Sidney UMC - Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost - 08/25/19 - Sermon - “The Prophet Jeremiah"

Sunday 08/25/19 - Sidney UMC

Sermon Title: “The Prophet Jeremiah”

Old Testament Scripture: Jeremiah 1:4-10

                                            

New Testament Scripture: Hebrews 12:18-29

                                                   

Gospel Lesson: Luke 13:10-17

          Welcome again, my friends, my brothers and sisters, on this our Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost. Eleven Sundays after the Holy Spirit moved nearly two-thousand years ago in Jerusalem, and the Christian Church was born.

          Long before Jesus Christ ever walked the earth, God was still present. Jesus existed with God before time itself, but God in the flesh never walked the earth until Jesus was born nearly two-thousand years ago.

          In the Hebrew Bible, or what we commonly call the Old Testament, God spoke to many people for hundreds and hundreds of years, before Jesus came. God spoke to Abraham, Moses, Noah, and many others. The Old Testament contains some of the history of Israel, songs, poetry, wisdom, creation, and many prophets. This morning, I want to talk a little bit about one of the people that God spoke to before Christ came. This person is the Prophet Jeremiah.

          Perhaps some of you know people named Jeremiah? If you do, it could be very likely that they are named after the Prophet Jeremiah. In fact, my middle name, Daniel, is from the Daniel of the Old Testament. The Book of Daniel is a book of the Old Testament that maybe many of us have read. Some consider Daniel a prophet, but certainly a big figure of the Old Testament, as he stood firm in the Lion’s Den, among other things.

          My first name, Paul, is named after the Apostle Paul. The reading that we have for this morning from the Prophet Jeremiah is one of the many prophets and people that God has spoken to.

          What is a prophet? How do we define a prophet? Let me give you some of the definitions listed from the Merriam-Webster online dictionary. Here are a few. A prophet is:

1. “One who utters divinely inspired revelations: such as”

A. “The writer of one of the prophetic books of the Bible.”

B. “One regarded by a group of followers as the final authoritative revealer of God's will.”

2. “One gifted with more than ordinary spiritual and moral insight especially: an inspired poet.”

3. “One who foretells future events: PREDICTOR.”

4: “An effective or leading spokesman for a cause, doctrine, or group.”

(https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/prophet).

          So this is quite a list of definitions of a prophet. Anyone here ever receive a divine revelation from the living God. Anyone here have God speak or appear to you, and tell you what he would like you to do? Anyone have God give you truths and or a message to spread to others? This is what a prophet is.

          The Prophet Jeremiah, according to one of my sources, was born about 645 BC (Africa Bible Commentary, pg. 879. Jeremiah was born about 650 years before Christ, and many scholars believe that God spoke to him about 627 BC, when was still a teenager.

          So we are talking hundreds of years before Christ was born and walked this earth. Many of the people of the Old Testament or the Hebrew Bible and all of the prophets, are the people that God spoke through. These people were given God’s instructions, God’s blessings, and these people were to carry God’s and will to others.

          Jeremiah walked this earth over 600-hundred years before Jesus was born that first Christmas in Bethlehem. Given this, what did God tell Jeremiah this morning, and how does this connect to our Christian faith today?

          Well, our reading from the Book of Jeremiah begins in the fourth verse of the very beginning of the Book of Jeremiah. In this reading Jeremiah receives his call from God, similar to the way a pastor receives there call from God to be a pastor. So let’s look once again at Jeremiah’s call to follow God, and to be a prophet of God’s message and hope in the world. Once again the reading says:

“Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” (Jer. 1:4-5, NRSV).

          Jeremiah is saying, he experienced God in a real, powerful, and a profound way. Rev. Billy Graham used to say that the word of the Lord came to him. Some might consider Billy Graham to have been a prophet of sorts. Jeremiah is also “consecrated,” as we in the church “consecrate” bishops. We ordain pastors and deacons, but we only “consecrate” bishops. This is a pretty high calling, as God tell him to be a “prophet to the nations”. This means that the truths that God gives to Jeremiah are still truths for us today. Truths for everyone.

          The reading from the Book of Jeremiah then continues saying:

^“Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.” But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a boy’; for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you.
Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord.” Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the Lord said to me, “Now I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.” (Jer. 1:6-10, NRSV).

          This is a pretty powerful scene here. God is speaking to Jeremiah, then touches his lips, promises to protect him, tells him to speak what he says, and gives him great authority over the nations and the kingdoms.

          One of the ways that we know about God today, what expects from us, and God’s nature is through God revealing himself to those before us. Many prophets, people, the disciples, and etc. These chain of revelations that tell us just who God is.

