed to be part of a community like Commons. So thank you for all of the ways that you continue to participate with us.
We also want to say welcome to all of the people we have met online during this season. We continue to hear all kinds of stories of people all over who are connecting with our teaching and using that in their homes and families and groups. And if that's you, well, then welcome. We would love to hear from you and about how we can serve you during this time and eventually beyond that once we're back to our in person gatherings. You can find us commonschurch on Facebook and Instagram and Twitter and pretty much everywhere else, but please reach out.
You can send us an email at infocommons. Church. We're always happy to hear about how the Jesus story is breaking into all of our lives in unexpected ways. And as I said, it has now been five weeks since our in person gatherings were suspended, and it was sort of a mad rush to figure out how we could do Easter well together online. But during the after party this week, Bobby and I talked a little bit about that dynamic.
I mean, Easter is the center of this Christian calendar. It's our largest and most beautiful feast. How do you take all of that excitement and celebration and put it on YouTube? I think one of the things that I found really grounding this past week was the idea of creative restrictions. Now I'm not much of a musician, but I do play a little guitar.
And obviously, I have passed all of that skill on to my son. And there's a special goose and a regular goose. There's all kinds of goose. I may need to tune that ukulele again. But skill or lack thereof aside, one of the things that I do know is that one of the first things you learn when playing guitar is the major and minor pentatonic scales.
These are scales made up of just five notes. In one sense, that sounds pretty boring if that's all you've got to play with, but the beauty of these pentatonic scales is that those five notes basically work anytime. If you stick with them, you just can't hit a wrong note. And so the pentatonic scales are great as you're learning to improvise and create and express yourself because they keep you safe. And so for us, going back and asking what are the basic notes of Easter that we need to hit?
What are the tones that we have to uncover to tell this story well? What is the melody of Good Friday? The melody of Easter? This is actually something that was really comforting as an exercise. A note of joy, a note of family, a note of gift and worship and doubt, a note to remind us that resurrection finds us.
And rather than trying to live up to maybe some of the things that we had originally planned for the season, but instead using those restrictions to remind us of that core melody, I think in some ways this connected me even more deeply to the story. And obviously, talking about putting together an Easter service online, maybe that's not all that meaningful for you. But coming out of this, I'm also trying to fold this into our rhythms at home. What are those basic notes that we need to hit every day in our home? A little exercise, a moment of prayer, a meaningful conversation with a friend, a chance to laugh perhaps.
Rather than stressing over all the things I could or should do, I'm trying to lean on the basics right now that I can keep the melody going even if it is a little more simple than normal. And maybe that resonates with you in this season. Now, that said, we are starting to settle into our new rhythms here at Commons as well. And Of course, we don't know exactly when we'll be able to be back together, but it does look like this will be the norm for a while. And so we have been making adjustments all through this period.
We've been learning a lot as we go, but now as we transition from Easter to Eastertide, we're also going to settle into more of a digital format for Sundays, especially through Easter. We really wanted to try to create a moment of normalcy for everyone. We're still going to do that every Sunday. We'll be here for worship and teaching and connection. We're also going to adjust some of the ways that we're putting our services together to hopefully tailor it for a bit more of a native digital online experience.
And so today, we start a new series, but we're also adopting a new format for our teaching. And since you are comfortable seated on your couch right now, I figured I might as well do the same. Although, if you're wondering, I did put on pants for this. But let's pray, and then we'll jump into our new conversation together. God of all grace, who comes to us wherever we are, who finds us in the midst of our moments where we feel lost and brings resurrection to us.
May you encounter each of us this day. May you speak to us the words that we need to hear, perhaps not the words that come easily or quickly, but the words that speak comfort and courage, encouragement and peace to the deepest parts of our soul. As that happens, we become reshaped and re encouraged in your spirit. May we then become those same words of encouragement, that same presence however it expresses itself to all those near us today. May our mouths carry words of peace, words of grace, words of resurrection this week.
In the strong name of the risen Christ, we pray. Amen. Alright. My big loud mouth. And this is a series about all of the things we wish we didn't say.
Those moments of honesty we wish we could get back or perhaps those words that just slipped past our tongue. Today we are going to talk about shortcuts and reasons and meaning. But let's start with the first thing that our big loudmouths sometimes say because this week we want to talk about everything happening for a reason. And maybe you have been the one saying that to someone. Maybe you have been the one receiving these words from someone.
