@EUCC Sermons

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.

If you’re a frequent flier here at Eden Church, you know that today’s message is the third in a series of four sermons based on the book of Jeremiah. For the benefit of our visitors, I’ll summarize the context in which today’s passage is set, and then dive into an exploration of the imagery and application of Jeremiah’s text for our lives.

Jeremiah was an Ancient Israelite prophet from a priestly lineage who lived and served in the early 6th century BCE. Jeremiah was born and raised in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, but was sent by God to the capital of Judea (which was Jerusalem) during the final years when King Josiah ruled.

The prophet had the unenviable job of telling the king things that he did not want to hear. Specifically, Jeremiah told King Josiah and his subjects to repent from their reliance on military might, their worship of foreign gods, and their inattention to the Law of Moses.

King Josiah and his minions were unmoved. They failed to change their ways, and as a result, they suffered God’s judgment. The Southern Kingdom was defeated by the Babylonians, the City of Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed, and most of the survivors were marched to Babylon, where they were forced into indentured servanthood by their captors for the next forty years.

My grandparents were remarkably resourceful people. If they weren’t born with this quality, they clearly learned it from their parents and grandparents. All of my ancestors were farmers. Most were prompted by a farming crisis of one sort or another to leave Europe and emigrate to the US in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

According to family lore, my ancestors sold everything they had in order to pay their passage to the US. The entered the US at the port of Ellis Island, took trains to Chicago, laid over in Illinois for a time to raise money, and then headed west to rent and buy farmland in Iowa. There, they raised corn, cattle, hogs, chickens, and children, who were all above average.

Although my ancestors routinely worked with other relatives and neighbors to build barns, put up hay, and harvest crops, each family knew that they had to be relatively self-sufficient in order to survive the harsh weather of the rural Midwest.

My dad spent a lot of time in the late fall “winterizing our farm” which included stacking straw bales around the wells that provided water for the livestock and the house. He also piled bales around the house to insulate the foundation and keep the pipes in the basement from freezing up.

In the late summer we butchered a steer or a barrow and stored the meat in a giant freezer. We raised a kitchen garden and canned and froze the produce and kept those commodities, along with potatoes and other vegetables, in the root cellar under the house.

Like our neighbors, we had to be prepared to fend for ourselves and care for our livestock if we got snowed in, or suffered a major power outage in any season of the year. In times like these, we often leaned back on the old ways of our pioneer ancestors.

Jeremiah is one of the best known and most important prophets in the Judeo-Chritsian faith; and yet the facts that he was called to this role, and that he embraced it were never gauranteed.

In today’s reading, Jeremiah explains that he was the son of Hilkiah, a priest from Anathoth, a village in the hill country located a day’s walk north of Jerusalem. He also explained that he was a prophet from the tribe of Benjamin, the smallest of the twelve tribes of Israel, and that he was a descendent of a priest whom King Solomon had banished from Jerusalem for supporting his rival.

In sum, Jeremiah was a country bumpkin with weak credentials, who was called to go down to the big city and tell the rich and powerful what his forebears had already said, and that they did not want to hear.

Specifically, young Jeremiah was called to scold King Solomon for worshiping foreign gods, and to insist that the king follow the first commandment: “I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other Gods before me.”

Jeremiah was also called to criticize the High Priests for all of their “chancel prancing,” rather than promoting social justice, and to warn King Solomon that unless he and the High Priests repented and changed their ways, the nation was doomed. (Jer. 7 & 8)

The New Testament letter to the Hebrews was written during the later half of the first century AD. The author was an early apostle, who was writing to a fledgling Christian community living under Roman persecution. We don’t know the author’s name, and we’re not sure of where the recipients were living, though some say that they resided in Italy.

Some of the recipients of this epistle had their property confiscated and they had been thrown in jail and tortured on account of their affiliation with this fledgling Christian congregation. As a consequence, the faith of this congregation’s members had been profoundly shaken.

The apostle wrote to offer the members encouragement and support. Specifically, he encouraged them to draw strength from the example of the saints (i.e., their ancestors in the faith) and to embrace the vision of the New Jerusalem and to bring it into fruition through just and righteous actions.

Easy-peasy, right?

Wrong.

