Kingdom Harbor

A Sermon preached February 17, 2019

Texts: Jeremiah 17:5-10; Psalm 1; 1 Cor. 15:12-20

One of the great privileges of parenting is introducing kids to things for the first time—classic movies, timeless stories, and, my favorite, music legends. Recently, seven year old Peter and I shared a holy moment on the drive home from IKEA as I played for him “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin for the first time—8:02 of father-and-son bonding. In the song we hear the sage wisdom of 70s rocker Robert Plant singing, 

Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run  

There’s still time to change the road you’re on

And it makes me wonder

On this sixth Sunday after Epiphany Jeremiah and the Psalmist both speak of two paths you can go by, and every Sunday we try to celebrate the good news that “There’s still time to change the road you’re on.” And it makes me wonder about the Jewish Wisdom Tradition.

In the Bible there is a section of books known as the Wisdom Books. They include the Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Job and  the Song of Solomon. One repeated theme in this Jewish Wisdom literature is the so-called “Two Ways.” Both of our Old Testament readings for today—Jeremiah 17 and Psalm 1—are examples of this Two Ways view of reality. They use the image of two trees—or more accurately one tree and one withering shrub— representing two kinds of people. I want to explore these two trees of the OT Wisdom Tradition and later add a third tree to the mix. 

RABBIS & TREES

If you ever have the chance to study with a Jewish rabbi, by all means take it! I had another opportunity a couple weeks ago—it was my second time. The rabbis approach Scripture in a much different way than most Christians have been taught—including pastors who have gone to a lot of years of seminary.  We tend to read the Bible in a linear fashion with a chronological approach. Genesis describes the Creation and introduces us to Abraham, Isaak and Jacob; then Exodus covers the saga of Moses and their liberation from Egypt; we rush forward in history to the Kings of Israel and read about David and Solomon; and finally the Messiah Jesus, the rise of the church, and the story concludes with the so-called end of the world action in Revelation. 

Rabbi Allan talks about the “holographic reading” of the Scripture, where we read a Psalm or Jeremiah, for example, while at the same time seeing behind them, in the background, the earlier accounts of Moses and the Exodus, and looming large behind everything, the Genesis narrative—especially the Creation account. The rabbis, both ancient and contemporary, have a familiarity with the text that provides endless “hyperlinks” as it were from this Hebrew word, phrase or idea back to earlier ones that further illuminate it. 

Well, we’re going to practice this rabbinic practice a bit this morning as we continue looking at Jeremiah’s message. We begin with Jeremiah who doesn’t mince words as he says, “Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and human strength, whose hearts turn away from the Lord” (Jer. 17:5). Such folks will become like a withering, rootless shrub living in a parched wilderness, an uninhabited salt land (v. 6). Not a wise game plan for a long, healthy and fruitful existence! We read here of a curse pronounced upon those who choose a life of self-reliance over God-dependence. Such a heart is turned away from the Lord, and their sentence is exile to an uninhabited wilderness with salty soil that produces nothing. What earlier story does this hyperlink back to? If you don’t know yet, maybe the next part will give it away.

Jeremiah contrasts the cursed life with the life of blessing and abundance for those “who trust in the Lord” (v. 7). What are they like? Try to follow the hyperlink now. “They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream” (v. 8a). This tree planted by the never-ending water source can withstand any heat that comes and “its leaves shall stay green” and “it does not cease to bear fruit” (v. 8b). Where are we? A tree planted with a river nearby. Blessings for obedience and a curse for the one who wants to “play God.” A fruitful existence for those planted in this garden, and a dry and barren life in an outer wilderness. Where are we? 

Jeremiah’s words have transported us right back to the Garden of Eden, to a tree planted by the rivers, and to the same choice Adam and Eve faced. This tree looms large in the biblical narrative, and we should have our antenna up every time we find other references to “trees” in the Scriptures. They typically draw us back to Eden. Back to our Two Ways and what this means for us.