But inevitably, there are going to be two types of people listening today. People who understand how hard these words can be to hear and people who don't understand how hard these words can be to hear yet. Because eventually, there's some moment for all of us when these words shift from niceties to knives. The really difficult thing is that words like these are almost never uttered with anything but pure intent. No one says this to be mean.
No one says this to be hurtful. No one says this with anything but love behind it. The problem is that sometimes these words betray the complexity that sits below the surface of our lives. And so this is what we want to talk about today: the ways that shortcuts often make it harder for us to heal. Now, I've been a pastor for about twenty years now, and you can put your comments down below about how young I look in the chat.
I'll save them for when I don't look so young, but part of my job is that I both dread and consider one of the great privileges of my life this opportunity to journey with people through loss. Sometimes it's a death or it's a funeral. Sometimes it's the loss of a job or relationship. Right now it's all kinds of loss that all of us are just starting to consciously recognize. Now, of the delicate balances that I have to walk is this opportunity to bring hope without short circuiting or shaming grief.
It's okay to believe in resurrection. We just celebrated that last week, and I believe that resurrection is all around us all the time. But that doesn't mean death doesn't hurt. Probably most of us have heard the story of Lazarus at some point, the friend of Jesus who dies and who is brought back to life. When Jesus finds out that his friend has died, we read that Jesus wept.
And if Jesus, who knew not only that one day would he be reunited with his friend, but on this very day would in fact be reunited, still broke down and cried, why do we sometimes have this tendency to want to rush each other through our grief? Everything happens for a reason. God has a beautiful plan for this. God is using this to make you stronger. And all of this might be true in the end, but that doesn't mean that it's true yet.
And this is one of the things that we need to understand if we're going to care for each other well, particularly in a moment like this. None of us yet fully comprehend all of the implications and the impacts of this pandemic and this social distancing we need to follow right now. That truth is as much about timing as it is about content. And that even when the right words appear in the wrong moment, they can still hurt. So I want to look at two examples today and talk about two things today.
First, the problem with looking for a reason. And second, the power in creating our own meaning. And for that, we're gonna look at Luke 13 in the New Testament and then Jeremiah 29 in the Hebrew scriptures. Let's go first to Luke 13. Because there Jesus has been teaching and we get this strange interjection.
It says in Luke 13 verse one, Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifice. This is a very strange sentence. Part of what we have to understand here is that the Greek starts with the phrase at that very time. And what this is, is a temporal marker. So it shouldn't be translated literally.
What this means is that someone interrupted Jesus. And these people interrupt to ask a very specific question about why bad things happen to good people. The reference here is to a group of Galilean pilgrims who had come to the city to offer sacrifices and who had been cut down by the Roman forces in their act of worship. This particular incident is unattested outside of Luke, but it's not inconsistent with other incidents we do know about. The way that Jesus answers this interruption grounds the question in a very real conversation about tragedy.
So Jesus takes this interruption in stride and he replies, Do you think that those Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you no. But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or how about those 18 who died when the Tower Of Siloam fell on them? Do you think that they were more guilty than all others living in Jerusalem?
I tell you no. Now, what's really interesting here is that Jesus immediately cuts the heart of this unstated question. See, Luke doesn't tell us exactly what the question was or even how the situation was brought up, but Jesus knows precisely what's going on here. People want to know why. Why did this happen?
Who was at fault? What was God's plan in this tragedy? And yet, Jesus immediately flips the question away from assigning blame and towards introspection. In fact, the way that Jesus turns the question from don't worry about them to worry about yourself seems to imply that the very desire to assign blame in this situation is sometimes what we need to repent of. Look at the way he builds this.
He answers their example and then he volunteers another. This time, as a tragedy where a tower near the Southeast Corner of Jerusalem collapsed, killing 18 people. Part of what he's doing here is is disarming this tendency to set the more rural Galileans like himself against the Judeans in Jerusalem. And so by taking the example that's given to him, perhaps in an attempt to get him to assign blame to his own people, and pairing that with another example where people like those who ask the first question faced tragedy. What Jesus does is he shifts the conversation for looking for a reason or assigning blame to preparing our hearts to respond to each other with grace and peace.
And understand here that the question is at least a little bit antagonistic. They seem to want to have someone to blame for this tragedy. And often when we are speaking to each other, that's not really our intent. We're not consciously trying to assign blame to each other. We're trying to make sense of things.
