Let's Be Real

Have you seen Bruce Almighty? It's a halfway decent movie about God going on vacation and leaving a man by the name of Bruce in charge while he's away.

It's a relatively funny movie, which delves into such theological issues as free-will, omnipotence, God identifying himself with the 'least of these,' and maybe most importantly 'prayer.'

There are several scenes in the movie that deal with prayer. In one scene Bruce is driving around Buffalo, New York with his life in shambles, screaming for God to show him a sign. He drives by a flashing street sign saying, "Wrong Way!" He again asks for a sign. A public works truck carrying street signs saying "Stop" Go Back" "Danger" pulls out around him and passes him. Bruce doesn't get it. God is send him a sign, and he doesn't see them. And so, oblivious to God's help, he crashes his car.

But, one of my favorite scenes in the movie is toward the end. Bruce has had several encounters with God - several rather intimate conversations. And then Bruce needs something, and so God tells him to pray. Bruce takes a loop of prayer beads in his hand, furrows his brow, and lets out this rambling prayer complete with 'thees' and 'thous' and a request for world peace. Bruce opens his eyes and asks God how he did. God said, "Fine. . . that is if you're trying to be Miss America."

The point is pretty clear - God wanted Bruce to be real with him, not contrived and formal. He made Bruce, he knew his inmost thoughts, he discerned him from afar - he didn't need to stand on pretenses. God wanted an honest relationship with Bruce, not some beauty queen version of Bruce.Whatever you think of the movie, that's not a bad message.

Our Old Testament lesson this morning is from the 15th chapter of Jeremiah. This chapter is one of the "Confessions of Jeremiah" - one of seven times in the Book of Jeremiah where Jeremiah lets his hair down and lets God know where he really stands, and how he really feels. This is one of those times.

Jeremiah lived at a difficult time in Israel's history. They were bracing for certain defeat and annihilation by the most powerful military force in the world. They were going to 'get it,' they just didn't know when.Jeremiah, a prophet, was trying to get Israel to listen to God: he was trying to get them to honor God, worship him, and ask God for forgiveness for their unfaithfulness to him.

The thing was, Israel didn't want to hear it. They didn't want to hear what God had to say, and they certainly didn't want to hear it from Jeremiah. And so he was abused, and accosted, and beat up, and pushed away - and generally his life was made a living hell.And Jeremiah got tired of it. Here we was working for God, and God was seemingly letting him hand out to dry. And Jeremiah had all he could stand, and he couldn't stand it anymore.

He tells God that he's been faithful - that's he's done right by God - that he's done everything that has been asked of him. And then he says: Why is my pain unceasing, my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Truly you are to me like a deceitful brook, like waters that fail.Jeremiah was so worked up that he called God 'deceitful' - he called God a 'liar.' He said that God had failed, that was a 'failure' to him.

Is this anyway to talk to the Creator of the Universe? Is this anyway to talk to the One who made us, gave us life, and who sustains us through each day? Is this anyway to talk to the One who set the stars in the sky, and set the planets, suns, and moons in their orbit?

Yes. If it's honest. If it's where you're really at.

And it was where Jeremiah was really at.

This wasn't time for Miss America world-peace stuff with a few thees and thous thrown in for good measure. This was time for honest prayer. This was time to be real.God answered him by saying, "I am with you, and save you and deliver you."

The Bible is littered with people who let their hair down before God Almighty. Job. The prophet Habakkuk. The Psalmists. Jonah.

The message is clear: God wants us to be real. God knows our inmost thoughts, he made us to be who we are, he discerns our thoughts from afar, he loves us are we are. He doesn't want some hollow relationship.

I don't talk to my wife Karen with thees and thous. I don't act like someone trying to be Miss America with my friends. So, why would I do that with God?

He wants to have an intimate relationship with us, where we're willing to bear ourselves to him, as he has born himself to us in so many ways throughout human history, and throughout our lives.