Readings for the Day:
Sermon:
Original Manuscript:
Our Old Testament reading today unfortunately gives only part of a very
interesting story. A battle of the prophets if you will. Hananiah, before our
passage, prophesied that the exiles to Babylon from Judah would be returned,
along with the former king. No more would Israel be subjected to Babylonian
rule. They would be freed.
We do this through humility. Our Bishop often says “I could be wrong” when talking about things. This is the sort of humility we all need. The humility to except that it’s not our way or the highway. That the buck does not stop with each of us.
Jeremiah’s response, which we heard in the reading, isn’t how it first appears. It’s
not an assent to Hananiah’s words. It’s a cautious, a very cautious hope. He’s
saying “Yes, it would be good if these things happened. Who doesn’t want our
people back? Who doesn’t want to be freed from oppression? Who doesn’t want
us to be at peace under our own rule?”
But Jeremiah is also saying this: “On the other hand, you’re breaking the pattern. This is not the thing the prophets in the past have said. In fact, they’ve mostly said return to the Lord or bad things will happen. So if we are take you seriously, if we’re really going to know you are from God, we are going to have to see these things come to pass.”
And sure enough, the word of the Lord comes to Jeremiah, after our reading this morning. And it is not good for Hananiah. God’s response is: “Yeah, Hananiah, you messed up. That’s not what’s going to happen at all. The exact opposite will come to pass. Why’d you do it man? Why’d you go and give these people false hope? Well, that’s okay, cause in a year’s time, you won’t be around to spread lies in my name anymore.” And sure enough Hananiah dies before the end of the year.
You see, Hananiah’s problem was that he was trying to give the people what they wanted to hear not what they needed to hear. Because often times, telling people what they need to hear ends up putting us in a world of trouble. Just look at the Gospel reading last week. There Jesus says “if they call the master of the house[, Jesus,] Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household!”
But we are not called to follow our own way, but God’s.
And we are certainly not called to conflate our own ways with God’s. We’re called to not do something so silly as to give people what they want to hear instead of the truth they so desperately need to heal them.
But Jeremiah is also saying this: “On the other hand, you’re breaking the pattern. This is not the thing the prophets in the past have said. In fact, they’ve mostly said return to the Lord or bad things will happen. So if we are take you seriously, if we’re really going to know you are from God, we are going to have to see these things come to pass.”
And sure enough, the word of the Lord comes to Jeremiah, after our reading this morning. And it is not good for Hananiah. God’s response is: “Yeah, Hananiah, you messed up. That’s not what’s going to happen at all. The exact opposite will come to pass. Why’d you do it man? Why’d you go and give these people false hope? Well, that’s okay, cause in a year’s time, you won’t be around to spread lies in my name anymore.” And sure enough Hananiah dies before the end of the year.
You see, Hananiah’s problem was that he was trying to give the people what they wanted to hear not what they needed to hear. Because often times, telling people what they need to hear ends up putting us in a world of trouble. Just look at the Gospel reading last week. There Jesus says “if they call the master of the house[, Jesus,] Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household!”
But we are not called to follow our own way, but God’s.
And we are certainly not called to conflate our own ways with God’s. We’re called to not do something so silly as to give people what they want to hear instead of the truth they so desperately need to heal them.
We do this through humility. Our Bishop often says “I could be wrong” when talking about things. This is the sort of humility we all need. The humility to except that it’s not our way or the highway. That the buck does not stop with each of us.
We need the humility to recognize our sin and turn away from it, as Romans continues to talk about this morning and as we talked about last week. We need to humility to turn from our past, the ways of sin and death, and to move forward to the path God has shown us in Christ Jesus. The path that leads to life and freedom from all those evil things that would enslave us.
We are called to have the humility to realize that sometimes the path God is leading us on is not the same as what we expected, as I spoke of two weeks ago in my own life and in my own path to get to where I am now.
We have to have humility to listen to the prophet who says things that we know in our heart of hearts are true, just as Jesus says in the Gospel this morning. Even when listening to that prophet means hearing something we don’t want to hear. Even when that word condemns us.
We have to have the humility to pick ourselves back up when we fall into sin. And ultimately, we have to have the humility to realize that there is nothing we can do on our own to save ourselves. That it is only by the grace of God that we move forward in anything we do.
We have to have the humility to trust only in God, and not ourselves.
Hananiah confused his own words for the word of God. We cannot follow him down that path, for it leads, literally in Hananiah’s case, to death. We instead need to embrace God’s path for us. Even when it is hard. Even when it tells us things we don’t want to hear. Even when it seems to go against our own self- interests.
And maybe when we do that, we can see Him as the only one worth following, our ruler as the psalm this morning says. Maybe then we can follow those who the psalmist says walk happily in the light of God’s presence. And maybe then, we can join the psalmist and sing of God’s love forever.