6-28-09

JEREMIAH is a prophet, a spokesperson for the Lord. The Lord's people, the Israelites of Judah, are in deep trouble. The big, bad Babylonians are bashing ?em, circa 598 B.C.

Says Jeremiah, the prophet, to his people the Israelites, "Surrender. Walk on over to the other side." The children of Israel against overwhelming odds are fighting for their survival in Jerusalem. And God's spokesperson says, "Don't fight, give up."

Mind you, this is no heavenly lesson in pacifism. What God is saying through the prophet Jeremiah is, "The Babylonians are not the enemy. You are. You, my people, are your own worse enemy. You have not kept the faith. So now suffer the consequences, this time in the form of the Babylonians. But don't blame your bad time on the Babylonians. You've brought it on yourselves, so surrender and swallow your medicine."

The Lord's people do not like Jeremiah's message one bit. So they throw him into a pit. I tell you, it is unrewarding business sometimes working for the Lord.

JACOB has 12 sons. His 10 oldest sons are working hard in Shechem, tending their father's flock. It's a dirty job.

Jacob sends his squeaky clean son, first born of his most beloved wife, Rachel, and therefore his most beloved son, Joseph, to check on his older brothers to make sure they are doing their job properly. Joseph gladly obeys. He loves being his brothers' keeper.

Joseph's brothers are not glad to see Joseph. They know Father loves him best. Witness his coat of many colors. In an expression of their dislike for Joseph, they pitch him into a pit.

I tell you, it is a risky business, doing your father's favor.

DANIEL is a righteous man. The Lord is with him. This is displayed in Daniel's ability to discern dreams. Consequently Daniel rises to be one of the governors for the King of Persia. So great is Daniel's value an interpreter of dreams, he is favored by the King above the other governors.

The other governors are jealous, and plot against Daniel. They correctly report to the King that Daniel prays three times daily to his God, the God of the Israelite people, suggesting to the King that Daniel is holding God in higher regard than his own eminence. Which is true. Daniel is a Hebrew and worships only one God. But this is blasphemy in the polytheistic Persian Empire, where the King thinks he is god, also. So King Darius interrogates Daniel on the matter and discovers this is indeed so. Therefore, the King orders Daniel dropped into a pit. Oh, I tell you, the challenges and risks of keeping the faith.

My friends, the point is our Bible is filled with pit stories. The biblical land was literally pit filled, large stone-lined cisterns to catch and preserve the rain water in this semi-arid life zone. There was never a shortage of pits, though often a lack of water to fill the pits.

The biblical people knew about pits and pitfalls. Even God's most favored ones, Jeremiah, Joseph, Daniel, and the like, knew the pits of life.

Oh, there were different kinds of pits. Jeremiah was thrown into a muddy pit. Joseph dropped into a dry well. While Daniel dangled in a den of lions. Each to his own, but each knew his own. The pits!

Now don't you find this comforting? For you and I know that present day life has its pits as well. Indeed, Israel today is still a pit filled land, though not so much cisterns, for today a state-of-the-art aqueduct supplies water from the fresh seas of Galilee to the wilderness of Judah. No, today pits populate the landscape with a sign above reading in Hebrew and English, "Deposit foreign objects here."

You never know what an anonymous knapsack might hold in the Holy Lands. So you pick it up and deposit it in the pit, just in case it explodes. The biblical country is still a land loaded with pits.

As is our world. Vast pits. The majority of God's children live in the pit of poverty. Too many of God's people dwell in the pit of oppression. And as always, drought, pestilence and plague, floods, hurricanes and earthquakes, to say nothing of war, terrorism, and the swine flu, point to the pits of existence.

Yes, even in our great nation pits abound. There are those who suffer the indignant pit of unemployment, still on the rise, while others are stuck in ghetto pits due to the mire of discrimination, like Jeremiah in the mud. There are those who wallow in the snake-pits of drug and alcohol abuse, while others fall into the pit of greed and materialism, with so much surrounding them they cannot see the meaning for the mammon. Too many find themselves in the pits of decaying relationships and dwindling family life as a consequence of misplaced priorities and forgotten values. And, of course, always the pits of mental and physical diseases. How would you like to be from Turner, MT, descendants of Sarah Bott and Chet Newell? Isn't that the pits, Pallido-Ponto-Nigral-Degeneration Disease (PPND), as presented in a Pulitzer Prize worthy series of stories by Amie Thompson this past week in The Tribune.

Life, I say, can be the pits. It should not be. But ever since we were bounced out of Eden pits have abounded. From biblical times to today. So where do we go from here?

Three points on the pits of life.

1) One, it is helpful to realize PITS ARE PART OF THE PILGRIMAGE. As it was for Jeremiah, Joseph and Daniel, so it is for us. We will each have our pits and pitfalls. Take comfort - we are in distinguished company. I like the saying, "It is well to remember that in times like these, there have always been times like these."

Or the perspective Robert Frost presents in his poem, "In A Glass of Cider." The poet identifies with a little piece of sediment, a bit of apple, at the bottom of a glass of cider.

"It seems I was a mite of sediment

That waited for the bottom to ferment

So I could catch a bubble in ascent.

I rode up on one till the bubble burst.

And when that left me to sink back in reverse

I was no worse off than I was at first.

I'd catch another bubble if I waited.

The thing was to get now and then elated."

Truth in a glass of cider, by Bob Frost.

