Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Jeremiah 4:11-12- 22-28

Psalm 14

1 Timothy 1: 12-17

Luke 15: 1-10

Steven H. Strain

September 15, 2019

My bride of thirty plus years, Karen was one of five sisters. Her mother had an interesting approach to discipline when she couldn’t determine which of her five daughters had done something which warranted a spanking. She would line up the five of them and everyone got a swat on the behind. Karen, who was, of course a total angel believed this to be terribly unfair. Apparently, her mother did not share Karen’s belief in the lack of fairness.

No one wants to think of himself, or herself, as being prejudiced. Yet we tend to look at a group of people and think they are the same. All republicans are right wing nut jobs. All democrats are flaming liberals. The fans of the rival team are all obnoxious. The list goes on. We characterize groups of people and ignore the truth of the matter that even within the members of the opposite political party; people have different views.

In our reading from Jeremiah this is exactly what God is doing. His wrath is directed at all of Israel, not just those persons who have turned against him. Perhaps the whole population was on the same page, but that seems unlikely. Surely there were some folks who were abiding by God’s laws and following his commands. But these people were not spared from the calamity, from the hot wind the Lord was sending.

“A hot wind comes from me out of the bare heights in the desert toward my poor people, not to winnow or cleanse – a wind too strong for that.”

A winnowing wind would be used to separate the wheat grains from the chaff. But God is not separating the righteous from the un-righteous. His wind is directed at all the Israelites. Whom he refers to as “my poor people.” Yet simply being vulnerable does not spare them from His wrath.

Jeremiah calls on the people of Israel to repent. It was not merely a matter of following the rules; it was more. A commentator described it as “a symptom of a deep and abiding spiritual stupidity and ignorance.”

Indeed, both our reading from Jeremiah and the Psalm speak of “fools.” The prophet, Jeremiah speaks of the people as foolish while the psalm refers to the fool as one who “has said in his heart, there is no God.” In ancient Wisdom literature the word “fool” referred to a moral and spiritual category. Mark Lomax, a theologian wrote:

The foolish behavior of individuals frequently has negative consequences for the responsible person or persons. Moral foolishness, however, impacts whole groups of people, even nations, in negative ways.

This statement, “there is no God,” is associated with atheism, and the argument becomes people who believe in God are foolish. The Old Testament did not worry over the existence of God; that is a given. But here the psalmist and Jeremiah are speaking of the person who rejects the highest wisdom; which is the fear and obedience of God. To this person the highest call is to self. He is saying, either in word or in his actions that there is no God and, as Dwight Lundgren wrote:

I belong to myself; I am accountable only to myself for my behavior. It is a practical worship of the self as the sole reference point for one’s existence. Thus, power dynamics trump the demands of justice in the exercise of relationships. Personal needs, desires, and goals take precedence over respect for equity within the community.

David Brooks, in his book The Second Mountain, refers to this phenomena; this worship of self as listening to “the authentic voice of the Hidden Oracle within.” Community, and serving others is not seen as important. At least not as important as one’s self. This brings God’s wrath upon the Israelites:

“For my people are foolish, they do not know me; they are stupid children, they have no understanding. They are skilled at doing evil, but do not know how to do good.”

And so, the Israelites suffer. The hot wind was the Babylonian invasion and the resulting exile of the nation. This affected all of the Jews. Even Jeremiah, God’s prophet was not shielded from the calamity which befalls Israel. Sharon Peebles Burch, a minister, describes his journey:

Throughout his prophesies Jeremiah grieves, recoils in shock, experiences horror, and is plunged into doubt of both himself and YHWH as he wrestles with the insights YHWH presents to him. He asks searching questions of YHWH about the consequences of what he is to say. He lives with pain, without companionship, and with no assurance things will get better. He portrays a soul in torment, the sort of torment mystics have described as “the dark night of the soul.”

Jeremiah’s ability to portray pain, emptiness and abandonment and yet remain in faithful relationship to God is a powerful message of persistence and hope to people who suffer.

God does not, in spite of all the bad that befalls the Israelites, abandon them. Indeed, in our reading He says; “Yet I will not make a full end.” God later announces a new covenant with Israel, but the exile still happens.