A MESSAGE FROM REV. KAREN KINNEY: JEREMIAH’S CALL
Grace and peace to you,
This week, we begin a six-week series focused on readings from the Prophet Jeremiah. Don’t despair – there is a richness to the writings that takes us on a journey of understanding – even amid the violence and harshness he portrays.
I’ve often thought of Jeremiah as a grumpy and 
harsh prophet, but in researching Jeremiah for this series, I have found that what he actually does is give voice to the pain and promise of what the people and nation of the Southern Kingdom of Judah (which includes Jerusalem and the Temple) were experiencing. That raises the question: how do we make sense of grief and pain during traumatic events we experience individually and as communities. What voice do we need?
Judah (the northern kingdom of Israel was conquered in 722 BCE – Before the Common Era – by Assyria) experienced violent attacks and much cruelty towards its people by Assyria, Egypt and eventually Babylonia from 701 BCE to 586 BCE. Jeremiah addresses the time frame in the 6th BCE when Babylonia conquered Judah, eventually destroying Jerusalem and the Temple and exiling a great number of people to Babylonia.
Jeremiah’s writing reflects the violence that is everywhere – people are experiencing unspeakable suffering, being indiscriminately killed, hauled off, assaulted (sexually and physically). They are traumatized, yet the prophet also offers hope. In her book Jeremiah Pain and Promise (O’Connor, Kathleen M. Jeremiah: Pain and Promise. Fortress Press, 2011.), O’Connor makes the following points, particularly in the introduction and first three chapters:
- Jeremiah sees violence in every aspect of life, even in the relationship God has with the people, and he responds to it in his writing. Yet, this response allows a very traumatized nation and people language to think and talk about their own experiences. He helps them find their voice.
- Even in the midst of this violence, the prophet offers hope that their God is one who will never leave them and who promises them a hopeful future, even as people and indeed the nation experience death. That death will not be the final word. They can indeed count on God’s promises of love, grace, mercy and forgiveness to sustain and encourage them.
- Jeremiah is a book of resilience that tells the people there is a future. That future, while uncertain, is promised and will come, not in their time, but in God’s time. Again, God has not left them.
God speaks through Jeremiah – the words are often difficult to hear, but they do acknowledge the pain the people and nation are experiencing, and the hopeful promise of God to never abandon them. As Walter Brueggemann writes in his commentary on Jeremiah (Brueggemann, Walter. A Commentary on Jeremiah: Exile and Homecoming. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1998, page 26): “its main thrust concerns the ending of beloved Jerusalem…and the formation of a new beloved Jerusalem.” And both are due to God’s engagement with humanity.
How might this sermon series addressing pain and promise in Jeremiah, help us give voice to pain in our own history – of enduring the pandemic, of the schism, of facing an unknown future right now? What hope in our future will we see knowing God has not left the building?!
Come and explore together this Sunday, June 15, as we take up Jeremiah’s call (Jeremiah 1:4-10) and part of his Temple Sermon (Jeremiah 7:1-11). What will we learn together? Come and see.
Blessings,
Pastor Karen