2022.09.11 | Reckoning with God's Wrath
“Reckoning with God’s Wrath”
Rev. Dr. Arlene K. Nehring
Eden United Church of Christ
Hayward, California
Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 11, 2022
Jer. 4:11-12, 22-28 (NRSV)
Passages like Jeremiah 4 are grim. It is the fear of hearing these types of texts — and sermons preached on them — that keeps some people away from churches. So thanks for showing up today, and for not bolting for the door just now.
If you stay with me, I’ll provide some biographical information about Jeremiah and some historical context for this passage, and then show you that neither the book of Jeremiah, this sermon, nor the world, ends in doom and gloom.
Jeremiah was the son of Hilkiah, a priest from Anathoth (Jer. 1:1), which was a village located in the hill country about a day’s walk north of the City of Jerusalem.
Jeremiah was a member of the tribe of Benjamin, the smallest of the twelve tribes of Israel, and he was the descendent of a priest whom King Solomon had banished from the royal city on account of his support for the king's rival.
For 25 years prior to the fall of Judah (the Southern Kingdom of Israel), Jeremiah repeatedly called the nation to repent of their reliance on military might, their worship of foreign gods and hollow rituals, and to renew their covenant with Yahweh, and to practice social justice so that there would be justice and peace in their land.
The prophet Jeremiah warned King Josiah and the high priests that unless they confessed their sins and turned their lives around, Judah would be ruined. (Jer. 7 & 8.)
The way that biblical historians remember the story, the king and his court refused to heed the prophet’s advice, and as a result, the Southern Kingdom was conquered by the Babylonians. The capital city, including the Temple, was leveled, and most of the survivors were marched off to Babylon, where they spent forty years in indentured servitude. These epic events marked the end of an era for ancient Judah.
II
In a similar fashion, the events that occurred in NYC, DC, and Shanksville, Pennsylvania 21 years ago today marked the end of an era — indeed the end of the world — as most of us had known it.
The loss of so many lives and the chaos that these attacks unleashed in our nation 21 years ago incited a spiritual and moral crisis, the likes of which most of us had never experienced.
I recall feeling that a pall had been thrown over our country as the shocking news set into the soul of our nation. We were not as impervious or powerful as we may have thought we were. Thousands of innocent lives were lost. National landmarks were obliterated in a matter of moments. The airlines, schools, and most businesses were shut down as we hunkered down in front of our TVs, and gathered in our living rooms and houses of prayer, and tried to figure out what in the world had just happened.
Everyone was scrambling for answers to perennial questions which did not come easily: What were the terrorists so angry about? Why did so many innocent people have to suffer and die? Where in the world was God? Does God even exist? If so, why didn’t he intervene?
I recall hearing a range of answers to these existential questions. Some saw the situation in cause-and-effect terms. Christian fundamentalists, like Pat Robertson, blamed LGBT communities and US culture for promoting more inclusive gender and sexual expressions and more diverse family forms — which, in his view, had provoked God’s anger and judgment on our nation.
Others blamed US foreign policies that had not supported the Palestinians, had devastated the Iraqi and Afghan economies, and had resulted in a long-term US military presence in the Persian Gulf. They opined that these situations had incited the jihadists’ violence.
Still others saw the 9-11 tragedy as an example of the devil working overtime, while God was asleep at the wheel or too weak or disinterested to intervene.
I wonder, what conclusions have you made about God’s role or absence in the 9-11 terrorist attacks, or other epic events in our nation’s history?
III
How do you answer questions such as this — questions that theologians refer to as “the problem of theodicy”? How do you reconcile the idea of a good God with the problem of evil in the world? Or don’t you?
In my view, epic tragedies such as those that occurred on 9-11 illustrate the fact that we live in a fallen world where bad things happen, where everyone experiences suffering, where suffering does not always have a clear cause and effect relationship, and where, eventually, all of us die.
I don’t know why God doesn’t seem to intervene to stop suffering when humans behave badly, other than to affirm that God has given us free will, and has chosen to allow humans to suffer the consequences of unfaithful actions, or inaction. Perhaps, as the spiritual goes, “We’ll understand it better by and by.”
The events that occurred on 9-11 serve as a reminder that human behavior really does matter. There is often (but not always) a cause and effect relationship between how we behave and the outcomes that we experience in our personal, national, and international lives. We should try to understand the correlation between these, make amends for our errors and omissions, and apply lessons learned to improve our world as we go forward.
IV
While we can’t control the behavior of others, we can learn to better manage our own behavior. We can also use the power that we have to listen and learn from others, and respect differences, affirm diversity, and collaborate with others in pursuit of the common good.
We can, for example, participate in groups like the Eden Area Interfaith Council that is composed of 15 faith groups and that works together right here in unincorporated communities and the City of Hayward to promote harmony and healing.
Baha'i, Christian, Hindu, Islam, Jewish, Sikh, Unitarian Universalist, and interfaith groups, such as the South Hayward Parish, work together agains religious intolerance and religious persecution, and for social justice.
The EAIC was formally founded in the fall of 2015 in reaction to an Islamophobic incident that occurred at Lake Chabot Park. (You may recall that a local Christian woman shouted epithets at Muslim men while they were praying, threw a cup of coffee on them, and then hit one with her umbrella after he got up from his prayers.)
The Coalition’s first event after rekindling relationships was to hold an interfaith peace rally and peace walk in Castro Valley on December 26, 2015. The group followed up the rally and walk with a series of “Meet a Muslim” events held at local libraries to build interfaith understanding. We also coordinated an interfaith entry in the Castro Valley Rodeo Parade, and later held a series of Interfaith Salad Potlucks and facilitated discussions in Oliver Hall.
Most recently, the EAIC took a position to strongly support the Amah Mutsun Tribe’s right to reside on and maintain their religious and cultural practices on property known as Juristac in Santa Clara County, California. The sacred land is threatened with permanent destruction by the proposed Sargent sand and gravel mine. To learn more about the initiative, join the campaign, and share your position with the Santa Clara Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors, speak with Stephanie Spencer and check out the website links in this paragraph.
V
The events that prompted our interfaith friendships in the Eden Area 21 years ago and the renewal of the Eden Area Interfaith Council in 2015, and the events that prompted Jeremiah’s prophecy in Chapter 4, are unmistakably scenes of doom and gloom. But the example of the EAIC members coming together to work for the common good serve is a profound reminder that neither the doom and gloom of Jeremiah 4 nor 9-11, nor ongoing bigotry are the inevitable end to our human story.
The final chapter of Jeremiah includes the prophet’s vision of the Babylonian captives liberated, the Diaspora returned, and the City and Temple of Jerusalem restored. This vision wasn’t pie-in-the-sky. It was fulfilled five decades later, when Cyrus of Persia defeated the Babylonians (in 539 BC).
As modern Christians and the Jewish and Muslim children of Abraham, we are heirs to this vision. We have inherited far more than an ominous prediction. We have inherited a reminder that peace and justice are possible when we keep the covenant that God has offered us, and we pursue the common good with groups like the EAIC. Amen.