Elation is not the normal state of life. Not here. We sit on the mountain top rarely. To be "now and then elated" is sufficient. Not often, not often enough, but let this suffice for a lifetime of thanksgiving and generosity, and as fortification enough for a faith to face the pits.

Pits are a part of the pilgrimage. But only a part. As Abraham Lincoln put it from one of the great pits in his life, the Civil War, "This too shall pass."

2) Two, inasmuch as we can expect some pits in life, HOW SHOULD WE APPROACH THE PITS?

Even if it is true, as the Apostle Paul writes, suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, which does not disappoint us, which is to say, yes, good can come out of bad, such is our God, it is not to say we should wallow in the pits.

Therefore, what should do when we find ourselves in the pits? How do we, in Robert Frost imagery, "catch the bubble," and rise from the bottom of the barrel.

In one of the few sermons I can remember growing up, the minister, who I can still remember, may I be so blessed in your memories, tells the story of a little girl walking along a crowded city sidewalk with her mother. A veritable forest of moving trees, the child is being jostled about, unable to keep up and in danger of becoming lost.

She is frightened, and in her fear, reaches up her hand, just as her mother reaches down her hand, and clasping the daughter's hand firmly in hers, guides her safely through the sidewalk scare.

The point being: if you want help, raise your hand. Raise your hand, and trust God will be as omnipresent as a parent, and steer us through the storms of life.

From down in the pit, we just never know who might come along and pull us out. It is the eunuch, Ebedmelech from Ethiopia, a black man, who pulls our prophet Jeremiah out of the pit. It is Joseph's brothers, the very ones who throw him into the pit, who pull him out. Of course, they proceed to sell him into slavery, but what can you expect of brothers. It beats being eaten by wild animals. And it ends happily. It is the King of Persia, his royal Darius self, who pulls Daniel out of the pit, exclaiming in an ecstatic conversion experience, "Daniel's God is a living God who will rule forever."

When we are in the pits and want out, reach out for help. We will never cease to be amazed at the many ways God works to save us. Most amazing of all being how God works through us.

3) Which brings me to my third and final point.

What is OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO OTHERS WHO ARE IN THE PITS?

Inasmuch as God saves and rescues us from the pits, it is my observation that God does so most often through us, the children of God.

Which reminds me of an old and way over used story. But, hey, that fits me fine.

A faithful fellow is stranded upon his rooftop in a flood. Even standing there, the water has become ankle deep. A guy in a canoe comes along and offers him a ride. "No thanks," responds the faithful fellow. "I'm sure the Lord will save me."

The water rises to his waist. Another guy comes along in a motorboat, and offers him a ride. "No thanks," responds the faithful fellow. "I'm sure the Lord will save me."

The water rises to his neck. A helicopter comes along lowering a rope. "No thanks," responds the faithful fellow, waving off the pilot, "I'm sure the Lord will save me."

The faithful fellow drowns. And he is ticked. Once through the Pearly gates he furiously accosts the Lord. "Faithful servant that I am, why did you not save me?" "Not save you?" responds the Lord. "Why, I sent you a canoe, a motorboat and a helicopter. What more could I do?"

God seeks to save God's children. And here on earth God most commonly enlists us in the task. Scientists are at work right now seeking a cure for Pallido-Ponto-Nigral-Degeneration Disease (PPND), to spare the next generation of victims in Turner. Indeed, research of this nature is done every day at our own MRI. (McLaughlin Research Institute).

Jesus ministered mostly to those in the pits of life. We are to do likewise, made know to us in Jesus' words, "Inasmuch as you do unto one of the least of these my children, you do unto me." (Matthew 25:40)

You see, inasmuch as we lift a person out of the pit, we lift Christ out of the pit, and the love of God is revealed. To be a helping hand to those in the pits is our responsibility as Christians. As Albert Schweitzer said: "Everyone must work to live. But the purpose of life is to serve, to show compassion and the will to help others. Only then have we ourselves become human beings."

It is really not all that hard. And it is really not all that sacrificial. It is God's great miracle, how God can take our smallest actions of love and make so much of them.

Leslie Weatherhead, the great British preacher of WWII time, liked to tell the story of a young nurse who was caring for a dying man. The time was drawing near for death, and she was feeling futile. So she confesses to the minister in the room, "I feel so helpless. What will I say to his wife?"

Answers the minister, "Don't say anything. Make her a cup of tea." Which, of course, is a terribly British response, but the point is, it is a lot easier than we think, helping others.

Snoopy is dressed in flannel bathrobe and slippers, and is waxing philosophically about life. "I think I've discovered something," he states, looking somewhat woebegone and under the weather. "When you wake up at night and your head hurts and your stomach feels funny, the first thing you do is put on your bathrobe. Then you take two pills and drink a glass of water, and sit by yourself until you're ready to go back to bed.

"But," concludes Snoopy, "it's not the pills that make you feel better. It's the bathrobe."

There will be persons, loved ones and strangers, who will cross our path in life, who will be in the pits. As well, we, at times. They will be easy to ignore, even if in their tentative,hesitant way they stretch out a hand for help.

Respond - with a spot of tea or a hug the warmth of a bathrobe. It beats the pits. For as Quaker founder William Penn put it: "I expect to pass through this life but once. Therefore, if there be any kindness I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer nor neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again."

May God guide you on your holy journeys, pit stops and all. AMEN