S4 Episode 23: Jeremiah 31:1-6

Translation: Common English Bible (CEB)

3 Questions:

What word, phrase or image strikes you in this text?

Toward what is God calling you in this text?

What does unfailing love feel like?

Additional texts:

Acts 10:34-43

Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24

Colossians 3:1-4

Matthew 28:1-10

John 20:1-18 (alternate)

Transcript

00:02.07
Kevin Shock
Welcome back to Tend, friends. Today is one of those days where I gotta confess I'm getting to the point where I just feel like taking a little nap.

00:15.48
Nathan Pile
Nice. Right.

00:16.02
Kevin Shock
Which, it's still before noon, so I don't know how that bodes for the rest of the day. Especially since I...

00:28.54
Kevin Shock
Um, we'll have to do things that are less enjoyable to do than record podcast episodes after this is done. Nothing like terrible, just like emails and paperwork and ah meeting agendas and things like that. You know, all the, all the really enriching stuff of ministry.

00:47.77
Kevin Shock
Um, but necessary stuff of ministry. Yesterday, I know part of the reason I'm tired is because yesterday was an enriching day. ah And sometimes I know we've discussed this before, Nathan, but sometimes um as pastors, we are just on all day long.

01:07.70
Kevin Shock
And even when it's good stuff, it just it just takes a lot out of you. So my I was out the door around 5:30 yesterday morning and then got back around 7 pm And.

01:12.89
Nathan Pile
Sure, sure.

01:23.45
Kevin Shock
and Great day of ministry. But also then my watch was telling me as I was driving home from Altoona, um your body battery is very depleted today.

01:35.21
Kevin Shock
And I thought, yeah, it, it is.

01:35.85
Nathan Pile
Mmm. Yeah. That's a true thing.

01:39.15
Kevin Shock
It is.

01:39.34
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

01:39.95
Kevin Shock
Yeah. So anyway. It's nice to have ah some time when I'm, when I really can do things like emails, because it means that I'm just usually working from home, but also to talk about scripture. And I'm excited to talk about what we're talking about today, because I don't know that we've talked about it before. um This is one of the... At the end of our last episode, you heard me talk a little bit about provisional readings for...

02:12.44
Kevin Shock
holy week in the Easter season and uh, this, we're looking at a provisional reading a, it, but it is, it, it has been listed as an alternate on for Easter Sunday for a while it's just and so it's the alternate reading it's the um Hebrew scripture reading that can be read in place of Acts or move Acts to later in the, ah use that as the second lesson. But anyway, today we're looking at um a passage that I know I have never preached on on Easter Sunday. and um And I don't think I've ever really even talked about it either in relationship to Easter Sunday, or maybe at all.

02:57.40
Kevin Shock
But it is Jeremiah 31,

02:57.72
Nathan Pile
Mmm.

03:01.09
Kevin Shock
verses 1 through 6. We're looking at the Common English Bible Translation. And as with every week, we are utilizing three questions to dig into the Word.

03:13.88
Kevin Shock
What word, phrase, or image strikes you in this text? Toward what is God calling you in this text? And what does unfailing love feel like?

03:25.46
Nathan Pile
Mmm. Some information about your hosts. We're men married to women in financially stable households, white, firmly in middle age, college and seminary educated.

03:36.66
Nathan Pile
We work in the Lutheran Church and we're born and raised in Western Pennsylvania. All of this affects how we read scripture and discuss it, but none of this makes us better able to read and discuss scripture than anyone else.

03:49.02
Nathan Pile
We believe that the wisdom of scripture is the whole community's compiled interpretation for life with God and one another. So we want to know what you hear and think from your life experience as you wrestle with scripture. And again, you can do that social media or email.

04:08.92
Nathan Pile
Our reading, Jeremiah. Chapter 31.

04:16.95
Nathan Pile
At that time, declares the Lord, I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be my people. The Lord proclaims, The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness.

04:33.94
Nathan Pile
As Israel searched for a place of rest, the Lord appeared to them from a distance. I have loved you, with a love that lasts forever. And so with unfailing love, I have drawn you to myself.

04:49.43
Nathan Pile
Again, I will build you up and you will be rebuilt, virgin Israel. Again, you will play your tambourines and dance with joy.

05:03.45
Nathan Pile
Again, you will plant vineyards on the hills of Samaria. Farmers will plant and then enjoy the harvests. The time will come when the watchmen shout from the highlands of Ephraim, Get ready.

05:19.37
Nathan Pile
You're going up to Zion, to the Lord our God.

05:26.90
Nathan Pile
if you're listen If you're meeting with a group, you and you can pause the podcast now and engage the questions on your own. Or you can listen to Kevin here as he answers questions. What word, phrase, or image strikes you in this text?

05:45.92
Nathan Pile
Kevin, you're muted.

05:50.94
Kevin Shock
Thanks, I am. I was. um

05:53.21
Nathan Pile
he was talking to everybody. It looked like he had a really profound thing that he was saying.

