Jay Rowland
“Waiting”
Jeremiah 14:7-10, 19-22
October 23, 2022
This sermon features the ideas and quotes from Walter Brueggemann, Exile & Homecoming—A Commentary on Jeremiah, Erdmans; pp.134-141
Waiting
I feel like I owe you an apology for choosing this passage from the available lectionary choices for today. Because--just in case you hadn’t noticed--it’s harsh. There’s very little if any material that’s explicitly inspiring or uplifting. And I admit I prefer scripture choices that are explicitly inspiring and uplifting. Especially in the past 2-3 years, when it comes to selecting one of the four lectionary choices to preach on, I find myself looking for one that is capable of propelling me into the world with a big, bright light of hope and a fearless trust in God.
But Jeremiah 14 is not one of those scriptures.
Sorry about that.
I blame Walter Brueggemann. I’ve been spending lots of time with him lately. You may have heard me refer to him in the past. Full disclosure: Brueggemann is, in my opinion, his generation’s most important and gifted scholar of the Hebrew scriptures (Old Testament) in general, and the prophets and Jeremiah in particular.
One of the reasons among many that I hold this opinion is that Brueggemann taught me that the struggles of the time in which Jeremiah lived and preached profoundly mirror the struggles of our own time.
So as I blame Brueggemann for my decision to land on Jeremiah 14, I lean upon his knowledge and interpretive insights of Jeremiah to help me make sense of the struggles confronting the world today.
This past week, I made the mistake of watching the daily headlines with my first cup of coffee. I did this for three days in a row and I don’t recommend it--it’s demoralizing. There is no new information or insight to be gained. It’s merely the daily repetition of a discouraging and continuing narrative—including the slaughter of the innocents in Ukraine and in US schools and cities from gun violence; doom and gloom economic trends; dissonance from politicians, influencers and candidates posturing for midterm elections; evidence of our critically ill planet in the form of hurricanes, forest fires, drought and flood; injustice tormenting communities of color, gender and other people cast to the margins of society
Given this daily backdrop of profoundly demoralizing and discouraging realities bombarding us every day this passage from Jeremiah is strangely appropriate. Jeremiah refuses to put any “spin” on reality for the Hebrew people of Judah and Israel. Jeremiah does not waste any words or attention on pithy slogans or on rants identifying easy scapegoats.
This is significant because, as Brueggemann points out, Jeremiah was competing with other “credible and recognized voices” clamoring for the attention of his people—voices presenting a different view of reality, one that is whitewashed and simplistic so it can be carefully managed, packaged and manipulated.
Just like right here in 2022.
So yeah, bring on Jeremiah.
But first let’s set the context. The situation being lamented in Jeremiah 14 is a prolonged drought that has brought widespread suffering and death to the people. A drought so severe it no longer discriminates between the nobility and the peasant, or between plants and crops, animals, and humans; all are suffering and slowly dying.
Brueggemann calls it the waning or the reversal of creation.
Whatever you call it, the people of Israel are crying out to God to save them. In the midst of the widespread suffering and death, the people of Israel and Judah are moved to humility, something which, up until the drought had been mostly non-existent.
Up until the drought, the dominant voices and citizens of Israel and Judah were so busy wandering away from God, they didn’t notice when they crossed the line into an outright rejection of God and the covenant.
Until the drought brought creation itself to a screeching halt. That got everybody’s attention.
Brueggemann’s curious description of the drought as the reversal of creation leads me to interpret it as not so much punishment from God, but rather a natural consequence of the people’s long-running determination to live apart from God. And so, from God’s perspective, after being ignored and insulted by the people, God decides, “ok. Have it your way.” And so God steps aside so that the people can live the full experience of creation without the life-giving care and presence of the Creator.
But thus confronted by Creation without a Creator the people plead with God for forgiveness and restoration, pleading to the same God they previously ignored and insulted ...
7 Although our iniquities testify against us,
act, O Lord, for your name’s sake
This is a savvy prayer. The people openly admit that they have provoked God and that they deserve God’s punishment. And so they plead for mercy by intentionally appealing to God’s character and God’s covenant promise. Their sincerity is in question. Between the lines, for the people’s expectation is that of course God will show God’s characteristic mercy and uphold God’s covenant with the people.
And so what is unique about this interaction between God and God’s people in Jeremiah 14 is God’s response. Properly understood, it is disturbing. It was certainly disturbing to those who pleaded for God’s mercy in Jeremiah. But it remains disturbing to us as we read and hear it from our vantage point today:
10 [Thus says the Lord] concerning this people:
Truly they have loved to wander;
they have not restrained their feet;
therefore the Lord does not accept them;
now he will remember their iniquity
and punish their sins.
Brueggemann acknowledges this is a harsh word but clarifies that God is not being vindictive or reactive. Rather, God through Jeremiah is establishing boundaries that God expects God’s people to respect, “limits beyond which [God] will not be pushed.”
This is unique among the prophets. It is unexpected. The expected response, which shows up repeatedly throughout scripture is that God will remember their sin no more. But here in Jeremiah 14:10 God’s response to the people’s plea for mercy is a rejection of their plea. And it’s Jeremiah’s unenviable calling to articulate God’s rejection to God’s people against the widespread assumption that God would never do that (p.136).