          Often the prophets of the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament were called by God to bring people back to right, holy, and righteous living through God. They were also called to challenge corruption, evil, injustices, and sometimes would give us clue to the coming of God’s son, Jesus Christ.

          Was Jesus a prophet? No, the scripture says that Jesus was and is the culmination and the fulfilment of all the prophets. Specifically, Jesus the living God and now the fullness of God’s revelation and presence on earth.

          Often in the Old Testament, or the Hebrew Bible, God called people to follow him, serve him, and to speak for him. Most Jews then and many now believe that “Mashiach” or the Messiah would come and save their people. Jesus is culmination of God’s revelation to the prophets and who came before him. Jesus was and is the fullness of God and spoke the words of life.

          In fact, in our Book of Hebrews reading for this morning once again, the Apostle Paul says this of Jesus Christ:

          “and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel” (Heb. 12:24, NRSV).

          Our Jewish brothers and sister believe in and follow the teachings of the Hebrew Bible, or what we call the Old Testament. We believe, like them, that God revealed his will to them, and has spoken. Part of this, is the foreshadowing of the one who not just speak of God, but be God among us. The one would live, breathe, heal, die for us, be raised, and one day come again.

          When Jesus comes, he makes a new covenant with us, a new arrangement with us, as God made with Moses. So why do we still have Jews then?

          Well there are many reasons for this. One, this is the group of people that God first chose to speak to, and from that group now God is offered through Christ to the whole world. Jews predate Christians by centuries, and their heritage and customs are one that are passed down generationally. Some Jews also don’t believe that Jesus is the Messiah for many reasons to. Biblically speaking though, we are also supposed to have our Jewish brothers and sisters with us. The bible tells us some will retain the old way, and many will not.

          Speaking of Judaism, in Jesus being raised a Jew, today in our gospel reading were hear a little bit about that. How so? Well devout Jews observe the Sabbath, or as some Jews call it “Shavuot”. This comes from the Book of Genesis when God rested on the seven day of the creation story. Devout Jews from sun down on Friday, to sun down on Saturday cease work and in part go to worship God at the Synagogue or the Temple. Since Jesus healed on the Sabbath for example, so Jews feel that Jesus violated the Sabbath. If she Jesus violated the Sabbath, then how can he be “Mashiach” or the Messiah? The answer healing is not work, as the Pharisees were viewing the covenant or the Law that God gave to Moses very legalistically.

          It is the Sabbath, what is work, what isn’t? Many of us remember growing up on Sundays when virtually everything was closed, as we observed the Christian Sabbath. Our Sabbath is generally sun down on Saturday, to sun down on Sunday. Why Sunday? Well because Jesus was resurrected from the dead on a Sunday.

          In this morning’s gospel lesson once again, not only is Jesus teaching the Word of God on the Sabbath, which is ok to do, he is also teaching it in the Jewish Synagogue. The Synagogue once again, is like a church for Jewish folks. Jesus teaches in the Synagogues sometimes, because most Jews know the Old Testament or the Hebrew Bible fairly well. Jesus then tells the people he is the one that have been waiting for. He tells them that he is the one that prophets like Jeremiah predicted would come hundreds of years before.

          Let’s look at our gospel of Luke reading for this morning once again. Once again it says:

“Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day.” But the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?” When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing” (Lk. 13:10-17, NRSV).

          Did Jesus violate the Law of the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament? No, I believe that he came to fulfill the Law. I also believe that religious leaders that attacked Jesus were being so “legalistic” or “nitty gritty” that made the Law more than it was really meant to be.

          The real problem I think, is not that Jesus healed on the Sabbath, but that he made the Pharisees and many of the other religious leaders look bad. Wanting retain their power, they got exactly what they wanted, and the got the savior of the crucified on a cross. He was dead and buried on that first Good Friday, but he rose on Easter, ascended to heaven, and will return one day in glory.

          Throughout the history of the Old Testament or the Hebrew Bible, God has raised up Men and Women to be prophets. God has called men and women to speak the truth of God, and to challenge the people to turn from sin, and to embrace God. When we think all is lost, brothers and sisters, God will and does raise up leaders. Leaders that will speak the truth of God, that will lead people into holiness and righteousness.

          In the uncertain era that we are now living in, God will do what God has always done, he will raise up leaders. He will call men and women to be prophets and many others things. For as Jesus Christ said in Matthew 16:18:

“And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it” (Mt. 16:18, NRSV).

          God will and does raise up leaders. Leaders who will emerge when we think that all is lost. Leaders that will inspire us, give us hope, and show through God that better days are ahead. If we are faithful, if we believe, if we serve, love, heal, and forgive, I believe as God blessed his people throughout history, he will likewise bless us. Amen.