05:58.14
Kevin Shock
Now I have to change what I was saying to make it sound profound. um here are,

06:04.38
Nathan Pile
It, it just looked profound, maybe. so

06:06.36
Kevin Shock
in this, In this short reading, there are many images that really I love. um

06:12.44
Nathan Pile
yeah

06:14.23
Kevin Shock
But I'll just go with the first one. and

06:20.12
Kevin Shock
I

06:23.82
Kevin Shock
don't know exactly what it means, but it's right in verse 2. The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness. I guess, I mean, is that a reference back to the Exodus?

06:36.40
Kevin Shock
I guess it is.

06:37.11
Nathan Pile
I would think so. Yeah, that's yeah that's where how I took it.

06:38.55
Kevin Shock
Yeah, yeah. I don't know, something about that...

06:45.78
Kevin Shock
Something about that line, found grace in the wilderness. um I don't think that that's... Those aren't always compatible words, grace and wilderness.

06:57.69
Kevin Shock
um I mean, when we think about Jesus, he finds temptation in the wilderness. and And probably grace, too, but in a... Not in a way that we think about... don't know, there's just something about that... ah About the image of people wandering...

07:14.97
Kevin Shock
And it we can we can think of the people in the Exodus, but also just anyone you want to think about who's in a wilderness time, whether it's spiritually or whatever it is. um And finding grace there is just a

07:33.72
Kevin Shock
a... it, It lightens my heart or lightens my load to think that... um grace is something that we can find or something that I don't know.

07:48.31
Kevin Shock
I don't know if grace finds us or if, if we find grace or grace finds us in the wilderness. So yeah, that, that image of grace in the wilderness is something that really captures my attention.

08:07.37
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

08:08.09
Kevin Shock
Yeah.

08:08.77
Nathan Pile
Well, and as you said, there's so many places here um that caught my um interest about what it, you know, What are we talking about?

08:19.10
Nathan Pile
So it was easy for me to, I had a couple in case you so you took one of mine, but you didn't take the again, again, again, a four and five was was the, um you know, kind of mantra building what it felt like a little bit was like a snowball coming down a mountain, right?

08:28.86
Kevin Shock
Mm-hmm.

08:34.86
Nathan Pile
Like it, it was building momentum of what God was going to be doing here. um

08:41.83
Kevin Shock
Mm-hmm.

08:42.84
Nathan Pile
Again, I will build you up.

08:45.34
Nathan Pile
Now I am curious about, and you will be rebuilt virgin Israel. So new Israel. um

08:57.19
Kevin Shock
Hmm, don't know.

08:58.58
Nathan Pile
Kind of a thing, but, but the again was really the part that that kind of caught me. The dancing, the tambourines, um you'll plant vineyards. So this idea that God is, is bringing Israel back to life.

09:13.66
Nathan Pile
um was kind of the thing that that caught me here, caught my my attention um and kind of pulled me to towards um the momentum that the you know Jeremiah is communicating here of of god's um God's love and and that that love is being turned into they're, you know, it's ah it's always been a part of their relationship, but this relationship, God is going to help them rebuild me, you know, to make them the, the, the country of Israel again.

09:55.41
Nathan Pile
And so that idea of, again, again, again, um kind of building that momentum, I guess, uh, was kind of what struck me, uh, as how, how God was going to make this happen.

10:08.70
Nathan Pile
So,

10:12.62
Kevin Shock
Hmm. No. Well, I went to, um,

10:25.59
Kevin Shock
I went to, uh, a, the Alter translation. Cause I know that Robert Alter makes copious notes about things.

10:35.98
Nathan Pile
Ooh, you want to, yeah. what, What we got?

10:39.64
Kevin Shock
And, and like nothing. And like what happens sometimes, no, he, he doesn't have any notes about virgin Israel.

10:44.28
Nathan Pile
There's nothing. Oh, he doesn't have any notes here on this.

10:50.87
Kevin Shock
not, Not about that specifically, no.

10:51.42
Nathan Pile
Oh, does he also translate it a virgin Israel?

10:55.60
Kevin Shock
Oh, virgin Israel. Yes, he does.

10:58.39
Nathan Pile
Okay. Okay.

10:58.94
Kevin Shock
Yeah, so there must be something about...

11:00.38
Nathan Pile
So it's definitely, it's definitely the word, ah virgin then is being used. So, um,

11:10.78
Kevin Shock
Yeah, um...

11:17.53
Kevin Shock
looking at the NET as well, yeah, the Hebrew is virgin Israel, yeah, and then uh

11:23.26
Nathan Pile
Hmm.

11:26.94
Kevin Shock
oh um says there's a note on Jeremiah 14:7, :17 which I can go to at some point but um Here the emphasis rests on God's special love and care for the people and the hint further developed in verses twenty one twenty two that though they are guilty of sin, he views them like an innocent young virgin.

11:50.99
Nathan Pile
Hmm.

11:54.07
Kevin Shock
So the NET actually translates it, my dear children Israel, but then in the note it says that the Hebrew is literally virgin Israel.

