Last week Mark and I were thinking about our upcoming anniversary, of our lives now and the journey we've made to this point. He had put a load of his laundry in the washer which reminded him of the 4 years at the Naval Academy when a laundry service picked up his (and all midshipmen's laundry) outside their room doors. He described stuffing everything into a duffle bag, tying it tight so  the strings wouldn't come undone, mixing his and 4000 other midshipmen underwear together. Then stopping by the 16th Company area down the hall couple of days later, picking up cleaned and pressed uniforms along with the cleaned clothes in the duffle bag which was brought back to the outside of his room.

Certainly not what he experienced in our marriage.

Which made me think of the ways in which laundry has, at times, become much like a barometer for the health of our marriage.

As our family focused exclusively on Mark's career as the primary financial support I found myself with a collection of part time jobs in-between caring for our children. Which meant, I had time for laundry. If our communication was healthy, if we were able to hear and support each other, doing laundry became just another chore. If, on the other hand, I didn't feel heard, supported or valued, his laundry would sit for days. It became a means to try to balance what I perceived as unequal power in our relationship.

Needless to say, early in our marriage, he was up several evenings, washing uniforms for the next week.

As we learned healthier coping and communication skills, laundry became less of a means to express resentment and more of an opportunity to show service. Washing and drying his clothes became a time to be grateful for work opportunities, for flexible schedules to care for our children, and a means to 'lose' his sweatshirts, socks and other items frayed, torn or which not longer fit.

As we celebrate our 38th anniversary today, I am grateful for Mark's unwavering determination to financially support our family, his love for me and his ability to, occasionally, do his own laundry.

what if it isn't good news?

2 Samuel 11:26 - 12:7

Do you remember hearing this story before?

Have you preached this text before?

My earliest memory of this text is of my dad preaching. For all of my childhood, adolescence and young adulthood I listened to my dad preach. I’m pretty sure he would have used the moral language of right and wrong to talk about the sexual narrative of David and Bethesheba; after all, his two teenage daughters and young son were in the audience. I remember the focus of the story was on the relationship between David and Nathan. That Nathan, living out of his own relationship with God could speak truth to power to David, the King, the military commander, the ruler of a nation. That being in a covenantal relationship with God meant you frequently stepped out of your comfort zone. In some ways I think my dad identified with Nathan. Humbly, couragously, speaking truth to power.

The next memory I have of this text is during my seminary years. Reading the commentaries, which I want to add was before the time of pulling up the library database online in the comfort of your home or office. It meant sitting for hours in the library, pouring over the stacks of commentaries; throwing some of my notes away, holding onto others. Listening and talking with other students about whether or nor we agreed with Ireanus of Lyons who wrote in Adversus Haeres —The sins of the men of old time, which incurred the displeasure of God, were, by His providence, committed to writing, that we might derive instruction thereby, and not be filled with pride. We must not, therefore, infer that there was another God than He whom Christ preached; we should rather fear, lest the one and the same God who inflicted punishment on the ancients, should bring down heavier upon us.

In other words, it wasn’t about David or Bathsheba or Nathan, it was a story about God, about the unchanging nature of God.

Or were we more likely to agree with Tertullian when he writes, in Against Modesty.—Trace God’s Government in History and in His Precepts, and You Will Find It Full of His Goodness.

 …and gave free forgiveness to David on his confessing his sins against the house of Uriah; which also restored the house of Israel as often as it condemned it, and addressed to it consolation no less frequently than reproof. Do not therefore look at God simply as Judge, but turn your attention also to examples of His conduct as the Most Good. Noting Him, as you do, when He takes vengeance, consider Him likewise when He shows mercy. In the scale, against His severity place His gentleness.

I  remember most of us wanting to align ourselves with Tertullian, placing gentlenss against severity, but we wanted to preach like Ireanus, ‘ we should rather fear, lest the one and the same God who inflicted punishment on the ancients, should bring down heavier upon us.

Whether we agreed with one or the other commentary, I do remember the charge to beginning preachers was to find in the text the ‘Good News’ for your parisioner. Where in the text is hope, where in the text is grace, where in the text is salvation.

What are your memories with this text?

What are you hearing today?

This is the story Spirit is sharing with me today.

