LIFE IN THE PIT Jeremiah 38:1-13 Crossroads/La Paz, Mexico/Pastor Joyce Anderson-Reed

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1 LIFE IN THE PIT Jeremiah 38:1-13 Crossroads/La Paz, Mexico/Pastor Joyce Anderson-Reed A few years ago, Christian author Barbara Johnson wrote a book entitled If life s a bowl of cherries, why am I in the pits? And I think her sentiment captures how many of us feel at times. We re looking for joy, peace, and fulfillment, and instead we get handed struggle, despair, and hopelessness. How do we handle life when we feel like we re in a deep, dark pit? Last week Pastor David touched on finding hope in the midst of pain and struggle. And I want to expand on that theme this morning by taking a look at the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah is the author of the Old Testament book that also bears his name. It s one of the longest books in the Hebrew Scriptures. More is known of the life of Jeremiah than of any other literary prophet. He was a priest from the village of Anathoth in Benjamin just a few miles northeast of Jerusalem. He began prophesying in the thirteenth year of the reign of King Josiah while he was but a youth. His prophecies were written down by Baruch, his scribe. Jeremiah was a reluctant prophet. He was often weary of the burden God asked him to carry. But he felt compelled to speak God's word (20:9). He prophesied until after Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem in 586 B.C., and his ministry lasted a total of about fifty years. The Jews opposed Jeremiah and his work from the very outset. First, the citizens of his native Anathoth tried to stop his work and even attempted to kill him (11:18-23). Even his kinsmen opposed him (12:6). Jeremiah later moved to Jerusalem, but he endured opposition there also. The life of Jeremiah was one of sorrow upon sorrow. His people whom he loved and with whom he pleaded unceasingly for fifty years continually refused to hear him, rewarded his labor with rejection and persecution, and eventually perished as the result. Because of this, Jeremiah is often called "The Weeping Prophet." Our story today opens with four court leaders, a gang of four we might call them, appealing to King Zedekiah to get rid of Jeremiah. His message of gloom and doom was discouraging the morale of the troops and citizens of Jerusalem. His prophecies were definitely NOT politically correct. Those at the top wanted him silenced. Let s read the story in Jeremiah 38:1-13. (Read The Message version) Here we have the story of a man of God being obedient to his calling, and bad things happen. Not only to those who won t listen to the message he speaks, but also to him, the messenger. I can imagine, as he s being lowered down into the pit, as he sinks up to his knees in mud, that he s yelling back at God, You know what, this isn t what I signed up for! I m doing what you told me to do. I m following your voice. So why am I the one down at the bottom of this pit? Hey God! Are you listening to me?! 1

2 Perhaps you can relate to Jeremiah at this point in the story. You have experienced such a profound and shattering loss that you feel like you re sinking in mud at the bottom of a deep cistern. Special plans were made. Expectations built up. Specific action taken. And then, crash! Everything fell apart. Without any warning, you find out that someone you know (or even yourself) has a terminal illness. Your dreams are in ashes. Or maybe your marriage isn t working. Though you vowed for better or worse, you never anticipated it would be lived out almost exclusively on the worse side. Maybe the company you work for downsized, or was taken over in a corporate merger, and one day you come to work, only to find out you don t have a job anymore. Your job has been eliminated. Perhaps you selected a career that was something you wanted to do as long as you can remember. You spent years and thousands of dollars educating yourself. But you ve never been able to find a job in your field. Or what about when your parents decide to change careers a job that takes them to Mexico. And as a young person you re suddenly thrust into a new country, a new language, making new friends. Change happens. Crises come. Dreams shatter. Life feels out of control. We re sinking in mud, unable to pull ourselves out of the muck and mire. How do we survive? Listen to Jeremiah s story again: And so they took Jeremiah. They threw him into the pit, Letting him down with ropes. No water. Only mud. Jeremiah mired in the mud. But Ebed-Melech, a Cushite, an official in the royal palace, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the pit. Jeremiah survived because somebody paid attention when he went down. Somebody noticed the injustice of his imprisonment. Somebody was willing to go and be his advocate. Somebody was 2

