Spurned No More

Jeremiah was a prophet to Judah before the Babylonian captivity. Our reading from his book today is only part of the account. This prophecy was first given in a time of great drought and later expanded by Jeremiah to include the impending disaster coming their way. The Babylonians were powerful and, instead of trusting in God, they worked and allied with other nations and believed that they could save themselves. Jeremiah is the mouth-piece for the people admitting that they had sinned and committed many apostasies. When God rejects this repentance as false, Jeremiah then (in the part of the text we did not read) tries to excuse the people pointing out that there were many false prophets telling them what they wanted to hear. God rejects this argument out of hand and refuses to budge because the people had forgotten God while times were good and have only returned when drought and violence threatens.

You know people like that. You probably have been one of them. There are many false prophets talking to us these days telling us what we want to hear, what we wish for. Those false prophets are loud and plentiful while God’s call is in the still small voice of someone in need. It is difficult, at best, to ignore those false words telling us that we deserve what we have. That we do not need to take care of the poor, homeless, orphan, widow, and immigrant in our land. But that is what God is calling you to do. Unlike the Israelites, your advocate is not a prophet like Jeremiah; you have God’s own son Jesus. Despite your unworthiness, your wandering away, your love of worldly things, and your ignoring of God’s call, you have been made a child of God, a sister or brother of Jesus. No longer are you required to follow some law in order to be saved. Now, you are freed by the blood of Jesus and get to live out that law as a representative of God. To share God’s love to the world.

Our world certainly does need to experience God’s love. It does not take long to see that. We hear about shootings on a nearly daily basis. We see people living in tents and begging on the streets. We hear of anger, road rage, and war. We see attack ads by politicians that are more of the same. It is no wonder people seem to sit around, locked in their homes doing nothing. But we are not called to live in fear. We are called to live in the love and forgiveness of God. I know the problems of the world seem insurmountable. But we are called to proclaim God’s love to the world. Your act does not have to be big or solve all the world’s problems. It can be a simple, “Hi” to a person on the street. Instead of an angry outburst at the person that cut you off, say a short prayer for them. While it does not seem that a kind word, a smile, or a prayer is much, anything that shows God’s love changes the world. This week commit yourself to showing God’s love by your words and deeds.