Sermon - 4th Sunday after Pentecost - Year A

Jeremiah 28:5-9                                   

                     Peace, Peace, When there is no Peace 

It is every preacher’s nightmare to write a sermon on the wrong texts.  I assure you that didn’t happen this morning; I did simply allow the wrong passage to be printed.  The verses I read to you matched the chapter and verse printed in the order for worship.  What is printed are the appointed verses for last Sunday.

It doesn’t matter all that much.  I could have read the same lesson and seen if anyone noticed, because the reading I want to explore with you this morning is the First Lesson, those verses from Jeremiah 28.  As is so often true, the events and oracles of these ancient characters provides a beacon of light on the world in which we currently find ourselves.  What is going on in this passage is a conflict with profound consequences.  The events recorded here and the events to follow need to be for us a wake-up call to judge the spirits and make sure we are listening to God rather than simply listening to a message we find comforting or reassuring.  There is a heated debate going between Jeremiah and Hananiah.  This is an encounter between those who wanted to believe that all was well with the world and one person willing to acknowledge that things were not as God wanted them to be.

            The story is a bit confusing and the similarity of the names doesn't help.  The story involves Jeremiah, Hananiah, and Zedekiah.  It has its origins during the time that the people of God were divided into two nations.  Judah is the southern kingdom whose capital is Jerusalem.  In 597 B.C.E., the Babylonians had overrun Jerusalem, hauling into exile many of the nation's leaders, including its reli­gious leaders.  The temple was ransacked; the sacred furnishings removed. 

            A puppet king had been placed on the throne.  Zedekiah was his name.  Even though he had the title of king, it was the Babylonian King, Nebuchadnezzar, who called the shots.  You might say it was the worst of times.

            Amid the brokenness and feelings of abandonment, there arose individuals who wanted to soothe the ills of the people.  They came, speaking a message which was very popular.  One such person was Hananiah.  As a prophet, Hananiah attracted the favor of King Zedekiah and was welcomed into the temple court.  Hananiah become a house prophet.  When he spoke, he spoke with the King's blessings.  Hananiah spoke a message which the King (and the people) liked to hear.  He told them that things were not so bad.  He claimed that God had sent him to announce that in less than two years, the rule of Babylon would end, and Judah would be restored.  He continued to speak of God’s favor and to deny that there were any reasons to examine their personal lives and patterns of living.  Hananiah spoke a word which the people liked.  They listened to him and believed that things were basically okay.

            But then along came Jeremiah.  And Jeremiah was convinced that Hananiah did not speak God's word.  Jeremiah understood himself to have been sent by God to tell the people that their trials were only beginning.  Jeremiah stood in opposition to the Don't worry - Be happy! message proclaimed by Hananiah.  Jeremiah told the people they did need to worry - they needed to worry about their lack of faithful­ness and their disobedience before God.  Because of their unwilling­ness to listen to the Word of God, the people of Judah would continue to suffer under the domination of Nebuchadnezzar. 

            To symbolize this domination, Jeremiah fashioned a yoke out of straps and wooden bars, and he wore it around his neck.  Wearing this yoke, Jeremiah spoke of the burden the people of Judah must bear.

            It was a classic battle, a perfect confrontation between those who insist that things are fine and those who realize that things are not as God would have them to be.

            It seems that we also live in such a world.  Too often, the divisions among us are not merely what one prefers but they also become attacks on character.  There is labeling and name calling and attempts to portray the other as the very embodiment of evil.  Why is there such resistance to admitting the whole truth regarding systemic racism?  And how does the wearing of facial coverings become a “god-given right”, rather than a simple act of caring for neighbor?  As the people of God - as the disciples of Jesus – we need to examine these things not merely as swings in public opinion but as confrontations between what God would ask of us and what it is that others would have us do.

            When Jeremiah comes into the ransacked temple, wearing his yoke, he upsets the mood which Hananiah had worked so hard to create.  Jeremiah was an affront to Hananiah's insistence that peace would soon return to Jerusalem.  A little later in the story, Hananiah takes the yoke from around Jeremiah's neck, breaks it into pieces and says, "This is how (the Lord) will break the yoke of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon from the neck of all the nations."  Hananiah is insistent that God will not allow the people of Judah to continue to suffer.  He wants the people to hold on to his message that good times are about to come.  He will not utter a word calling for repentance.

