Jeremiah 31:31-34
5th Sunday
in Lent 2012
There isn’t a very simple and
concise answer to the question of who invented the first personal home computer. There
are detailed milestones we could review together, but suffice to say my 42 year
life span covers most all the major developments. I believe I’ve kept up fairly well with the
insanely rapid pace of technological developments that has time-lined with my
life. And as is quite common enough for my
generation, I confess I’m personally and professionally dependent on this
technology and the internet it hosts. I
just have to chuckle when I occasionally remind myself that I didn’t own or
much use a computer in college or even in graduate school.
One of the most interesting and
useful developments in recent years has been the invention of the tablet
computer. This item is even more
convenient than a bulky laptop. It’s a flat, light-weight, easy to carry
around item that stores and makes readily available all sorts of information
for daily decision making and personal edification – from books, to documents,
to photos, to graphic presentations, to emails, to calendars, and so forth and
so on. For the general masses, the
biggest brand name in this biz belongs to the Apple iPad. The
newest version was released just this past week. While I’m happy with my simpler, smaller tablet
called the Kindle Fire, it was still fun to read about the latest iPad improvements
– faster processing speed, cutting edge hi-resolution graphics, and countless new
applications.
I’m wondering. I’m wondering what will come after the tablet
computer. Will consumers need something
even smaller, even more portable, even more powerful? Will human brains become more and more and
more dependent on computing devices to live healthy, productive lives? Assuming so, how quickly will this drive
demand for greater quantities of convenient innovations? Perhaps computer chips directly implanted
into our bodies and cyborg-like spectacles are up next?
Well, that’s enough of this sort of spooky
speculating! Today, it’s that word and
concept of a “tablet” that has my attention.
Be it a computer tablet or a writing tablet, tablets are helpful for recording, remembering,
processing, transmitting and creating relevant information. So here’s a corollary, relevant faith
question … did the word “tablet” mean anything to an ancient Israelite? Can you think of one or two famous tablets
from the Old Testament?
I’m sure hoping the stone tablets
containing the Ten Commandments have come to mind. Hear these words from Exodus 31, verse 18 –
“When God finished speaking with Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two
tablets of the covenant, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.” Wow, talk about a miraculous divine
download! These are also known by the
name “Tablets of Testimony.” They provided testimony about what God
requires people to process for a faithfully productive life – worshipping God
alone, honoring Sabbath and family, not engaging in idolatry, blasphemy, theft,
murder. Having been carved in stone,
they then needed only to be presented to the people and obeyed.
Yet these sacred laws, like the
stones tablets they were etched upon, were breakable. And so it happened as the free will and
fragile faith of the ancient Israelites summoned the sledgehammer of sin time
and again. The process of God putting
holy words into the hands of individual people and one nation by way of a third
party did not fully produce greater fidelity and holy living upon the earth.
The grievous consequences of having
broken God’s prescribed, inscribed law is what jolts us as we read through the
Book of Jeremiah. The prophetic pronouncements rise up from a
place of painfully honest anguish. They reflect a horrible historic time in the
life of the Hebrew people. Jerusalem had
fallen into the hands of a great enemy in 597 B.C., and within ten years the
whole nation was in ruin. “Cities were
laid to waste, national hopes were dashed, and the faith of the people was in
crisis as they were carted off into captivity.”
The Book of Jeremiah “addresses suffering, hurting exiled Israel with a
repeated refrain” about present troubles being the direct result of past
infidelities.[i] The
consistent, overall message is about the ever present need to repent and
“return to the love and service of the God who loved and created” them.[ii]
This unabashedly critical word,
however, is kept in balance with poetic, prophetic pronouncements of hope. Our specific passage today is one such inspiring
flourish. It promises that better days –
days of restoration – are coming, days when God will forgive and forget all
sin, including the sin carried out by all previous generations. It’s a stunning declaration about a fresh
start in the covenantal grace of God. Central to this coming righteous reboot is a
new, core promise – God will no longer communicate divine law by of a third
party or by engraving it on stone tablets.
