Preached on February 16, 2025, at First Presbyterian Church of Rolla. Based on Jeremiah 17:5-10.
Today, I’m going to be preaching from the Old Testament text, something I rarely do. I would say that many Presbyterians have some general idea of the story arc of the Old Testament but are weak on many of the details. We hammer on the Exodus and maybe some of the patriarchs like Abraham, and then we sometimes talk about David, but there are hundreds of years of Israelite history that we skim over.
Jeremiah was one of the Major Prophets, along with Isaiah and Ezekiel. He is also the supposed author of Lamentations. He began his prophetic mission during the reign of King Josiah, around 627 BCE, and continued through the reign of Zedekiah to 586 BCE. The Book of Jeremiah is the longest in the Bible, 52 chapters long. Most of it centers on doom and gloom with Jeremiah chastising Judah for its many sins, from which we get the term “jeremiad.”
Josiah instituted various religious reforms, which was a good thing. The latter portion of his reign was a turbulent time, a time of conflict that extended to the end of Jeremiah’s life. Here’s a brief summary, and don’t worry, there won’t be a quiz. First Egypt and Assyria aligned against Babylon. Then the Medes and Babylonians conquered Assyria. Judah sided with Babylon against Egypt, and Josiah died in battle. Jehoahaz succeeded him as king, but was then conquered by Egypt and imprisoned. Another of Josiah’s sons, Eliakim, became king and was renamed Jehoiakim. Babylon defeated Judah and took Jehoiakim captive. He was eventually released and was put on the throne of Judah as a vassal of Babylon. Later he rebelled and Babylon returned to besiege Jerusalem. Jehoiakim died and was replaced by his son, Jehoiachin. Finally, Babylon broke the siege and ravaged Jerusalem. Jehoiachin was replaced by Zedekiah, who also later rebelled against Babylon.
During this last rebellion, Jeremiah really got going. He was imprisoned, then released, then thrown in a cistern because of the critical things he was saying to the king. He was trying to warn Zedekiah, but Zedekiah listened to his sycophants instead. Eventually, Babylon’s siege was successful, Judah was destroyed, and the captivity began.
Whew! What a whirlwind! Reminds me of high school history class where we had to memorize names and dates and such. Here’s what I want you to remember: Jeremiah prophesied that Judah would fall. One king after another failed to heed his warnings, and chose instead to rely on military alliances to ensure the safety of his kingdom. Ultimately, the king and his followers believed that they could throw off the yoke of the Babylonian Empire, and were destroyed in the process. Through it all, Jeremiah was preaching doom and gloom because of Judah’s many sins. He was proven correct in the end, but that was little comfort to a nation thrown into disarray and captivity.
In today’s lesson, we hear one of Jeremiah’s early prophetic utterances, which mirrors Psalm 1 that was embedded in our liturgy. In the larger context, Jeremiah holds up Judah as just one example of sinfulness. What ties Judah’s sins to the sinfulness of all humanity is encapsulated in today’s reading: cursed are those who rely on mortals, blessed are those who rely on God alone.
The whirlwind of military action that occurred 2600 years ago is not that different from the military exploits of the last hundred years or so. I recently listened to an audiobook that talked about World War I. The Great War, the war to end all wars, began as a conflict between Serbia and Austria-Hungary. However, the dense network of alliances across Europe resulted in a multi-front war involving all of Europe’s great powers. It quickly became the most devastating, horrifying wars of all history. Modern mechanized warfare turned battle into a killing machine, a means for efficiently destroying men and munitions. It ended with only minor changes in the borders, but the collapse of several great powers. Russia succumbed to the Bolshevik Revolution, three other empires collapsed, and the ensuing destabilization ultimately led to World War II.
Yet we seem to never learn the lessons of history. There are currently two major armed power struggles in the world. The obvious one is Russia vs. Ukraine. The roots of this conflict date back to 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed, and Ukraine regained its independence along with several nuclear weapons. In 1994, the Budapest Memorandum declared that the US, UK, and Russia would guarantee Ukraine’s security in exchange for Ukraine relinquishing all nuclear weapons. The foreign powers guaranteed “perpetual sovereignty and border integrity.” Twenty years later, in 2014, Russia declared that the Budapest Memorandum was null and void because a different government was in control of Ukraine. Russia invaded and occupied Crimea, in a prelude to today’s war.
Meanwhile, in the Middle East, the primary conflict is between Israel and Iran, with Saudi Arabia also vying for regional power and influence. Israel and Iran rarely engage in direct, open warfare. Instead, Iran works through proxies like Hamas and Hezbollah. The result is an uneasy equilibrium that shifts periodically, as Israel and Iran gain and lose military power.
In both Eastern Europe and the Middle East, there are diplomatic agreements in place. However, they are ultimately just words on paper. The strength of the treaties is ultimately the trustworthiness of the people who sign them. If you cannot trust your opponent to abide by the treaty, then it is simply a description of the current state of affairs, which will change whenever one party decides to press their advantage. The equilibrium shifts, not because of good-faith negotiations that seek the best interests of all parties, but because of raw power.
We’re different, though, right? John Adams wrote, “that the very definition of a Republic, is “an Empire of Laws, and not of men.” That, as a Republic is the best of governments, so that particular arrangement of the powers of society, or in other words that form of government, which is best contrived to secure an impartial and exact execution of the laws, is the best of Republics.” We claim to be a nation of laws, not of men. But in fact, we are a nation mostly composed of people who desire to be a nation of laws, but some who do not. Many of you knew Jim Drewniak. He once told me, “The rules apply to people who want the rules to apply.” We have witnessed recently the unraveling of a system of laws because some people have declared that the laws are not serving the American people.