12:06.19
Kevin Shock
So, anywho.

12:10.49
Nathan Pile
Ah, interesting.

12:12.66
Kevin Shock
Mm-hmm. All right. Well, should we look at it a second time?

12:18.55
Nathan Pile
Um, and now that we're sitting here, I realized I didn't really respond to your reflection. Um, and I think the, the phrase, that phrasing of survive the sword and found grace in the wilderness.

12:25.13
Kevin Shock
Oh.

12:30.23
Nathan Pile
Um,

12:36.86
Nathan Pile
there's something about that.

12:41.43
Nathan Pile
Like, I think in some ways we have to learn or find grace. Cause it's not the way of humankind.

12:50.94
Kevin Shock
hey Yeah. um Yes. I, Yeah, I would say.

12:58.10
Nathan Pile
And so I liked that idea of being found that it's found in the wilderness, like it's 40 years that they wander around.

13:03.06
Kevin Shock
Yeah.

13:03.98
Nathan Pile
So it's not like an immediate find.

13:06.52
Kevin Shock
Right. Right.

13:07.94
Nathan Pile
It's a lived, lived for a long time find.

13:11.45
Kevin Shock
Right, right.

13:11.54
Nathan Pile
Um,

13:13.18
Kevin Shock
Well, and, and I said, I think, um, Nathan and I both at various times in this episode had to get up from the, that's why I was muted at one point.

13:21.12
Nathan Pile
console, yeah, I didn't get to hear any of Kevin's reflection, everyone. very, your very beginning. Yes, yeah, yes.

13:23.23
Kevin Shock
that's, I went to get my book and stuff. You got to hear a little bit of it. But one thing I said, Nathan, is that um Grace finds them in the wilderness. And...

13:33.72
Kevin Shock
um And I still think that that, like, I like that image because it's, it's similar then to the the Psalm 23, what we know Psalm 23 to be now, that goodness and mercy shall pursue me all the days of my life.

13:49.67
Nathan Pile
hmm

13:49.66
Kevin Shock
Not follow me, but pursue me. um But I will say that what I would... just the small alteration I would make to what you say is, I do think that when grace finds us, then we become people who can practice grace. And I think that that's what God intends for us.

14:06.94
Nathan Pile
Yeah. yeah you Oh, absolutely.

14:07.38
Kevin Shock
Yeah.

14:08.54
Nathan Pile
yeah, I think the the the finding of it in the wilderness is meant to change the community of Israel forever.

14:15.27
Kevin Shock
Yeah.

14:18.52
Nathan Pile
Yeah. yeah

14:19.74
Kevin Shock
Yeah. And, and by extension people, the new covenant us it's intended to change us as well. Yeah. Yep.

14:29.63
Nathan Pile
All right.

14:30.01
Kevin Shock
Okay.

14:31.26
Nathan Pile
We'll do it second time.

14:33.72
Kevin Shock
Sounds good.

14:36.82
Kevin Shock
From Jeremiah 31. At that time, declares the Lord, I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be my people. The Lord proclaims, the people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness.

14:50.39
Kevin Shock
As Israel searched for a place of rest, the Lord appeared to them from a distance. I have loved you with a love that lasts forever, and so with unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.

15:02.87
Kevin Shock
Again, I will build you up, and you will be rebuilt, virgin Israel. Again you will play your tambourines and dance with joy. Again you will plant vineyards on the hills of Samaria.

15:15.59
Kevin Shock
Farmers will plant and then enjoy the harvests. The time will come when the watchmen shout from the highlands of Ephraim, Get ready, we're going up to Zion to the Lord our God.

15:29.74
Kevin Shock
Nathan, toward what is God calling you in this text?

15:36.02
Nathan Pile
Um,

15:40.06
Nathan Pile
I think maybe I'll use the word that you, that you, as you read it there, uh, like that we're to be watching, we're to be paying attention here. God is, is, um you know, there's this proclamation that we have, uh, in the midst of, of this reading,

15:56.60
Nathan Pile
um And it is delineated differently, at least in, in, as the manuscripts written here on the computer screen to us. So I don't know if it means it, that it's an older text. I don't see a footnote telling us necessarily that it's from something else. Um, but there's a, uh, you know, most of this verse two through six is, is, um, the proctor, the proclamation of the Lord.

16:29.88
Nathan Pile
but that, you know, of the things that God is going to do. And so, you know how do we watch? How do we, how are we paying attention for the Lord?

16:45.18
Nathan Pile
Because God is going to bring, ah bring about life, bring about a, uh, rebuilding of a nation And so how are we watching for that? How are we watching for those actions that are God's? Yes, this is all proclaimed to us, but I think it feels as if it's proclaimed to us so that we're, we're watching for it.

17:06.74
Nathan Pile
We're, we're looking for God breaking into the world, changing the world as we, as we know it and see it creating a new nation. And so, how do we, how do I, as a, as a,

17:23.83
Nathan Pile
A member of the family of God as a member of the community. How am I watching for God doing what God says God's going to do?

