Historic First Lutheran Church of Pasadena

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

“Pick your battles!”

Those three words seem to be a lesson learned mostly through life experience. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t believe those three words were ever formally taught me during my nine years of elementary school, four years of high school, four years of college and four years of Seminary graduate education. Those words which truly could be studied for an entire semester were not even mentioned in passing. And that’s very sad because those three words are so very important in daily life no matter who we are or what circles we move in. Those three words are an important lesson for any employee, an important lesson for anyone in a marriage or relationship, an important lesson for anyone serving in an elected government position, an important lesson for anyone trying to get anything accomplished in today’s world.

“Pick your battles!”

Sometimes life experience teaches the lesson of those three words very easily and very quickly. Other times life experience seems to take a while to teach the lesson of those three words. Still other times life experience – or at least the application of life experience – seems to fail some people who just seem to never get it.

Even though it may not look it to some people, Jeremiah “got it” [Jeremiah 26:8-15]. In the opening verses of Jeremiah 26 – just a few verses before today’s First Reading begins – the Lord said to Jeremiah, “Stand in the courtyard of the Lord’s House and speak to all the people of the towns of Judah who come in to worship in the House of the Lord. Tell them everything I command you. Do not omit a word” [Jeremiah 26:2].

Jeremiah decided that was a battle worth fighting. It was a battle that truly turned into a battle as the people didn’t at all like the words spoken by the Lord to Jeremiah, the words faithfully repeated by Jeremiah to all the people in the courtyard of the Lord’s House. The people weren’t just mildly perturbed by Jeremiah’s words. Instead, his words – which were really God’s words – riled the people up so much into mass hysteria that they were ready to kill Jeremiah.

“Pick your battles!” Jeremiah’s choices were either “A” – listen to the Lord and what He had told him to do – or “B” – listen to the people and what they were telling him to do. Most of us would probably be tempted to take option “B” – calm the people down, soothe the mass hysteria, save our life and then go and face God and tell Him what had happened and why we had made the decision we did. But that’s why this story isn’t written about you and me and why it’s written about Jeremiah because he chose option “A.” Jeremiah said to the people – and this is according to the Pastor Schaar translation of the Bible – “Kill me if you want, but that’s not going to stop the message. God will send others after me to speak the same message until it actually penetrates your thick skulls.”

“Pick your battles!”

Jesus got it [Luke 13:31-35]. His archenemies, the Pharisees, seemed to be doing Jesus a favor. They snuck Him some supposedly secret information, “Hey, Jesus. Herod is planning to kill You, so it would be best for You to go somewhere else and hide.” Most of us would probably be packing our bags before the Pharisees would even finish the sentence, but Jesus recognized that whispered warning as being just as suspicious as that speaking serpent who approached Eve years earlier in the Garden of Eden.

“Pick your battles!” Jesus sure did: “Go tell that fox that I must keep going to Jerusalem.” What seems to us to be a foolish course of action was the only course of action Jesus could imagine because it was the only course of action that took into account the well-being of you and me.

“Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks, but you were not willing” [Luke 13:34].

The message proclaimed by Jeremiah, which had been started by prophets before him and continued by prophets after him, was still not sinking into thick skulls. People just simply weren’t getting it. They weren’t getting that God is a God of love, a God of intimate relationship, a God Who doesn’t want to scold and rebuke and punish, a God Who simply wants to be properly recognized and respected and worshiped. Instead of mankind being created in the image of God, mankind had created God in its own image: a God of rules, a God of punishment; a God to be won over by our actions, a God to be feared.

“You were not willing.” Those are powerful words. It’s not that God is not willing. It’s that people were not willing. I am not sure that has changed all that much during the past 2,000 years since Jesus spoke those words.

Many people pick their battles even today. Sadly so often the primary battle people pick – whether its intentional or unintentional – is not to be gathered under the loving, protecting, providing “wings” of God. Many people today walk through times of crisis and illness alone, even blaming God for those times of crisis and illness. Many people today walk through times of death and grief and loss alone, instead of walking with their Good Shepherd Who tells them not to fear because He is with them [Psalm 23:4]. Many people today make God in their own convenient image, instead of the sometimes tough work of allowing themselves to be in God’s image. Many people today prefer their own recreation on Sunday mornings instead of the re-creation God works in them through His Body and Blood. “You were not willing.”

Maybe you’ve seen or heard the saying, “I woke up one morning and asked God how much He loved me and He spread His Arms and died.

“I must keep going today and tomorrow.” Jesus picked His battle then. Jesus picks His battle even today. You and I are the battle picked. Just as Jeremiah before Him, Jesus had been told specifically by God what He had to do and, even at the cost of His own life, He could not divert to a different destination. “I must keep going today and tomorrow.” And thank God Jesus did keep going – all the way to the Cross for you and for me [John 3:16-17].

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Pastor Christopher Schaar
Historic First Lutheran Church of Pasadena