A Great Company Gathered in Praise
On December 29th, 2013 I had the honor of preaching at John Knox Kirk Presbyterian Church in Kansas City, MO. Any time I have the chance to preach with a community of fellow Christians it is a joy, but this was a special privilege as this was the church where I was baptized as an infant. This sermon was also prepared as part of the final project for my Old Testament Exegesis course at PTS; the scripture reading is a fresh translation of Jeremiah 31:7-14 from the Hebrew.
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Jeremiah 31:7-14 (Translated by Chris Miller)
For thus says the Lord, “Cry out joyfully in jubilation for Jacob and cry aloud to the chief of the nations. Proclaim in praise and say, ‘Save, O Lord, your people, the remnant of Israel.’” See, I will bring them from the northland and gather them from the ends of the earth, with them the blind and lame, the pregnant and those in labor. Together as a great company they shall return here.
With weeping they shall come and with consolations I will guide them. I will lead them to streams of water on straight paths where they will not stumble. For I am to Israel a father and Ephraim is my firstborn. Hear, nations, the word of the Lord, and declare it in the distant islands; say, “He who scattered Israel will gather them and guard them as a shepherd his flock.” For the Lord has ransomed Jacob and redeemed him from hands too strong for him.
They shall come and cry out for joy on the heights of Zion, radiant over the goodness of the Lord; over grain, wine, and oil; over young sheep and cattle; and their soul will become as watered gardens and will never languish again. Then the young women will rejoice with dancing, the young men and the old together. I will turn their mourning into joy, I will comfort them, and I will give them gladness from their sorrow. I will saturate the souls of the priests with fatness and the people with my goodness until they are satisfied, says the Lord.
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When I told some of my colleagues back at Princeton Theological Seminary that I would be preaching the Sunday after Christmas, one of their first questions was what text I would be preaching. After all, the lectionary this time of year is rich with familiar stories. From the mysterious, yet powerful, first chapter of John, where we read, “In the beginning was the word!” to Ephesians, where we hear of our adoption into Christ, there are any number of passages from scripture that speak to the majesty, awe, and joy of the coming of Christ. When I told them, that no, I would in fact be preaching from the prophet Jeremiah, they were, to be polite, perplexed. After all, Jeremiah, like many of the prophets in the Hebrew Scriptures, is known primarily for his many pronouncements against God’s own people; a people who had turned away from God. So why choose Jeremiah to preach in the middle of Christmas time, a time, we are told, when we are to be filled with joy?
At the point in Jeremiah I read a few minutes ago, Jeremiah is speaking to the people left in Jerusalem after the city had been overrun in 587 BCE. Many had been carried off to Babylon in exile, and those that were left were living shattered lives in a shattered city. The throne of David had seemingly failed, their nation was in ruins, and entire families had been ripped apart. It was disaster on an unfathomable scale. Those left in Jerusalem after the battle finished would have been emotionally in shock, economically devastated, and with few remaining resources left to care for themselves or the ones they loved. Worse than the physical damage, though, would have been the feeling of abandonment. I can imagine the opening verses of Psalm 22 echoing through the devastated city: My God, My God, why have you forsaken me and are so far from my cry and from the words of my distress? O my God, I cry in the daytime, but you do not answer; by night as well, but I find no rest. Had God forgotten his people? Here we find Jeremiah in the thirty-first chapter; after twenty-eight chapters of proclaiming the upcoming destruction, the prophesies have finally come true. And now, Jeremiah has received a new call: speak the comfort of God to the people. But what can God possibly have to say to these people; these people who have suffered so much; these people who have no hope?
The painful reality is, we don’t have to look very far in our world today to realize that you don’t have to live in a war zone to live in a world filled with pain and loss. We look around during this holiday season and see signs proclaiming Hope…Peace…Joy…and sometimes it can all ring so hollow. Where is there hope for the family who is working two full time jobs, but on minimum wage there is still no way to pay the bills, much less get healthy food on the table for the kids? Where is there peace for the communities around our nation where violence takes the lives of children and young adults with no warning and no reason? Where is there joy for the individual suffering from the warning signs of a mental health crisis who is too afraid to seek care because they fear they might lose a job, a friendship, or a marriage? Where is God in our world today? Like the people of Jerusalem three-thousand years ago, it can be hard not to cry out the question: Has God forgotten his people? What can God possibly have to say to these people; these people who have suffered so much; these people who have no hope?
One of my professors calls Jeremiah the weeping prophet. All throughout his prophesies, Jeremiah speaks of weeping for the people of God; it is a recurring theme that is easy to spot as you read through the text. But the thing is, this weeping prophet, this man called to speak the truth of the Lord to a people in deep darkness, he really knows how to praise God. Jeremiah is no stranger when it comes to pain, and maybe that is why when he speaks of hope it is so powerful. This is no shallow praise. Jeremiah sees the fullness of the pain of the people, and more importantly, he knows that God sees it too. As Jeremiah speaks to the people, we can almost imagine him looking into the eyes of those listening to him, laying aside his sermon notes, and calling them by name to remind them that not only has God not forgotten his people, but the creator of the universe knows you by name. God knows every pain that you have suffered, and God is calling you today to hear his promise. A promise of a day to come when God shall call his people from every corner of the earth, no matter how weak or strong they may be. A promise that they will be led by smooth paths to water that will not only quench physical thirst, but will make their souls like a well-watered garden. And on that day, their weeping shall be no more, but will be turned to joy.
Notice, however, that Jeremiah does not tell the people that if they will just believe, then God will take away all their pain. There is no promise of a quick fix for their problems. Rather, Jeremiah promises that God will be present with the people as the long work of healing and restoration is accomplished. In the immediate situation the change may seem small, hardly worth noticing at all. But a change it is, maybe the most important change a person in pain can hear: you are not alone. You have not been forgotten. I am with you.
One of the most striking images for me in this entire passage is Jeremiah’s description of the gathering in of the people of God. Maybe it is because I hear echoes of the invitation to the Lord’s table when God says I will bring them from the northland and gather them from the ends of the earth. Maybe it is simply the picture in my mind of this great company returning to the house of God, filled not with great heroes, but with ordinary, broken people like you and me. They come, streaming from distant lands, in small groups and large families. They come, carrying heavy burdens on their backs and on their hearts. They come, not alone, but with God as their guide and protector. They come, and they worship.
And an amazing thing happens. As the people gather and worship, their mourning is turned to joy. As the people worship, as each generation dances and sings together, sorrow becomes gladness. And the souls of the people are saturated with the goodness of the Lord. It is in that knowledge and hope that the people of Jerusalem were able to lift up their heads and look to the future.
My friends, today we have come as part of that same great company that God has been gathering for generations. We come with our own burdens and pains. We come knowing that the same God who was with the Israelites, the same God who spoke through Jeremiah, is with us today. And as this year draws to a close, we come, to celebrate and worship that God sent his only son to be born in a manger so that we might know without a doubt that we are not alone in this world. God has come; God is with us. Praise be to God!