3 willing to not go along with the crowd, but to take a stand and voice a different opinion. Ebed- Melech. Ebed-Melech was from Ethiopia. A country of Africa. Most likely a eunuch in the service of the king. And he had been watching Jeremiah. He had been listening to him preach. He had been silently assessing the words of this man of God. And in the end, he had seen integrity, courage, and an indomitable spirit. Jeremiah was authentic. Ebed-Melech saw Jeremiah model a love for his people that was never reciprocated. He saw Jeremiah model a love from a God that kept trying to save his people despite their indifference. And yet, Jeremiah didn t waver in his faith. He kept going forward. So without realizing it, Jeremiah s witness was winning another soul for the Kingdom of God. And he wasn t even aware of his impact until the crisis came. But because Jeremiah was faithful to God, Ebed-Melech found God, and it saved both their lives. Jeremiah needed Ebed-Melech to get out of the mud, to be lifted out of the pit. Sometimes we can t get out of the pit by ourselves. We need someone else to help us. Who has been Ebed-Melech in your life? Who stood by you when your world was falling apart? Who didn t go away no matter how nasty you became? Who kept reaching out with words of encouragement when you didn t have the energy to even get out of bed? Who pointed you in a new direction when you thought all your escape routes were cut off? Who put themselves at emotional risk, financial risk, physical risk to make sure you wouldn t go over the edge? Who did God send to lift you out of the pit? Brennan Manning tells the story of lying desperately sick on a motel floor in a southern city. He learned later that within a few hours, if left unattended, he would have gone into alcoholic convulsions and might have died. At that point in time, he didn t know he was an alcoholic. He crawled to the telephone, dialed an operator, and asked for Alcoholics Anonymous. Within ten minutes a man walked in the door. Brennan had never seen him before and had no idea who he was. But he scooped him up in his arms and raced him to a detox center. There began the agony of withdrawal. The stranger stayed with Brennan. In Brennan s words He brought me back to life. To a fallen away Catholic, he told me that God loved me, that God had not abandoned me, that he would draw good from what had happened. He told me that right now the name of the game is not guilt and fear and shame, but survival. He told me to forget about what I had lost, and focus on what I had left. Later Brennan learned that the man was an itinerant laborer who had lost his family and fortune through drinking. Every night before bed he spent 15 minutes reading his Bible, praising God for his mercy, thanking God for what he has left, and praying for all alcoholics. Then he went to the window, raised the shade, and blessed the world. 3

4 Two years later Brennan returned to that southern city. He tried to find his friend but had no phone number or address. He called AA and discovered one of life s tragic ironies: his friend was back on skid row. His friend had burned out from helping others and went back to the bottle. Brennan drove through skid row looking for him. He spotted one man in a doorway that he thought was him, but wasn t. Just another drunk who was neither sober nor drunk. When Brennan stopped beside him, he asked Brennan for a dollar. Brennan knelt down before him and took his trembling hands in his own. He looked into his eyes. They filled with tears. He didn t want a dollar. He wanted what Brennan had wanted two years earlier. To be accepted in his brokenness, to be affirmed in his worthlessness, to be loved in his loneliness. Two days later, Brennan received a letter. It was from his friend. It said: Two nights ago I saw you on Skid Row. You didn t see me, but I saw you. I was standing just a few feet away in a storefront window. When I saw you kneel down and kiss that wino s hands, you wiped away from my eyes the blank stare of the breathing dead. When I saw you really cared, my heart began to grow wings, small wings, feeble wings, but wings. I threw my bottle of wine down the sewer. Your tenderness and understanding breathed life into me, and I want you to know that. You released me from my shadow world of panic, fear and self-hatred. Brennan, if you should ever wonder who Ben Shaw is, remember I am someone you know very well. I am every man you meet and every woman you meet. Wherever I go, sober by the grace of God, one day at a time, I will thank God for you. (Storytelling: Imagination and Faith, by William J. Bausch, pages ) Who has been Ebed-Melech in your life? Or, for whom is God calling you to be an Ebed-Melech? When we re down in the pit, sinking in the mud, we often fall victim to the fallacy that God doesn t care. We re down here; God s way up there. God seems strangely silent. Totally out of touch. But that is never the case. Let me offer you a different perspective. Christian author David Mains says, I have come to believe God s silence is a gift. It doesn t mean God is far away, merely silent. And why might God be silent? God wants his people to understand how much his world is in pain. He wants us to identify with the suffering that surrounds us. This is an extremely difficult lesson to learn in a setting where we re used to having things more or less our own way. Our expectations and our sense of entitlement are high, and our tolerance for others and their problems is usually low. But God doesn t need men and women working for his cause that have brilliant minds but hard and shriveled souls. He needs believers who know what it is to be broken. Some of life s most valuable insights are discovered during difficult times. (Eight Survival Skills for Changing Times by David Mains, pages ) What are you learning about God, about yourself, about others when you re in the bit feeling abandoned and broken? 4

