Look back, around, ahead!

When son David was about 10, he walked past me one day as I was reading an article about Reformation and he spied the headline: “Look backward! Move forward!”

With practical, 10 year-old wisdom he said to me, “You know , Dad, there is a major problem with that idea.

Try it , and you will find that if you move forward while looking backward, you will likely trip over something and fall flat.

There is a step left out: 'Look back, look around, move forward.'”

David's common-sense observation is an analysis of our regular human problem as we struggle with the Christian faith and life.

We start off looking in one direction only, without checking both in front and behind us, and thus quite often fall flat in the middle of things.

The error can happen at either end:

we can forget to look back, to see what has happened and what kind of road we have traveled thus far,

or we could forget to look ahead, to see our destination, and what directions in which we need to move in order to arrive there;

or we could forget both ends and live only for the present moment.

Take your pick; any of the three variations will lead to a sour result.

Jeremiah and the other prophets write to forgetful people.

Time and again he reminds them of the past, of the depth of God's love and concern for them, and the things he has done with and for them:

his rescue of them from the burden of slavery in Egypt,

his granting of safe passage through the waters of the sea,

and his gift of the covenant which is yet to be written upon their hearts.

We know that our lives too are build upon God's continuous giving of good gifts to his people across the centuries,

and how those gifts have been gathered, appropriated, and used.

The life of Israel began as a gift of a gracious God, just as our lives begin with the gracious gift of passage through the waters of Baptism into the community of Christ Jesus.

We have several hundred people who have either forgotten that crucial bit of their history, or who think that their lives will continue just fine by ignoring that crucial part of the past.

It is tragic for them, and it is tragic for the present and future of this congregation and community as well.

The prophets also had to remind their forgetful people about the future, nudging them to recall the third potion of the covenant with Abraham:

[1 land, 2 descendants, 3 to be a blessing to all the nations of the world]

That third section did not receive the same amount of attention as did parts one and two.

It pointed to a future in which things would have to be very different, and folks really didn't want their familiar arrangements all upset.

It is no different with us, is it?

The future that our Lord Jesus Christ promises to us is bound to be much different than now,

but much of the time we would rather think about how we can keep the familiar routines going than how they should be transformed in order to be in line with the future fulfillment promised by Christ.

We'd like to forget about the future, just as we have often forgotten about the past.

So if there are so many things that are similar today as in the days of Jeremiah, what are the different and new things toward which he pointed?

The covenant which God had given them at Sinai was one of human obligation, that is, for the covenant to be in force, the people had to do certain things and refrain from doing other things.

Their failures in doing and refraining from doing meant that the covenant with God was in jeopardy.

The prophet points this out vehemently.

Jeremiah now sees that the only way that the relationship between God and his people can be re-established and maintained is if God himself does it.

I myself will do it; I will write it upon their hearts, says God through Jeremiah.

And this new thing will come to fruition in a way that Jeremiah did not expect:

God in all of his fiery power and majesty comes among us as a babe in Bethlehem, our Lord Jesus, to take on himself all of the obedience which we mess up, and by his word and deed to replace it with the gift of forgiveness and the invitation to love, serve, and care for each other.

Forgiveness, a fresh start, and new opportunities: these are the things which are at the heart of the new covenant Christ lives with us.

Here is an old story out of the Roman Catholic tradition:

A young nun came to the bishop of the diocese claiming to have seen a vision of Christ.

The Bishop asked, “Did you speak with Jesus?”

Nun: “Yes.”

Bishop: “Here is a test. The next time you have a vision of Jesus, ask him this question: What was the Bishop's primary sin as a young man?” And then I'll know if it was a true vision or not.

The nun later returned

Bishop: “Did you have another vision?

Nun: “Yes”

Bishop: “Did you ask the question?”

Nun: “Yes”

Bishop: “and what was the answer?”

Nun: “Jesus said to me, 'I don't remember.'”

The guilt of past failures can melt away

A new day, a fresh opportunity opens in this wiping-the-slate-clean forgiveness offered to us by Jesus.

What is to happen to us this Reformation Day?

Will we look back with appreciation for what God has already done for us, as Martin Luther leads us in singing:

My heart for very joy now leaps,

My voice no longer silence keeps,

I too must join to sing with joy...

[stanza 13]

Will we look around and acknowledge the mess we have made of things and hear his word of forgiveness, and sing with Luther:

Welcome to earth, O noble Guest,

Through whom the sinful world is blest.

You turned not from our needs away

How can our thanks such love repay?

[stanza 8]

Will we look ahead and anticipate what new things God will yet be doing with us, and hear Luther sing:

O dearest Jesus, prepare my heart,

That you and I need never part.

[stanza 12]

Look back, look around, look ahead, and then sing Glory to God in highest heaven, who to us a renewed covenant has given. Amen. [stanza 14]

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.