This first “tree” represents those who are trusting in human power—our own or others—to secure one’s well-being in the present and hope for the future. This way of folly trusts in human plans, human wisdom, human ingenuity, human governments, human wealth, etc. Several centuries later Jesus would make the same point using an architectural metaphor comparing two builders and  two foundations: one on the rock and one on the sand. The house on the rock will withstand the flood just as the tree planted by water can endure the heat. The house on the sand will come to ruin just as the withered shrub will die of thirst in a parched land.

Let’s look more closely at the second tree — the blessed life for a moment. Jeremiah says, “They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream.” Even during season of oppressive heat and drought “its leaves shall stay green…it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit” (Jer. 17:7-8). First, notice this is a life that is rooted in something, and rootedness is a life of courageous commitments that requires opting out of the safe life of casual commitments, keeping one’s options open, avoiding relationships that hold you accountable, a transient life that pulls up the stakes and moves on when things get tough. We are living in a moment of unprecedented “rootlessness” in relationships (e.g., marriage), church attendance/membership, distance in communication (e.g., social media), and short-term pursuits void of perseverance. A transient life of shallow commitments and perpetual uprootedness will prevent us from the rich and satisfying life God intends for us. How rooted are you right now? What kinds of soil are you planted in—healthy relationships or a lonely salt land?

Second, this blessed tree, or life, that trusts in the Lord is an antidote to the anxiety epidemic facing our culture today. Anxiety is complex and multifaceted, and as a fellow sufferer I don’t want to offer simplistic solutions or trite advice. Yet, I think most will agree that a major source of anxiety comes from looking for life, security and self-worth in places other than God’s love and provision. We are anxious because our self-worth is dependent our ability to please others and upon others’ opinions of us. We’re anxious because our security is dependent upon our ability to keep a job and pad our bank account. We’re anxious because we’re trying to find life and meaning in following our own dreams rather than pursuing God’s will. But if we will only plant our hopes, dreams, sense of security and self-worth in the warm sunshine beaming down on all those planted by the River of God’s ever flowing love, then our worries and anxiety may begin to fade like the morning dew. 

So, we have two trees so far—a withering shrub far from God and a well-nourished tree planted in wholehearted reliance on God. We have the path of folly leading to ruin, and the path of wise obedience leading to blessing. This is the classic Two Ways worldview of the Jewish Wisdom Tradition: Trust and obey God, and prosper. Wander away and trust in yourself or false gods, and suffer ruin. Psalm 1 says essentially the same thing with slightly different words. Very simple!

One problem creeps, however. Isn’t reality often more complex and contradictory? 

DEVIOUS HEARTS

We all know very well that sometimes the wicked seem to prosper in this life, while good, honest folk suffer terribly despite their faith in God. This is one reason we need the Book of Job to balance out the other Wisdom books. The Book of Job seeks to address the puzzle of why Job, the most righteous man of his day—a tree planted by the river of God if there ever was one—suffered so horrifically. But that’s a sermon for another day. 

There is general agreement between the prophets like Jeremiah and the Psalmist, and Jesus and the Apostles, that the heart of the problem and solution lies in the human heart. The heart, according to the Bible, is the “seat of intentions motives, and decision making.” So Jeremiah goes on to tell us in our passage that most of our problems under the sun are due to the fact that the human race is in need of a heart transplant. Since Genesis 3, the human race as a whole has been banished from the Garden and the Tree of Life by the stream. We’re under the curse,  still battling “thorns and thistles” (Gen. 3:18). As Paul says in the New Testament, “The the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth” and longing to “be set free from its bondage to corruption” (Rom. 8:21-22). All of this because the  human heart so easily bent on usurping God’s role and giving in to the serpent’s lie again and again. 

Jeremiah knows the problem as he says these memorable words today: “The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse—who can understand it? I the Lord test the mind and search the heart” (Jer. 17:9-10). The New Testament writers are working over time to explain how Jesus picked up the OT story—told and retold again and again by the likes of Jeremiah—the story of a fallen and wayward human race in need of a heart transplant. The New Testament shows  how Jesus the Messiah himself fulfilled the hopes of the prophets by offering the chance at a fresh start, a new birth, a new heart upon which is written God’s Law. Consider Jeremiah 31:

“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel…“I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.

