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.
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