From Nathan’s perspective, living in a relationship with God means that you at times walk intentionally into conflictual situations. That the power, the weight, the clarity of your message has nothing to do with you at all. You? You are secondary to the message. From Nathan’s perspective, it really isn’t about you. Nathan gets to show up, be present and speak courageously.

From David’s perspective, it is a story about recognizing limits and boundaries of positional power. And acknowledging the brokenness resulting from abusing those limits and boundaries. It is about taking responsibility for one’s actions, for seeking to make amends. David gets to listen, be reflective and act humbly.

Judging by a very cursory review of contemporary commentaries, if you cover David’s sin of sexual rape, of murder, of cover-up; if you cover Nathan’s insightful use of a parable, following in the tradition of prophets confronting Kings, add some comments about the importance of staying in relationship and listening to God’s prophets, mention the theological arc of God’s redemptive mercy- you’re ready to move on to the Gospel lectionary text for the Sunday.

But what about Bathsheba, what about her child who will die soon? Where is the Good News for her?

For women, men and children who have been abused by the misuse of positional power, who are not asked to participate in reconciliation, who are ignored or forgotten, how in the world is this good news?

But maybe I’m asking something of the text it cannot give.

Before you turn this page and have me read the story of Ruth and Boaz, or of Dinah, daughter of Jacob and Leah who went on to become a judge, I invite you to sit with Bathsheba and her newborn son for a minute longer.

To perhaps recognize our discomfort with not having a word of hope, of grace, of salvation for her. And what that might mean.

So I take a step back from the text. And in a prayer of gratitude, acknowledge that God is more that what can be found between the pages of genesis and revelation. With my theological feet planted firmly in Process theology soil, I understand God reveals Godself in and through all of God’s creation through reason, tradition and experience. And sometimes, in sacred text.

The next time you preach this text, please mention Nathan’s courageous challenge to David. Mention that our living in a covenantal relationship with God will have us stepping out of our comfort zones, and stepping up to God’s challenge.

Please mention David’s temper, his absolute and reckless abuse of positional power. And mention his contrite acknowledgement of his abuse towards others.

But most of all, please mention Bathsheba and her son. Who, in this story about people in power, narrated, edited, redacted and commented on by people in power, are presented as props in someone else’s story.

The story I hear Spirit sharing with me today is to offer to Bathsheba and her son a voice in their own story. To offer those in our congregations who find their story told through that of Bathsheba and her son the Good News of companionship. Of being present with them, of inviting them to participate in creating opportunities for healing and perhaps reconciliation, and, when requested, to speak truth to power on their behalf.

When you preach on this text, I want you to preach about Bathsheba and her son.

Seeing snakes

It's not like I went looking for them.

I was happy, minding my own business, when the first snake hissed his presence. Had I taken two more steps I would have stepped on him. My feet were frozen in place, but that didn't deter the snake from moving towards me, hissing in it's best slytherin voice, leaving no misunderstanding about who was the real landlord and owner of that particular real estate along the lake.

'Get back in the saddle,' my friend encouraged me after identifying the snake as a cottonmouth. (Once a safe distance from the snake my hands stopped shaking long enough to take a picture.) 'Get back on the trail, don't let the snake keep you from enjoying the lake.' The next day finds me stepping out tentatively on the trail. The first person I meet is a young man with a red snake wrapped around his hand which he is holding in the Queenly salute. You know, the wave you make in your best Queen Elisabeth imitation, arm bent at your elbow, at a 45 degree angle with your hand cupped between your pearls (neck height) and tiara (top of your head). I didn't even make it around the lake, but headed straight back to the road.

Surely the two sightings were a strange coincidence; really, what were the odds I would come across a snake should I venture back on the trail? Evidently, pretty good. Third day on the trail, third day to come across a snake. Sitting proudly on top of the manicured bushes surveying unsuspecting joggers as they rounded the corner. Since walking along the trail is the closest thing I'm going to do as exercise while I'm here, I head back out to the trail, staying on the concrete road.