17:34.10
Kevin Shock
Mm-hmm.

17:36.18
Nathan Pile
And so the word was watchman. And so that got that word watch in my head. um And so it says the watchman will shout from that, know, kind of, you know, that piece of that phrase of get ready. We're going up to Zion to the Lord, our God. So, so there's, there's watchman. And I guess there's even announcing, I guess, but I, would the thing that kind of stuck struck me was that idea of we need to be watching because we've heard what God is going to do, but now we need to be watching for what God is going to do.

18:09.50
Nathan Pile
So.

18:09.52
Kevin Shock
Hmm. Okay.

18:12.69
Nathan Pile
How about you? ah, Toward what is God calling you in this text?

18:19.80
Kevin Shock
I think... I don't know how to articulate it exactly. Um, But this... The image

18:29.95
Kevin Shock
of this...

18:32.63
Kevin Shock
The images in this text really bring something to life for me. And um I was trying, I was looking here online to try to figure out who, who it made me think of. Like, that like, I don't, I don't know. hear people talk about this. um Do you see pictures in your head whenever you read something?

18:55.00
Nathan Pile
Sometimes, yeah, absolutely.

18:56.73
Kevin Shock
Yeah, that's a, that's a regular part of my reading. Like it, It's easier for me to read when I am visualizing things. that's why it's, That's why I tend to read um

19:13.30
Kevin Shock
tend to read books of fiction, like read, like read hard copy books of fiction and nonfiction I listen to. It helps me to process it better.

19:23.41
Nathan Pile
Hmm.

19:25.43
Kevin Shock
Because nonfiction often is not like, like the, the pictures don't show up in the same way. um So I'm not saying, I'm not saying Bible scripture or fiction. um ah ah this This prophecy is bringing images to my head. And I had to look to see who it was, whose style was popping up in my head. And it's an artist named John August Swanson.

19:50.20
Kevin Shock
ah who, like, if you saw his stuff, you would know what... You have seen it before. I know you've seen it before. And um paints a lot of religious stuff, but, like...

19:56.53
Nathan Pile
Okay.

19:59.60
Kevin Shock
um It's very, it's very bright um and almost, almost cartoonish, but like, but like realistic card. I say cartoonish because the color is so like, there's so much color in it.

20:15.74
Kevin Shock
And, and that's what I'm envisioning as I hear this text. And there's something about um the people playing the timbrels and dancing.

20:29.72
Kevin Shock
tambourines here in CEB and planting vineyards on the hills of Samaria, um the rebuilding that happens, the dancing with joy.

20:29.80
Nathan Pile
Mm-hmm.

20:41.85
Kevin Shock
that to me, it's a description of work. I mean, planting vineyards is a description of work. Farmers will plant and then enjoy the harvests.

20:53.91
Kevin Shock
um it's, It's work that, I don't know, in just where I am right now,

21:03.01
Kevin Shock
feels very relaxing to me.

21:07.67
Nathan Pile
Hmm.

21:09.56
Kevin Shock
And the the notion of dancing, playing the tambourines, um planting the vineyards,

21:22.01
Kevin Shock
building, building a community and ah and rebuilding along with God a community and a home again. um

21:33.98
Kevin Shock
I don't know. the way that it's described here, it doesn't feel like work. I know that it is work. um And I'm sure that there's work that I do, I don't know. This reading has just given me a very, like it's bringing a sense of calm to me.

21:48.67
Nathan Pile
Hmm.

21:49.30
Kevin Shock
And I think that it feels, maybe it feels to me like a, a counter-narrative to our contemporary busyness.

22:01.21
Nathan Pile
Hmm. Hmm.

22:03.51
Kevin Shock
And it's so it's something, what, what is it? What is our second question? Always, why am I blanking on it?

22:12.91
Nathan Pile
toward, towards what is God calling you in this text?

22:13.83
Kevin Shock
What is God calling you? Yeah.

22:16.12
Nathan Pile
you feel called towards the calm

22:16.12
Kevin Shock
I think God's...

22:19.26
Kevin Shock
But not just the calm the calm that comes with community.

22:23.05
Nathan Pile
Hmm. Hmm. Hmm.

22:23.61
Kevin Shock
The calm that comes with rebuilding. um thinking of that Isaiah text too, you know, the, the restorer of streets, to the, the, the repairer of the breach and the restorer of streets to live in like that. I don't know. There are times when I receive that and, and it feels like it's a, it's hard work. It's a burden. That's not the sense I'm getting here. And maybe it is that grace in the wilderness that gives the framework for what we're hearing after that. But this is, um,

22:59.61
Kevin Shock
thinking of this as an Easter celebration, or that this is red, you know, it could be red at Easter. ah This, I don't know, this this rebuilding toward community is something that is, God is calling me towards, and yet also God is, I feel like God is saying, there's a way to do this that doesn't feel like such a burden.

23:30.30
Kevin Shock
And so maybe, maybe seeking the way of rebuilding community that does not feel like a burden is what I'm called to.

