That's How the Light Gets In - September 1/2013

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in. (Leonard Cohen)

September 1, 2013   Pentecost 15         Jeremiah 2:4-13 and Luke 14:7-14

Isn’t that an amazing piece of art work – it is called Expansion and the sculptor is Paige Bradley.  She was a struggling artist – unable to find commissions, and at the point where she had to decide if she was going to remain an artist or seek some other employment. These are her words: 

If I wanted to stay in the fine art field, I knew I had to join my contemporaries and make ‘contemporary’ art. I knew that it was time to let go of all the finely tuned skills I had acquired over the years, and just trust in the process of making art. The art world was telling me I had to break down my foundation, let my walls crumble, expose myself completely, and from there I will find the true essence of what I needed to say.

So, literally, I took a perfectly good (wax) sculpture– a piece I had sculpted with precision over several months– an image of a woman meditating in the lotus position, and just dropped it on the floor. I destroyed what I made. I was letting it all go. It was scary. It shattered into so many pieces. My first feeling was, “what have I done?!” 

What she had done was discover something about herself and her art – and as she rebuilt her new piece of art from the broken remnants of her sculpture – she found as we can see before us beauty in brokenness, and she discovered that the art work was more real and compelling because of it fracture and cracks. She discovered as Leonard Cohan sings in his song Anthem:

There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.

Jeremiah speaks today about the cracks –the image he uses in his prophecy is cracked cisterns – cisterns are vessels that catch rain water and are used to store water until you need it.  In a place like Israel where the climate is hot and dry with very little rain fall – cisterns are vital for survival – so the image of cracked cisterns tells us that the distance that the people of Israel have from God is life threatening.

 Jeremiah writes:   – woe to the people. Woe to Israel – what happened says God – where have you gone – why have you deserted me.  Have you forgotten me says God – do you not remember how I was with your  - your ancestors – how we walked to the promise land – how you forges a sea on dry land, how I was there in clouds of fire and pillars of water – guiding you – protecting you – have you forgotten me my people.  You who are worshiping other gods – gods that do not even exist – why have you forgotten me?  Why do you not call on me anymore?  Where have you gone?

Poor Jeremiah – what a job he has to do – to go and tell people everything they do not want to hear.  Your living wrong people – you missed the point people – you deserted God people – you need to change people – over and over – images and metaphors and illustrations on how the people of God have stopped living the way they were meant to live and how the culture of the surrounding people was influencing them and causing them to separate in their relationship with God.   “Be appalled, O heavens, at this, be shocked, be utterly desolate, says the LORD,

for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that can hold no water.”

There is a crack, a crack in everything (that’s how the water flows out) – but also
That's how the light gets in.

Cause you know – In spite of the lament, in spite of the people of Israel deserting God – in spite of all of that – the most beautiful covenant of all that God makes with Gods people, of all the covenants is the one that Jeremiah proclaims - God makes a new covenant with the broken cistern people – God says in chapter 31:  “I will write my law on their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people. These broken vessels, these broken people who have forgotten God, who worship other gods – although they may have forsaken me says God – I have not now nor will ever forsake them – they are my people and I will be where they will never lose me – I will be written on their hearts.  And the light gets in – and when the people of Jeremiah’s time get sent into exile, God goes with them, and when they return, God goes with them, and when they rebuild God is with them – no matter how cracked these cistern people became – God stuck with them, written on their hearts – and the light shone through.

There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.

What the people of Jeremiahs’ times had discovered is that when you get caught up in the culture – when those around you place value on worldly things instead of Godly things – it is easy to start to believe that the cultures voice is the voice of God.  And when that happens, you loose your sense of true identity – you forget who you are and to whom you belong.  That’s why Jesus came – he came to remind the people about God – who was not the culture, God - who did not care about the rules and norms of society – in fact more often than not the rules and norms of society separated people from God – that is what Jesus came to say.  Today’s’ story is a good example

Jesus has been invited to the home of a Pharisee – a learned man in God and who has studied scripture extensively.  And it is the Sabbath – and if you remember from last week when Jesus healed he bent over woman on the Sabbath and how because he healed on the Sabbath the people who were upset because they felt that Jesus had not respected God’s law about keeping the Sabbath holy – so now on this particular Sabbath they are keeping a close eye on Jesus and what he might do.  But what he does this Sabbath day is to talk about what is going on in the moment and draw attention to how what is happening is separating the people from God.  He says:  God is not impressed with the seating arrangement – that the practice to sit guest at a dinner part based on their social status  - this is not the way of God and instead God wishes for a table that seats everyone regardless of status or power.  The table is open and welcome for the poor, the cripple the lame and the blind all people without power and influence in Jesus time - Jesus is speaking against the culture.

David Lose writes about the culture of Jesus time and he says:  “You see, in today’s gospel reading Jesus takes on the social code of his day. He lives in an honor-and-shame culture where status is pretty much everything, and one of the key places where status was displayed is mealtime. Guests of honor were seated close to the host, while those of lesser importance sat further away. And those who weren’t invited at all correspondingly mattered not at all. Status was important … and it could be fragile. To be invited to a better position at the table of an important host wasn’t simply an honor, it could also have tangible benefits to your business pursuits as well. Similarly, to be invited to a lower position could affect all dimensions of your life....

In an honor-and-shame culture, you see, counting is everything. Status, favors, debts, honor -- it’s all about counting and reckoning and standing and the rest. Inviting persons to a banquet -- whether family, friends, or business associates -- put them in your debt and made a claim on them to return this favor to you. It’s an “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine” kind of world and meals are a great way to scratch someone’s back. Which is why Jesus’ “advice” probably sounded so ludicrous. Why on earth waste an opportunity for social commerce by inviting those who have nothing to give you, who can do nothing for you, and who typically mean nothing to you? It’s crazy....

 There is no other defense for such counsel, really, except that this is the way God wants us to treat each other. Indeed, it’s the way God treats us -- creating us, giving us what we need to flourish, caring for us, forgiving us, redeeming us -- even though we can do nothing meaningful for God in return. In fact, about the only thing we can do in return, when you think about it, is to share what we’ve been given with others. This is the kingdom life, and it stands in stark contrast to the honor-and-shame world in which we live.”

And often in our lives we come to these places where choices made are not kind or considerate or even the best we can do – sometimes we screw up – we take the easy choice even when it may hurt someone.  We make choices and we crack, and we fission and sometimes we even break.  We loose sight of God because we have our eyes focused on the world around us which tells us that might is right – and rich is better and the big house and the fast car and the beautiful clothes and the manicured hands are important – and we can judge those who lives are dirtier, messier, than ours.  And snap – another crack – another fissure in our figure.  

There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.

And so here we are – in this time and place recognizing that we to are flawed and failed and the we have been broken and put back together again and maybe our cracks are visible – and maybe they are not – but whether or not the world can see them we are all cracked none the less.  But that’s what makes us beautiful, that’s what makes us real, that’s the place the God gets in and that the place that God shines out – that’s the place in the midst of the cracked cisterns that we are – in the fractured containers that are our lives - that the God’s words get written on our hearts.   You are my people – I am your God, written on your hearts.  And the light gets in – and wherever we are and wherever we go there is God and the light gets in, – no matter how cracked us cistern people became – God sticks with us, written on our hearts – and the light shines through.   Thanks be to God.