In the time to come, God intends to write it directly on every human
heart.
Now let’s fast forward through the
ages to the version of this holy promise we know best. This direct download of God’s will and Word,
of the Good News of God’s forgiving grace to the tablet of our hearts – that
is, to the very center of our minds and emotions -- is what was begun by Jesus
on the Cross, launched fully on the very first Easter, is continuously spread and
connected by the power of His Holy Spirit, and will be completed upon His
Second Coming. Jesus is the very fulfillment of the “days”
that were and still are “surely coming” … of the New Covenant that is for all,
from the least to the greatest of human beings.
I’m wondering. I’m wondering where faithful proclamation and
righteous living hit the road together. In our modern age of having massive amounts
of information and all sorts of global social connections right at our
fingertips, right before us on computer tablets – does it all help us in the
daily and deeply personal task of turning away from our sin and turning toward
our Lord in greater trust, love and service?
I have on my small computer tablet
about five different versions of the Bible, numerous books of value to professional
ministry, and access to the internet’s enormous database. The Wednesday morning men’s Bible study
group knows I like to look up New Testament Greek words on it in the middle of
our discussions. And I also keep files on
the Kindle Fire where I quickly find prayer lists, pastoral to-dos, sermon
illustrations and such. It is helpful as a devotional and ministry
tool.
Yet while this all gives access to God’s Word, it can’t perform
the tasks for us regarding what is truly necessary for living a life of loving,
faithful service. It cannot do what
Jeremiah preached was necessary, the very action the Israelites needed to do
that led God to reject third party communication and to promise a direct
etching of holy hope on our hearts.
Modern tablets and ancient stone tablets all give access, but what is additionally
necessary is heartfelt internalization.
Staring at religious rules and
mechanically processing ritualistic motions can only draw us so far into
sharing the mind and life of Christ. Our
knowing and experiencing the personalized Good News being engraved on each of
our hearts requires more from us. In
the very center of our entire being, we also need to continuously engage
ourselves in spiritual disciplines that help us experience the holy hope being
inked on our hearts by the Almighty. We
need to intentionally make time to let the Word of God seep into and saturate
us so that it can readily flow out of us into all the places of this world we
are in circulation. Beyond being told
and reminded in both print and preaching, every one of us needs to come to our
own daily, deeply intimate awareness of just how very much God completely loves
us, forgives us, and, through Christ’s Spirit, is making us holier with every
breath and heartbeat.
In both the Old and New Testament,
the heart is not only referenced to as the center for thinking, feeling,
remembering, and desiring. It is also the
central part of us that chooses every course of action. So choosing to engage in actions that open
our hearts to holiness cannot be done remotely by the likes of computer
processing or by rules stamped in stone.
Such decision making truly only comes from a contrite heart that beats
for radical intimacy with God.
It’s our heart that genuinely
repents of sin.
It’s our heart that honestly seeks the
Lord in every section of our lives.
It’s our heart that inspires loving
and forgiving as Jesus taught.
It’s our heart that pours us out in
selfless service to the greater good.
Psalm 13:5 declares a reminder of
all this for us -- “I trusted in Your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in
Your salvation.” We are also and even
more so reminded in Matthew 5:8, where we hear Jesus preaching the promise that
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”
Another way of talking about
internalization is to call it “application.”
Computer iPads are so popular and useful in large part because they have
a ton of helpful applications. So if you are familiar with and daily dependent
upon this sort of thing, may today be a reminder to regularly reconnect with your
“iHeart,” with the center of your being where God as the great “I Am” is most directly
experienced. And whether or not
computer processing is part and parcel of your daily life, we all need to use
the fewer but very powerful iHeart applications found in the Bible –
applications such as honest intercessory prayer, faithful study that challenges
and inspires, selfless service for the greater good, and worship that stirs up
powerful passion in the Lord who is always … always … directly communicating
and connecting to our lives. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment