“Where is Your Heart Planted?” ~ Stewardship Sunday
Psalm 1 & Jeremiah 17:5-10 ~ Northwood UC February 13, 2022 ~ Rev. G. Scott Turnbrook
I can’t imagine Jeremiah was a very popular prophet to the Israelite people. Any proclamation that begins by telling people who “cursed they are” is surely to become an unpopular message! And, I am aware that ‘Stewardship Sunday’ is not always the most popular Sunday theme to focus upon. Talking about the call to share God’s gifts back into the world: our time, talent and treasure…and the seemingly nosey church prying into our private lives tends to be equally met with reservation and a tightening grip on what we believe is rightfully ours. Yet, with these reservations, I am so glad that you have come and that we can take this time…a deeper dive into the nature of stewardship as we look through the lens of Jeremiah’s prophecy.
Jeremiah offered his ministry as a prophet. His work in this area was to speak God’s word in the historical time in which he lived. Jeremiah’s people had fled Israel to Egypt while the Babylonians conquered their land and decimated their country. Could we even begin to imagine what that might have been like? In that distant time in the later part of 6th century BC? Your land overrun by warring invaders. You wondered…what caused this downfall? What will the future bring? How will we ever ‘get home’ and reclaim what once was? For Jeremiah’s people, they were men, women and children living in exile, fearing the future…and Jeremiah offers them words of wisdom, of challenge and of hope.
The biblical image that Jeremiah uses is that of the tree. The tree is a consistent thread throughout scripture. Originating in Genesis, following God’s work in Creation and the Garden of Eden we see the tree. And at the end of the bible’s 66 books, one of the final images in Revelation is the tree of life. And in between, the tree has deep roots throughout biblical literature (excuse the pun ). Jeremiah contrasts where the tree is planted as being the deciding factor to the tree either perishing or thriving. The tree that is planted in the desert, in parched places of the wilderness has a troubling fate ahead. The tree that is with deep roots extending to the stream will survive the heat. Even in times of drought, its leaves will stay green, and it will continue to bear fruit.
And as we take in Jeremiah’s 2,500 year old metaphor, it causes us to ponder where we are planted. So often the image of the ‘self-made’ individual is prized in the world. So much so that we come to believe that this is all there is to our success. We celebrate ‘self-made’ men and women, and some of us come to believe that we can ~ and must ~ go it alone. Jeremiah challenges those who “trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength”. He speaks about the blessedness ~ the happiness we have when we plant our roots in God, drawing a deep trust from these roots. We developed this a lot last Sunday as we explored the nature of faith last Sunday: an enduring faith, a provisional faith, and a trusting faith. Trust…Here, Jeremiah challenges the people who think they can ‘go it all alone’. He calls them to trust…to plant their lives deeply in the power of God; to trust…to draw strength from our rootedness in God; to trust…And as we realize that we are more than just an island…that we are spiritual b eings rooted in God’s grace and power we become deeply rooted and ready for the challenging times in life. Later this afternoon, many will view the Superbowl. As the Rams and Bengals clash at Superbowl 56, incredible plays will be made. And as they are, you will consistently see these high performing athletes give glory to God. They do not see themselves as individuals who are self-made. They see themselves as rooted in God…trusting in God. They will point to the heavens after a touchdown is completed. They will bow before God after a field goal is kicked. And when interviewed after the game, they give thanks to their God in whom they are rooted…in whom they trust.
In a classical theological book from the mid-1700’s, Jonathan Edwards wrote A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections. Edwards prophetically writes: “if the great things of religion are rightly understood, they will affect the heart. The ultimate loyalties of people correspond directly with the fruit of their doings…So, Godliness in the heart has a direct relation to practice. As a fountain has to a stream. As the luminous nature of the sun has to a beam shining, as a life has to breathing, or the beating of the pulse. Christian practice or a holy life is a great and distinguishing sign of true and saving grace.”
Isn’t this exactly what the later part of Jeremiah’s prophecy is speaking to? When he warns us saying “the heart is devious above all else…” he is warning us of the human pitfalls of solely relying upon ourselves, rather than rooting our lives in God’s grace and power. Are our lives planted in the depth and nourishing presence of God? Or do we opt for the shallow option of simply relying upon ourselves? “The heart is devious” he warns; we think we are capable on our own; we think can make it on our own merit…yet we all will be faced with times of drought. Alternate translations of “the heart is devious” include “the heart is devious” and “the heart is fickle”. To be certain, the tree will face seasons of heat and drought. We too will face seasons of deep challenge and drought. How will we persevere? How will we produce the fruit that are lives are destined to offer? Jeremiah’s answer, that he speaks to a disillusioned group of Israelites in Egypt after the Babylonian conquest is that our lives must be deeply planted in God.
Stewardship Sunday, properly understood, becomes this opportunity to examine our roots. To consider how we our roots are deeply planted in God. And, from that, to consider how the branches of our lives extend out into the world. Deeply rooted trees grow up and out into the world. The roots are where we draw our nourishment. God is where we draw ours from. Are you rooted deeply in God? If not, the good news is that this might be a ‘wake up call’ for us to grow our roots deeper and wider. How did you get through a deep challenge in your life? When the health check came back positive; when the company was downsizing; when your significant relationship came to an end…how did you survive the drought? We survive through the roots we have established. Our faith…the angels God places around us in friends and family…in those small, still moments when we draw deeply and find spiritual nourishment to continue. In some or all of these ways we rely upon the roots we have established. Have you ever realized where your roots extend? Have you ever thanked others for being a part of your spiritual root system? Perhaps this is be a time to extend the root system? “Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit.”
The flip side of the root system are the branches extended and the fruit we bear. It is truly amazing what people are capable of offering into the world. We live in a world that tries to trick us into believing that we don’t have enough, and that what we offer is inadequate. Yet, when our lives are planted in God, the fruit of our lives is incredible. We are blessed beyond measure! We have been given an abundance of time, talents and treasure. I find it truly inspiring to hear the stories of how people spend their lives. They effect their family, their community, their world! The litany of people’s talents is equally amazing when we consider all the unique and wonderful skills people have. And the treasure we have is truly remarkable as we live in one of the wealthiest countries in the world. Time, talents, and treasure…we are remarkably blessed when we are so deeply rooted in God. And the most amazing thing is that, of all of these blessings from God.…blessings of time, talent, treasure…we get to keep almost all of it!
Stewardship, then, becomes this active spiritual discernment of our gifts and of our sharing of them. It is good from time to time to reevaluate how we are being generous with our time, talents and treasure. Through the various seasons of our lives, the ways we are blessed changes. And the ways we can serve God into the world as ‘God’s branches and fruit’, indeed, change as well.
As we come towards the end of our conversation this morning, I wanted to close with a classic letter from Ann Landers’ column. The letter was from a girl who was writing about her uncle & aunt. She said, "My uncle was the tightest man I’ve ever known. All his life, every time he got paid, he took $20 out of his paycheck & put it under his mattress. Then he got sick and was about to die. On his deathbed, he said to his wife, "I want you to promise me one thing." "Promise what?" she asked. "I want you to promise me that when I’m dead you’ll take my money from under the mattress and put it in my casket so that I can take it all with me." The girl’s letter went on with the story. "He died, and his wife kept her promise. After her husband’s death, she went in and retrieved all that money. She proceeded to the bank and deposited it, and wrote out a check and put it in his casket."
You have been rooted deeply in God’s power and grace. Our lives are an abundant testimony to the amazing God who creates and blesses us all. And blessings are, indeed, for sharing. May we actively ‘count our blessings’ and consider how we are called to extend a portion of these blessings out into the world.
Amen.