2013 10 13 Right Here, Right Now from John Knox Kirk on Vimeo.

A sermon preached at John Knox Kirk of Kansas City, Missouri on October 13, 2013.

Psalm 66:1-12
and Jeremiah 29: 1, 4-7

When you hear the name Jeremiah, what do you think of?

 

I really love it how the two bible studies I led this week…both of them

instantly said “Jeremiah Was a Bullfrog”

when I asked them what first came to mind when we think about Jeremiah.

 

This is a pretty hip church, I thought. They love Three Dog Night

 

We’ll dig into Jeremiah in a moment,

but maybe you know that song too:

Joy to the world….All the boys and girls now.

Joy to the Fishes in the deep blue sea…

Joy to you and me…

* * *

If Joy means something like happiness, or contentment,

or having a “positive” disposition…

none of that really fits the prophet Jeremiah.

There isn’t much joyful about him,

at least not at first glance.

 True: Jeremiah is considered

one of the greatest prophets of the Hebrew people,

second in importance only to Isaiah.

And true: Jeremiah is revered and respected and admired

but not so much for his message of Joy and glad tidings and comfort.

Some call Jeremiah the “weeping prophet”

because his particular watch

led him to work and to witness during a painful period of history.

 Many found his words to be hard to hear,

uncomfortable for some, unbearable to others.

 Since the start of his prophecy, during the reign of King Josiah in 626,

he felt compelled to warn the Hebrew People of the coming collapse

of their country, of Judea

and of their own blindness to how their material excesses

and their injustice towards the poor

and their lack of faith in God

was leading them to this pending confrontation.

And for this message, Jeremiah is attacked by his family,

is beaten and thrown into the stocks and dumped into a cistern.

He was called the Weeping Prophet

because during his reign he experienced the dismantling of reforms

the collapse of the Assyrian empire

and, eventually, the hoards of Babylonians

who came down over the plains to the north

to sack Jerusalem, destroy the beloved temple

and to take the wealth and the bulk of the Hebrew people

into captivity in Babylon.

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