Or, Ezekiel 36, who says something similar—and notice that this is the collective calling of the community of Israel, or at least, the holy remnant that would become the church of Jesus—as they are set apart from the nations:

24 “‘For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean… 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you.

What will be the hallmark of the people who make up this Fellowship of the New Heart? What will set “new-heart people” apart from “old-heart people”? Answer: Where that community chooses to place its trust and allegiance. We’re back at our two trees we started with.

But the New Testament forces us to grapple with the fact that good hearts often still suffer evil, and evil hearts often find abundance in this life. Some people trust in themselves and reap huge worldly dividends, while other faithful souls who have chosen to trust God reap only hardships and suffering in this life—sometimes even execution on a cross. Our first two trees leave us stumped and we need a third tree to address the unjust fact that some trees planted by the river wither in the afternoon heat, while some wicked shrubs seem to go on producing wicked fruit despite their distance from the Creator, the source of life. 

Is there another tree that can undo the curse? Is there a tree that can somehow bring justice to the righteous who suffer at the hands of the wicked? Is there a tree where repentant sinners who have wandered away from God and tried to do it on their own can find forgiveness and mercy? Is there a tree that can get us back to Eden, back to the River, back to a fresh beginning, or a New Genesis? We need a third tree.

THE THIRD TREE

Yes, there’s a third tree and that tree is the cross of Jesus Christ. On this tree, God acted decisively at “at the culmination of the ages” (Heb. 9:26) to put to death the Old Creation marred by human sin — the chief sin being trusting in human power (including the Self) and human ingenuity to run the world, rather than trusting God. In the Garden of Eden, the desire to “play God” was the beginning of this tragic story of hearts wandering from God and usurping the role reserved for God alone. The Tower of Babel is the narrative climax where we see the entire human race trusting in mere mortals and the flesh with “hearts turned away from the Lord” (Jer. 17:5). 

The sin that Jesus came to deal with on the cross was not merely the cumulative collection of all the individual trespasses—serious and less serious—that separate us from God in some personal spiritual sense. Yes, the cross deals with all our personal sins and helps bring us individually back into relationship with God.But we should know that most first century Jews like Jesus and Paul were not walking around with a heavy conscience, wondering how their personal sins could be forgiven so they could be reconciled to God and go to Heaven. Despite how central these questions became for Christians through the ages, these were not the primary concerns of the New Testament writers. They had the Temple sacrifices to deal with their personal sins and after making the proper sacrifice they had “peace with God” again. And Heaven, or what they preferred to call “participation in the life to come,” was a given for all people who trusted the God of Abraham, Isaak and Jacob.  

Instead, New Testament writers are telling a much, much bigger story about the curse of Eden, a people living in exile and longing to return home, the arrival of the Messiah to usher in a new age of blessing and renewal, the elimination of powerful enemies—earthly enemies and spiritual forces. Isaiah describes a New Heavens and New Earth—a New creation—when, “They will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will no longer fight against nation, nor train for war anymore” (Isaiah 2:4). 

The cross was the nail in the coffin of the old sin-stained creation, bent on all the old ways of Babel, and the Resurrection gave birth to the New Creation — not yet here in full, but the first fruits of a coming new world order arriving in Jesus. The Jewish Scriptures taught that, “Cursed is anyone who is hung on a tree” (Deut. 21:23). The Apostle explains that “Christ has rescued us from the curse” because “When Jesus was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing” (Gal. 3:13). 

Now all those who are baptized into the stream of this New Creation Life receive the power of that coming future new age—the Holy Spirit—right now in the present. We are now invited to hum the melody of a song yet to be heard on these celestial shores — a song written in Heaven, a tune not yet fully attempted with our limited instruments and knowledge. We are called, right here and now, in the midst of Babel’s continuing march, as nations continue to rise up against nations, to be bearing witness to that New Kingdom/New Creation by adopting its non-violent and cross-shaped ethic. Easter planted the Tree of Resurrection Life in the middle of all our garden of earthly sorrows. We are called out of exile among the nations of the Old Creation—still living by the Old Ways of Babel—and setting up little colonies of Eden as we plant ourselves “in Christ” and draw life from His Living Water. Let Eden’s restoration project commence! 

