Today's Scripture Reading (June 11, 2020): Jeremiah 43
I need to return to a personal principle I have stolen from the late theologian, Walter Wink (1935 – 2012). Wink said that "I for one do not abandon scripture, but neither do I acquiesce. I wrestle with it. I challenge it. I am broken and wounded by it, and then in defeat I sometimes encounter the living God." Whenever I consider something within the biblical record, I keep coming back to these words. I have no desire to simply give in to the biblical account or a "plain reading of the text," because I am usually not giving into God, but rather to someone else's interpretation of the text.
All of us are fallible. Even in reading this blog, my hope is not that you will comply with my words, but rather that my words will add to your personal struggle with the text. Too often, our reality is colored by what it is that we already believe or want, and not even God can change our minds. So, when John writes, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16), how are we to respond. Much has been written about these words that sometimes it is difficult for us even to try to struggle with them. I mean, the plain reading is so apparent. God sent his son to die in my place so that I might live. So, where is the struggle? I might suggest that our battle is in genuinely understanding those words, accepting the sacrifice of Jesus on my account, and living out that reality in the world. And part living out that reality is realizing that God is still sending us into a broken world, not as preachers pounding home a message, but as living sacrifices. God hopes that our sacrifice (not our pride or assurance of salvation) will bring someone else to understand the unconditional love of God. Our task, responding to the unconditional love of God, is to be part of the restoration process and the rebuilding of the planet. And that process of being the sacrifice of God is difficult; going out in assurance is much more comfortable. And it is an understanding that often we don't want to hear. Instead, we would rather parade our superiority in front of our broken world. I am frequently being invited into conversations with people, existing outside the faith, who have been offended by the superiority complex of Christians. Welcome to the struggle.
Jeremiah is asked what it is that God wants of the remnant left behind after a third wave of a Babylonian exile. Jeremiah has interceded for them before God and has come back with an answer. The prophet has promised to reveal everything that God has told him. And so, he tells the people that God wants them to stay where you are. He wants you to plant the fields and grow crops. God wants you to begin to rebuild the cities and the nation. Judah is still residing under the protection of God, and this land is still his Promised Land. God's will is that you stay here in the land and get to work at the process, as God continues to restore the nation.
It was not the answer that the people wanted to hear. They were afraid that the Babylonian army might come back and wanted God to tell them that now was the time to run to Egypt and the protection of the military there who was already standing guard against the Babylonian threat. And so, once again, God's word, spoken through Jeremiah, was rejected. For years, they had longed for Jeremiah to tell them that God would protect Judah, and now that Jeremiah was delivering to them precisely that message, the people wanted a different response, looking for an easy solution to a very complex problem. God seldom opts for a solution that is easy and requires little faith.
Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 44 & 45
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