Grant us wisdom, grant us courage [St. Stephen's Day - Jeremiah 26:1-9, 12-15]

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson

Jeremiah 26:1-9, 12-15

 

Grant us wisdom, grant us courage

 

God of grace and God of glory, on thy people pour thy power: these were the first words to ever shake the pews of the famous Riverside Church in New York.  These enduring words were written by the pastor of that church, Henry Emerson Fosdick.  Originally set to the tune Regent Square, the hymn accompanied the opening opening procession in their new building.  The poetry was actually written for the dedication of that majestic new edifice, a celebratory moment to be sure, but it was also written against the backdrop of the Great Depression, at a time of immense wealth disparity in our nation, and between two World Wars.  The hymn was a prayer, gifted by a pastor to his people, a people living in a world beset by dread and destruction, a people called to proclaim the good news in a time of harrowing headlines.

 

Fosdick was invited to pastor the church by John D. Rockefeller, Jr, who also helped finance the construction of its building.  But initially, Fosdick thought the church was too wealthy and agreed only on the condition that the new building be built in an area less posh than the congregation’s Park Avenue location.  The congregation found a home on the Hudson, not far from Harlem.  The vision of the church, in its new chapter, was to be interdenominational and interracial, radically welcoming, a community dedicated to justice in a world of war and greed.  It was a bold mission – one that clashed with the emerging religious and political fundamentalisms of the time.

 

But a mission the congregation owned and allowed to shape them.  The church continues to live into that same mission still today, almost a century later – still challenging the wider Church and the nation to strive for justice and take a more welcoming posture. 

 

It is a difficult mission, sustained by God-given wisdom and courage.  And that means Fosdick’s prayer has proved an enduring one, a prayer as urgent now as it was then.  Churches around the world, across denominational lines, including this church this morning, continue to earnestly make the petition: Grant us wisdom, grant us courage, for the facing of this hour.  Because even as the world turns, and the years mount, it remains difficult to muster the wisdom and courage equal to the evils that haunt our species.

 

The ancient biblical witness, including the passages we read on this feast day, testifies to those things required of people of faith in times of trouble: wisdom and courage – the wisdom to hear the Truth and the courage to speak it, the wisdom to know justice and the courage to do it, the wisdom to find love and the courage to commit our lives to the way of love.

 

These are the traits we see powerfully displayed in the life of the prophet Jeremiah – the star of our first reading.  Our pictures of the prophet Jeremiah often feature receding hairline and long, white beard, and so it is easy to forget that the prophet identifies himself in the book as just a boy.  He was a young prophet called to carry an impossibly difficult message of divine rebuke and judgment – to tell the truth to a people who did not want to hear it.  In the seventh chapter of the book that bears his name Jeremiah preaches a blistering sermon in the Temple – a sermon that he must have preached with sweaty palms and a pit in his stomach.  Or maybe he didn’t; I would have.

 

We don’t get the text of the sermon in our readings today; we just get the reviews.  Today’s passage is what Jeremiah heard in the receiving line after church.  After this particular sermon the response was not terribly positive.  They shouted, “You shall die!”  So I think that means they didn’t love it…

 

This chapter takes place during the reign of King Jehoiakim, a king, who is viewed very negatively in the biblical tradition.  He was a model of disobedience and a symbol of the moral decay of the nation during Jeremiah’s life.  So it does not surprise us that Jeremiah’s message is aggressively prophetic; neither are we surprised that the king is not pleased with the substance of the prophetic message.

 

Jeremiah presents the leaders of his nation a choice; the fate of the city is in the hands of the establishment elites, the rich and the powerful – given their history of misdeeds, their greed and violence, this seems destined to go poorly.  Jeremiah makes the decision abundantly clear: Torah obedience (like do justice, love mercy, walk humbly with God) or destruction.  Now that seems like a fairly easy choice.  But keep reading the book, or keep living in the world, and you will discover that destruction is, sadly, a popular choice.

 

Jeremiah does not try to introduce something new or novel; he calls for the people to keep to the ancient covenant to which they had once committed themselves: to be people of truth, justice, and love.  To, as we would say, strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being.  It was a call to repentance, a call to holiness, a call to change, and it was not appreciated.  In fact, in the book of the prophet it is considered it treason because the people see this challenge, not as theological, but as speech intended to threaten the political norms of the day; they did not want politics in the pulpit.  And in a sense they were right: it was too political – because a call for justice is always both; the prophetic word, while theological at its core, always undermines political policies of domination and exploitation.

 

What is interesting in this text is that the leaders never claim that the prophet’s word is wrong or invalid, only that it is prohibited.  They do not want to hear it.  The truth is unwelcome.  The people want to believe, as people often do, that silencing the word will make it come untrue. 

 

Being about the work of God in this world is dangerous work.  And that is why we lift up Fosdick’s prayer still today: grant us wisdom, grant us courage - the wisdom to hear the Truth and the courage to speak it, the wisdom to know justice and the courage to do it, the wisdom to find love and the courage to commit our lives to the way of love.

 

Our patron, St. Stephen, understands as well as anyone in history just how dangerous it is to be about the work of God in this world.  We remember Stephen because of his courageous death.  But that death was preceded by a quiet life, a holy life.  Stephen was chosen to feed people. The twelve apostles were finding it difficult to keep up with the pastoral needs of a rapidly growing Christian community. The administrative tasks were piling up. Juggling paperwork and emails and budgets and questions about the ventilation system was making it increasingly difficult to meet all of the pastoral needs of the community. I get that. Frankly I consider this section one of the most believable stories in the entire Bible. And so these frazzled disciples choose and commission seven men to help them out, to care for the poor and distribute the food. 

 

Stephen was the first chosen.  The author of Acts tells us that he was chosen because he was full of the Holy Spirit and of wisdom.  The rest of his story and the rest of his life will reveal that God granted him courage in addition to wisdom.  Like Jeremiah, he preached a stunningly unpopular sermon that, rather than reasoned debate, stirred up rage and violence.  Stephen was a deacon, martyr, prophet.  And for us, an example of the wisdom and courage required for the facing of this hour - the wisdom to hear the Truth and the courage to speak it, the wisdom to know justice and the courage to do it, the wisdom to find love in this world and the courage to commit our lives to the way of love.

 

Just as Jeremiah was made for his moment, and Stephen for the early days of Church, so are we called to live in this moment.  And we, like them, are called to do so with all the wisdom and courage we can beg from God.  So that in this age of greed and violence, in this age of misinformation and manipulation, in this age of domination and exploitation, we might witness to a better possibility – a world that looks and acts more like Heaven.  And that is why we continue to pray: grant us wisdom, grant us courage - the wisdom to hear the Truth and the courage to speak it, the wisdom to know justice and the courage to do it, the wisdom to find love in this world and the courage to commit our lives to it.