Brueggemann points out that there were “other credible prophetic voices in the community (who) perceived reality very differently.” (see Jer. 14:13-14). I can’t help but think of all the “other credible prophetic voices” in our time--voices in government, politics and even religion--all of which perceive reality very differently. Credible voices who inflate their own importance by blaming the complex problems of our time upon scapegoats and subterfuge. Credible voices constantly working to distract and confuse, destabilize and provoke, rather than doing the hard, disturbing, uncomfortable work required to truly move toward common good and common ground.
This is the exact sort of dis-orientation toward humanity, the world and God that the leaders and people of Israel fell into at the expense of their God-orientation. A rejection of the God of Creation who lives and moves in creation and in humanity through diversity and who moves and works through consensus and cooperation
Brueggemann sums up the situation in Jeremiah 14, “The prayer asking God to remember the covenant is a dangerous prayer because it has already been asserted (verse 10) what God will remember. … One memory leads to death. The other memory yields continued life and possibility. This poem (Jeremiah 14) gives no hint of which (memory will prevail)... The poet (Jeremiah) hopes that God will remember (the covenant rather than the sin), but the poet does not dare prescribe the memory for God.”
To clarify: Jeremiah chapter 14 ends with the people waiting on God’s mercy.
And that is also where we find ourselves today it seems to me.
Krista Tippett from the public radio broadcast/podcast On Being describes something she is doing and recommends to her listeners as a way to process the uncommon difficulties of our age. I share it here because it is an invitation to cultivate spiritual wisdom and guidance as we wait upon God’s mercy.
Tippett acknowledges that the profound problems of our time are “vast, aching, questions for which no answers are forthcoming anytime soon.” As an antidote to despair, Tippett shares a spiritual practice inspired by the poet Rainer-Maria Rilke. She calls it Living The Questions an intentional leaning into the troubling questions of our time (rather than ignoring or avoiding these troubling questions). I’ll include the link in my sermon manuscript online.
To learn more: https://onbeing.org/on-being-foundations/
It’s a simple practice designed to help us to reframe our encounter with (or retreat from) the profound problems of our time. It caught my attention because, being inspired by the poet Rilke connects with Brueggemann’s reminder that Jeremiah (and all the prophets) were also poets. The prophets created poems and poetry to help God’s people process the profoundly difficult reality of their own time.
Tippett embraces this practice by noting that our changing world requires us to ask new and different questions. And wisely declares that the questions we’ve become most accustomed and conditioned to asking are not suited to the pressing need of our times to move toward God’s re-creation of our broken world.
Brueggemann sees this happening all around us now. A new world is emerging from the broken world that is passing away before our very eyes. Brueggemann emphatically declares and interprets and recognizes this same situation in the core of the prophetic witness of Jeremiah and all the Hebrew prophets.
Like our Hebrew ancestors, we are living in a time of vast change and chaos. The harsh word from God through Jeremiah to the people of Israel and Judah reflects that chaos and change. Jeremiah chapter 14 ends without any clear resolution. Of course we know what they could not see in that moment: that God continued to love the Hebrew people and lead them forward.
But the way forward brought the people into unthinkable disruption and disorientation.
Perhaps like our ancestors, we are not ready or willing to see the new world that is emerging. Perhaps unlike our ancestors, we can allow our hearts to be broken open in order to see the new reality God will reveal. In the meantime, it’s up to us how we choose to abide with God in the midst of our own profound waiting.
**********************
Rainer Maria Rilke, from Letters to a Young Poet:
“Be patient towards all that is unsolved in your heart
and try to love the questions themselves
as if they are locked rooms
or books written in a foreign language
“Don’t search for the answers
which could not be given to you now
bc you would not be able to live them,
“But rather live everything;
live the questions now,
perhaps then someday far into the future
you will gradually without even noticing it
live your way into the answer.
**********************
Jeremiah 14:7-10, 19-22
7 Although our iniquities testify against us,
act, O Lord, for your name’s sake;
our rebellions indeed are many,
and we have sinned against you.
8 O hope of Israel,
its savior in time of trouble,
why should you be like a stranger in the land,
like a traveler turning aside for the night?
9 Why should you be like someone confused,
like a mighty warrior who cannot give help?
Yet you, O Lord, are in the midst of us,
and we are called by your name;
do not forsake us!
10 Thus says the Lord concerning this people:
Truly they have loved to wander;
they have not restrained their feet;
therefore the Lord does not accept them;
now he will remember their iniquity
and punish their sins.
19 Have you completely rejected Judah?
Does your heart loathe Zion?
Why have you struck us down
so that there is no healing for us?
We look for peace but find no good,
for a time of healing, but there is terror instead.
20 We acknowledge our wickedness, O Lord,
the iniquity of our ancestors,
for we have sinned against you.
21 Do not spurn us, for your name’s sake;
do not dishonor your glorious throne;
remember and do not break your covenant with us.
22 Can any idols of the nations bring rain,
or can the heavens give showers?
Is it not you, O Lord our God?
We set our hope on you,
for it is you who do all this.
