All Saints Lutheran Church
July 27, 2003
Pastor Tim Johnson
Jeremiah 2:1-13

I would love to think all that we need to learn about life we could learn from a textbook. Then, all we'd need to do would be to read the book and then we get a good handle on life and move on out.

But the truth is the most important things we learn about life are usually not found in a textbook. I learned a lot about life by just listening to my dad tell me stories about his life. I have learned a lot about this church by listening to the stories that some of you have told me over the years about its history.

And so when we come to a passage of Scripture that says the words of the Lord came to me, it seems like a good opportunity to pay close attention because it is like God is speaking to us about life. Today, as we think about the sixth commandment—You shall not commit adultery--God speaks to us about the importance of our relationships and about how a good relationship today can turn ugly tomorrow, and how we can work to prevent that and how we can find healing when it happens.

If you think about it, most relationships begin with a honeymoon stage where you will do anything for the other person. Verses 1-2 from Jeremiah: “I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.

God asked the Israelites to follow Him, even into the daunting reality of the desert, and they went willingly even though it was just an empty desert. Why did they do it? Because they were in love with God! “Your love as a bride,” the Lord says.

Think about the honeymoon stages in your relationships. When your woman walked to the car, you opened the door. If she was cold you gave her your coat. You would do almost anything for her because you loved her. When your man needed encouragement, you let him know that he was the best and you were there for him no matter what.

Think about a relationship with a church. You fall in love with a church because they have a good pastor, or a great group of people and you are willing to do anything for the church. You're an advocate, a servant, and a cheerleader. A church always needs people in the honeymoon stage.

Unfortunately, as we all well-know, we don't stay in those honeymoon stages forever. In fact, for most people, they hit some obstacle or painful experience that will invariably do one of two things. It will either serve to unite you even closer together or it will rip you apart.

In verse 3, it says, “ Israel was holy to the Lord, the first fruits of his harvest; all who devoured her were held guilty and disaster overtook them.

Whenever the Israelites attempted to move in the Promised Land they generally came under attack. And, those attacks could serve either to bring the people closer to God or move them further away. If these people had enough of those attacks they could call it quits. Or if their trust began to dry up, off they went to find or make another god.

In your marriage relationship, there will invariably be some obstacle or challenge that will come into your life that can either bring you even closer together or push you apart. The same is true for good friends. I remember my close childhood friend, Steven and I had a falling out that we never recovered from. But not so with another friend of mine—we, too, went through a very difficult time in our friendship, but through a common faith and some extended patience, we were able to make it through and today enjoy a wonderful relationship. I wish that were always the outcome in my life. It hasn't been.

Churches are the same way. I have seen churches encounter obstacles and consequently either grow and deepen because of it, or practically disintegrate. I remember growing up in my church, and there being some significant and painful times. Many people left. But a remnant stayed, dealt with the pain, and experienced healing and then a time of great joy as the ministry took on a new faithfulness. We, too, found that the obstacle was going to either unite us or permanently rip us apart.

There is also often a time of prosperity in a relationship in which one, unfortunately, begins to take the other person for granted.

In verses 5-7, the Lord asks? “What wrong did your ancestors find in me that they went far from me? … They did not say, ‘Where is the Lord who brought us up from the land of Egypt …I brought you into a plentiful land to eat its fruit and its good things.”

Can't you hear how dismayed God sounds, almost like the aches of a broken heart, when the people just bailed and forgot his goodness and what he had done for them? The people got comfortable and as a result they started to take God for granted. How true that can be for you and me, as well.

In marriage and other relationships, people can find themselves coming out of sometimes some very tough times and have a time of great prosperity or blessings, and they begin to take the other for granted.

In a church, there's also a time when people often begin to take others or God for granted. We quit reaching out to each other. We quit being amazed at God's grace and mercy. We get our kids baptized or get them through confirmation or get them married, and then we just move on. We've taken what we've come for, and we've forgotten that Christ calls us to love through sacrifice and service. We close our hearts and our checkbooks. We let someone else care for the hurting or pay for the salaries and the ministries. We let someone else invest in the mission of Christ. We forget that the Lord is the church, and as we take his church for granted, we take him for granted. Pastors, by the way, aren't exempt from doing this.

There can be a point in our relationships when you are there in body but you are not there in mind and spirit. You are there but you are wishing you were somewhere else.

Verse 8-says that “the priests did not ask, ‘where is the Lord?' Those who deal with the law did not know me; the leaders rebelled against me. The prophets prophesied by Baal, following worthless idols.”

They were still going to the house of God in body but their minds and spirit were elsewhere. The priests and scribes were still going through the motions but their minds and spirits were not in it. There are people in each one of our neighborhoods that are daily going home in body but their mind and their spirit are elsewhere.

There may be people here in church today that are here in body but their mind and spirit is elsewhere.

In a relationship, there will often be one person that, when trouble comes, they stand in almost unbelief that this could be happening to them.

Verses 10-12 “Cross over to the coasts of Kittim and look, send to Kedar and observe closely; see if there has been anything like this.”

Can't you see God standing there in almost unbelief that the people of Israel have chosen to follow other gods? It seems inconceivable.

Yet, in most marriage breakups it seems to me that there is usually some one who is shocked that the relationship has gotten to this point.

Thinking about the church, I know as a pastor I have been shocked when people have left to go to another church or to simply stay away on purpose. I thought everything was going good but they didn't.

Finally, sometimes, the relationship is torn apart.

In verse 13- “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”

The relationship is broken. If you could have looked closely you could have seen it coming. But we generally don't.

I think that this is a powerful passage of Scripture. It helps us to see that our broken or struggling relationships with others in our lives, most particularly in our marriages, can mirror our relationship with God and with his church. Obstacles, choices, times of prosperity, taking God for granted, being shocked by our situations, and then, that point of realization that we all need God and what God has always wanted to give us—living water for our thirsty and parched souls. That by ourselves, we are like broken cisterns that cannot hold the very thing that we most need. Too often times we are trying to get filled up in all the wrong ways. We need a close and growing relationship with God in order to have a sustained, close and growing relationship with each other. And when we sin and fall short, we need the gifts of Christ that much more. We need forgiveness and courage. We need mercy and kindness. And we need confidence that God wants to heal and restore us.

Today's commandment declares that marriage, in the sight of God, is of the most precious and to be protected gifts he has given to us. But the implications are even broader than that. Writing on this commandment, Luther makes it clear that the commandment also speaks out against any form of unchastity—any sex outside of marriage.

The Ephesians readings finally cast the vision for what the marriage relationship is to look like—mutual service, subjecting ourselves to one another, nourishing and tender care, love and respect.

And, after all, doesn't God really call us to share that with everyone with whom we are in relationship? A self-sacrificing love? A love that looks out for the well-being of the other? And a foundational trust that we are not called to try to do our relationships all alone! We are created for close communion with God so that we can be fed and nourished and then have close communion with each other.

And so if we stay stubborn and proud, and we don't let God into our own hearts and hurts so that he can heal us, I don't know how we'll ever find joy in our marriages or our other significant relationships.

I leave you with what God says about what it is that ultimately binds us together—a love that not only he has shared with us, but that we are to share with one another.

1st Corinthians 13

Amen.