C, Pent 13 Proper 16 - Jeremiah 1:4-10 & Herbrews 12:25-29 "Old Misery Guts"

Old Misery Guts; that’s another name for Jeremiah. He was the prophet called to speak the word of the Lord to a stubborn people who just refused to listen.

Jeremiah was called to be a prophet when only young, and when God came to him he objected because of his age. But God intended to use him despite his age, and immaturity. God lifted him up, preparing for him what to say, and established Jeremiah as his prophet – as God’s mouthpiece. This is in fact what Jeremiah’s name means: God lifts up or God establishes.

So in Jeremiah chapter one, Jeremiah reports… 4 the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” 6 “Ah, Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am only a child.” 7 But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a child.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. 8 Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord. 9 Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “Now, I have put my words in your mouth. 10 See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.” (Jeremiah 1:4-10)

Now one might think being chosen by God would be a cause for great joy. God was going to use him to do his speaking, and while doing so, God was going to be with him and rescue him. There was no cause for fear, after all God reached out and touch Jeremiah as his chosen prophet. God knew he was going choose Jeremiah even from before his conception in the womb. Surely as Jeremiah grew in wisdom and knowledge of God, his ordination would be a cause for great joy and celebration.

But the times in which Jeremiah dwelt dictated there would be nothing like joy or celebration. God had given Jeremiah his true word to speak, but it fell on ears that didn’t want to hear the truth. In fact the people of Jerusalem and Judah were completely focused on themselves. For them truth was individualism, born of felt needs through greed.

The very practises God had put in place in the temple and through the Law, had been manipulated by the people to justify their idolatry — their worship of themselves. No longer did they recognise God the Father through the means of the Law in his earthy temple at Jerusalem. Rather the people had fallen to the temptation of putting their trust in themselves and the temple. Their focus was on what they did and where they did it, rather than on “the access” doing these things at the temple gave them, namely, to be one as a community with their Heavenly Father.

The message Jeremiah brought from God was one of doom and judgement. Jeremiah might even be viewed as the classic “prophet of doom”. What he had to say wasn’t welcomed by those who heard it. Everything to them was ‘all good’, but Jeremiah was telling them otherwise. And that didn’t make them feel very good. However, what Jeremiah had to say was from God and was the truth.

So poor Jeremiah’s ministry was one of great lament and turmoil. He spent much of his time bearing the brunt of rejection from the people to whom God spoke. His conviction to say what he said, led him to be put under arrest in prison and thrown into a well left for dead. God had given Jeremiah the prophet a glimpse of what was going to happen to the people of Judah if they didn’t heed God’s warning, and through their disobedience judgement finally fell on them and they were exiled out of Judah.

No! Jeremiah’s call to be a prophet of God was not one of joy and celebration at all. However Jeremiah remained faithful to God, and even more so, God remained faithful to his word spoken to the young Jeremiah when he said, “Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you.” He gave Jeremiah his powerful word; God was faithful and he continues to be so.

Here we find ourselves today in a rapidly declining society. We find ourselves as a church jumping on board with the ways of the world, despite God’s word giving a resounding, “NO!”

We are told in the first epistle of John, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. The love of the Father is not in those who love the world; for all that is in the world—the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches—comes not from the Father but from the world. And the world and its desire are passing away, but those who do the will of God live forever.” (1 John 2:15-17)

These worldly activities of individuals are being heralded as the way to fill the void left when faith is lost. Christ’s one true way, highlighted by the Holy Spirit in the written word, and the sacraments which give us our identity, are treated more and more with contempt in favour of the dubious ways of the human spirit — set to give warm fuzzy feelings of self glorification.

It never fails to surprise me when we hear some speak of how the Holy Spirit has moved them; it’s always a move towards excitement, greatness, and some extraordinary secret knowledge or empowerment, and never towards guilt, contrition, repentance, forgiveness and peaceful rest in the arms of Christ and his community of the church!

Strangely this supposedly “holy” spirit moves the individual towards happiness and not holiness! It also seems this spirit, is moving individuals away from the cross, Christ, and the entirety of his word, to focus on feelings of self, justified by a few isolated biblical texts taken out of context.

But even if it is the Holy Spirit of God moving in extraordinary ways, the individualism of this age, the political correctness of our world accosted by the church, the righteousness of self, forbids Christ’s church to test, judge and discern the spirit, with God’s word, to see if in fact it is really the Holy Spirit.

This all sounds more and more like the deception and turmoil of Jeremiah’s day, as more and more faithful pastors, ministers, and priests are treated today with contempt for not being relevant with the world, as they remain faithful to God and his word. Sadly nothing’s new, our lack of listening, leads to us making the same mistakes as many before us have made.

So let us heed Christ and his word. Let us… 25 see to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth (especially at Jerusalem in the time of Jeremiah and then again at the hands of the Romans after they rejected Christ and crucified him on the cross) how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? 26 At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” 27 The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, 29 for our “God is a consuming fire.” (Hebrews 12:25-29)

Let us give up the things that are passing away. The many idols we have in this world that will be destroyed along with our flesh and feelings and the world.

Let us rather trust in him who is not only a consuming fire, but who has given us the hope of heaven in the fire of faith planted in us by his Holy Spirit.

Like Jeremiah God did this when we were immature and we didn’t know how to speak. He came to us and touched us with the truth of his word made flesh through the water and the written word, making us children of the faith.

God also continues to rest his hand on us as we’re fed and made holy by the blood of the new covenant won by Jesus Christ our prophet, priest, and king. He does this when in believing, we endure and come to receive from him and remain in him.

These are the things that give us access and peace before God who is a consuming fire. When all other things seen will be shaken, destroyed, and consumed, these are the objects of our faith, the substance of our faith, which allow us to stand unshaken forever. Amen.