Jerusalem Bound

Jerusalem Bound

Matthew 16:21-28

²¹From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.²²And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.”²³But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

²⁴Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.²⁵For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.²⁶For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?²⁷“For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done.²⁸Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”[i]

     Let’s place Jesus’ response to Peter and his disciples in the larger conversation the gospel writer of Matthew records just prior to this exchange. Matthew 16: 13, ‘Jesus asks his disciples, Who do people say that the Son of Man is? Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He said to them, But who do you say I am? Simon Peter answered, You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered him, Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.’

    I love Peter! I love his enthusiasm, his boldness, his courage, his over the top responses to life and I love the insights to Christian living we are privileged to witness as we watch Jesus respond to Peter.

• So what will we learn today?
• Where will the Holy Spirit’s guidance lead us?
• What is the Good News for us in this place?

‘²¹From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.

With the phrase ‘from that time on’ the gospel writer of Matthew signals a shift in the narrative. Earlier in Matthew 10:7, the gospel writer describes the sending out of the twelve, ‘As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near. Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons.’

There is no mention of going to Jerusalem -which the early audience would know was code for “a place where bad things happen to prophets!” no mention of being persecuted by the religious leaders, and certainly no mention of being killed.[ii]

A little further on Matthew 11: 3, we have the disciples of John asking Jesus, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.’

Again- this is great news- positive things are happening- no mention of suffering, persecution or killing, not to mention that all this was to happen at the hands of those in religious authority.

In the notes John Wesley prepared for his itinerant preachers, he lends us an insight into the early listener’s view of the religious authorities, ‘The elders- the most honorable and experienced men; the chief priests-accounted the most religious; and the scribes- the most learned body of men in the nation. Would not one have expected, that these should have been the very first to receive him? [iii] This could have been Peter’s expectation, his hope for Jesus.

²²And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.”

Peter took him aside- that’s what you do when you don’t want to embarrass the person in front of everyone else. You pull them aside, out of earshot of everyone else, so the person can save face. The phrase ‘rebuke’ however says that the gospel writer wants to emphasize Peter’s intensity with this conversation. This isn’t a ‘next time you might want to get the fruit instead of the fried mars bar’ type of discussion.

Peter is saying ‘wait a minute, time out! This is not part of the plan.

Who in the world is this good news for?!’

Perhaps we can understand Peter’s confusion.

²³But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

Before we pick Peter up off the ground from being blasted, hear what Jesus just said, ‘you are a stumbling block to me.’ While outside the time constraints of our discussion this morning, what an interesting view into Jesus’ understanding of self this comment can be! This isn’t someone who ‘has it all figured out,’ or doesn’t struggle with the choices in front of him. I hear the writer of this gospel describe Jesus as a person who recognizes the temptation to ‘set your mind on human things,’ instead of divine things. Jesus wants to be clear to himself and those who choose to follow him that his path, his obedience to God may not be what you expect of a Messiah.

I wonder if the intensity of Peter’s rebuke and the matching intensity of Jesus’ response to Peter catch the interest and attention of the rest of the disciples as Jesus now addresses the whole group.

²⁴Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

Let me first talk a bit about what I do not think this phrase means.

·        You’re discussing last week’s budget meeting at church with a fellow parishioner. One of the other budget committee members constantly questions your proposals, your contributions, and your best ideas. Referring to this committee member you say to your friend, ‘I guess he/she is my cross to bear.’

Probably not what this phrase means.

·        Your co-workers schedule regular happy hour events on Wednesday evening when you want to be in choir practice. Feeling sad about missing out on the camaraderie at work, you mention this to your choir section leader with the sigh, ‘probably just my cross to bear.’

Again, probably not what is meant.

·        Your vote to end the choir director, youth director, and/or assistant or senior pastor’s (fill in your choice of ministry position) covenantal relationship with your church is a minority vote. Sharing your disappointment with your spouse you say, ‘I guess he/she is going to be my cross to bear.’

Definitely not what is meant!

⁴Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

What might Jesus be talking about?

Let’s start with who we are following.

He said to them, But who do you say I am? Simon Peter answered, You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’ And Jesus answered him, Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.’

When we start with this declaration of faith

               Jesus, you are the Messiah, the Son of the living God

and let Jesus’ behavior-what Jesus does- flow out of being in relationship with God- who Jesus is-, we get Jesus’ choice to be obedient, obedient to the living God.