23:38.71
Nathan Pile
Well, and I appreciate your, um, your thoughts here because I agree with you. I don't think I felt it or saw it, but the, it does feel as if this is all an alternative

23:54.81
Nathan Pile
to the world, to the ways of the world. And there's that piece of calm that I all, you know, I didn't identify it as such, but as you name it, I, I was like, Oh yeah, it's there that, you know, that's it's there.

24:01.13
Kevin Shock
Mm-hmm.

24:05.84
Kevin Shock
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

24:07.64
Nathan Pile
um

24:10.46
Nathan Pile
and And it's interesting that you say that it, that it names and delineates this difference between what we feel in in in today's time, in our time, in our culture, and and what God is God's way of being, God's way of calling us into being, community. Yeah.

24:36.89
Nathan Pile
because I'm with you. I think we probably need to spend time as we read scripture to kind of say, what

24:46.97
Nathan Pile
and the, this, this idea of reflecting on what God intends for life and what societal pressures, capitalism, American, even, and I would even say American Christianity, what all of the things that,

25:03.99
Nathan Pile
that it puts on what life should be. it feels like we, we need to search a little deeper in scripture to find things that call that, that point us away from those, the brokenness of some of that, um, of our, of our time,

25:19.09
Kevin Shock
Yeah.

25:22.11
Nathan Pile
aye because I think we feel exhausted, um, and depleted and trying to live at the speed of the world.

25:26.64
Kevin Shock
Yeah.

25:32.32
Kevin Shock
Yeah.

25:32.47
Nathan Pile
And again, it's not a part of God's vision for life, for what life is. I don't, I don't believe.

25:39.08
Kevin Shock
Oh, sorry.

25:41.87
Nathan Pile
how

25:42.54
Kevin Shock
Go ahead.

25:45.05
Nathan Pile
so what was just gonna say so it's like how do we look at Scripture

25:46.46
Kevin Shock
oh sorry go ahead

25:51.46
Nathan Pile
seeking seeking this good news over and over again

25:55.93
Kevin Shock
Yeah. And then, and then how do we turn and look at the world and see it active there too?

26:02.68
Nathan Pile
Yeah. Yeah.

26:03.64
Kevin Shock
how, How do we find grace in the wilderness? I guess it's, or how does grace find us in the wilderness?

26:06.46
Nathan Pile
Mm. Mm. Yeah.

26:12.22
Kevin Shock
Yeah. Yeah. I'm just kind of, I have on my computer screen, I have you on one side and then ah the rest of my tabs open on the other side. And, uh,

26:23.54
Kevin Shock
Yeah, I just, I have this, you know, I went into the John August Swanson shop and just look, cause I, there's, there's one, it's, it's not an image that fits this reading, but there's one painting that I love that has like that people with lanterns at night.

26:28.73
Nathan Pile
Mm.

26:41.08
Kevin Shock
Um,

26:41.25
Nathan Pile
Mm-hmm.

26:42.14
Kevin Shock
And it's just this rich blue. But the one painting that I just pulled up painting, I don't, serigraph? I don't know. I'm not familiar with that terminology. that That's the medium that he worked in. and So I don't know what that means. But um anyway, this, this image is just called River.

26:59.77
Kevin Shock
And it has in the working like from the top of the picture down, It mountains in the background and you can see you can see water at the bottom of the mountains.

27:10.25
Kevin Shock
And then the water starts to wind its way down through the image. And it goes around people who are tilling fields and irrigating fields.

27:18.71
Nathan Pile
Hmm.

27:19.89
Kevin Shock
And then on the other side, a shepherd with the sheep. And then you have, then it turns again and there are women who are doing laundry in the river. um

27:30.57
Nathan Pile
Hmm.

27:31.00
Kevin Shock
and then it comes around someone working in an orchard. And it has ah women gathering water from the river, river someone bathing in the river. um, um Someone, it almost looks like she's crying, but she's in the river.

27:47.43
Kevin Shock
I don't, And sheep there drinking from the river, a human drinking from the river, someone swimming in the river, or a waterfall coming down.

27:54.71
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

27:55.99
Kevin Shock
And then at the very bottom is John the Baptist baptizing Jesus.

28:04.98
Kevin Shock
and the Holy Spirit as a dove alighting on him and shining this bright light on him.

28:23.99
Kevin Shock
I think...

28:29.14
Kevin Shock
um I think what gets me about this reading... and about Easter, but we don't often talk about it at Easter because Easter is about, Easter comes to us in the context of our hyper-individualized salvation plan.

28:44.38
Kevin Shock
Me and Jesus, you know, Jesus raising us from the dead is

28:46.76
Nathan Pile
Mm.

28:50.84
Kevin Shock
what we Lutherans have come to know through in our spiritual, um ancestry through Luther, through St.

29:05.02
Kevin Shock
Augustine, through Paul, is that the salvation that comes in the resurrection of the cross is both individual and cosmic, universal.

29:18.42
Nathan Pile
Mm-hmm.