But often when we hear God has a reason for everything, what we actually take away from that conversation is, maybe I deserved this. And this is precisely what Jesus tries to move us away from here. Look, there may come a time when it's appropriate, even healthy, to look back and evaluate. I mean, to consider those choices that we've made that contributed to a difficult moment we found ourselves in. But in the midst of pain, in the midst of suffering, when you are offered the chance to come alongside someone who hurts, the only response that ever makes sense is to repent of our need to assign blame, and to be present to that person in front of us right now.
Because what Jesus knows here is that before we can begin to answer question of why, we need first to tempt to answer the question of how can I help? And often what I find is that I want desperately to flip that around. Look, if I'm being honest, I think the reason that I work to answer the wrong question first is because that answer will then let me convince myself that I won't find myself there. Except, of course, that is precisely what Jesus pushes back against. In fact, Jesus introduces another example into the conversation specifically to help his audience place themselves in these shoes.
Because our goal is not to comfort ourselves, it is to join with those who hurt in their hurt so that we can be a part of their healing. Kate Bowler writes about her illness in her book, Everything Happens for Reason and Other Lies I Have Loved. She says that in a spiritual world in which healing is a divine right, illness, misfortune, pain, these must be a symptom of unconfessed sin. A symptom of a lack of forgiveness, some unfaithfulness, unexamined attitudes, maybe careless words. A suffering believer then is a puzzle to be solved.
What caused this to happen? And so as I walked around with slings or braces on my arms, I heard the whispers, I caught the looks, some sympathetic, some disapproving, some gravely concerned. And I knew that I was loved, I knew I was prayed for, but when, week after week, I returned with the same droop in my arms and weakness in my hands, I thought I saw their lips close, their arms cross, and I felt like faithlessness personified. See, I understand our pursuit for reasons. And the truth is, I want them just as badly as you do, but when our desire for a reason robs us of our compassion, we have lost sight of what it is that matters matters most.
This is why I want to turn to Jeremiah before we close today. Because Jeremiah 29 is one of the most famous verses that often gets used when things go wrong. And it's one that can come across as a little shallow at times if it's not used with care, but it's also one that carries with it an incredible depth of meaning just below the surface. In the book of Jeremiah, the prophet writes, For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you. Not to harm you, plans to give you hope and the future.
And please understand that if this verse has been something meaningful to you, I'm not attacking that at all. In fact, I want to talk specifically today about just how beautiful this section really is. But when this verse becomes unmoored from its context, just as when our attempt to diffuse someone else's pain becomes disconnected from our willingness to experience their pain with them, what is meant to be good and holy can actually cause a lot of damage. So, let's talk about the context here in Jeremiah and what it can teach us about difficult times. See, Jeremiah is this really interesting book, and not just because of the name.
Jeremiah is actually the longest book in the Bible, at least by word count. Honestly. But this is a book about exile. During Lent, we looked at the story of Jonah. That's all about Israel's relationship with Assyria.
Assyria was the empire that conquered the Northern Kingdom Of Israel in the seventh century BCE, year 07/21 to be precise. Well, about a century after that, Babylon succeeded in conquering Assyria. In 06/12, they marched into Nineveh. They took the city and took over the next few years, eventually the entire empire, including Israel. Once they were rolling, didn't stop.
And so once Babylon had moved to Assyria and Israel, they just kept going down into the Southern kingdom of Judah, and eventually Jerusalem fell to Babylon in May. Jeremiah starts in Judah before the Babylonian empire arrives, and it ends after Babylon has conquered the kingdom and exiled the Jewish people away from their homelands. So it's a tumultuous time, to say the least. In fact, a better way to say it is that this is one of the most difficult, painful, violent moments in the history of the Hebrew people. And it's in this setting, at the end of the book, when we read the words, For I know the plans I have for you.
And here's where context really matters. Because while we often hear Jeremiah 2nine 11 quoted, we rarely hear Jeremiah 2nine 10, which comes to us at the end of a section that reads, this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says, do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have. They are prophesying lies to you in my name. I have not sent them, declares the Lord.
This is what the Lord says. When seventy years are completed for Babylon, then I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place, for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. And essentially, what's happening here is that Jeremiah is not the only prophet in town. Babylon has come sweeping in with her army and dragged off the people into exile, but then comes along some prophets who claim to speak for God saying, Ah, don't worry about this. Like, it will all be better soon.
