Sermon Transcript: November 24, 2024
Jeremiah 36:1-8, 21-23, 27-28; 31:31-34
In the fourth year of King Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord: Take a scroll and write on it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel and Judah and all the nations, from the day I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah until today. It may be that, when the house of Judah hears of all the disasters that I intend to do to them, all of them may turn from their evil ways, so that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.
Then Jeremiah called Baruch son of Neriah, and Baruch wrote on a scroll at Jeremiah’s dictation all the words that the Lord had spoken to him. And Jeremiah ordered Baruch, saying, “I am prevented from entering the house of the Lord, so you go, and on a fast day in the hearing of the people in the Lord’s house you shall read the words of the Lord from the scroll that you have written at my dictation. You shall read them also in the hearing of all the people of Judah who come up from their towns.
It may be that their plea will come before the Lord and that all of them will turn from their evil ways, for great is the anger and wrath that the Lord has pronounced against this people.” And Baruch son of Neriah did all that the prophet Jeremiah ordered him about reading from the scroll the words of the Lord in the Lord’s house.
Then the king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and he took it from the chamber of Elishama the secretary, and Jehudi read it in the hearing of the king and all the officials who stood beside the king. Now the king was sitting in his winter apartment (it was the ninth month), and there was a fire burning in the brazier before him. As Jehudi read three or four columns, he would cut them off with a penknife and throw them into the fire in the brazier, until the entire scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the brazier.
Now after the king had burned the scroll with the words that Baruch wrote at Jeremiah’s dictation, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: Take another scroll and write on it all the former words that were in the first scroll, which King Jehoiakim of Judah has burned.
The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more.
For the Word of God in scripture,
For the Word of God among us,
For the Word of God within us,
Thanks be to God.
When I was around 10 years old I saw a TV show that haunted me so much I can still remember the nightmares it gave me. No, it was not a horror show or a crime drama. It was a documentary of sorts. I think it was on PBS but it could have been Discovery or something of the like. It was a special about Nostradamus, the 16th century French seer and astrologer who published a series of writings supposedly predicting the future. The documentary catalogued several of his predictions and aligned them with historical events to give it some credibility. Then they talked about his predictions, his prophecies, if you will, that have not come true yet…about war and destruction and evil rulers. Now, to give you some context this was in the mid-1980s when the Cold War was on everyone’s mind and in school we would practice hiding under our desks in case of nuclear attack. It is fair to say I found all of this terrifying as a young person!
There is a misconception about biblical prophets that they too tell the future. Author Steven McKenzie gives us a helpful distinction: it is “forthtelling, not foretelling.” Prof. Kristin Swanson explains, “the prophets of the Hebrew Bible were not telling the future…Rather, the prophets were ancient social and political commentators, figures who paid attention to what was going on politically and socially in their own contexts, and interpreted current events in terms of the people’s relationship with the Lord.”
We see it in our passage for today. Jeramiah has a word of critique and warning to share with the people. The way they are living will lead to their destruction and demise. They must change their ways.
King Jehoiakim does not take kindly to the prophecy of Jeremiah. He uses his henchmen to confiscate the scroll from which Baruch reads and burns it.
In his commentary on this passage, Roger Nan writes, “King Jehoiakim’s response, though deplorable, is not surprising in that the destruction of the prophetic words is natural for a ruler who is both paranoid and massively self-absorbed. This is one of the earliest recorded narratives of “book burning” to suppress an ideology. But as in most cases, this book burning is not a terribly effective strategy for ideological control. Instead of eliminating the word of God, Jeremiah 36 shows that it is more powerful and lasting than the actions of a narcissistic king. The words of Jeremiah continue to find power two millennia later. King Jehoiakim is merely a footnote as a disobedient king.”
To me, this is a powerful example of the role faith can and should play in our world. Faith may well be about our comfort and consolation, it may be about saving our souls, but it certainly does not stop there. It is also about making the world a better place and resisting those who seek to spread hate and discord. It is about advocating—in both word and deed—for the vision of our world that Jesus called the Kingdom of God: where each person has a place, where all are valued and respected and where those without power are protected, not preyed upon.
To the extent that our government and those in power work toward those ends, they deserve our support and allegiance. To the extent that they stray from these fundamental principles of human dignity, people of faith need to rise up and fulfill our role as prophets. We need to speak truth to power.
But sometimes speaking truth to power seems like a fruitless effort. Who is even listening? What difference does it make? Is it just virtue signaling? On and on?
Jeremiah reminds us that it does make a difference…at the very least to us. And that this is how we join the long work of building the kingdom of God.
Our speaker last week at our Advancing Racial Justice speaker series was Derrick Weston from Creation Justice Ministries. He presented on the intersection of racial and environmental justice, and how Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities suffer disproportionately when it comes to the impact of climate change and pollution. He spoke of the need for those of us who care to speak truth to power, even when it feels like we are shouting into the wind. He said, “We need to adopt the posture of doing things because they are right, not necessarily because they are effective.”
A few weeks ago renowned OT professor Walter Brueggemann wrote, “Like the ancient prophets, we are dispatched back to the good work entrusted to us. It is the work of peace-making. It is the work of truth-telling. It is the work of justice-doing. It is good work, but it requires our resolve to stay it, even in the face of the forces to the contrary that are sure to prevail for a season. We are in it for the long run, even as the Holy One is in it for the very long haul, from everlasting to everlasting.”
When I was young, I learned to be worried about the future. What destruction might come? What scary thing was awaiting us around the corner?
Jeremiah says the days are surely coming. The days are surly coming NOT when our worst fears come true, but when God’s reign will win out. Not because it will overcome evil with evil, not because it will overpower all of us, not because it will win every battle on the way, but simply because it will outlast all the rest. Simply because love will not give up or give in.
How do we know this to be true? Did Nostradamus foresee it? Is it written in the stars or on some ancient scroll? No. Jeremiah reminds us: “I will put my law within them, says the Lord, and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more.”
May it be so. Amen.
