Sermon for
August 29, 2004
13th Sunday after Pentecost
“Cracked Cisterns and Stars in Sidewalks”
Jer. 2:4-13; Lk. 14:1, 7-14
CALL TO WORSHIP
We live in a culture today that puts ultimate We live in a culture
today that puts ultimate value on worthless things. Out of a culture
that is so taken by fame, fortune, and celebrity we come this morning to
worship God and to celebrate the Sacrament of Baptism. Let us find
again today the true center of our lives and celebrate together the love
of God for people such as us. In this way we would prepare to
worship God during the Prelude.
SERMON
From time to time it becomes very apparent how old I am getting. It
became very apparent to me yet again when I read in the paper a recent
news item (Roanoke Times, August 25, 2004)
concerning the lead guitarist of a rock band I used to get very excited
about while I was in high school and college. On the entertainment
page was a picture of a former member of the band Led Zeppelin, rated as
one of the greatest rock guitarist in history, with his palms covered in
cement. He had just cast his hand prints in the sidewalk of
London’s answer to the Hollywood Walk of Fame. How did my age
become very apparent to me yet again? The article, in naming the
rock star, said, “Jimmy Page, age 60”!
Did you know that Jesus has a star
on the Hollywood “Walk of Fame?” That’s right. Not too
long ago a star was placed in the sidewalk there in Hollywood bearing the
name: “Jesus, Son of God.” It was placed there by a
Christian Night Club right at its front door. Now the Hollywood
folks who own the rights to the star design were not pleased at first
because the placement was not submitted to them for approval, thus making
it a copyright violation, but they finally did grant their permission.
So today, as you walk along Hollywood’s “Walk of Fame” you will come
upon a star in the sidewalk with the name “Jesus, Son of God.”
Did he need one?
Now it’s a clever idea, taking one of the more shallow symbols of our
culture, one reflective of our obsession over fame and fortune and
celebrity in the entertainment industry, in order to say “Look, who is
the real star here, after all?”
Now there’s no
question that this culture is obsessed with fame, fortune, and celebrity.
It underlies one of our culture’s deepest obsessions—if you can’t
have fame, fortune, and celebrity yourself, the next best thing, the next
most exciting thing, is to at least be in the presence of someone who does
or, if you can’t do that, then at least watch their movies or see them
on TV or listen to their music.
As most of you know I
served in campus ministry at Old Dominion University and Tidewater
Community College in Norfolk for eight years. Over Christmas Break
ten years ago we took a group of students on a Mission trip to New York
City. The focus of the journey was to study homelessness and share
in first-hand volunteer work in the soup kitchens and shelters of New York
City. One of our side trips was to the Ed Sullivan theater around 5
pm where the David Letterman show was being taped. Not having
tickets we waited with many others outside the stage door at the side of
the theater where all the limousines waited. That night a surprise
celebrity was reading the Top Ten List. And it wasn’t long before
James Earl Jones came out the door and rushed to his waiting car.
Another celebrity was interviewed that night and soon Rosie O’Donnel
came out the door; but she paused, signed autographs, waved, and then
departed. The thing I remember the most about that side trip is how cold
it was outside with wind blowing between the buildings on that January
night in New York. But the students had a blast—it was refreshing
entertainment—if you couldn’t get in the theater then maybe something
or someone in the theater would come out to you! Now as for my
students, I have to say to you that they followed through on
everything—they participated fully in the mission efforts among the
homeless and shared in our Bible study and prayer with at least as much
enthusiasm as they took on the subways and took in the sites of the city
that Christmas. But it was so cold out there that night—there just
something about being that close to fame, fortune, and celebrity that made
the bitter cold a bit more bearable.
The question is:
Does Jesus need a star on the Hollywood “Walk of Fame”? Does
Jesus need the same kind of fame, status, and importance that the culture
gives to its celebrities? Now the Christian witness that placed that
star in the sidewalk makes a bold declaration—that declaration is this:
the minute you make anything more important in your life than God you
worship an idol. The moment your heart responds to fame, fortune,
and celebrity more than your heart responds to God your heart has lost its
true center. A life that has lost its center is a life that is
already empty.
Jeremiah spoke to a
culture like that over 2,400 years ago. God’s people back then
were not so much obsessed with entertainment as they were with survival.
Celebrity back then was not so much about popularity as it was about
power. You wanted to be very close to those who could wield the
power of security and provision. Jeremiah was appalled that the
people of God worshiped Baal, the false fertility god of grain, produce,
and abundance. They built shrines to this god. They even began
to call the God of Israel by the name of the false god, Baal. In the
midst of this Jeremiah hears God say
They went after
worthless things and became worthless themselves. (2:5)
They do that, God says, because they follow
Lord Delusion
and Lord Useless:
that’s how the Hebrew of this text refers to the false god Baal--
Lord Delusion and Lord Useless. They follow after this god so
desperately, God says through Jeremiah, they work so hard at it, it is
like people in the desert who labor hour after hour, day after day, hewing
out a cistern from the bedrock in order to catch the rain for a supply of
water. This was a practice they knew very well in their day as they
sought to survive in that very dry climate. Cisterns were all over
the desert wherever people settled. But there were problems with
cisterns—sometimes the water would become polluted for there was no way
to aerate it. Sometimes the rock itself would crack, leaking all the
water into the dry ground. God says you work so hard trying to get
what you can from this false god but your cistern is cracked and it holds
nothing at all. And all the while there’s a great fountain of
fresh living water freely available to you anytime you want it.