And this is precisely how Peter gets it wrong. Peter wants Jesus’ behavior, what he does, to flow out of who Peter understands the Messiah ought to be.

Peter is:

·        Someone who is concerned with pushing the religious and political leaders too far (were you not part of his group? No- not me- and in the background you hear the rooster crowing)

·        Someone who extends the purity laws about food (what is clean and what is unclean) to define who is clean or unclean before God. And in Acts 10-we have the story of Peter dreaming about a really big sheet filled with all sorts of creatures (clean and unclean) and God saying ‘hungry? Go ahead, eat.’

Peter, listen to the whole phrase, which God’s spirit brought to you,

‘Jesus, you are the Messiah, Son of the living God.’

We come to understand Jesus as Messiah in relationship to the living God; in loving, obedient relationship.

Perhaps we’re now ready to look at what ‘taking up your cross and following me’ could mean for us today.

I want to posit one suggestion and then this lesson is yours.

If we are going to look at who Jesus is by what Jesus does-what did Jesus do when he was on the cross? We turn to the gospel writer of Luke (Luke 23: 34), ‘Then Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.’

Is this what you do when you take up your cross? You forgive people? Or you ask for forgiveness?

Perhaps taking up your cross and following Jesus could mean:

·        That who I become in relationship with God will shape how I behave.

·        That the phrases ‘I’m sorry, please forgive me’ and ‘I forgive you’ shape and inform my conversations and relationships.

 So- what did we learn?

·        Maybe we were reminded of just how much like Peter we are-

o   the times when like Peter we allow for God’s spirit to be present to us and in us; and the times when we let the rest of the disciples move closer to Jesus as we take a deep breath, recover, and take comfort in God’s quiet presence.

·        Maybe we heard a nuance of Jesus’ understanding of himself as one who could be tempted that we hadn’t heard before. And we respond to this learning with awe and wonder.

Where is the Holy Spirit guiding your listening, your discernment?

·        Maybe the Holy Spirit is calling us to repent of our holding our view of who and what a Messiah could be so tightly as to resist Jesus’ rebuke to us.

What is the good news for us today in this place?

·        The Good News for us today is the full gospel narrative-

o   For God so loved the world that God gave God’s only Son that whoever believes in him may not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16)

o   The Good News is that Jesus calls us to experience this eternal life now in relationships that speak of repentance, of acceptance, and of loving obedience to a living God.

²⁴Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

I do not know where you are in your faith journey today. Maybe you are experiencing the joy, the peace, the wonder of God revealing Godself to you, as God did to Peter. I celebrate and join you in praising and worshipping God.

Perhaps you stand with Peter, dusting yourself off from being blasted by Jesus, ‘Get behind me Satan,’ as you recognize you have restricted who and what Jesus does to fit your definition of Messiah-whatever that may be. If so, you are in good company- all of us, at some point in our faith journeys find ourselves with Peter.

It could be that you have not made that declaration of faith yet. While New York Mayor John Bloomberg may be an unlikely person to quote in a sermon, addressing a news conference yesterday regarding hurricane Irene Mayor Bloomberg said, ‘The time to leave is now!’ I’ll change that a bit, ‘the time to follow Jesus is now!’

  At some point the preparation-the reading, the praying, the listening to God’s spirit through prevenient grace leads us to a choice. If you want to respond to God’s call to you today, Rev Sandra Griggs and Rev Brandon Blacksten are ready to meet with you and to be in conversation with you.

Today, may we join in Peter’s proclamation with every part of our being- our heart, soul and might, and say with me please,

‘Jesus- you are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.’

And all of God’s people say, ‘AMEN.’

---

[i] The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.

[ii] Chris Haslam, ‘verse 21: For Jerusalem as the city where prophets are put to death by the religious authorities’ http://montreal.anglican.org/comments/apr221.shtml

[iii] Wesley Sermon Notes, http://www.ccel.org/ccel/wesley/notes.i.ii.xviii.html

what are you seeing?

The lectionary text today shares the story some people being healed and one person being made whole. (Luke 17:11-19) I like a couple of things about the text.

1. I like that the lepers demand Jesus' attention with a declarative sentence and exclamation point! 'have mercy! In our English translation we miss the implied action in mercy- have empathy for us, great. but more than just having empathy- do something! I like the lepers' insistence that Jesus gets involved.

