Sermon Preached by The Rev. Richard Marsden
Proper 15 C
Jeremiah 23: 23-29
The nation had lost touch with the truth—it had disregarded the very thing which gave it its very identity, the thing which made it unique in all the world.
It had risen to prominence from a motley group of settlers to become a very powerful and prosperous nation.
Its strength, its power, its success as a nation was indissolubly connected with the truths – the covenant- that gave it its identity, shaped its very functioning.
Identified and symbolized by a city at its heart from where its leaders ruled, and its most sacred heritage was anchored, the nation’s leaders lost sight of the national identity in favor of what benefits they might reap for themselves. They were interested in the nation’s place amidst the power struggles in the rest of the world, rather than standing for the uniqueness of its own identity—of witnessing to the truths on which their very existence depended.
Religious leaders became open—more flexible in terms of their understanding of God and his place in the culture and society. As a result, morality began to suffer. Things that had been considered to be morally reprehensible a couple of generations earlier became accepted now. The concepts of justice and mercy suffered, as the law itself was disregarded.
In the recent past, a couple of leaders rediscovered the truths that gave the nation their unique identity and they proclaimed that truth and began what might be called revivals in the nation. But, those revivals were relatively short lived and the nation had returned to its trajectory of decline as many of its leaders, both political and religious, with many of its people, again rejected the truths which gave the nation its unique identity, and history would show, would ultimately lead to its very demise.
This is the situation in Judah, the southern remnant of what was once the mighty kingdom of David into which Jeremiah was speaking in about the year 609.
The northern kingdom of Israel had been swallowed by Assyria in 722 and ceased to exist.
Judah – living as a vassal of Assyria – had experienced a revival under king Hezekiah that was brutally repressed when it devolved into political rebellion though Jerusalem was miraculously spared because of Hezekiah’s and Isaiah’s faith.
Hezekiah’s son Mannassah rejected all his father had stood for and led the nation in apostasy against God and his law.
Some years later a new king, Josiah, came to the throne and began a revival, purging the nation of its pagan idols and practices. Discovering a copy of the Mosaic Law—the foundational document of Judah’s existence and identity, he began a movement to renew Judah’s obedience to God and submission to the law of Moses.
Jeremiah was God’s prophet—God’s voice in this call to repentance, this call to return to God and him alone, this call to acknowledge the law—the books of Moses– as their life and identity.
When King Josiah died, the national movement for the return to the covenant died too, but Jeremiah continued to preach god’s word as the Lord led him. Suffering persecution, imprisonment and rejection, he continued to call Judah–its kings, its priests and prophets, the whole of the nation– to turn back to God, to recommit to the covenant that gave them their identity.
In this passage this morning we hear a portion of Jeremiah’s condemnation of false prophets, those who claimed to speak for God, to speak truth to God’s will known—but did not.
Though Jeremiah’s words were for that specific situation, yet we can see how they apply today—because the human condition remains fairly consistent throughout history.
Through Jeremiah God reminds his rebellious people first who he is: 23 “am I only a god nearby,”
declares the Lord,
“and not a god far away?
24 can anyone hide in secret places
so that I cannot see him?”
declares the Lord.
“Do not I fill heaven and earth?”
declares the Lord.
God is both near and far. He is immanent—close–with them, personally speaking , listening , touching, guiding, as well as transcendent—beyond us, greater than us—wholly other—almighty—powerful.
Jeremiah raises the question: do we think he is so near that he doesn’t really care about how we are? – That his intimacy leads him to indulge his people? That he will overlook rebellion?
— or do we think that he is so far away—so much greater—so different in kind that he is blind or indifferent to how we live or believe; that there will be no consequences?
God is both; intimate yet almighty. And we acknowledge this truth when we pray: “Almighty God unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known and from whom no secrets are hid”.
Jeremiah reminds us that God is both close enough to be intimate with us, –to know us, but he is far away enough—greater than us that requires submission and obedience- trusting in his power and awfully fearful to remain in his graces. To err on either side is to become apostate or idolatrous—which has consequences.
Because he does see into the hearts of all men, God looks at those leaders who are claiming to speak his truth:
25 “I have heard what the prophets say who prophesy lies in my name. They say, ‘I had a dream! I had a dream!’ 26 how long will this continue in the hearts of these lying prophets, who prophesy the delusions of their own minds?
God knows that these prophesies are not his words—not truth—–but words from the prophet’s own heart—his own dream—things they want to be true—and presented as God’s truth. The prophets speak lies–not what God says—not the truth—but what they want to be the truth—delusions of their own minds. They lie in the name of god, and so deceive their listeners.
Do you believe that it is possible for spiritual leaders to do such a thing? To take ones own ideas and give them a self appointed divine authority?
How many times have we heard religious authorities proclaim something as a new revelation from God — we hear that what we once thought was a sin is now, because of a fresh revelation of God – is not sin, it might be declared a virtue? God has changed his mind–that is what these prophets were doing.
27 They think the dreams they tell one another will make my people forget my name, just as their fathers forgot my name through Baal worship. The goal of this deceit was to change the people’s understanding of God—distort the truth—revise the truth that God himself revealed.
To re-make God into something he is not—to believe that worshipping any god is the same as worshipping the one true God–that all gods-and all truths– are ultimately the same.
It made for easier politics then, as it does for us today. If all gods are the same no-one can have a unique claim to the truth, or a unique claim to morality—to know right from wrong.
Those responsibilities then devolve onto the individual or group who has the power to legislate and enforce their own perspective. If there is no one true god-and if that god has not spoken.
28 Let the prophet who has a dream tell his dream, but let the one who has my word speak it faithfully. For what has straw to do with grain?” declares the Lord. 29 “Is not my word like fire,” declares the Lord, “and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?
The defining line has to do with how these dreams line up with what god has said—his word. his word is true—it has power—power to purify like fire—to burn up that which is not good. It has the power to nourish-to feed like grain, to make one healthy and full. And it has the power to break down obstacles, destroy lies.
It was God’s word—God and his will written down that was the touchstone of truth—the foundation of Judah’s identity. Only there might they know the true God and his will for them.
The word that is truly from God would seem to be bad news as much as good. For it will bring fire, it will bring crushing; it will seem to be not exactly what we want but exactly what we need.
Maybe that is why Jesus says in the gospel “I came to cast fire upon the earth”. As the fulfillment of God’s covenant with his people, as the living word, Jesus is to the world what the discovered law was to Judah—the only way to salvation—the only way to know the truth.
Jesus himself said “I am the way the truth and the life. The only way to the Father is through me”. It is a hard word, bringing disruption to even the most intimate of earthly relationships because truth is hard and suffers no compromise.
As then, so now—false prophets still abound, trying to confute the truth, trying to deceive, to lead people astray from God and from his word.
Jeremiah leaves the question with us: will we listen to the false prophets who tell us things that tickle our ears, that go against his revealed truth, or will we turn to the word of God, truth which like fire will burn our hearts and souls into purity, like a hammer will break our doubts, our fears, and the lies that bind us, and like grain, feed and nourish us now and into eternity?