            Jeremiah himself would like to believe that this will be the case.  When Hananiah confronts him, Jeremiah is the first to say, "Amen!  May the Lord do so;  may the Lord fulfill the words that you have prophesied."  Jeremiah does not want to be right - he does not want the people to continue to suffer under the yoke of slavery - BUT he is unwilling to allow peace to come at the expense of God's word.  He will not keep silent because he knows that things are not as God would have them to be.  Jeremiah will not remain silent so long as the people of God do not measure up to the title which God had given them.  Jeremiah will not rest until God's sons and daughters begin to live as people of God.

            It is a conflict between those who want to believe that things are just fine and those who understand that we are not yet the people God wants us to be.

            What are we to make of the protests and riots related to the deaths of sisters and brothers with dark skin tones?  How are we to react to the continued detention of emigrants in centers being overwhelmed by COVID cases?  These are conflicts which strike at the very core of what it means to be a follower of Jesus and one whose primary source of information is God’s Word.

            Hananiah's message is very attractive.  We like to hear and would love to believe that all is right with the world.  Jeremiah's critique of Hananiah is that he prophesied, peace, peace when there is no peace.  Jeremiah would not allow the sons and daughters of God to look for external tranquility until they had established internal harmony through God.  Jeremiah knew that true peace can only come as a gift from God.  If you want peace, you must work for justice.

            After Hananiah breaks the yoke Jeremiah had fashioned from wooden bars and straps, Jeremiah makes another one - this time he makes a yoke of metal.  He returns to tell Hananiah that the yoke of wood will become a yoke of iron.  Jeremiah also tells Hananiah that because of his rebellion he will die.  The 28th chapter of the book of Jeremiah ends with the simple notation:  In that same year, in the seventh month, the prophet Hananiah died.

            Let us commit ourselves to becoming the people God has called us to be.  Let us work for a society in which justice flows like a mighty river.

Amen.

Sermon - Pentecost 3 - Year A

Jeremiah 20:7-13 & Matthew 10:24-33 

A Little Odd - Unable to be Silent

            One of the items hanging on the wall or our home, is this photo.  It is of a piece of art, painted by Howard Finster.  He is an artist of some note - with several items displayed at the Smithsonian.  Fans of the Talking Heads musical group or R.E.M. will remember that Howard Finster provided the artwork for album covers.  He does good work, but he is a little bit odd.

            He claims to have been visited by spacemen.  Not just once, but with some regularity.  He also speaks of the visits that he has made to other plants and through his work tries to share with others what he has seen.  Finster does good work, but he is a little bit odd.

            Now, all of this wouldn't be so interesting to us where it not for one of the idiosyncrasies which contributes to Finster's oddity.  While most described him as an artist, Finster preferred to speak of himself as a "Man of Vision."  He also introduces him­self to others as "The Reverend Howard Finster."  For him, art is the medium through which he proclaims the word of God.

            This photo is one of his works.  This is actually an old tin plate, which Finster painted.  My wife was an art major at the University of Georgia and one of her classes took a field trip to Finster's home in Trion.  She saw this plate and asked for permission to photograph it.

            The inscription on the plate reads:  "Jesus has been so real to me I would never be willing to quit until every person on earth has found him for them­selfs".  I am told that the plate is even more striking than the photograph.  It is good work, but you do wonder about the person who would make such a thing.

            "Jesus has been so real to me I would never be willing to quit until every person on earth has found him for them­selfs".  For the thirty-seven years that I have been married to Laura I have been looking at that plate and thinking about the Rev. Howard Finster.  In that time, I have come to wonder what it is that the world finds most peculiar about him.  Is it the other worldliness of his art?  Or could it be this undying dedication to the one who is so real to him he will never quit?  Maybe Finster speaks a different language, lives in a different world precisely because he insists on every person experiencing the realness of his Christ.

            All those who possess a ceaseless devotion to the God of the Hebrews experience the world's critique.  In today's reading from the book of Jeremiah, we hear the prophet's lament at the terrible cost of faithfulness.  The prophet cries out, "I have become a laughingstock all day long;  everyone mocks me."  Later in the passage he continues, "All my close friends are watching for me to stumble."

