Jeremiah 29.1, 4-9; 2 Timothy 2.8-15
A good friend cancelled his cable network … he said: “too much propaganda, everywhere!”
Another friend told me, “I’ve cut way back on my reading … too disturbing, too frightening.”
Someone else said, “I don’t wanna hear anymore about climate change, stolen elections, or whatever. I don’t know what to think.”
None of it’s easy … all of it demanding … confusion is real … who knows how to sort it all out!
Like looking in your cupboard late at night, when all you want is a bowl of cereal, and there isn’t any, so you decide to make a late-night run to your all-night grocery store, to get a box of cereal … and there you are, in the cereal aisle … hundreds of brands, hundreds of boxes … fruit or no fruit, sweet or not-so-sweet, gluten-free, organic, extra vitamins … and all you want is a late-night snack.
The times in which we live … floods of information … claims and counter-claims …
What’s the truth, what are the lies?
Is there anyway of sorting it out?
Important questions come our way every day …
Big questions - what does it mean to be a Christian? What kind of nation shall we be? Who ya’ gonna vote for? Who do you believe? Who do you trust?
Is there anyway of working our way through it all?
I believe there is … some basic elements help me … and maybe can help you, too … and for that, our reading this morning from Jeremiah.
The book of Jeremiah has always meant a great deal to me!
Jeremiah was my “first love” in seminary.
I was attracted to Jeremiah’s honesty - he doesn’t sugarcoat the situation … he tells the truth, and it’s a hard truth now and then.
Nor does he sugarcoat his own confusion and discouragement … Jeremiah has no pleasure in telling the truth … no pleasure in confronting those who tell the big lies … no pleasure at all … Jeremiah finally gets angry at God, angry for calling him to these tasks … he’d rather be left alone, cancel his cable subscription, and he doesn’t wanna go to the cereal aisle anymore.
Jeremiah is honest to the core, serious about life … reluctantly, Jeremiah takes up the task to offer counsel to God’s people in a time of distress and dislocation.
It’s the Babylonian Captivity, the great upheaval … Judah has been defeated … crushed by the superior power of Babylon … farmers and merchants allowed to stay in the land, but leaders and teachers removed, bankers and politicians, kings and queens, taken to Babylon in chains … a brilliant strategy, to smash resistance, to keep an eye on the troublemakers … it was a terrible defeat for Judah.
Psalm 137 was written in those terrible days:
By the rivers of Babylon - there we sat down and there we wept, when we remembered Zion.
On the willows there we hung up our harps … how could we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?
The Psalm ends with some of the most bitter words imaginable:
O daughter Babylon, you devastator. Happy shall they be who pay you back what you have done to us! Happy shall they be who take your little ones and dash them against the rock!
No wonder the captives in Babylon were ready to believe a lie!
“A lie?” you ask.
Yes, desperate times create spiritual and emotional vulnerability; people are ready to believe just about anything that offers some form of escape … and there are always folks ready and able to tell a lie or two, charlatans, flimflam artists, hungry politicians; irresponsible preachers.
The false prophets went to work, and said to the people - “It won’t be long; God will come to our rescue and take us all back home.” They all chanted, “Make Judah Great Again! Make Judah Great Again!”
God said to Jeremiah, “Confront the false prophets. Call them out for what they are. They are liars. They are misleading my people. There is no going back. My people have to face the truth; they’ll be in Babylon for awhile. But tell them: they can still make a life for themselves. I am with them, in their exile. I am with them in the hardest part of life. I have not abandoned my people. I will see them through the terror.
Jeremiah and the false prophets both speak of God … but who’s telling the truth?
If I support a woman’s right to choose, and someone else calls me a baby-killer, is there anyway of sorting it out?
If I support the separation of church and state, and someone says God never intended it that way; God intended Christians to rule, how do we work our way through that?
When I affirm marriage rites for gays and lesbians, and someone else calls them an abomination, and tells me that I’m a heretic, bound for hell, how do we figure it out?
Here are some thoughts that help me sort things out.
Lies often revolve around God, country, and family … lies talk about tightening the borders, writing new laws, preserving morality, fighting sin …
Meanwhile, truth crosses borders … truth says, God so loved the world … truth reminds us to be careful in our judgments and mindful of God’s tremendous grace.
Lies are quick to pick up the stones, but it’s Jesus who points to something better, and sets the woman free.
Lies tell people to look to the past … truth looks to the future. Jesus says, If you put your hand to the plow, don’t look back.
Lies build on fear and suspicion; truth builds on trust and confidence.
Lies frequently have to do with wealth … who has it, who gets it, who keeps it … truth is generous in nature … truth shares rather than takes … truth is the cup of cold water, rather than the coin of betrayal.
Lies need enemies; truth finds allies and friends.
Lies offer “easy answers" … truth knows, life is complicated.
Lies rattle the saber … truth tells Peter to put his sword away.
Lies have a Golden Calf; truth has The Ten Commandments.
Lies need folks to live in a bubble - one issue, one focus, one purpose … truth welcomes diversity … truth is a like a diamond, with many facets … lies eliminate the need to think; truth demands that we think, and think hard.
Lies multiply … today’s lie requires another lie tomorrow … truth is steady, truth is consistent. Lies promise the moon; truth reminds us, God never promises us a rose garden.
Why is this important?
Because we’re Christians - followers of Christ, the way, the truth, and the life … it is our task, our responsibility, to know the truth, defend the truth, speak the truth, do the truth.
Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with our God.
Amen and Amen!
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