29:21.69
Kevin Shock
So when Jesus is raised from the dead, all of creation is raised from the dead. And what I love about this image, this Swanson image, is that all of creation is in harmony. And the water is doing what the water needs to do for the people. And the people are doing with the land and the water what they need to do with the land and the water to keep it healthy. And creation is living in harmony. And the resources and the people are serving one another. And at the center of it all is Jesus and the Spirit.

29:59.70
Nathan Pile
Mm-hmm.

30:01.34
Kevin Shock
um

30:04.43
Kevin Shock
I just, that's a, that's, that's part, that's part of our life of faith that we don't, I don't think we lift up enough. And, and I don't think we realize what our, what our collective sin has done to burden creation.

30:25.75
Kevin Shock
As, as I'm, as I'm sitting here and there's a torrential downpour outside because, And we're, I know that as the day goes on, we're going to be sitting under tornado watches and warnings and things like that. And it's a very different image outside my window than what I'm looking at on my computer screen here.

30:44.80
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

30:45.11
Kevin Shock
Yeah.

30:45.52
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

30:47.77
Kevin Shock
Anyway, that's, thanks for letting me. Yeah.

30:51.72
Nathan Pile
Yeah, no, but, and, and if, and if folks haven't looked at ah John August Swanson, Kevin's right. you've, If you've probably looked at Christian art, you've seen his work.

31:03.93
Nathan Pile
um And so, you know, if you get some time, pull it up on your phone or on a computer.

31:04.54
Kevin Shock
Yeah.

31:09.79
Nathan Pile
Computer screen is probably better. It's bigger. and you can see the pictures a little bit more.

31:12.37
Kevin Shock
Mm-hmm.

31:13.55
Nathan Pile
But in some of the detail that's there of these stories of scripture that over and over.

31:19.22
Kevin Shock
Mm-hmm.

31:19.29
Nathan Pile
um Again, I love a good artist that helps us to, to see um

31:30.81
Nathan Pile
to see God at work in, in the, in, in, in Scripture, in the story of Scripture. And so putting it into picture form, um again, I think it helps us to see God. so yeah ah

31:46.04
Kevin Shock
Yeah.

31:47.31
Nathan Pile
Vibrant colors, lots of vibrant colors from him.

31:47.35
Kevin Shock
um

31:49.35
Nathan Pile
So

31:49.37
Kevin Shock
Yeah. Yeah. And the thing that I neglected because I didn't have my screen scrolled up enough is that actually at the top of this picture is just the sun in kind of by itself reigning over all of these things.

31:58.26
Nathan Pile
Hmm. Hmm. Hmm.

32:05.37
Kevin Shock
and And to me, there's, I don't know, I look at that sun and there's an image of the holy there. Like, like this is this is the godhead at the top of this.

32:18.77
Nathan Pile
Right.

32:19.38
Kevin Shock
Yeah.

32:23.00
Kevin Shock
All right. Well, do we want to look at it a third time?

32:25.50
Nathan Pile
Yeah, let's do a third... Third time around here. Here

32:33.08
Nathan Pile
we go.

32:36.73
Nathan Pile
At that time declares the Lord, I will be the God of all the families of Israel and they will be my people. The Lord proclaims the people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness.

32:49.56
Nathan Pile
As Israel searched for a place of rest, the Lord appeared to them from a distance. I have loved you. with a love that lasts forever. And so with unfailing love, I have drawn you to myself.

33:02.17
Nathan Pile
Again, i will build you up and you will be rebuilt, virgin Israel. Again, you will play your tambourines and dance with joy. Again, you will plant vineyards on the hills of Samaria.

33:15.31
Nathan Pile
Farmers will plant and they then enjoy the harvests. The time will come when the watchmen shout from the highlands of Ephraim. Get ready. We're going up to Zion, to the Lord our God.

33:32.09
Nathan Pile
Kevin, what does unfailing love feel like? okay

33:39.42
Kevin Shock
Yeah, I don't um

33:43.03
Kevin Shock
I don't think I've ever experienced it from a human.

33:49.08
Kevin Shock
I've, I've experienced it from humans. Not any individual human, I'll say that. I did yeah um

33:59.44
Kevin Shock
We're too complex. Like we have too much of our own sin and stuff wrapped up in... I, I don't know. I, I keep going back to this.

34:12.66
Kevin Shock
not, Not the painting, but the image. I think there are times when I've been in groups of people in creation where I feel like we're all existing together in harmony.

34:23.77
Kevin Shock
And that's, that's what unfailing love feels like.

34:28.52
Nathan Pile
Mm.

34:30.22
Kevin Shock
Unfailing love feels like

34:34.55
Kevin Shock
people in the world around us all on the same page and, and God at the top and center of it all.

34:39.09
Nathan Pile
Mm.

34:56.02
Kevin Shock
I don't know if I have a lot more to add to that.

34:59.22
Nathan Pile
Well, and, and as I asked you the question, I realized that our first part of this conversation or this middle section, the second time through, I think we led into this a little bit as I read you that question.

