Sunday Homily - June 21, 2020 - The Sharp Word of the Lord

The Prophet Jeremiah Icon

I.

The Holy Scriptures are filled with incredible accounts of God's relationship with humanity. 

Whether we think of the stories of Abraham called by God in the book of Genesis,

 all the way to the commissioning of St. Paul to the Gentiles by Jesus Christ our Lord,

  there is not one bit of the Holy Scriptures that isn't given by holy inspiration

   and in which the Holy Spirit speaks through time and time again.

When we hear of the "feel-good" stories,

 the ones that are comfort and help and assurance,

  such as the passage from St. Paul this morning about our hope in the resurrection of Jesus,

   it is easy to rest in the consolation of God in this important passage.

Even in the midst of hard teaching, 

 Jesus Christ Our Lord gives clear teaching about not being afraid of anyone,

  because we are followers of Jesus who must take up our cross,

   who must lose their lives in order to gain them. 

    Ultimate victory belongs to God,

     and if we belong to God,

      we have nothing to fear.

But there is a huge portion of books from the Old Testament

 that frequently get passed over

  in favor of the more "feel good" aspects of consolation.

   And these particular books are none other than the Old Testament Prophets. 

The books of the Prophets (in the order our copy of the Holy Scriptures are arranged)

 begin at the book of Isaiah and go all the way through Malachi.

And you might have some idea of what the Prophets are about

 because of how frequently they are quoted concerning Jesus.

  The portions of Isaiah, Joel, Jonah, Micah, and others

   are often seen only in the light of Christ in the revelation of the Eternal Word to the world. 

But the prophets don't just serve a role of foretelling the coming of Jesus Christ.

 They also had an immediate context for their words as well.

And those immediate contexts are usually not something that come up too often

 because they show how absolutely hated that the prophet's words are

  in the ears of those who need to hear what they said. 

There is a reason that Jesus quipped multiple times 

 about how the leaders in Jerusalem kill the prophets sent from God.

  Jesus even told a story about this very occurrence.

And there is a very upside-down,

 downright scary theme in the Old Testament prophets:

  the false prophets are the ones that everyone likes,

   and the true prophets sent by God everyone hates. 

There are all kinds of accounts of this theme within the prophets themselves,

 but no where is it more clear than in the prophet we read this morning:

  the Prophet Jeremiah. 

II.

Jeremiah lived during the reign of the Israelite kings 

 in the latter portion of the Israelite kingship,

  and immediately prior to the destruction of Israel 

   and captivity of the Israelite people.

And Jeremiah was called by God as his prophet.

 God came to Jeremiah and made him his spokesperson.

  But God did so in a very scary way:

   "Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched [Jeremiah's] mouth and said to me, 

    “I have put my words in your mouth. 

     See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, 

      to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.”

        [Jeremiah 1:9-10]

God put his words in the prophet's mouth,

 and boy was it a word that the people of Israel didn't like. 

Jeremiah proclaimed the ultimate destruction of the physical kingdom of Israel,

 and the coming doom of captivity.

  And all along Jeremiah proclaimed that it was because of the unfaithfulness of the people

   to the Covenant of God. 

    And this unfaithfulness wasn't about their attendance at the worship of God at the Temple:

     it was because of their unfaithfulness and unjust conduct outside of worship.

To say that the people in Israel hated Jeremiah is an understatement.

And, in fact, you can see how much of a toll this took on Jeremiah in today's reading.

"I have become a laughingstock all day long;

   everyone mocks me.

For whenever I speak, I must cry out,

   I must shout, "Violence and destruction!"

For the word of the Lord has become for me

   a reproach and derision all day long.

If I say, "I will not mention him,

   or speak any more in his name,"

then within me there is something like a burning fire

   shut up in my bones;

I am weary with holding it in,

   and I cannot."

   [c.f. Jeremiah 20:7-13]

And yet Jeremiah was given the actual Word of the Lord

 that was so unpleasant to the people of Israel

  that people were trying to kill Jeremiah.

But at the end of the passage,

 we are also asked to remember, like Jeremiah,

  that it is not those who hate us or the Word of God that we need to fear. 

   Because if we speak what God has given us to speak,

    the Lord will at the end of the day save us with a mighty hand:

"But the Lord is with me like a dread warrior;

   therefore my persecutors will stumble,

   and they will not prevail.

They will be greatly shamed,

   for they will not succeed.

Their eternal dishonor

   will never be forgotten.

O Lord of hosts, you test the righteous,

   you see the heart and the mind;

   let me see your retribution upon them,

   for to you I have committed my cause.

Sing to the Lord;

   praise the Lord!

For he has delivered the life of the needy

   from the hands of evildoers."

   [c.f. Jeremiah 20:7-13]

III.

One of the hard graces of the Old Testament prophets

 is that they are often an unpleasant word

  a harsh word of discipline and correction.

   And yet this harsh word is none other than the Word of the Lord,

   a word that deeply desires our holiness and our salvation. 

And just like a parent who disciplines their children to walk in the right way

 and to live a life of justice and compassion,

  we also sometimes need a harsh word of the Lord 

   to wake us up and open our eyes to remember the ways in which we must straighten up. 

The Prophets teach us this hard word. 

And Jeremiah also teaches us,

 more specifically,

  that just because you don't like what you hear

   or just because you don't like the person saying it,

    doesn't disqualify the word or the speaker from actually being

     the Word of the Lord. 

Rather, the word in the mouth of the speaker

 must be weighed and listened to carefully.

  And, perhaps you may find, 

   that a harsh word reveals a blindness that we never would have understood

    unless the unpleasant, disciplining Word of the Lord spoke to our hearts

     and pierced our sinful barriers that block us from the holiness and justice

      we are all called to exercise. 

Therefore, friends, I urge you as you walk in Christ this week,

 when you hear a harsh word or a word that makes you uncomfortable,

  angry, frustrated, scared,

   don't immediately dismiss it. 

    Because sometimes the Word of the Lord will make you uncomfortable,

    angry, frustrated, and scared. 

The Holy Scriptures aren't meant to make you feel good.

 They are meant to make you holy. 

  

And holiness is something that will cause you to lose your life. 

 It will cause you to bear a cross that one day you will be nailed to.

  But it is a death that we are actually called to live

   by the actual Word of the Lord.

Where in your life has harsh word been spoken

 that God may be calling you to listen to more closely?

Where have we ignored the uncomfortable and sharp Word of God

 that actually, on further examination, was not a threatening sword of death,

  but a surgical scalpel meant to excise our sin 

   and to heal us from the malignant growth in our souls

    that only comes out by a painful and sharp knife?

Because that sharp Word of God

 is where we might need to lose our life to find it.

  Jesus might actually be meaning that you need to die in order to live.

   And by virtue of our Baptism,

    we might be actually called to be buried in a death like Christ's.

Because only then, 

 can we be raised in a resurrection like Christ's.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.