Week 2: The Season of Creation - The Prophet's Truth

The Prophet’s Truth

Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28

Psalm 148

May the words I offer be words that are needed today and may we be open to the movement of the Spirit around us and within us. Amen.

Jeremiah was a prophet who lived 2600 years ago. He was a prophet who didn't want to be a prophet. He started out young, perhaps in his twenties, and his was an uphill battle. His message, given to him by God, was to deliver a difficult message to the Israelites. Basically his message, according to Robert Alter in his Hebrew Bible Translation and Commentary, was that "dark clouds of disaster lower over the kingdom of Judah [and that] in Jeremiah's understanding, this disaster cannot be averted, for it is the ineluctable consequence of the people's violation of its covenant with God…”

This, of course, was not a message the Israelites wanted to hear, especially when the Babylonians were besieging Jerusalem. They tried to shut up Jeremiah by imprisoning him, exiling him, and throwing him down a pit to die. Jeremiah, for his part, didn't want to deliver this message. He felt ill-equipped, unheard, and unappreciated, but he couldn't seem to stop himself. The most striking expression of this is in chapter 20 when Jeremiah states: "You have enticed me, O Lord, and I was enticed. You are stronger than I, and You prevailed...I thought, 'I will not recall Him, nor will I speak anymore in His name.' But it was in my heart like a burning fire, shut up in my bones." Jeremiah's message and his mission were important enough that he just couldn't let it go, he couldn't not do what God called him to do.

I think most prophets might express themselves in this way. It’s not easy to be a prophet. I prophet, as defined in the Godly Play curriculum, is someone who points the way to God. Sometimes that might mean pointing the way towards hope and new life; other times it might be pointing the way to an approaching crisis or impending doom.

In reading of Jeremiah, I was reminded of a modern prophet, Greta Thunberg. If you haven’t heard of her, you really need to look her up. Here is a recent highlight from CBS news.

An article on August 28th from BBC reads:

Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teenager who inspired the now-global [school climate strike] movement, has become a primary target. On Wednesday, the 16-year-old arrived in New York after completing her voyage across the Atlantic aboard an environmentally friendly yacht. She faced a barrage of attacks on the way. "Freak yachting accidents do happen in August," Arron Banks, a businessman and prominent Brexit campaigner, tweeted. While Mr. Banks said the tweet was a joke, many were outraged. Ms. Thunberg is not the only eco-activist under fire, though. Four young climate campaigners told the BBC of the abuse they have been subjected to. One was compared to Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels while another said she had been racially abused.

These environmentalists have asked difficult questions of politicians, and been ruthlessly derided for doing so.

Being a prophet is no joy ride. Most people don’t want to be challenged. Most people don’t want to hear hard truths that will force a change in a their way of life. This is exactly what climate activists are asking of us. And not just by composting and recycling. Greta Thunberg has made a commitment not to travel by air, so in order to get to New York for a UN Climate Summit, that occurs on September 23, she spent 15 days on a solar powered sailboat to get from Europe to North America. That’s dedication and she is making a powerful statement about the extent to which we all need to try to eliminate our carbon footprint.

I admit that I find it difficult sometimes to speak out. I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings or make them feel like they are being judged or feel like I’m forcing my own beliefs on them, but I think that sometimes, certain issues go beyond a set of beliefs and become issues of justice. The prophet Jeremiah didn’t worry about hurting anyone’s feelings. He knew the matter at hand was urgent and time was running short.

The Assyrians had conquered the northern kingdom of Israel and the people there had been dispersed to different locations in Assyria. This had been a catastrophe that had haunted the southern nation of Israel called Judah. Now the Babylonians, a new empire that had overtaken the Assyrians, were at their door. There was no time to be gentle, no time to be nice. Jeremiah foretold that the Babylonians would conquer Judah. They would devastate the nation. This wasn’t a warning. He wasn’t telling them to change or else. He was telling them what was going to happen and how they had caused it to happen. It was a reality check. Speaking with the voice of God, Jeremiah said, “For My people are fools, me they did not know. Ignorant children are they, and they are not discerning, they are wise to do evil, but they know not how to do good.” (3:22)

I think Greta Thunberg might have a similar message for us. She is not telling us about a crisis that might happen but a crisis that is happening. When she talks, she’s talking to us adults, those who can vote, those who are running the corporations, those who are turning a blind eye to our climate crisis, those who can actually make a difference in the fight to protect this earth for future generations. As a sixteen year old, she can’t do a lot except influence others with her words, at which she’s doing a pretty good job, but she needs others to act. I think the words Doug read for us today from Jeremiah could be put in the mouth of Greta Thunberg:

I saw the earth, and look, welter and waste, the heavens, and their light was gone. I saw the mountains and, look, they quaked, and all the hills broke apart. I saw, and look, there was no human there, And all the fowl of the heavens had gone away. (3:23-25)

This passage is a different version from the one we heard but I chose it because it more clearly expresses that this is an undoing of God’s creation, of the story we heard last week from the first chapter in our bible. Jeremiah spoke of a nation coming apart; Greta Thunberg is speaking of a planet coming part.

I promised last week not to harp on the climate change and to focus more on celebrating the wonders of creation, but I just don’t think I can do one without doing the other. Truths need to be spoken and heard. Like Jeremiah and like Greta Thunberg, I can’t stay silent.

But I also do want to celebrate this wonderful world in which we live, this beautiful and life-giving planet that provides us all we need for our physical, and spiritual selves. I think that only by loving this planet, being grateful for its bounty, in respecting all life, and knowing that we are a part of the elements of this planet that is sick and suffering, which therefore mean we are sick and suffering, along with all life on this planet.

So I’m going to stop talking and I’m going to show a beautiful video that I ran across this week. The song in the background is called “Creation Calls” and it was written by Brian Doerkson, a Canadian Christian, singer, songwriter. Enjoy the wonders of this earth.

May you always feel awe in the wonders of this earth. May our prophets like Jeremiah, Greta Thunberg, and our saviour, Jesus Christ, inspire us to speak out for justice. May the Spirit of this earth flow through our bodies and connect us to all life on this planet and in this universe. May it be so.

Amen