35:00.34
Kevin Shock
I'm just, I'm,

35:08.15
Kevin Shock
Yeah, I think we did.

35:10.06
Nathan Pile
um and, And I agree with you. I'm not positive. As I think about unfailing love, um think one of the,

35:28.41
Nathan Pile
one of the times I've experienced it is, is recognizing my own shortcomings and that recognizing that God is still there, you know?

35:35.59
Kevin Shock
Mm. Mm. Mm. and

35:43.68
Nathan Pile
And so, um

35:46.81
Nathan Pile
and so it brings up all of the things that you've been kind of talking about, that beautiful gift of love. ah But there's again, uh, uh, recognizing that my own,

36:00.06
Nathan Pile
my own short fall in this relationship with God hasn't, hasn't made me ineligible for this gift of love and and having that realization. And again, that can be done through the community, through family, through people that I'm, that I'm interacting with and in, in whatever that point of low,

36:24.15
Nathan Pile
um

36:27.27
Nathan Pile
It's not just low confidence in myself because that but that's one of the aspects of it, but it's not just that. It's, it's that, that you feel like, oh, this hasn't gone. haven't lived the right relationship that I sought to live with God.

36:46.20
Nathan Pile
but recognizing that God is still there and placing in my hands that gift of love because of the community at large, because of scripture, because of communion, whatever whatever happens to be the the vehicle that God is reminding me that I'm still loved in the midst of

37:08.12
Nathan Pile
my short-fallings, my brokenness.

37:09.76
Kevin Shock
Mm-hmm.

37:12.08
Nathan Pile
um And so that, that's a part of this as I think about, um

37:20.44
Nathan Pile
so like, what does it feel like? Usually ah a portion of that feeling is um the unworthiness, like that that I'm unworthy for this relationship, but but then still turning around and finding that that the faithfulness of God makes me worthy, that that the love is still there.

37:41.06
Kevin Shock
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

37:44.95
Nathan Pile
Not again, because of anything that I've done, but recognizing that I'm

37:53.04
Nathan Pile
I'm the receiver of the gift of God's unfailing love for me.

37:59.62
Nathan Pile
And so, so yes, there's a a feeling of gratitude, but, but it's like it's ah, it's a, it's a list of feelings. It's not just one thing. It's the list of them that I think makes, that helps me to see the unfailingness of God.

38:15.29
Nathan Pile
So the, the unworthiness combined with the receiving of this gift of feeling loved and then the gratitude that then follows it.

38:25.84
Nathan Pile
So like it's at least three feelings. Maybe it's more than that in that journey of recognizing God's, God's complete faithfulness to, to me, to us.

38:37.17
Nathan Pile
um And so there's a there's a couple of different feelings that that help me with that realization of of God's unfailing love for me.

38:51.77
Nathan Pile
so

39:00.89
Nathan Pile
Any other thoughts you have?

39:04.57
Kevin Shock
I, no, I... No, I don't think so. I don't think so. I'm just... I'm kind of lost in my own thoughts right now. I'm This is... Yeah.

39:17.62
Nathan Pile
and There's a part portion of this here as we, as we talk about this.

39:17.71
Kevin Shock
Uh...

39:22.27
Nathan Pile
Again, at Easter, we

39:29.21
Nathan Pile
we have a tendency, again, as you said, to kind of talk about the saving work that is happening and and our salvation that's round ah bound up in it. But there's a, like, as I think about how, how would I preach this? How would I, how would I lift this up to others

39:48.28
Kevin Shock
hey

39:48.92
Nathan Pile
um

39:51.66
Nathan Pile
It's a different way of thinking about ah an Easter sermon.

39:55.99
Kevin Shock
Mmm, Mhmm, Mhmm

39:58.64
Nathan Pile
Which I think could be very rich in that. So.

40:02.97
Kevin Shock
Sure. Yeah.

40:06.55
Kevin Shock
Yeah. I, um,

40:11.70
Kevin Shock
yeah I'm kind of thinking the same thing.

40:18.47
Kevin Shock
What I know for us, and I'm not, not diminishing this at all, for us Christians, the resurrection is at the center, the death and resurrection is at the center of salvation.

40:33.21
Kevin Shock
um And yet God the miracle worker has been making salvation happen in so many other ways.

40:46.33
Kevin Shock
um at other times, uh, that we that we know about and that we don't know about.

40:58.12
Kevin Shock
Yeah. So, yeah, it, it, it, it may beg toward a different kind of Easter sermon. Mm-hmm.

41:08.86
Nathan Pile
Not that we normally talk about sermons here, but that was a thought here that

41:12.44
Kevin Shock
oh No, no.

41:16.34
Kevin Shock
No, but that really, yeah, it really does.

41:21.59
Kevin Shock
Yeah, I'm just, I'm lost in thought about the this ah this image of restoration and the people. I mean, this again, this almost this Jeremiah text feels like, I think it's ah I think it's a restoration, you know, it's Jeremiah, so he's talking to people in exile.

