Near & Far

Jeremiah 23:23-29[1]

One of my favorite Sesame Street episodes has Grover trying to wrap his puppet mind around the concept of near and far. The whole show is peppered with things close up and at a distance. This is near. This is far. Over and over Grover struggles to bring the abstract concept into the concrete reality. When does near become far? When does the distant become close?

I remember riding with Ainslee in the car one time when she was about two years old. We were within five miles of where we live and she was asking when Grandma and Grandpa were coming again. “Why don’t they come more?” was her question. We tried to explain that her grandparents lived a long way from us in Iowa and that they come as often as they can. We could see the little wheels in her mind spinning around as she pondered how far Iowa might be from North Carolina. About two miles from where we live, we passed a house that looked something like my parent’s home and she asked, “Is that where Grandma and Grandpa live? Is this Iowa?” Two miles can be far in a child’s mind. It can also be near. Near and far.

God’s word through Jeremiah has spawned much theological wondering about the nearness and farness of God. Is God at a distance? Is God close at hand? And what does the nearness or farness of God mean for us?

Two weeks ago we were at camp where God seems so near to so many. Why is that? Is God more present at camp? Three weeks ago a bridge collapsed in Minneapolis. People died. Many were hurt. Every time something horrible happens in our world the accusations fly that God is too far away…too disconnected…from people’s lives.[2] Why didn’t God jump in and do something? And others in moments of crisis experience a presence of God unlike any they have ever known. It seems to me that we’re really not much more enlightened than Grover when it comes to discerning near and far. We’re still trying to figure them out. Especially when it comes to God.

The prophet Jeremiah lived during a time when religious life was like a mouthful of bad teeth – decay was rampant among the leadership and spreading to the people. Seven times Jeremiah said that Israel had become a land “full of adulterers.”[3] In the Bible, there’s not many sharper accusations than to say people are adulterous in their relationship with God. But this is exactly what happened in Jeremiah’s day. Israel was unfaithful to God and it all started at the top – with the leaders.

Just prior to our text, Jeremiah drops the hammer and says that the religious professionals of his day “…prophesied by Ba’al and led my people astray.”[4] The words of the leaders were empty and misleading. They lacked origin in the heart of God. But the moral failures of the religious professionals of Jeremiah’s day went beyond words. Their actions were also sinful.

What causes a leader, supposedly set apart to speak for God, to lose his or her moral compass? Do we preachers get lulled into a mindset where we think God is so busy healing, saving, and listening to prayer (in other words God is too close) that we can slip through a little indiscretion here and there unnoticed by God? Or is God so far removed from active involvement in our lives (a God too far) that our moral hiccups will just be ignored? Is God near or far? You know that I’m posing rhetorical questions yet way too often we open up the newspaper and read about another church leader gone sour. While this is tragic enough, an even greater tragedy is that people in our churches end up being collateral damage or worse yet, lacking their own moral compass, they become part of the problem!

Against the backdrop of these failures, on the part of the leaders and the people, God asks through Jeremiah, “Am I a God near by…and not a God far off?”[5] How would you answer this? Yes and no. No and yes. Yes and yes. Maybe no and no?

It seems to me that we should answer “no” to both parts of verse 23. God does not get bogged down in the local traffic of our lives so much that indiscretions can slip through when God is looking the other way. And God is also not light years away unable to act in the nanoseconds of our need. God is neither near or far. God is both far and near.

Two weeks ago tomorrow, one thousand students and adults converged on Fort Caswell, ready for a week of fun and learning. Two groups of campers took off about the same time. One group, from this church, arrived at Caswell without a hiccup or glitch. The other group was not so fortunate. A van load of students and adults headed to camp and about fifteen minutes into their journey, they encountered a driver who worked all night and was getting sleepy. This driver fell asleep, crossed the center line, and hit the church van full of campers. Those kids never made it to Caswell. The driver of the van died instantly. Several of the students were hurt seriously.

The whole camp signed cards for the survivors during the week. I couldn’t help but wonder as I signed my name, “Was God near or far off that morning?”

Throughout the week, we heard reports of how the media picked up on this story. The sacrifices and commitment that youth leader had made for her students over the years was now stretching out to reach thousands. God said through Jeremiah, “…let the one who has my word speak my word faithfully.”[6] From everything I’ve heard, this youth leader had her moral compass fixed on Christ. She spoke passionately about God’s love and forgiveness. And unlike the leaders in Jeremiah’s day, and too many others in our own day, this youth leader knew a God who stands sovereign over all creation, yet still steps forward to usher people like her into the full presence of God. God is not just near. God is not just far. Perhaps we’d do well to simply say, “God is…”

Amen.

[1] On August 19, 2001, I preached on Jeremiah 23:23-32 at Cane Creek Baptist Church.

[2] See the William Safire op-ed in the New York Times where Safire references the book of Job in the midst of calamity. See http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/10/opinion/10safire.html?ex=1263099600&en=13b217200fa1c9b2&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland

[3] Roy L. Honeycutt, “Jeremiah 23:9-10,” Review & Expositor, Volume 86, 1989, p. 584.