Here’s the deal: We live in what Bible scholars call the “Overlapping of the Ages.” The Jews of Jesus’ day thought the arrival of the New Age or New Creation would come all at once at the end of time. The wicked would be dealt with in one swift blow and all the righteous would be resurrected from their graves to inhabit the New Messianic Kingdom. God shocked everyone by sending Jesus from the Future into the present, to give a foretaste of that future Kingdom right in the middle of history, in the mist of the Old Creation. Instead of the resurrection of all the righteous at the Messiah’s arrival, we saw the resurrection of One Righteous Jew as “the first fruits of those who have died” (1 Cor. 15:20). 

This is the larger story behind our New Testament lesson for today in 1 Corinthians 15:12-20. Paul’s defense of the Resurrection is not merely to say, “See! Christ was raised from the dead, therefore our sins are forgiven and we can all go to Heaven when we die.” This is how many Christians think about the cross and the Resurrection, but Paul is announcing so much more regarding this third tree—the cross of Christ! He’s announcing the cross as the place where the principalities and powers that are holding the Old Creation in bondage were exposed and defeated! Resurrection signaled the New Genesis, the New Eden and Christ as the New Adam to undo the sinful mess left by the first Adam. 

The next verse in 1 Corinthians 15, after arguing that our faith is totally a waste of time if Jesus hasn’t really has been raised from the dead, is as follows: 

21 For since death came through a man [Adam], the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man [Jesus]. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” 23 But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. 24 Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 

Notice Paul is not talking about going to Heaven when he talks about the Resurrection. He is talking about two Adams, first fruits of a New Genesis moment, and a Kingdom on the march whose goal is to “destroy all dominion, authority and power” of the Old Creation marked by violence and death, wars and rumors of wars, and nations rising up against nations. All who are in Christ have been called out of that entire dog-eat-dog world and have been planted in the Garden of God’s New Creation Community—the church—where we are supposed to be learning how to live out the ethics of that coming World Order. What a calling! What a different view of the Cross—not just the gruesome instrument by which God forgave our sins, but the means by which the curse of the Old Creation was broken and a New Creation was begun! 

SO WHAT ABOUT US?

The questions before us are therefore: Which tree defines your life and outlook? Where are you planted?  Are you withering away, exhausted from a life of self-reliance? Are you parched and lonely, tired of trying to get life, security and self-worth from mere mortals? Are you planted somewhere, or tumbling about like tumbleweed from oasis to oasis? 

How about the Cross as the “culmination of the ages” and the dawn of the New Creation? Have you ever heard this invitation to begin living here and now a radically new kind of life shaped by the Coming Kingdom? Or are you still living according to the patterns of the Old World? What does it mean to be a signpost and prophetic witness to the Cross-shaped Kingdom so different than the kingdoms of this world? If we had time, we could examine today’s Gospel text that emphasizes the upside-down—or “Cruciform”—nature of the Kingdom. You can come to Three Taverns this Wednesday as we explore the big word “Cruciformity.”

For now, let me fast-forward to the end of the Story in  the Book of Revelation which has more hyperlinks to OT texts than any other New Testament book. This entire book is the best example of how God’s New Creation communities scattered all around the Roman Empire resisted the pressure to continue in the Old Creation Ways. They remained faithful colonies of the New Eden, planted firmly in Christ and living out a cross-shaped ethic  under the shadow of the Empire. The final vision of Revelation has some familiar imagery—trees, a river, fruit, curse lifted, a new King and Kingdom, and faithful servants—even a MainStreet—a beautiful picture to close with. Revelation 22 says:

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the MainStreet of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him (Rev. 22:1-3).

Let all who have ears to hear, listen and serve Him. Amen. Yes, there are two paths you can go by but in the long run there’s still time to change the road you’re on. Amen.