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Jeremiah


What is it like to give words and warnings that are mocked and scoffed at?  What is it like when your message is filled with the most unpopular words?  What is it like to spend your whole life speaking words that no one wants to hear?

Jeremiah was a prophet sent by God with his only mission in life to speak God's Word to a people who willfully would not accept anything that he said.  In fact, they became so enraged with what he had to say that they planned to kill him.  Ironically, the very people that show the most distaste for him were the religious leaders and priests.  The book of Jeremiah, chapter 26, plainly recalls this story.  Jeremiah stands in the Lord's house, and confronts the people and priests with God's message.  The message is that you the people have not been listening to God's Word, you haven't followed in the way of God's law and you haven't listened to the many prophets that have been sent to you again and again.  So reality is, judgment is coming, unless you change your ways and repent. 

God's law was (and still is) to live humbly, justly, and righteously.  It was to care for the afflicted and needy, to avoid dishonest gain and to avoid the shedding of innocent blood.  Or as God says clearly in Jeremiah 22:3, "Do justice and righteousness, and deliver the one who has been robbed from the power of his oppressor.  Also do not mistreat or do violence to the stranger, the orphan, or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place."  The message could not be plainer, and yet the people refused to listen.  They sought out their own voices who mimicked their own agenda.

One cannot help but notice the parallel of this story of Jeremiah and Jesus.  Jesus also stood before the religious leaders of His day.  They too refused the very words of God Himself that Jesus proclaimed to them and they too sought to kill Him, to rid themselves of God.  And the story continues to be played out even today with the "Religious Right," the "Moral Majority," who boldly support unjust practices that benefit their power and prestige.

Sadly, Church has become a political statement.  It has lost its witness by sucking up to immoral men who promise them a place at the table of power and prestige.  It has lost its witness by ignoring racisim and those it has affected since the founding of this country.  It has lost its witness as it has primarily only had an inward view for concern, and if it looked outward, it was not toward its nearby neighbor but rather a people from a distant land that only had to be thought about once a week per year during "Mission Days."  It has lost its witness because it can't even own up to its failings with true repentance and lament.  Its response is one only of defense . . . so perhaps it never had a witness??

I knew I didn't really need to respond.  The text was only bait for me to take, and unfortunately I took the bait, thinking that perhaps it could be a good exchange of different opinions.  But not, as my thoughts were hit with a barrage of how I was so wrong and jaded for even holding those views.  I attempted to lighten the conversation with pictures of my joy with Gypsy Rose, but that too was only met with a lengthy discourse on the wonders of this administration presently in power. I marvel at how different the world is viewed, when you live in a bubble, when you only live in majority culture, only attend a church with majority culture.  If you don't really have a relationship with someone different than yourself, if you don't even entertain the thought that you could be wrong, then you continue to see the world in a very simple and ignorant way.

That is the error of being White Evangelical.  You have a myopic view, that is actually contrary to God's Word.  I find it interesting that for most in majority culture, they don't even read the Bible, let alone the Old Testament.  I find it interesting that there are very few sermons on books like Jeremiah, especially during this season of such unrest with COVID19 and racial concerns.  Instead of heeding God's Words and repenting our wickedness in seeking power for only ourselves, we have become like the Religious Right of Jeremiah's and Jesus' day.  Unfortunately, if you read on in the stories, the ultimate outcome for those who go against God Himself is one of destruction . . . No, the story doesn't end well.


". . . But we are committing a great evil against ourselves." 
(Jeremiah 26:19)

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