March 16, 2025
Grove Presbyterian Church
“Mishpat”
1After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, "Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great." 2But Abram said, "O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?" 3And Abram said, "You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir." 4But the word of the LORD came to him, "This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir." 5He brought him outside and said, "Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your descendants be." 6And he believed the LORD; and the LORD reckoned it to him as righteousness.
7Then he said to him, "I am the LORD who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess." 8But he said, "O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?" 9He said to him, "Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon." 10He brought him all these and cut them in two, laying each half over against the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. 11And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
12As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him.
17When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. 18On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates,"
Please note: it is in darkness the promise arrives. When things are darkest. When it seems hopeless, life barren. When we think it can’t get any worse.
And the promise to Abraham?
"Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your descendants be."
Now, God didn’t say what kind of stars. Too many to count. God didn’t differentiate and separate some stars in the sky from others. Oh no. Red Giants. Binary Stars. White Dwarfs. Brown Dwarfs. Neutron Stars. They all shine. They all burn from an inner light. They all belong to God.
Unless you’re a Sneetch without a star. “But because they had stars, all the Star-Belly Sneetches Would brag, “We’re the best of Sneetches on the beaches.”
How long, O Lord? How long? Listen please:
Luke 13: 31-35
31At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, "Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you." 32He said to them, "Go and tell that fox for me, 'Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. 33Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.' 34Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! 35See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, 'Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.'"
Jerusalem wasn’t worthy. Which is why Jesus mourned Jerusalem.
It was very tough for Jesus to respect Jerusalem. Its brutal political leaders – Herod, Pontius Pilate --and its corrupt religious leaders – Caiaphas and Annas -- had betrayed God by betraying the people for what this shining city on the hill was intended for. To shine. The corrupt religious leaders and brutal political leaders had failed to promote ‘Mishpat.’ One of those key Biblical words in the Old Testament. Mishpat. Mishpat, meaning justice, judgement, balance, trying to get right what we can get right. Measuring what is right-teous by the yardstick of God’s will and word.
Jerusalem just wasn’t slothful toward doing mishpat, they actively promoted the cruel persecution of those who advocated their mishpat-obedience to God’s will revealed in God’s holy word.
28Those who trust in their riches will wither,but the righteous will flourish like green leaves.
29Those who trouble their households will inherit wind,
And the fool will be the servant to the wise.
Proverbs 11: 28-29
By the way, how do these Pharisees who approach Jesus know what King Herod wants to do? It sounds, at first, they wish to protect Jesus. Nope.
Herod the fox. Interesting how the fox thinks everyone else acts like a fox.
Or is it really them and their agenda to shoo Jesus away from causing good trouble? Of course, their agenda would be whatever pleased King Herod.
Do they really have Jesus’ best interest at heart?
They haven’t yet.
But the Lord weighs the heart…
Proverbs 21: 2
They’d like to scare him off from coming into Jerusalem. They’d like to rid themselves of this meddlesome man. Go home!
Obviously, Jesus refutes them all.
24Because I have called and you refused,have stretched out my hand and no one heeded,25and because you have ignored all my counseland would have none of my reproof,26I also will laugh at your calamity;I will mock when panic strikes you,27when panic strikes you like a storm,and your calamity comes like a whirlwind,when distress and anguish come upon you.
Proverbs 1: 24-27
Jesus? He’s going to Jerusalem.
~~~
“Say Jesus, now that you cast out demons and performed cures, what are you going to do next?”
“I’m going to Jerusalem.”
~~~
Because his mission isn’t to avoid trouble but to get into trouble. Into the heart of darkness.
I don’t go looking for trouble. Trouble just seems to find me.
Do we really suppose Jesus went to Jerusalem and thereby the cross to approve of us?
Wasn’t born to play it safe. It’s what we liked to teach in confirmation class: whenever forced to choose between A and B, be like Jesus and choose C and D.
Yes, he knows what’s in store for him.
Jerusalem: not the friendliest of towns, especially for truth-tellers, for those Pharisees who wish to turn the world upside down. Cities are where you find the powerful and rich, and where the Herods always know better than the truth-tellers. The sin of fanatical religion and nationalism.