5 Robert Browning Hamilton wrote a poem entitled Along the Road that captures the difference between walking with Pleasure versus walking with Sorrow. I walked a mile with Pleasure; She chattered all the way, But left me none the wiser, For all she had to say. I walked a mile with Sorrow, And ne er a word said she; But oh, the things I learned from her, When Sorrow walked with me! When we are in the throes of pain, disappointments, losses, crises, sitting in the ashes of our burned-out dreams, each of us has a choice. We can lose heart, give up in despair and become bitter. Or, we can choose to trust the Lord who has promised to never leave us or forsakeus. We can choose to believe that the God who is with us is still working for our good. The key point being: We must choose to believe. Steve Bell was playing tennis with his friend Bill Rediger. Six years earlier, Bill s 16-year-old daughter Cindy had been murdered, the victim of a random roadside killing. Steve asked his friend, How are you really doing? Remember, this is six years later. Steve still knows that Bill s grief is not far beneath the surface. How are you really doing? When Steve asked, Bill was completely honest. Steve, it s very hard. I don t think I ll ever fully get over what happened. I still think about Cindy the last thing before I go to sleep, and the first thing when I wake up. But we re going to make it because the Lord has helped us. In spite of what happened to Cindy, I choose to believe that God is good. The evil that happened is not a reflection of who God is. (Coming Back, by Steve and Valerie Bell, page 139) By saying that God is good, is not to trivialize or minimize the grief experienced when any of us suffers loss. We all need space, time, understanding and love during those times. But we also have a choice during those times. What will our faith look like? Will it point others towards God, or away from God? Believers must regularly rehearse the conviction that God is trustworthy. Each day should begin with a declaration: Lord, in You alone I find my security. Regardless of the events of this day, I m choosing to acknowledge Your presence and believe You are actively working for my good. We can say to others, I don t know what the Lord has in mind; I don t know how He s going to do it; but I choose to trust God who can do all things---whose ultimate plans cannot be thwarted. (Bell, page 140) Rabbi Harold Kushner learned, when his first child Aaron was only three-years-old, that his son had a rare disease. The illness would cause rapid aging, his hair would fall out, his growth would be stunted, and within a few years he would look like a little old man, and then die in his teens. Writing about this unjust, unacceptable death, he says, I am a more sensitive person, a more effective pastor, a more sympathetic counselor because of Aaron s life and death than I would ever have been without it. And I would give up all of those gains in a second if I could 5

6 have my son back. If I could choose, I would forego all the spiritual growth and depth which has come my way because of our experiences, and be what I was 15 years ago, an average rabbi, an indifferent counselor, helping some people and unable to help others, and the father of a bright, happy boy. But I cannot choose. (Bell, page ) I think most of us can agree with Rabbi Kushner. There are some events in our lives where we would trade spiritual growth and wisdom for the returned life of a loved one. But we don t get those kinds of choices. Our choices are restricted to how we will respond when major disappointments, significant losses, or crises come along. How will we respond? Despite numerous threats to his life, Jeremiah responded by continuing to preach God s message of repentance to a people that chose to ignore him. Although it wasn t his friend, Brennan Manning responded with God s love by reaching out to another alcoholic that needed forgiveness and acceptance. And in doing so, ultimately saved the life of his friend. When faced with senseless violence that took the life of his daughter, Bill Rediger responded by choosing to believe that God is good. How are you choosing to respond when life seems out of control? Are you choosing to turn towards Jesus? Let me close with words by Ignatius of Antioch, one of the early church fathers, as he was en route to his martyrdom in Rome. The Roman authorities hoped to make an example of him and thus discourage Christianity from spreading. Instead, he met with and encouraged Christians who flocked to meet him all along his route, and he wrote six letters to the churches in the region and one to a fellow bishop. He died as a martyr in the arena. All the way from Syria to Rome I have been chained to a detachment of soldiers who have behaved like animals towards me. I tried giving them money, but the more I gave them the more roughly they treated me. Quite honestly, they are like a pack of leopards, enjoying their role as hunters, with me as their prey. Well, that has some advantages. I may as well get used to leopards now it will be lions, and real ones at that, when I get to Rome. So I can make some progress towards preparing myself spiritually and mentally for what lies ahead. All I pray is that when the moment comes the lions will be quick about it. Some Christians have suffered torments because the animals have toyed with them. If my lions are like that, I shall antagonize them! 6

7 Forgive me for writing like this, but I do know what is best for me. No power, human or spiritual, must hinder my coming to Jesus Christ. So whether the way be fire, or crucifixion, or wild beasts in the arena, or the mangling of my whole body, I can bear it, provided I am assured it is the way to him. And it is! All the riches and power in the world cannot compare with that. So far as I am concerned, to die in Jesus Christ is better than to be king of the whole world and its attractions. Just let me make my way upward to that pure and undiluted light. For only when I get there will I truly be a man. (100 Days in the Arena, Ignatius of Antioch, by David Winter and Harold Shaw, Day 37) Let s pray: I wait upon you, Lord. You stoop down towards me. You hear my cry. You draw me from the dark pit, from the mud, from the swamp. You set my feet on the heights. You make my steps firm. O Lord, you put a new song into my mouth. Though I am afflicted and poor, You remember me. You help me. You deliver me O God! Do not hold back! Amen. (Psalm 40: 2, 3, 4, 18) 7