'you know our being separated from our family and friends isn't right! do something!

 2. I like that Jesus responds with looking at them 'he sees them' vs.'hearing them.' I like that Jesus' response to them is to be present to them, look at them, face them.

3. I like that the Samaritan noticed something was happening to him. He actually looked at himself, reflected on the change and integrated that awareness into action.

4. I like that that the phrase 'he was saved' (inaccurate translation of Greek) is actually present tense in English. wholeness is our present state of being. it is our current way of experiencing life. it is heaven in the here and now.

5. I particularly like that the writer of Luke must have flunked geography- Jesus left Galilee and entered Samaria, so being on the way to Jerusalem, he cannot now be in Galilee (courtesy of Chris Haslam).

When you look at your life, your work, your family and your friends,

                  who or what do you see?

And how does that awareness make a difference in your life? For the Samaritan it was the difference between being healed and being whole.

First Aid Kits

First Aid Kits

How do you respond to illness, to injury, disease?

Emotional, physical, or spiritual? Either yours or someone else’s?

How do you respond to sin? Either you’re own or someone else’s?

I have a collection of first aid kits, not an extensive collection, nothing distinguishing, nothing to take to ‘antique roadshow’; more like ‘one for every room in the house’ kind of collection. Before going on a trip one of my purchases will undoubtedly be a new first aid kit, sized for both the length and type of journey. I have palm sized ones for my backpack, medium sized one for the car and I even have a waterproof one for our kayaks!

Some of us can’t read today’s text without immediately humming the tune and thinking of the words of the spiritual ‘there is a balm in Gilead’. And unfortunately that gives us an assumed familiarity with this text, that I’m not sure is helpful. While the term ‘balm’ does refer to an ointment, a salve- perhaps there is another message from Jeremiah for us today.

What might Jeremiah say to us today? We’ll come back to the first aids kits in a moment.
Two important concepts to keep in mind:

For the earliest audience the chief value in the prophetic message was not predictive, but historical.                 How did we get here from there?

For Jeremiah, how the Hebrew people got from ‘here’ to ‘there’ was directly tied to their ability to repent and with that repentance God’s presence in history.

Commentators on the text of Jeremiah point to poetic devices embedded in the narrative. This section is one such occurrence and I will read it in the way commentators suggest it was read to early listeners.

Jeremiah: My joy is gone; my sorrow is beyond healing, my heart is sick! Listen! The cry of the daughter of my people throughout the land! (vv. 18-19a)

     People: Is the Lord not in Zion? Is her king not in her? (v. 19b)

           God: Why have they provoked me with their idols and foreign gods? (v. 19c)

     People: Harvest is past, summer is ended and we have not been delivered. (v. 20)

Jeremiah: For the brokenness of the daughter of my people I am broken. I mourn and dismay has seized me! Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Then why has there been no healing of the daughter of my people? O, that my head were waters and my eyes a fountain of tears that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! (vv. 22-9:1)

(see http://www.cresourcei.org/lectionary/YearC/Cproper20ot.html)

I am reminded of sitting in my counseling office with a couple seeking marital therapy. The dialogue we just heard if played out in a therapist’s office is an example of cross talk. Two, three people talking, expressing deep concerns and feelings, but they are not talking to each other; they are talking at each other.
                 Let’s look at their conversation:

Jeremiah starts: My joy is gone, my sorrow is beyond healing, my heart is sick! Listen! The cry of the daughter of my people throughout the land! This is someone who seems to have a grasp on the events in front of him. Someone who is deeply in touch with his pain and the sorrow of others. Before we pick up with the people’s response- how do you respond to someone expressing this depth of sorrow?

In our own discomfort with someone else’s pain are we tempted to reach for a balm? A band-aid? Do we give advice? When you are expressing such intense emotions how do you want to be listened to?

Are we as listeners able to do what Jeremiah asks us to do? ‘Listen!”

This is where the cross talk begins-

The people respond: Is the Lord not in Zion? Is her king not in her?

"What are you talking about Jeremiah? Does not God dwell in Zion? Then, what is there to worry about?" It is a way to discount Jeremiah’s message. It is actually more telling than that- it shows their assumptions about and their expectations of God.