Giving rise to Jesus’ lament over Jerusalem.
How sad.
Given every opportunity but wasted.
Good sense wins favor but the way of the faithless is their ruin.
Proverbs 13: 13
Jerusalem has everything going for it but it chooses to destroy its own happiness. So many possibilities for her, yet so little accomplished that’s good and lasting, true and faithful.
Like mourning a beloved who has lost their way.
Jeru-Salem. Named after a local god, originally called Shalem.
Origins of city names. Dansville, for entrepreneurial Uncle Dan and William’s son Dan Montgomery. Jerusalem. Origin? The foundation of Shalem. Literally: the god of the Evening Star, when all is well because all is done and it’s been a very good day, and Venus star shines at dusk.
Day is done, gone the sun, From the lake, from the hills, from the sky;All is well, safely rest, God is nigh.
If only Jerusalem had honored the God of completion and wholeness, in whom those disparate stars come together as a divine constellation, thus peace. Peacefulness outside always starts inside, when your soul is whole and complete, in a good place. Could have been Mishpat City. Well, should have been. You lose mishpat, you lose your reason for being.
~~~
Packing up my files I cam across a copy of the Daily Item, May 1, 1993. A front page article reported how the Danville Ministerium was rallying to help those hit by layoffs. Geisinger’s first layoff. One local pastor was quoted: “The worst thing that can happen during job loss and depression is to withdraw into isolation. We’re trying to provide mechanisms to connect people with people and maintain relationships.”
~~~
How lovely how Jerusalem’s name blended neatly with the Hebrew word for peace. How ironic.
Shalem
Shalom
Salam
Though very little peace in this unjust city. A City lacking Mishpat. Then or now. Let’s never equate silence or permissive indifference with peace.
“My humanity,” preached Desmond Tutu because he really knew Jesus, “is bound up in yours for we can only be human together.”
Any human here choose to be born? Didn’t think so. We didn’t choose life, but we can choose to befriend it, said Jesuit priest Henri Nouwen.
So we come to the haunting line in Jesus’ lament:
How often have I desired to gather your children together
as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!
All God’s chillen’… They were not willin’… Are we? Come on, my little chickadees…
A matter of decisions.
So sad when that desperate hunger for me-first satisfaction, for safety, for security makes you scatter and choose wrong wings to huddle beneath.
This scripture passage is one of the reasons why our Presbytery voted to approve the resolution stating that the ideology of Christian nationalism is antithetical to the gospel of Jesus Christ and contrary to the principles of the Presbyterian Church (USA).
Choices. Wings.
Momma’s wings are meant for us tucked up, cuddled up together. We need to be together. Can’t do it alone. It’s not just momma’s wings that keep us warm. It’s each other.
“What we are looking for is community.”
“That the Sneetches got really quite smart on that day,
the day they decided that Sneetches are Sneetches
and no kind of Sneetch is the best on the beaches.
That day all the Sneetches forgot about stars
and whether they had one, or not, upon thars.”
A sense of community leads to commitment, not the other way around.
It starts with being mishpat willing. Intimacy and authenticity. Its why in Christianity, tolerance isn’t enough. Especially when we get intolerant about other people’s lack of tolerance. In fact, tolerance is failure. Tolerance is nice, nice. And Jesus ain’t nice. Tolerance is the act of someone tolerating you. Oh, isn’t that nice of you to tolerate me.
Mishpat community also means us accepting the painful challenge to do the hard work examining ourselves and responding to how Jesus claims our behavior. What is our self-interest? Where must I repent? What in me must die?
I stand with our late great Presbyterian statesman John Mackay (who took on the fanaticism of fascist, pro-ignorance, Joseph McCarthy) when Mackay said:
It is not the business of the church to create a new social order
but to create the creators of the new social order
-Mackay
Jesus pushes us beyond vapid tolerance, vapid faith, lazy or privileged accountability. After all, Jesus refuses to accept Jerusalem’s sin. Why? Because he loves even unlovable Jerusalem, and seek to redeem her. He loves the people so much, he laments for what they’ve become.
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