[Propertalk] Proper 24 c 2016 - Part 1

[Robert P Morrison]

Part 1 - here's this weekend's draft.
Bob

	THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY THE TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY
AFTER PENTECOST

	JEREMIAH 31:27-34 PROPER 24 c

	2 TIMOTHY 3:14 – 4:5 16th OCTOBER, 2016

	LUKE 18:1-8 PSALM 119:97-104

	 Do you hear the knocking? Has it been going on for a long time? Have
you and I just noticed it? Or are we unsure what it is?

	 Life isn’t always easy. I wish things were more clear cut, that
everything were labeled, that we didn’t have to decide what is good
and what is suspect, what is true and what is false.

	 Can we hear the knocking yet?

	 Bekah stood in line in Starbucks. Did anyone hear anything like
knocking? Possibly not. Who knocks in Starbucks, after all? And it can
be fairly noisy, even if it is a pleasant sort of a noise.

	 Seriously, though, even if you hear the knocking, do you open the
door?

	 “Tyler knocked on (Claire) Olsen’s door. Olsen was reluctant to
answer, thinking the person on the other side of the door could have
been a scammer, …” 1 After all, this was Florida and Hurricane
Matthew had just blown through, devastating the neigbourhood.
Fortunately, Tyler kept knocking. Of course, this is 2016. Someone
could have picked up a phone. Oh, wait. Phone service was down. Not
one of Claire’s family across three states could call her. They’d
been trying for two or three days, with no luck. Had Claire and her
home flown off in the wind? Was she under a tree?

	 So Tyler knocked, and kept knocking, again and again. Finally,
Claire answered from the other side of the door. Tyler said that he
had a pizza. “Go away,” said Claire, “I didn’t order a
pizza.” It went on for quite a while, knocking, talking, Tyler
showing a pretty fair amount of patience and tact.

	 Turns out Claire’s grandson in Nebraska had called the Papa
John’s and had given his phone number, along with very specific
instructions.

	 So Tyler, as he stood outside the door, banging away, called the
grandson and Claire talked to him, finally, relieving the whole family
that she’d made it, that her house was still standing, that there
was a way to communicate and pass along prayers and messages.

	 Do you hear the knocking?

	 Bekah in Starbucks was having a horrible day. All sorts of what she
felt were wasted meetings and appointments, never mind what she
thought was useless information. The last thing she was expecting was
to hear someone knocking, and, even if she had, she’d probably have
simply let the noise go on unanswered.

	 Or was she the one knocking and she didn’t know it?

	 Life seems to be a tapestry of conflict, of destruction, of anger
right now. Tapestry may be far too refined a word for it. There’s so
much that all it takes is a cross-eyed look and someone can be set off
in a rage.

	 “Rage is today’s ruling online emotion. So concluded a 2013
study of (a) Chinese mini-blogging network … —a platform that
resembles Twitter and boasts twice as many users (by) Beihang
University researchers. … (so much so that) nd we have tothat angry
tweet of yours has the potential of fomenting rage to the third
degree! But it’s not just our smartphones sowing the seeds of all
this discontent.

	 “Edward Wasserman, dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at
the University of California–Berkeley, was quoted in _Scientific
American_ as saying, ‘Mainstream media have made a fortune teaching
people the wrong ways to talk to each other, … People understandably
conclude rage is the political vernacular, that this is how public
ideas are talked about.’” 2

	 Maybe this is why things are so messed up in our worlds. If we get
bad news; if someone says or does something with which we don’t
agree; even if someone makes what, in ordinary circumstances, would be
a perfectly reasonable request, we yell, we scream, we lash out. We
don’t believe anyone, preferring to think of conspiracies and that
people are out to get us. And you know that old joke, “Just because
you’re not paranoid, doesn’t mean that someone isn’t out to get
you!”

	 A writer in a recent article in _“Christianity Today”_ wrote,
“Anger and frustration are everywhere. We see it and feel it every
day. But what’s driving it? According to Rabbi David Wolpe, the
answer has to do with our sense that tomorrow may not be any better
than today.

	 “‘All of us,’ conjectures Wolpe, ‘[see] history as an
ever-increasing march to enlightenment. If you believe that things
should get better and better, then it is infuriating when they do
not.’

	 “Wolpe is on to something, to be sure. But,” wrote the
article’s author, “I believe our disappointment goes even deeper.
It’s not just that we’re not making progress, it’s that we have
this unshakable sense that something has gone terribly wrong. Deep
within we believe that life should be good and true and beautiful, but
it is far from it. And when the information highway becomes a daily
demolition derby, as it so often does, we strike out in
frustration.”

	 According to the compiler of Jeremiah’s prophecies, things had
been in a terrible state in Judah before the exile in Babylon. We know
how frustrated the people of Judah were. They were lashing out. They
didn’t trust many, not their neighbours, certainly not the
Babylonians, not even God. One thing seemed to keep them going, though
–besides the letter from Jerusalem referred to last week. They
hammered away at God. They didn’t stop yelling, and cursing, and
pleading with God. They kept knocking on God’s door, perhaps
wondering if there was anyone on the other side.

	 Then God’s spokesman piped up again, “God hears you, whether
your loud or quiet. God hears you whether your nasty or polite. God
hears you whether you’re totally wrong or totally right – or
somewhere in between.”


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