            These are not a few isolated verses.  We hear this in the whole of Jere­miah's writings.  Today's reading is the fifth of a series of six laments, each of which cries out against the injustice experienced by the prophet.  Those to whom he is sent to speak plot against him, they plan for his execution, denounce him and his message.  Finally. the prophet screams at God, "Do not become a terror to me!" (Jere 17.17a) And again, "Is evil a recompense for good?" 

            The prophet Jeremiah did good work, but he was considered "odd" by his contemporaries.  They wanted very little to do with him - he was just too ... wrapped up in this "God thing."  Because he was never willing to quit; he was looked upon suspiciously.  He was criticized; he was labeled as "odd" and there­fore of no real consequence.

            But is this not the reaction or treatment of all those who speak the word of God?

            Think of the times and places where you have found it impossible to quit.  The situations in which it was impossible to remain silent, to withhold the gospel message.  Perhaps it was a social gathering where the jokes turned racist.  Speaking the word of Christ, refusing to allow bigotry, makes us a little bit odd.  Perhaps it was the office of IRS investigator.  Justifying or explaining the ten percent of your income, given tot support the work of the church.  Perhaps it came while standing at the bedside of a sick and dying friend.  Doc­tors and nurs­es work to ease the pain while social workers make arrangements for spouse and children;  and there you stand, offer­ing a silent and modest prayer.

            Speaking the word of God will always make us seem a little­ bit odd.  The world around us is unprepared for it, unwilling to accept it, unable to live with the commitment which is Christian faith.  Being a person of faith will forever place us out of step with those around us.

            So why do we do it?  The cute answer is that we do it be­cause of the payoff.  You've seen the bumper stickers:  "Warning:  In case of the Rapture this vehicle will become driv­erless,” “Heaven is my home," or the ever popular "Ministry:  it doesn't pay much but the benefits are out of this world."  Interesting to me is how popular all that stuff has become when there is never any of it in scripture.

            St. Paul says he counts it all as lost for "the joy" of serving Christ.  Jesus' encouragement "great will be your reward in heaven" is coupled with the proclamation, "the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand."

            The characters in the bible speak this word and do this work for a much different reason.  They speak because they find it impossible to remain silent.  Look back at Jeremiah.  There, in verse nine we see this disciple's motivation.  He decides, in his mind, that he will not mention (God), or speak any more in (God's) name.   That will bring an end to all this - all he has to do is to stop telling the story.  And so that is what he de­cides he is going to do.

            But after a while, his foot starts to shake, his head starts to itch and within him there is something like a burning fire shut up in (his) bones.   He grows weary with holding it in, and ... cannot.   Jeremiah has to speak.  He has to proclaim the word of God because God has been so real to him he is unwilling to quit until every person on earth has experienced this realness.

            The prophets, the disciples, they don't speak of some reward in the sweet-by-and-by.  Their witness is birth out of an unwill­ing­ness to allow the derision or denouncement of others to si­lence God's word.

            I find it very difficult to talk about "others" and what "others" believe.  It is equally unproductive to consider how it is that someone else comes to believe in God or trust in God.  I find it most meaningful to speak of my own pilgrimage of faith and how the witness of scripture has guided that journey. 

            I understand Jeremiah's argument with God.  At times, God is ex­tremely unfair.  At times, God does everything wrong and leaves me without a clue as to the meaning.  Faithfulness leads me into situations where I suddenly realize how inept I am.  Love of the Gospel causes me to open my mouth when I haven't the foggiest notion as to what ought to be said.  Eagerness to serve outpaces my knowledge and I really screw things up.  And so I decide "I will not mention (God), or speak any more in (God's) name.

            But then, within me, there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones;  I (grow) weary with holding it in, and I cannot.

            It is like those experiences - when someone tells an off-color joke and we know that for the sake of the friendship we should remain silent.  But that burning fire will not go out.  Household expenses would be easier to meet were it not for our offerings.  But too much would be lost in keeping that for our­selves.  And while trained personnel know what is best for our dying friend, we insist upon interrupting their activity to utter a word of prayer.

            A little bit odd?  Yes, we are.  But we would find it impos­sible to live any other way.

Amen.