Jeremiah 2:4-13

Can you imagine being the defendant in a trial where the plaintiff is also the judge? In the Old Testament prophetic literature, this is a common occurrence for the people of Israel. It’s even a favored literary genre of the prophets. We usually can tell this is what is happening when we see the word rib in the text which is translated as “accuse” (NRSV), “bring charges” (NIV), “to contend” (ESV), etc. In verse 9 of this week’s first reading, we see that dreaded word.

One of the things that can be difficult about preaching or teaching from the prophets is that most Christians are going to see themselves as in line with the prophetic word and rarely will we be convicted by it without deeply considering its meaning. We hear of the people’s seeking after worthless things and we think, “how could they be so dumb after all the Lord has done for them?” The task of the preacher is to help the people imagine how we may be guilty of the same sin while also reminding them of God’s love, grace, and prevenient and enduring covenant faithfulness. One question the preacher may consider in his or her preparation is simply “how can we begin to sit in this text until we truly hear the word of the Lord?”

Throughout the Old Testament, it is clear that a central part of Israel’s identity is found in the remembrance of what God has done for them. Even aspects of their worship services and spaces are dedicated to the remembrance of God’s covenant faithfulness. Jeremiah 2 begins with a recounting of the good ole’ days when Israel was faithful to the covenant but then in our passage, the prophet quickly switches gears as God accuses the people of forgetting what God has done for them which has resulted in their unfaithfulness to the covenant. Here we see the wrong that Israel is guilty of: they stopped seeking the presence of God and they stopped telling the story of God’s liberating work. The result of this is subsequentially that the people have forgotten what it means to be God’s people, they have lost their identity, and they have placed their hope in worthless things. In this lawsuit, God is bringing the amnesia of the people to light.

God the prosecutor/judge is fair though and so allows the people to defend themselves. God asks, “What wrong did your ancestors find in me that they went far from me.” Of course, the answer is obvious as God the prosecutor/judge has never been unfaithful to the covenant. And while God has always been faithful, the people’s unfaithfulness can be traced back through their history. It is not any injustice of God that has driven the people to unfaithfulness but rather the temptation of “worthless things”.

Jeremiah, like all of the Old Testament prophets, is serving as the Torah or covenant police, helping to bring the message of God’s justice to the people. We see this frequently in the Old Testament. God sends the prophets when the people have become idolatrous and unfaithful to the covenant. When reading the prophetic literature we often assume that the people’s idolatry and covenant unfaithfulness is blatant. That is, the people have abandoned the worship prescribed in the Torah all together and are no longer worshiping Yahweh. And this may be the case sometimes, but even more often the infidelity to the covenant is not that obvious; it may appear that the people are still worshiping Yahweh. A common form of idolatry was to bring in the practices of other religions in and worship Baal or other gods alongside Yahweh. Other times, the people are following the ritual of the temple while oppressing the poor and stranger and ignoring the ethical laws of the Torah which results in the poor abandoning the worship of Yahweh. This is why one of the names that prophets are often given is “seer”; they see what is actually going on despite the way things appear to be but it is also telling as to why the prophets are rarely taken seriously during their ministry and usually seen as enemies to the state.

With this in mind, our text leads us to ask another question: can we appear to be faithful while truly being unfaithful to the gospel of Jesus Christ? Of course, this is an age-old question and we know the answer is yes, we can be faithful in our mind while being unfaithful to our story. Our faithfulness is connected to our remembrance which helps us to be established in our identity. The Israelites were guilty of trying to worship Baal, a fertility god, alongside Yahweh. They still worshipped God as creator but believed that others deserved their attention and hope.

In what ways is the church guilty of this? Are we guilty of worshiping God while putting our hope in others? Are we guilty of grasping for fertility, success, and political influence? What are the worthless things that are causing us to become worthless ourselves and driving the church into exile? If a prophet were to bring the rib of God to the church today, would she be able to trace our unfaithfulness through the years and in what ways? In what ways has the church forgotten the story of the living water and put our hope in broken cisterns?

Retelling the story is something that Christian’s take seriously as well. Most sanctuaries have the words “Do this in remembrance of me” on a table in the center of the church. The bold and trusted (with an emphasis on the latter) pastor may use this text to consider her or his church’s or even denomination’s past and ask whether the church has forgotten to tell the story of God’s liberation and its meaning. There is no question that a sermon from this text needs to be followed with an invitation to the table sacrament, to remember together what Christ did for us. This is not just for us to be reminded of God’s saving act for us as individuals, but how that saving act gives us our identity as the body of Christ here on this earth.

Bibliography

Stealgald, Thomas, John Debevoise, Bruce Birch, & Sally Brown (2010). Feasting on the Word Year C, Vol. 4 (Louisville: John Knox).

Varughese, Alex (2008). Jeremiah 1-25 (Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press).