God has a plan. We'll all be back in our homes before the lure is out. Look, everything happens for a reason, they say, so cheer up and trust God. And God says, Nonsense. See, when Jeremiah speaks God's words and tells the people that God has a plan, what he's actually saying is that there will be a time for joy again, so count on it.
Understand that first, there will be years of tears. And sometimes, what we have to understand here is that we don't give enough voice to that. And if we don't give space for that, if we don't allow ourselves to talk about that, if we don't allow ourselves to talk about what is really happening in us and around us right now, if we don't make peace with what is really real, And the concern is that we may not actually make it to the other side at all. And this is actually part of why a passage like Jeremiah 29 is so important for us. Because often our tendency is if we want to say, Look, everything happens for a reason, God has a plan, and all things work together for the good of those who love God.
That's all true, but sometimes we want to say it before we have made the effort to honestly face the reality of what is happening around us right now. And this is where Jeremiah 29 gets really important. Because all of the hope that we find at the end of the passage It's not just some wishful thinking, it is actually the result of a concerted effort to embrace the moment. Back at the start of the passage in verse four, God speaks through the prophet Jeremiah and says, This is what the Lord says to all those I carried into exile: Build houses and settle down. Plant gardens and eat what they produce.
Marry and have sons and daughters. Find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage. Increase in number, do not decrease. Seek the prosperity and the peace of this city in which you are in exile. Pray for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.
In other words, there is good all around you, even here if you are willing to find it. So do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. There is no point in pretending things are not what they are. Because this is what the Lord says: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, then I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back. For I know the plans I have for you: Plans to prosper you, not to harm you, plans to give you hope in the future.
In other words, you are where you are, but you are not forgotten. You are not abandoned. I know things are hard, but I am and I will be with you in it. See, Jeremiah 29 is not about running away from the moment. It is actually about embracing everything, even this moment and what it offers to us.
And this is the real lesson for those like me with big loud mouths that tend to want to try to fix everything with our words. And for those who find ourselves in circumstances we would not have chosen for ourselves. Often, our salvation is found not in the reasons we assign to our problems, but in the meaning we begin to create for ourselves with God in the midst of the moment. See, right now, we find ourselves, all of us, in the midst of this pandemic. We are locked away in our homes, we are away from many of the relationships that make us most human.
And there are those around us that want to tell us, Oh, don't worry, it will all be okay, so stop being so sad. And then there are those that want to tell us there is a reason for this, God is against us right now, and the right kind of prayers can fix everything. But the fact is, neither of those capture the truth of this moment. Because what matters now, as always, is the meaning that we create in this moment alongside God. See, even in this moment, we can build homes.
And even in this moment, we can plant gardens. And perhaps it's tough to get married right now, but even in this moment, we can fall in love all over again. And we can learn to trust that there is good that surrounds us right now, because even in this we can know that we are not forgotten. And it may not be that there is a reason for everything that happens to you. But I promise you, there is meaning waiting to be made in everything that you encounter.
And this is what both Jesus and Jeremiah call us back to, to do away with our easy explanations for what happens to us and around us, to close our big loud mouths at times, and instead, to dive into the difficult but rewarding, the life giving process of working to create meaning within whatever moment we find ourselves in right now. May the words of your big loud mouth bring comfort, but also courage to those you encounter. May your spirit come alive to opportunities to create meaning and memories even in this moment right now. May God lead you and keep you, all so that you may know that God is near you even today. Let's pray.
God, for all the ways that we sometimes want to skip straight to the end. To simply believe that everything happens for even and everything will be okay, that we want to give ourselves platitudes to hold onto, so that we don't have to face the reality of the difficult moment that we are in. Would you instead speak courage to us right now, to remind us that there is good to be discovered all around us? That when we are willing to sit with each other, to dive into each other's stories, to be present even in the moments that scare us with each other. We can begin that long, hard, but rewarding process of creating meaning for ourselves, of looking for you, of finding you, of recognizing your grace and your peace, your love that is springing up all around us all the time.
God, may quick, easy answers never be enough for us, but with the long, rewarding journey of looking for you be everything that we need. In those moments when someone near us suffers, we are not sure what to say and the first thing that jumps into our mind is something easy. May we instead join them in their suffering. May we draw near to them. May we experience it with them, knowing that this is what you do for us.
Guide us and keep us. God, draw us back to yourself and to each other. In the strong name of the risen Christ, pray. Amen.