41:45.21
Kevin Shock
And it's supposed to be restoration from exile. It's also restoration of the fall of creation, the fall of humankind. I mean, they're their singing, they're dancing, they're planting.

42:00.92
Kevin Shock
this is This is creative work.

42:07.58
Kevin Shock
Um... and, And they're rejoicing. They're rejoicing in their planting. I mean, that, that the, the burden, the burden of the field, the burden of labor that is a result of the fall, as we hear in Genesis, is removed at this point.

42:25.21
Kevin Shock
I mean, it, it sounds like it is. It sounds like it is.

42:27.37
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

42:28.21
Kevin Shock
and, And then we have the watchmen who are crying out, let's let's go up to the mountain.

42:35.58
Kevin Shock
where what how How does it say it exactly? I was going to.

42:39.18
Nathan Pile
We're going up to Zion, to the Lord our God.

42:40.31
Kevin Shock
To the Lord, our God.

42:41.80
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

42:41.79
Kevin Shock
Yeah. Yeah. Get ready. We're going up to Zion to the Lord, our God. And that is, um, I mean, that's the, you know, Isaiah's vision too, of the, the feast of rich foods and, uh, all of the, yeah, all of the stuff that comes with just being gathered around, um,

43:06.84
Kevin Shock
good provision and a God who loves us and has wiped away all of our sin. Yeah.

43:19.68
Kevin Shock
Yeah. So that's, that's what I have.

43:23.51
Nathan Pile
Well, again, it's

43:28.54
Nathan Pile
this idea of rebuilding, of restoration, you know hope, like all of these pieces. um But again, this passage is, is, is, is written in such, again, I just really appreciate your, back at the beginning of this, your first assessment of of this calm that kind of God brings over.

43:38.22
Kevin Shock
Thank

43:52.63
Nathan Pile
through restoration and built and rebuilding. um And thinking about how, how,

44:03.51
Nathan Pile
how might we experience that anew this Easter season. Yeah.

44:17.08
Nathan Pile
So, yeah. I just like, I like, I like that image as we, as we celebrate Easter, as we celebrate all that God has done, but this idea of restoration and and rebuilding and hope

44:38.17
Nathan Pile
that seems squarely, that's all a part of this, but, but there's also this sense of of God's presence that brings the calm.

44:53.18
Nathan Pile
So, yeah. Yeah, like I'll have to think it more and play more with this, but, but I do like that.

45:04.76
Nathan Pile
That imagery. So...

45:12.60
Kevin Shock
Yeah, yeah. I don't, I don't know why I'm at such a loss for words with this, but I'm just really, I'm just sitting with it.

45:22.97
Nathan Pile
That's good. I appreciate the selection today.

45:31.06
Nathan Pile
Because I knew we were talking about Easter. But this took me in some different ways than what I was thinking it would. So good. I like it. I like it.

45:39.93
Kevin Shock
okay Yeah, well, let's talk about the rest of Easter then, um the other appointed text.

45:44.66
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

45:47.22
Kevin Shock
ah So if you're reading this text as as the first lesson, you can read Acts 10 verses 34 through 43 as the second text.

46:00.09
Kevin Shock
um God raised Jesus on the third day. Or you can read that one as the first text. Again, this is for worship leaders that and planners. um If you just want to read more stuff and to reflect on, you can read whatever you want. But here are some additional texts. Psalm 118 verses 1 to 2 and 14 to 24. This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

46:28.95
Kevin Shock
ah Colossians 1. Chapter 3, verses 1 through 4, raised with Christ to seek the higher things. And Matthew 28, verses 1 through 10 is proclaim the resurrection.

46:45.66
Kevin Shock
There's an alternate gospel reading, John 20, verses 1 through 18, and that is seeing the risen Christ. And then the, um actually the provisional readings are,

46:58.51
Kevin Shock
readings that we've already covered. One is that this Jeremiah reading, Joy the Restoration of God's People, and, and then the Psalm, Psalm 118, 1-2, and 14-24.

47:09.86
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

47:10.87
Kevin Shock
So ah i hope that I hope that for the rest of this rainy, stormy day, I'm going keep reflecting on these images of, of God restoring creation. Um, that sounds, it makes, it's just really bringing a sense of peace to me today. And, um, and I appreciate the conversation that we had, Nathan, that helped me to get there.

47:32.76
Kevin Shock
Um, and as always friends, um, we like to hear your reflections, uh, on email or social media, um, if you want to, I don't know, draw us a picture or something like that, you can do that too.

47:47.90
Nathan Pile
we will we will even we will point you out like we like John August Swanson um

47:48.34
Kevin Shock
Um,

47:52.79
Kevin Shock
Yes, we will. We will. um But thinking about, um yeah, I'm curious to hear where this text guides some of you who listen to this podcast as well.

48:05.02
Kevin Shock
um

48:05.54
Nathan Pile
yeah and peace

48:06.97
Kevin Shock
So, however it may come, we hope to tend our faith with you again soon. Grace to you.