The late, great Maria Harris, Professor of Religious Education, at one of my alma maters typically began each lecture by walking into the classroom, setting down her shoulder bag, and stating her thesis for the day. She never had to ask the class to quiet down. The second we students saw her walk in the door, we shut our mouths and pulled out our pens and pencils. No one wanted to miss a word that she said. For example, one day she walked into class, set down her belongings, and said; “Those who own the words own the world.” Then she went on to provide numerous examples, of the “haves” and the “have-nots.”

Living as we do in a multicultural community, it does not take much imagination to appreciate the truth of Maria’s thesis. Those who “own English” in the U.S. own the world. Every street sign, public service announcement, job application, medical form, and travel advisory in the U.S. is written in English.

The gospel lesson today is a familiar one to those of us who have been “frequent fliers” at Bible study, women’s fellowship, and Sunday worship. For others--not so much. So I will begin with a little “Who’s Who” and some context to explain how this story is situated in the life of Jesus.

The main characters are Mary, Martha, and Jesus. Martha, the hostess, and her siblings, Mary and Lazarus, were members of a prominent family who resided in Bethany, a city located two miles east of Jerusalem, and they were part of Jesus’ inner circle, particularly during the most active period of ministry.

We know this because all three of them are mentioned in the New Testament gospels, and because Martha is depicted as a homeowner and hostess, who is prosperous enough to accommodate Jesus and his entourage.

Tomorrow our nation will celebrate its 246th Independence Day. Most of us probably take this fact for granted unless we are devoted students of American history, current or former members of the US armed services or members of a military family, or we are chaplains or pastors who have ministered with active duty service members, veterans, or their families.

I’ve studied American history, including the history of our wars. One of my uncles and several cousins have served in the military, but it wasn’t until I had served as a pastor for five or six years that I really began to understand the sacrifices that military personnel (and their loved ones) make in order to preserve the rights and privileges that we civilians enjoy, and what is extracted of military personnel to protect the interests of the US government.

Eden Church will hold its 157th Annual Meeting less than an hour from now. This year, as in every previous year, our members will elect the laity who will make decisions on our behalf for the coming year.

In anticipation of this vote, and in recognition that we all play a role in choosing leaders in our representative democracies--here at Eden and in our larger society--I will describe the leadership change that took place between two famous prophets. Today’s Hebrew Bible lesson describes the passing of Elijah’s mantle to Elisha.

I will also propose a few lessons that we might take to heart as individuals and as a congregation as we contemplate succession planning in our families, church, and public life.

One hundred fifty-seven years ago today, June 19, 1865 enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, finally got the news that they were free. Though their freedom had been granted by President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation made on January 1, 1863, folks in Galveston didn’t get this liberating news until 2.5 years later, due to the significant geographic distances between Washington, D.C. and Galveston, Texas, limited communication channels, and most slaveholders’ refusal to accept the news.

African Americans created the slang term “Juneteenth” for this day by combining the month with the date of the occasion.

Today we celebrate Pentecost, one of the great festivals of the Christian year. This occasion builds on the ancient Jewish harvest festival called Shavuot, which is also known as the Feast of Weeks.

Shavuot has a double significance in that it marks the completion of the wheat harvest in Israel (Ex. 34:22) and it commemorates the day when God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses and the Hebrew people on Mount Sinai.

In addition to the Jewish link with the gift of Law, the Christian Day of Pentecost is also linked with the story of Babel found in Genesis 11.

The story of Babel explains why there are so many languages, so much confusion, and so many conflicts in the world. It also warns believers about the deleterious effects that self-importance and self-interest can have on individuals and groups.

Nearly 30 years ago, when I was a freshly-minted pastor, the congregation I served in Boston asked me to lead our college group on a month-long mission education trip to the Philippines. The assignment came as a bit of surprise to me, as I had only been on the staff about four months when I was asked to lead the trip, and I was not the pastor who was assigned to this group. Never mind the fact that I was only 25 and barely old enough to get myself to obscure islands in the Philippines safely, let alone taking 12 college students with me and keeping them in line.

The other day a friend and I were reflecting on the coping strategies that we have used to survive the pandemic. We pondered whether these strategies would be sufficient for the duration, or whether we might need to acquire more — since only God knows when this nightmare will truly end.

My friend and I each rattled off a half-dozen coping strategies that we were relying on. Most were tried and true. In the course of our reflection, I realized that one of my reliable strategies has taken a new twist — I started listening to country music again.