And God is shocked.
God can’t believe it. God says, “go look at the other
peoples around here.”
See if there has
ever been such a thing. Has a nation changed its gods, even though
they are no gods?
But my people have changed their glory for something that does
not profit.
Be appalled, O heavens, be shocked, be utterly desolate,(2:10b-12)
says God. Can you not hear God say today, “Has
there ever been such a thing? My people follow fame, fortune, and
celebrity more than they follow me! They get so much more excited
about celebrities, and rock stars, and fashion, and football games more
than they get excited about me! Their hearts leap when they acquire
money and possessions so much more than at the mention of my name!
They go after worthless things and become worthless themselves because
they follow Lord Delusion and Lord Useless. They spend so much time
digging cisterns out of rock or stars out of sidewalks! Be appalled,
O heavens, at this and be shocked. Be utterly desolate.”
Jesus found the very
same thing some 400 years later. In his day people scrambled to sit
at the best place at the banquet to get the closest they could to their
rich and powerful host. Folks in that culture, as in Jeremiah’s,
as in ours, followed after fame, fortune, and celebrity so much more than
they followed after God. The moment your heart responds to fame,
fortune, and celebrity more than your heart responds to God your heart has
lost its true center. A life that has lost its center is a life that
is already empty. When you don’t ask God to fill your life,
there’s nothing left but the empty promises and shallow trinkets of a
fleeting culture. So you try to be popular, you try to get your own
way most of the time, you try to accumulate as much wealth as you can, you
try to fill your life with entertainment and indulgence. What
happens to you when you do that? Well, at first it feels just great
to be popular, to get your own way, to get so many things, to have all the
entertainment you can every dream of right at your fingertips; but it just
doesn’t last, does it? And what happens to a world that does this?
As Jeremiah knew well, nations begin to neglect the needs of the poor and
to put their trust in weapons of war rather than relationships of peace.
So Jesus saw everybody
scrambling for the best seat. But Jesus said to them.
Do not sit down at the
place of honor…but go and sit down at the lowest place (Luke
14:10)
He said further,
When you give a luncheon or a dinner,
don’t invite your friends or your brothers or your
relatives or your rich neighbors in case they may
invite you in return, and you would be
repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite
the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the
blind. (Luke
14:12-13)
So Jesus finally has a
star on the Hollywood “Walk of Fame.” Did he need it? No,
he didn’t need it. He didn’t even ask for it. As a matter
of fact he gave all that up. When it came time for Jesus to lay his
claim on the world he chose a cross upon which he suffered a humiliating
and scornful death. In his death on the cross your Lord turned his
back on every offer of fame, fortune, and celebrity. In his
resurrection from the dead God secured forever the way to life, the way to
God, through the path of humility and service which leads to a fountain of
living water, a trail made and marked for you by the Son of God.
That’s why this
community of faith has been so blessed by opportunities for mission.
We give thanks to God today for every chance we have to reach out to the
poor and the less fortunate. Young people who participated in
mission trips led by our outgoing Youth Minister Tim Dayton and others
have shared an experience that never leaves you the same person you were
before you left.
What do I cherish the
most about the students with whom I served in campus ministry? Is it
the fact that upon their graduation they found a secure life for
themselves in this culture? that so many of them are now financially
very well off in life? That one got on the Wheel of Fortune TV
program and enjoyed considerable winnings? No. What I cherish
the most is that 9 students entered full time Christian Service; that
Jason, after a few years in the financial services industry now is serving
in his third pastoral appointment in our conference; that Marianne, who
did indeed win on the Wheel of Fortune, after serving her first
appointment is now a Chaplain with the United States Air Force; that so
many others, because of mission trips and Bible study and prayer, now find
their own ways to serve the poor; that so many others because of the
witness of the church in campus ministry now support the church with their
volunteer time and a tithe of their income.
This is what the church
did for them. That’s what the church needs to do for you.
So let us encourage one
another. Let’s spend our time gathered around the fountain of
living water rather than digging out a cistern that is going to crack
anyway or looking for stars in sidewalks. Be led by your Lord Jesus
to the ways you can invite others to join you in the life and ministry of
the church. You find the last seat here and take your place there.
It is there, right there, Jesus says, he will see you; he will know you;
he will come and say to you,
Friend, move up
higher and come sit close to me. (cf. Luke
14:10)
