GEMS FROM JEREMIAH (28) The (first) sermon you never want to have to preach, part V

“See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity.  If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the Lord your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. 

I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the Lord swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” (Dt. 30.15-20)

 

     Jeremiah’s Temple sermon (7.1 – 8.3) consists of a terrifying verdict – the divine ruling is that the people of God have irrevocably broken their covenant with Yahweh; i.e., they have rejected the life that God had promised them would be a result of faithfulness and instead have chosen death.  As Judah has consistently refused to listen to Yahweh, so now Yahweh refuses to listen to intercessions on behalf of his people (7.13, 16, 23-26).  The message of this sermon could be summed up with the prophet Samuel’s phrase “obedience is better than sacrifice” (cf. 1 Sm. 15.22-23).  The nation of Judah has failed to do what Yahweh commanded them (7.5-10, 23-28) and “religiously” continued to offer sacrifices which Yahweh did not request, whether in the Temple (i.e. animals: 7.21-22; cf. 6.20) or in the Valley of ben-Hinnom (i.e. children: 7.30-31).

     The deeply disturbing vision of Jeremiah describes the total annihilation of the nation of Judah.  Jeremiah’s objective in proclaiming this message is to wake the people up to the stark reality of their situation.  The Judahites believed that they could hold the covenant with Yahweh in contempt all the while “taking shelter” in the very Temple of Yahweh himself!  Indeed, Jeremiah compares the inhabitants of Jerusalem to robbers who roam and rampage far and wide, only to return to the safety of their den after their criminal sorties (cf. Jer. 7.11).  Jeremiah denounces the “deceptive words” (7.4, 8) of the false (official) prophets (cf. Jer. 8.1) that are luring the people into a false sense of security and predicts the destruction of the very sanctuary that the Judahites are counting on for protection from their enemies, as their predecessors attempted to use the ark of the covenant as a good luck charm against the Philistines (7.9-14; cf. 1 Sm. 4-5).  Jeremiah announces to his contemporaries that they are the generation that has finally provoked Yahweh’s wrath, which will flame out and consume everything in its path (7.20, 27-29).

     Jeremiah states that the Valley of ben-Hinnom, where the people of Jerusalem sacrificed their children to Molech, will become their own mass grave and that wild animals will devour their corpses (7.32-33).  But the vision becomes even more gruesome: the very bones of the inhabitants of Zion will be left scattered and exposed in the valley “like dung on the ground” (Jer. 8.1-2; cf. Ez. 37.1-14[1]).  The sermon concludes with the haunting affirmation that “death shall be preferred to life” by the survivors of the sacking of the City of David (8.3).  Indeed, the message is clear: “one reaps what one sows”.  By breaking the covenant, faithfulness to which would have resulted in long life in the Promised Land, the people of God had long demonstrated their preference for the way of death, and now the chickens would finally come home to roost.


[1] This passage in Ezekiel announces hope, even for sun-bleached bones!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A 40-DAY JOURNEY WITH THE KING: Lenten reflections from Mark’s Gospel (5)

Image
“A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, “If you choose, you can make me clean .”   Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, “I do choose. Be made clean !” Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean .   (Mk. 1.40-42)      Along with exorcisms, Jesus performs many healings of various physical ailments in the early chapters of Mark’s Gospel.   Jesus’ first healing is that of Simon’s mother-in-law (1.29-31).   With the restoration of the leper, we begin to understand the meaning of Jesus’ healings (and exorcisms).   The thrice-repeated word “clean” in the above passage reveals what is truly going on when the King restores the members of the people of God to wholeness.   Leprosy rendered its victim “unclean”, i.e., it proscribed that person from participation in the life of the community, of both civil society and the worship/litur...
Read more

The Protestant Reformation - good news?

Image
  The study of Reformation Europe makes many Christians wish that they had lived in the 16th century. Name 1) Some good reasons for not living in the sixteenth century and 2) Some ways in which we can live more deliberately as Christians today because of the events of that century. How should it and how should it not make a difference?    Some good reasons for not living in the 16th century include the climate of religious intolerance and violence.   Religious affiliation and observance were compulsory and imposed on the people by the state, especially it seems, in Protestant countries.   There was no freedom of conscience, except perhaps in England during the reign of Elizabeth, where the windows to people’s souls remained shut to the state, so long as they publicly conformed to the monarch’s religion (as enforced by parliament).   One may have thought that Luther’s appeal to conscience at the Diet of Worms would have inspired a broader and more sensit...
Read more

“Walking the tightrope” (St. Luke’s: Wednesday, August 22nd, 2018: Ez. 34.1-11; Ps. 23; St. Mt. 20.1-16)

Image
Ancient relevance.   Any conscientious catholic who has the habit of watching the news cannot help but notice a direct link between today’s first reading and what is going on in the Church these days.   Last week, a grand jury released a report detailing the results of their 2-year long investigation into dozens of clergymen who had abused upwards of 1,000 children in various dioceses in the state of Pennsylvania.   Every time cases of the abuse of children by priests and religious come to light, we are reminded that we live in a world – and are part of a Church – deeply infected by evil .   And of course, let’s not forget that the line between good and evil runs through each one of us (cf. Solzhenitsyn).   In today’s first reading, the prophet Ezekiel proclaims an oracle of judgment against the false “shepherds” of God’s “flock”.   Instead of caring for, protecting and nurturing God’s people , Israel’s leaders had exploited the people for their...
Read more