The Scattering

Poolesville Presbyterian Church

11.24.13; Rev. David Williams

Scripture Lesson: Jeremiah 23:1-6

Thanksgiving is almost upon us, and it’s a day that requires a great deal from all of us.  We’re a nation made up of people on the go, people who find that making our way to that day tends to involve traveling across crowded highways and byways to find our way to that table.

Which, frankly, is one of the reasons why its been worth it to stay close to home.  There’s only so much life you want to spend stuck in vacation traffic on I95.  

We drive for a day, and we prepare for hours, and the meal seems to last for seven and a half minutes.  Or maybe it just seems that way because I have teen sons.  If you’re not careful near my fifteen year old at the table, you can seriously lose a finger.  

And afterwards, after the work of the better part of a day has been inhaled and a vast stack of dishes awaits, most of the gathered family scatters, drifting off in a triptophan haze to disappear into their various screens.  What a peculiar thing, the holiday that this holiday has become, a day when we travel thousands of miles not to spend time together. 

And there are so many new options for escape this year, so many different ways that we can choose not to spend this holiday actually getting reacquainted with our far-flung families.  There are our iPhones and our Galaxies, filled with apps.  There are the five hundred and forty three Facebook friends we sort of kind of know, with whom we can share artfully retouched pictures of the meal that we just recently inhaled.  Right after we share it on Instagram, and tweet it, and pitch out a Vine of Uncle Don snoring gapemouthed in the Barcalounger.  We can disappear into our PS4 or our XBox One, gaming or watching the Breaking Bad Thanksgiving Special on Netflix.  

There are the traditional distractions.  There’s the game, of course.  There’s always a game, in front of which relatives who probably should be doing the dishes can be found completely asleep.

And for those who prefer to avoid the prep work for the meal, there’s been the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.  Every year since 1924, there’s been a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.  It’s a tradition, this parade of vast overinflated cartoon floats bobbing along above the road, a tradition that tends to remind us that maybe we should think about going for a walk after the meal.  It was, or so the ancient fable of it’s creation goes on wikipedia, the idea of Macy’s employees.  They were mostly recent immigrants, and they were so proud of their newfound country that they were happy to march in a parade on the morning of Thanksgiving.  What better way to celebrate before the evening meal they’d all share that night, as a nation together took time to remember the bounty of this land?

But that was 1924, and this is 2013.  This year, for the first time, Macy’s is offering another distraction, a new distraction that takes you out of the rec room and into your SUV to go hang out at the Mall.  It’s opening all of its stores on Thanksgiving Day.  At 8PM on Thanksgiving Day, they’ll be offering all kinds of exciting doorbuster opportunities to their loyal consumers, giving them a chance to leave the house and wait in long lines to buy stuff that they could just as easily buy next week at just as steep a discount.   

As will Best Buy, and Toys R Us, and WalMart, and scores of other major retailers, who’ll be opening themselves up for a festival of buying on the afternoon of Thanksgiving Day.  KMart, not to be outdone, will open up all of its stores at six am on Thanksgiving Day, and will stay open for forty one hours straight.  

And they’ll be giving their employees an opportunity for a little overtime away from their families.

It feels like yet another way in which our culture grows more and more scattered, as we’re driven from one another into the waiting arms of wolves.

Today’s passage from Jeremiah  talked about scattering, and was a direct challenge to the “shepherds” of Israel. By shepherds, Jeremiah was referring to those in power, those charged with guiding the lives of the people. According to the passage we’ve just heard, the folks in positions of power have misled the people, and have caused the flock to be scattered. In their place, God is going to find other leaders, ones who will help bring the flock back together.

The metaphor of herdsmen and their flocks is great, but it doesn’t tell us very much about what the leadership had done or failed to do.

For that, we have to look to the broader context of Jeremiah, to both historical and textual context.  

Historically, this was the sixth century BCE, in the time of the Babylonian diaspora.  What does “diaspora” mean?  Well, it comes from the Greek word diaspora, which means “scattering.”  It was the official policy of the Babylonian empire towards the nations that they conquered.  Those people were scattered and divided, with some left on the land, and others dragged away into slavery.  

Textually, the passages that come before and after this little chunklet of verses give us deeper handles on who Jeremiah was speaking about. 

Before today’s passage, in Jeremiah 22:13-17, the prophet lays into the royal household of Judah. Why? Because those leaders enriched themselves at the expense of their people. They built themselves huge houses made of only the finest materials, taking from those in need and giving to themselves. Justice and righteousness were put second. Their personal prosperity was put first.

After today’s passage, in Jeremiah 23:16-17, Jeremiah goes after the leaders of his age. What was the message that those leaders were bearing? It was a message of well-being. It was a message of prosperity. Everything is going to be just fine. It shall be well with you. Just keep pouring your wealth into the system. No calamity shall come upon you. 

In both instances, what was proclaimed and what was lived was a prosperity based in falsehood. Leaders used their power to amass great wealth for themselves. Leaders convinced people that all they needed to do to be doing well in the world was to give and give and give to feed king and temple....which, conveniently enough, meant that the king and temple would do well.

But those kinds of shepherds aren’t the sort of folks that God likes to entrust with his flocks, because their interest goes no deeper than their own hungers.

And so this year, as we approach Thanksgiving, we find ourselves in a peculiar place.  Progress, one might say, but a peculiar progress.  Just two years ago, on my first sermon before my first Thanksgiving here, I preached on something very similar...and joked about how Black Friday was becoming Black Friday Weekend, and joked that Thanksgiving itself would be next.

That was just two years ago, just a flicker of time, and the march of progress goes forward.

Now, it’s becoming the norm, as a day of national reflection and sabbath becomes just another reason to sit in lines to buy things that we don’t need from people who’d rather be home with their families.

It feels like a regression, like we are getting weaker, like we are forgetting the best graces of who we are as a people, driven further and further from one another as the products and stressors of consumerism drive us one from another.  And we are getting weaker, just as a scattered flock is weak and vulnerable.

“We’re just being more flexible to accommodate the desires of consumers,” say the executives making these decisions.  “We’re just responding to demand,” they say.  To which I say, balderdash, or other words beginning with B that aren’t quite as sanctuary friendly.

If you’re creating the demand in the first place, spending billions upon billions of dollars on advertising to stir desire in the hearts of consumers, then that dog don’t hunt.

Turning away from that path, though, is not hard.  You have to choose, choose not to be broken and torn, one from another.  Hearing that call to shop as the disingenuous thing that it is is a beginning.

And then do not follow the lead of this culture, not on that day.

Meaning, don’t.  Don’t do it.  Take the time, take the space, and be together with family and friends and loved ones.  Share space together.  Talk.  Reconnect, and use the time to be thankful for life.

Because that’s not just the purpose of Thanksgiving, but the purpose of every day.

Let that be so, for you and for me, AMEN.