Advent - Meditations from Jeremiah
1. Reminder: Why We Hope
(Jeremiah 2:5-13)
Know and see that it is evil and bitter for you to forsake your God... (Jer 2:19a)
But darkness had come upon the land and the kingdom of priests reveled in evil and wickedness. God thrust them into the captivity and punishment which had been promised since Sinai, and so patiently delayed for centuries. They never ruled the land again like they had at first.
They were looking for a savior, a rescuer, someone to lead the charge against the Romans like Moses against the Egyptians, Joshua against the Canaanites, or David against the Philistines. They expected God to fix the problem of Roman rule. But that’s not what happened. God himself descended to rescue them from the same root problem which plagued them since the beginning of time: the hell-bent problem of sin (Mt 1:21), rebellion against God, and to establish his own kingdom that transcends human ones.
Traditionally, on the first Sunday of Advent, we ponder the hope of that coming Messiah. Scripture is read and songs are sung to remember this hope, to re-ignite it once again. But I am struck by the fact that hope is only necessary when something is wrong. What need is there for hope if nothing is wrong?
So, let us revisit the ancient darkness that brought God to take his people to their knees before their enemies. Let us heighten our awareness of our troubled state in order to evoke greater hope for the Messiah, for the light shines brightest when the darkness is blackest. Let us then peer into the darkness that we may search for the radiance of the light all the more fervently.
The prophet Jeremiah was born on the brink of the disaster, Israel’s defeat by the Babylonians. Jeremiah is sometimes called the weeping prophet. He watched the decay of the people, the rejection of God, and was there during the final siege of Jerusalem.
Jeremiah’s role as prophet is in fact so hard that God gives him a unique call (1:5), telling him that he was chosen by God in his mother’s womb for this job. His is to be a long and unfulfilling life in service to God and there will be no second-guessing his calling.
I encourage you to read all of Jeremiah before Christmas, but for now, before proceeding, read Jeremiah 2:4-13. ‘Thus says the Lord’... These are God’s words to the people spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah.
I hope when you read this you feel the gut-wrenching emotion in these words. The faithlessness of the people is likened to that of a faithless spouse (3:1-3).
What wrong was found in God that they should turn their love elsewhere? The abandonment wasn’t an isolated event. Verse 8 shows the totality priests, scholars of scripture, kings (shepherd is the frequent metaphor for a king), and even the prophets. The turning from God was complete. Every person that was supposed to remind and point people to God was leading them away. What did he ever do to lose their trust? Has he not built enough trust with them?
But their abandoning God has nothing to do with his character and everything to do with theirs. The question in 10-11 highlights just how insane this really is – not even pagan nations worshiping false gods switch the god they worship. How can it be that the very chosen and rescued ones would exchange the living God for emptiness? He has only ever been true. How can they so casually switch their allegiance? “Be appalled, O heavens”, says the Lord, “be shocked, be utterly desolate.” Creation itself is called in to bear witness. This a preposterous thing that cannot be hyperbolized.
Verse 13 throws down the gauntlet. Here is the darkness, here is the evil.
...My people have committed two evils:
they have forsaken me,
the fountain of living waters,
and hewed out cisterns for themselves,
broken cisterns that can hold no water.
These are the two evils. The first is the forsaking, the abandoning, the turning from God. The second is committing themselves to another – to any other.
It is a strange thing as Christians that today we might consider sins against God less grave than sins against humanity, or even against the planet itself.
Jeremiah roots the evil of the people as first forsaking God. Do we orient our thoughts of evil in relation to God?
Why carve cisterns? Why choose stale water that sits in the dirty earth? Why work hours carving, hewing, scraping out caverns in the earth? Why abandon a bubbling spring, cold, fresh and clean – then that dirty sweat-filled cistern cannot hold any water in the first place? It is the act of a madman. But there is no thought, no logic or reason behind the choice; only desire passion. Doing what feels good at the time, what seems right in the moment. That is why they are later likened to a wild donkey in heat roaming the wilderness overcome with lust (2:24), or a prostitute waiting for lovers (3:2b). Be shocked. Be utterly desolate. Of all the people on the earth, they have been chosen by the majestic, awesome, creating, rescuing God – to be his own people whom he will guard and protect, for whom he will provide and grow. But, no. They party around the empty cistern, dying of thirst, and pretending it is full. Let the despair slowly sink in.
And yet, as I look around today, the words of Jeremiah are eerily descriptive of our time. Even now people flock to temples to mammon and consumerism, to give devotion to and receive worth from plastic, wood, screens, and virtual or alternate realities. In our lusts and passions are we not liable to switch our allegiance to whatever suits our current feelings? Even when Jesus walked this earth, “he came to his own, but his own people did not receive him.” Among those who did receive him are those who represent the thorns in the parable of the sower (Lk 8:4-14). “As for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.” Any voice that we serve other than the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is an empty promise, filled with dust and not water. What scares me is that I know I am easily swayed by my own desires and passions. What scares me is that I might value feeling like I’m following Christ more than honoring God in obedience to the Son. If I can check the right boxes, I can go back to my cistern guilt-free. Be shocked. Be utterly appalled.
Looking into the darkness, into the weakness and absurdity of Israel – and ours today as Christians - we are again made aware of how dire the situation, and how much we need – and hope for - Messiah Jesus.
Prayer
O Lord our Father, as we go about daily tasks and as we prepare for the Christmas season in all of the ways which are unique to our families and cultures,
Grant us O Lord to be filled with the emptiness that will accompany anything that we devote ourselves to without first being devoted to the Son,
Lest we find ourselves governed by our passions and not Christ.
Let your Spirit reveal in us where we wander and stray, that we might turn from the heart to the Hope of all nations.
O Christ Jesus, let our wait be not much longer. As we remember your first coming, we anxiously await the second. Tarry not, O King.
Sing: O Come O Come Emmanuel, Come Thou Long Expected Jesus
Comments
Post a Comment