Now, I can get on board with the idea that not all laws are good. There’s a meme floating around that says, “The people who hid Anne Frank were breaking the law. The people who killed her were following it.” The point is, the rule of law ultimately relies on people.
Which brings me back to Jeremiah. He said, “Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals…. Blessed are those who trust in the Lord.” We all claim allegiance to a nation, perhaps to a political party, perhaps to various organizations. But in the end, we are called to trust in the Lord, not in any human institution. Not even the church.
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is governed in its day-to-day operations by the Book of Order. I have here the 2017-2019 Book of Order. They issue a new edition every three years as conditions change; rather than getting new print copies, I just get the updates online. The Book of Order describes how we do things—how we are organized, how we resolve problems, that sort of thing. It includes some basic theology, too, like the Great Ends of the Church. But it’s volume 2 of our constitution.
Volume 1 is the Book of Confessions. This is the most recent edition, from 2016, which includes our most recently added confession, the Confession of Belhar. There are twelve confessions in here, from the Nicene Creed that dates to the fourth century through the several creeds of the Reformation era to the four twentieth-century confessions. These are taken to be authentic expositions of what we believe, but there are a ton of contradictions in them. Each confession arose from a particular historical situation. For example, the Confession of Belhar arose in South Africa under apartheid, and the Theological Declaration of Barmen arose in Nazi Germany.
In principle, the confessions are all based on applying the Bible to the conditions of the day. This is a pew Bible, which is the New Revised Standard Version. You can’t actually buy an NRSV Bible anymore. It has been replaced by the NRSVue, or “updated edition.” Updated because they found more ancient manuscripts and learned more about how certain words were used. This is one of the dozens of translations available. Recall that the Bible was originally composed primarily in Hebrew and Greek with a little Aramaic. If you have a good study Bible, it will tell you where the translators struggled, and perhaps where there are discrepancies among manuscripts. And as I’ve said before, the Bible is a thick book that contradicts itself, with verses that can be taken out of context to mean whatever you want God to endorse.
None of these documents are God. The Book of Order defines what it means to be part of the PC(USA). The Book of Confessions describes the PC(USA) beliefs within the broader Reformed tradition. The Bible relates to us the experiences of ancient people and the encounters that they had with God, as transcribed and translated by men. But the Word of God is Jesus Christ. If you know in your heart what God’s word is for you, today, in your particular circumstance, and that word is for your flourishing and the flourishing of God’s kingdom, and that word is contrary to the Book of Order, the Book of Confessions, even a particular verse in the Bible, trust that God is speaking to you. Jeremiah did not say, “Blessed are those who trust in the Torah,” or “Blessed are those who trust in the high priest,” or “Blessed are those who trust in Temple worship,” or “Blessed are those who trust in the preacher.” No: he said, “Blessed are those who trust in the Lord.” I believe God still speaks to us all, if we are listening. I strive to listen, and each of you should, too.
I’m reminded of something that happened a few years ago in the Campus Ministry Association. CMA is an umbrella group that includes our campus ministry, formerly Common Call but now called Sacred Paths. We’re a tiny ministry by comparison to CCF, the Newman Center, and Baptist Student Union, plus others. We were getting stickers made, and one of the CCF ministers wanted one to say, “Got questions? We’ve got answers!” I objected. I am not in the answer business. I am in the business of guiding everyone to find their own path. I am not up here to tell you what to believe or what you should do. I am here to tell you how God has called me, and to help you to find out how God is calling you, and then how we can work together. In the end, CMA made stickers that say, “We believe in stuff.” That’s all we could agree on.
And you know, that was among a group of Christians who allegedly all believe in the same risen Christ and use the same Bible. And yet, we can’t agree on the nature of Christ, or what happens during communion, or what the appropriate age and manor of baptism are. Those are all human constructions, human interpretations of God’s word. Don’t trust them. Trust in God.
Humanity is finite. There are problems that we cannot solve, and things we cannot know. So trusting in any one person, or any institution, or even any nation will one day break your heart and bleed you dry. Someday, that person or institution will need to make a choice based on limited knowledge, limited resources, and limited time. That person, or the group of people who make up the institution, is finite and full of conflicting desires, some selfish and some magnanimous, some sinful and some holy. They will make a choice, and will break your heart.
I don’t know about you, but seeing the way some supposed Christians behave these days breaks my heart. They claim to follow our risen Lord, the one who taught his disciples to care for the “least of these,” and yet continually act in ways that I believe are contrary to Jesus’s teachings. They claim sole authority and claim that people like me are heretics. Someday we will know the truth. In the meantime, the task I have chosen is to pursue love, not power. Christianity made a deal with the Roman Empire 1700 years ago and keeps renewing that deal with each new empire that comes along. We have traded the Gospel of love for the worship of power. Just as Judah’s kings kept choosing military alliances over trusting God’s directions through Jeremiah’s prophecies, Christian leaders make deals to support people that they think will support them in return. These deals always go bad, usually by turning Christians into exactly what they supposedly oppose.
The only way out of this dark valley for Christendom is to reclaim the Gospel in its radical form. Go back to loving our neighbors as ourselves. Go back to caring for the least among us—feeding the poor, clothing the naked, welcoming the stranger, freeing the prisoner, caring for the sick. That changed the world once, and it can change the world again.
We are not called to make men into godly leaders and then follow them. We are called to follow God alone. We are called to put our trust in God, to listen for God speaking Truth in our lives. We are called to put Christ at the very center of our lives and love only Him. As we go from here, let us listen for God’s subtle guidance that enables us to exhibit the Kingdom of Heaven to the world and to proclaim the Gospel for the salvation of humankind. Amen.
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Powerful Sermon! Our only hope is to “reclaim the Gospel in its radical form.”