I was seven, maybe eight, years old. I can’t remember the precise
circumstances surrounding the event, but I had been sent to
my room. In my mind, I was the subject of unjust persecution. I
slammed the door and locked it. I was crying angry tears, and
right then and there, I decided to resort to extreme measures.
You see, I had recently learned that there were words (I had a
partial list) you were not allowed to say. In fact, there were words
that God commanded you not to say. But where was God when
my parents acted in such an unfair way? I got into my bed, I
covered my head with blankets, and I said directly into my pillow,
“Heck.” I paused, anticipating divine punishment, but none came.
So, I upped the ante, whispering this time. ”Hell.” There was a
knock at my door. I prepared myself for utter obliteration. But the
visitor at my door was not God, just my dad coming to explain
the consequences of my action. I still can feel the relief that
washed over me.
Have you ever been so frustrated, so exhausted, so exasperated,
that you said something you weren’t sure you were allowed
to say? Maybe even to God? In this morning’s scripture text,
the prophet Jeremiah goes there. Oh God, how could you? You
tricked me into this. You never said it would be this hard.
Now, how can Jeremiah talk to God, the Sovereign Lord, the
Righteous Judge, the Creator of the Universe… How can
Jeremiah talk to God like this?
To understand, you have to go back to the beginning. Jeremiah’s
story starts with the voice of God spoken to a child.
Before you were born, I anointed you, I appointed you a prophet.
Now, child, I have put my words in your mouth. Today, I appoint
you over nations and kingdoms: to pluck up and pull down, to
destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.
And with that, the young prophet is sent into the world to tell the
truth and nothing but the truth. This may sound simple. But wait—
there’s more! What Jeremiah must declare is divine judgment.
Divine judgment against corrupt leadership, against religious
hypocrisy, against societal injustice and inequity. In the waning
years of the kingdom of Judah, Jeremiah confronts both King and
Council with the message:
You will soon reap what you have sown. Your fragile nation will be
undermined by idolatry of power and failure of compassion for the
weak. Eventually you will be overtaken by King Nebuchadnezzar
and the Babylonian Empire.
Jeremiah does not hold back. He speaks it in the public square.
He preaches it in the Temple. He tells the truth to anyone who
will listen. He proclaims God’s displeasure and describes the
consequences that are surely coming. Exile is on the horizon.
And so, the prophet does just as God commanded. I have put my
words in your mouth. I appoint you over nations and kingdoms.
Well, it goes about how you might expect.
Jeremiah is dismissed and then condemned by religious
officials. He is publicly beaten and placed in stocks. He is
denounced by false prophets who insist on smooth lies over
difficult truths. He is threatened with death. He is viewed as a
traitor to the nation he loves. All of this for speaking God’s word
and pleading with the powerful to change their ways—to return
to God with their hearts.
Jeremiah is sometimes called the weeping prophet. In this
morning’s text, we meet him in a place of utter exasperation.
Today’s tears come from a place of anger. The man is stuck
between an insistent God and a resistant people. He is ready to
give up. But first, he lets God have it. You enticed me, and I was
enticed. You overpowered me, and you prevailed. And because of
that, I have become a joke to my people.
How can you talk to God like that?
It was the kind of conversation that takes place whenever a
group of pastors gathers around cups of coffee to commiserate