August 7, 2005 Sermon

Meet Jeremiah
Jeremiah I:11-19

We step out of our time machine into the year 725 BC. The Etruscans have just founded Rome, which has less than 500 residents living mostly in stone shelters. The Celts, my ancestors, have just moved into England. The Angles and Saxons already living there do not appreciate their arrival. Chinese astronomers have figured out that planets are not stars, but satellites that orbit around the sun. It will take the Europeans another 2,100 years to get that one right.

The twelfth Olympic Games are under way in Athens. Construction has just begun on the Parthenon atop the Acropolis in that same city. Somebody in west Asia invents the lute, the granddaddy to the modern guitar. The Syrians overrun Babylon , destroy all the buildings, plow salt into the ground, and divert the Euphrates River to cover the site. Some things never change.

And in tiny Judah , an obscure kingdom stuck between the great empires of the Middle East , a priestÕs son starts shouting the most amazing things in the name of Yahweh, the God he worships. This prophetÕs name is Jeremiah, and we will spend the next several weeks listening to what his God told him to say.

Meet Jeremiah the prophet. As you learn more about him ask yourself, who speaks for God now?Ê Are we listening?

Jeremiah dictated his autobiography to a servant named Baruch. An edited version of that document became what we know as the book of Jeremiah, the second of major prophetic work in the Old Testament. It begins with a careful explanation of when the man Jeremiah lived and prophesied. It lists the kings to whom he spoke. Note that these verses do not simply claim that Jeremiah lived during these kingsÕ reigns; instead, they tell us Jeremiah, the obscure son of a banished priest, somehow walked into the courts of kings and let fly with the wrath of God. And man after man, those kings sat still and listened.

JeremiahÕs career ended with the end of his nation. Babylon eventually gobbled up Judah. The Hebrews went into exile as the BabyloniansÕ slaves. Jeremiah may have gone with them, but if so, he has nothing to say about the experience. GodÕs call upon his life was to warn his fellow Hebrews about the consequences of their faithlessness beforehand. Once those consequences happened, his work terminated.

The Book of Jeremiah opens with JeremiahÕs retelling of his first ÒconversationÓ with Yahweh. 1:4-8 tells us that God created Jeremiah for a specific purpose. ÒBefore I formed you in the womb I knew you,Ó Yahweh told him, Òand before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.ÓÊ Notice that plural word, nations. JeremiahÕs warnings, immediately targeted at Judah , ring out through the centuries to any nation inhabited by God-fearing people who imagine their country has a big part in GodÕs plan. The United States of America , for example.

Jeremiah did not want to become a prophet. He tried telling God he was too young for the job. After all, nobody in power listens to young punks. But God replied, ÒDo not say, ÔI am only a youthÕ; for to all to whom I send you you will goÉBe not afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you (1:7-8).ÓÊ And God kept this promise. Jeremiah lived a long time, and he did get in the faces of a few kings. Normally that would have gotten him tortured to death. But he spoke for God and he survived.

In fact, God gave Jeremiah tremendous power. ÒBehold,Ó (1:9-10) ÒI have put my words in your mouth. See, I have set you this day over nations and kingdoms, to pluck up and break down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.ÓÊ But what exactly, were those words that God placed in JeremiahÕs mouth?Ê What did he have to say that held such terrible power?

Jeremiah 1 contains two powerful images. God asks Jeremiah somehow to ÒlookÓ or to ÒseeÓ. Apparently God gave him visions. Jeremiah reports the first, a stick of almond. God answers, ÒGreat!Ê You have seen well. I am watching to make sure to do what I have said.ÓÊ This exchange sounds like gibberish to us, unless we know that in Hebrew ÒalmondÓ is shaqed and ÒwatchÓ is shoqed. God makes a pun to remind Jeremiah that He will never stop paying attention, never stop monitoring events, never stop making sure that His plan comes to pass.

Jeremiah then reports his second vision, of a giant pot poised to boil over on Judah from the north. God explains this vision as a prediction that kings and nations from the north will destroy Judah . But why would the God of the Hebrews let foreigners, pagans, destroy His people?Ê God tells Jeremiah the answer. 1:16 : ÒI will utter my judgments against (the Hebrews) for all their wickedness in forsaking me. They have burned incense to other gods, and worshipped idols made with their own hands.Ó

Jeremiah 1 concludes with a warning that prophets are never popular. All kinds of people will turn against Jeremiah because he dares to speak GodÕs truth against them. Still, he must speak. God has chosen him, created him, to speak. And God will protect him. So from Jeremiah chapter one we learn:

A. God chooses and empowers prophets

B. Prophets speak GodÕs corrections against the people

C. God protects prophets from the people.

If all this was true in JeremiahÕs day, it must still be true today. We still live in GodÕs creation. So: who are the prophets of today?Ê And are we listening to themÑor do we hate them?

We have the idea that prophets foretell the future, like gypsies gazing into crystal balls. But from Jeremiah we learn that prophets act more like critics than seers. They correct us. They remind us of what God wants by showing us how we are failing to deliver it. They speak out with great courage for purity of worship, for justice. Who are todayÕs prophets?Ê Who speaks for God now?

Identifying prophets can get tricky. Yet most of us probably know one or two. We might even know them personally. ÊProphets speak words God has given them, words of correction. Speaking these words usually makes prophets unpopular. So who are the possibly unpopular voices that speak correction to us?

TodayÕs prophets are the voices of idealistic youth, the ones asking inconvenient questions, like, ÒIs it truly Christian to make war?ÓÊ Maybe a particular war (say the war in Iraq ?) meets the justice of God and maybe it does not. Prophets make us ask whether any act of violence truly meets the demands of God for justice for all, and we should thank them for it.

TodayÕs prophets are the pastors who have the guts to challenge their congregations to live in the way of Christ without fear for how it will affect giving and attendance. TodayÕs prophets are the wives who summon the courage to confront their husbands about their drinking in love. TodayÕs prophets are the husbands and fathers who act like men of god (not the god of money) and who encourage others to do the same.

TodayÕs prophets speak to billions through the media and they speak to one in the solitude of a family room. Jeremiah belonged to the same prophetic order. Listen to what God may be saying to you through himÑand through his colleagues today. And have the bravery to change your behavior according to the corrections they bring. Prophets speak for God. They do so at great risk. Listen to the prophets.