God’s place is in Zion- Jerusalem’s security rests solely in the Lord’s protection of the city, the temple and the people. The people were confident based on the idea that God’s presence in the Temple would guarantee their survival.

God is responsible and accountable to God’s people.

           The people's covenant with God only flows in one direction- from God to God’s people.

What do your phrases about God, your statements of belief, say about your understanding of God?

How do you fill in the sentence, ‘If God…, then…” What does your sentence say about God, what does it say about you?

And God responds with a covenantal reference:

God: Why have they provoked me with their idols and foreign gods? (v. 19c)

Which is of course recalling the first commandment:

Exodus 20: 2.

I am the LORD (YHWH) your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.”

Does this phrase affirm or challenge your belief sentence about God?

Have you had your assumptions, your beliefs about how church should be/ Christians should act and God behave ever challenged? Have sacred texts, wise council or God’s spirit challenged you? How did you respond?

How did the people respond? More cross talk- in fact, they completely ignore God’s statement- they don’t deny it, they don’t dispute it, and they simply don’t respond but pick up where they left off. They do however respond with a heightened emotional statement, a blaming, and an accusation of God.

People: Harvest is past, summer is ended and we have not been delivered. (v. 20)

This is more than likely a challenge thrown back at God.

The metaphor of harvest (8:20) was a common prophetic way of talking about accountability to God. Isaiah had made the most direct use of this metaphor when he had compared Israel to a choice vine planted by God, who had then expected a harvest of fine grapes. Jeremiah had picked up this same metaphor earlier in the chapter (v. 13). He even took it one step further, and noted that not only had they failed to produce fruit at harvest time, they had even lost what they were given. (http://www.cresourcei.org/lectionary/YearC/Cproper20ot.html)

Yet, in an interesting twist to the harvest metaphor, the people demanded that God get with the program and do what God was supposed to do. God had not acted on schedule according to when and how and where they thought God should act, and they are becoming a little impatient with God’s delay of deliverance. It is similar to the metaphor of tapping their watches to remind God that God is running behind schedule. http://www.cresourcei.org/lectionary/YearC/Cproper20ot.html)

At this point Jeremiah steps back in:

Jeremiah: For the brokenness of the daughter of my people I am broken. I mourn and dismay has seized me! Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Then why has there been no healing of the daughter of my people? O, that my head were waters and my eyes a fountain of tears that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! (vv. 22-9:1)

Interesting to note he picks right up where he left off. He neither responds to the people’s accusation and challenge towards God, he doesn’t respond to God’s call to covenantal relationship,

      he remains deeply rooted in his sorrow.

Commentators point out that it is difficult to distinguish the narrator’s voice, that of Jeremiah from God’s voice.

     Jeremiah’s pain and God’s pain are one and the same.

Honesty with one’s self and others about one’s brokenness, one’s pain can offer the first steps towards healing and reconciliation. Honesty that speaks of my accountability, my actions, my involvement- not in blame language or directing responsibility outside of myself.

Where do you find yourself in today’s conversation in this text? Do you sit with Jeremiah, intensively sorrowful about how we as a people of faith, a nation, and a world have broken our covenantal relationship with God?

Do you hear echoes of the people’s abdication of responsibility in your own conversations? ‘He/she should have known this was going to happen, it’s not my fault, and it’s not my responsibility? The government needs to…, our mayor, our teachers, our preacher…”

Are you calling yourself and others back into covenantal relationship with God? Perhaps starting with the words, ‘I’m sorry.”

Do we need balm, band aids, and first aid kits in our relationships with each other? Absolutely! We need to have words, phrases and gestures that speak of forgiveness, accountability and reconciliation sprinkled liberally throughout our conversations.

How about in our relationship with God? Jeremiah’s passage today gives us a lens through which to discern our own relationship with God- Why have they provoked me with their idols and foreign gods?

This is the word I hear Jeremiah speaking to us today-

~Are you loving God with all your heart, your soul, your mind?

~Are your thoughts and actions provoking God?

We’ve eavesdropped on a curious conversation this morning haven’t we?

May God guide our discernment and our response to God’s word today.