Sermon 3-17-2019 Second Sunday in Lent Jeremiah 26 By Pastor Christopher Miller As we went through Epiphany, we examined some of the qualities of God's prophets. Today brings us a major prophet Jeremiah, but today's message isn't necessarily about the qualities of the prophets themselves. Today is more about the reaction of the people to the message of the prophets, and I think you can probably guess what that response might be. Jeremiah brings a word of repentance to them, outlining the consequences if that doesn't happen. The people, of course, threaten him with death. This is nothing new for the Israelites. It seems that every prophet that comes to them is rejected, derided, sometimes beaten, sometimes killed. But I noticed something as I was examining the passage this week, along with some helpful commentators. The people are not responding to declaration of what they are doing wrong. They're not mad because Jeremiah told them
their sin. Twice, they declare what they're mad about, and why Jeremiah needs to die, and it has nothing to do with them. They are mad because of what he declares the consequence would be. They are mad because Jeremiah says that if they don't change their ways, the temple will become like Shiloh, and the city will be destroyed. Now, we can understand how the city would be destroyed. That's easy enough to picture. But Shiloh was a city in which the ark of the covenant dwelled for a time. The Philistines eventually carried off the ark, and now, as in the time of Jeremiah, the city was a heap of ruins. The Israelites' great offense at Jeremiah's prophesy was at what would happen to the temple and to Jerusalem. Why? Why was that why they wanted to kill him? Because they thought that the destruction of the temple and of Jerusalem would never happen. It was literally foundational to their sense of nation, community, and self that Jerusalem and the temple would be there forever. Therefore, when you have a prophet showing up telling the people that is a
real possibility, the only logical reason is that he is a false prophet, and false prophets need to die. More importantly, however, than false prophets dying, is that false beliefs need to die. As we know from living 2500 years after Jeremiah, these are exactly the things that came to pass in Jerusalem. Not only did it happen, it happened twice, from the Babylonians and the Romans. And it happened because the people believed it couldn't happen. So it brings up a question: What in your life of faith do you think can't happen? Do you believe that you can never have anything happen to make you doubt your faith? Do you believe that nothing could make you put your faith in the background? Do you believe that your faith will still be there, no matter how much you neglect it? Do you believe nothing could distract you from your faith? Do you believe that persecution would never come to your front door? Do you believe that Christian faith will always be a privileged class in America? Do you believe that this congregation will always be here? Do you believe that you will always be here?
Nothing is guaranteed, and it is guaranteed even less by our behavior toward the world that surrounds us. Remember, Jeremiah's declaration that the temple and Jerusalem would be destroyed is based on a conditional: you're not listening to me. And what they have been missing is God's call, through the prophets, to follow God's ways, and serve their neighbors. That is what is leading to the destruction of the temple and the city. There is a lack of self-examination amongst the Israelites: missing the ways that they have strayed from God's will for the world, and thinking that everything is just going to be okay because we believe it is. This is one of the reasons that we have two different styles of confession and forgiveness that we rotate here at Bethany. The confession we use this morning is full-throated and true, confessing our sins in a general way. The confession that we use during our informal services are different. It may be less formal, but you may have noticed that I try to make it more specific. I try to think of something that we all fall into, and use that as the basis of our confession of sin. If we just stick
with the general confession all the time, we may be confessing our sin, but we may have a tough time examining ourselves. Specific Law gets right to the heart of the matter, causing you to look at something specific that might need to be changed. Because the Law doesn't want to make you feel bad about yourself, it wants to kill you outright. It wants to kill that old sinner, because that old sinner is the one that is going to kill you. God wants you to have life, and you keep choosing death in very specific ways, and so God will tell you that, in very specific ways. He wants to show you that things are not just going to be good because we want them to be, but because he provides it. Anything can happen, and that includes anything good. Ultimately, he's the one that works all things out. He works everything for his purpose and his will. And his purpose and will is to kill this old sinner, and raise us anew, in the waters of baptism, joined to the new life found in his Son Jesus Christ. That's why he sends prophets into your life. Not Biblical level prophets, not even people who call themselves prophets, but those who
speak God's specific word to you at a specific place and time. They bring you the Law, and now, on this side of the resurrection, they bring you the Gospel as well. All the specific notions you need to be disabused of, they declare that to you, not because they want to hurt, but because they want to help. And they also declare that everything will end eventually. And they also declare that Christ is the one who will endure. You may be frustrated by their words. You might challenge their words. You might not want to hear their words. And yet, the words may come from God himself. Bring them inside of yourself, consider them, pray about them, and no matter your conclusion, repent of your sin and return to your Father in heaven. That's what this season is about: knowing your sin, that you may receive the Son. AMEN.