Sermon prepared for Messiah Lutheran Church, Auburn WA

8:30 & 11:00 traditional services – 6-30-02

by Gregory S. Kaurin, associate pastor

 

text: Jeremiah 28: 5-9

Sermon:

It’s Not a Question of ‘If,’ But ‘When’!

 

Click to go to: home page - or - sermon menu - or - sermon archives

 

It’s been used so often now that it’s a trite phrase.  Whenever Pauline are watching the Discovery Channel, or some nature show about the ‘big earthquake,’ or the next ice age, or volcanoes, or global-killing comets and asteroids, we know the phrase is coming.  Invariably, they will have some scientific-looking dude come on to tell us how often in how many years this big thing tends to happen, and s/he will always finish by saying dramatically, “It’s not a question of ‘if’ it will happen, but…’when’ it will happen!”

As a result, I’ve often noticed that scientists, when talking about future possible occurrences, sound an awful lot like the Old Testament prophets: “It’s not a question of if a comet will someday strike the earth, but when.”  “It’s not a question of if the big earthquake will hit, but when.”  And there’s my favorite, “It’s not a question of if Mt. Rainier is going to blow, but when.”  It’s not a question of if, but when.

 

This morning, I am going to focus on our strange lesson from the 28^th chapter of Jeremiah.  It’s a bit strange because it starts and ends right in the middle of the story, and to really understand the message, you’ll want to know what was happening around it.  You may even want to pull out your Bible, or the red pew Bible in front of you, and look at the verses around it. 

Jeremiah 28, the first verse, tells us when it happened: “the beginning of the reign of King Zedekiah.”  If our numbering system is right, that would’ve been the year 593 B.C.  It would also be four years after the king of Babylon, King Nebuchadnezzar, had captured Jerusalem and taken away many of their people and the treasures of the Temple, leaving behind Jeremiah and others.  Jeremiah watched all this happen, and God called on him to tell the people to buckle up and prepare for the long haul.  This was going to be a long time in exile and under the rule of Babylon.

In fact, in the previous chapter 27, God told Jeremiah to make yokes, like yokes of oxen, one to wear around his neck, and he was to send these yokes to all the kings that Babylon had conquered, including his own King Zedekiah.  They were to wear these yokes as a sign that they were a conquered and submissive people, tethered under King Nebuchadnezzar’s reign and will.  The message was, “Buckle up.  Serve under Babylon’s rule.  But stay faithful to God!”

They did not want to hear what Jeremiah had to tell them.  After more than four years of really rotten things, they wanted good news!  Not only was Jeremiah telling them bad news, he was asking them and their king to completely humble themselves to this foreigner, to wear an ox yoke!  That’s what Jeremiah was showing and telling them right in the middle of the Temple, before the priests and all who had gathered.

And that’s when the prophet Hananiah showed up…and countered all that Jeremiah was saying.  Hananiah had a higher station than Jeremiah, and he spoke in perfect prophetic form.  In the first part of chapter 28 Hananiah said, “The Lord God Sabaoth, God of Israel, has given me a message to tell you.  He told me to say this: that God has broken the yoke of Babylon.  The exile is ending, and within two years all the people and all the stolen treasures will be returned to Jerusalem and to this Temple!  This the Lord has declared!”

That’s where your lesson today finally picked up, right in the middle of that scene in the Temple.  It was like a prophetic showdown in front of all the priests and people.  They watched as the two prophets battled it out.

How were they to know?  They both claimed to be the voice of God.  There was no way to tell if Hananiah or Jeremiah were making it up, and every reason to believe that they both believed their own prophecies with an equal conviction.

Jeremiah himself said “Amen” to Hananiah.  “Let it be true.  It would be wonderful if you were right and I was wrong.  I hope God does it your way.  However,” Jeremiah went on to say, “when you remember all the warnings of past prophets, prophecies of war, starvation and disease, what you are saying, Hananiah, sounds more like wishful thinking.”

Who should the people believe?  Jeremiah ended your lesson by recalling some interesting Biblical advice.  He referred to the 18^th chapter of Deuteronomy, the 21^st verse, where it says, “You may be privately wondering, ‘How can we tell when a prophecy has not come from the Lord?’”  It continues with this, “Here’s how to tell: if the prophet speaks a message in the Lord’s name, but it doesn’t happen, then you know it wasn’t true, and you can ignore that prophet!” 

So, how can you tell?  The Bible and Jeremiah both said, “Wait and see!”  It’s kind of like trying to figure out which will come last, the chicken or the egg.  You just have to wait and see.  Time will tell.

That’s where our lesson ended, but in verse ten it really got dramatic.  Hananiah snatched the wooden yoke off from Jeremiah’s neck, the yoke he’d made to give to King Zedekiah, and there in front of everyone, Hananiah broke it over his knee to say, “There see, the yoke of Babylon truly is broken!”  Quite a show!  It was almost W.W.F., World Wrestling Federation, material: Horrible Hananiah versus Geriatric Jeremiah!  Except that Jeremiah took his own advice…and walked away…to wait and see.

Sadly, Hananiah was wrong.  The exile did not end within those two years.  In fact, Hananiah died seven months later, and the exile got worse and lasted a full seventy years.

Meanwhile, Jeremiah continued to tell the people, “Buckle up.  Stay faithful!”  He was constantly badgering and nagging his leaders.  The people got tired of his voice and, at one point, Jeremiah was arrested and thrown into a mud pit to sink and die, except that an Ethiopian eunuch saved him.  In the end, Jeremiah had barely a friend left in the world.  He died an ignored and frustrated man.

Only later, his prophecies were remembered.  After his death he grew in the peoples’ minds.  They remembered that he was the one who told us about a covenant written, not on tablets, but in their hearts.  He was the one who told them they could stay faithful to God, even on foreign soil, under a foreign ruler.  He was the one who told us all that earthly defeat, no matter how harsh, is bearable…so long as you cling to your God.

They finally remembered that—the same year that he battled it out with Hananiah in the Temple—Jeremiah had sent a letter to the exiles in Babylon, and these are some of the most beautiful words in scripture.  Listen to what Jeremiah wrote to the exiles.  He told them that…

 

God says, “While you are in exile, build houses, plant gardens, eat, get married and have children.  You must increase and stay strong.  While in exile, you must even work and pray for Babylon because your welfare depends on theirs.  And when seventy years pass,” God says, “I will intervene.  I will keep my promise and bring you home.  I have plans for you, plans for peace and not destruction, plans to give you a future and a hope.  When you call to me, and come and pray to me, I shall listen.  When you search for me, you will find me.  I will bring you back,” God said.

 

…It was not, and it is not, a question of if, …but when.

 

Well, it’s a wonderful story of a dramatic scene in Jerusalem’s Temple 2,595 years ago.  What does it have to do with us, 21^st Century, United States of America?  We’re in the Land of the Free, not of the Oppressed.  We haven’t been conquered by anyone or anything.  (…Or, have we?)  We aren’t in exile, waiting to go home.  (…Or, are we?)

I find that Old Testament scene to be very contemporary and up-to-date, and maybe even a little more intense for us.  We don’t just have two prophets claiming two different things.  We’ve got hundreds making thousands of claims about God, about our nation, our environment, our earth and universe, the Second Coming of Christ, the Rapture, the Big Bang.

Some of them are saying: “Believe whatever you want.  We’re all saved, anyway.”  Others say, “Believe whatever you want.  We’re all doomed, anyway.”  Still others say, “Believe exactly what we tell you, or we’ll be saved, but you will go to hell!”

We’ve got the Lutherans insisting that we’re not saved by our good works, but only by the “Grace alone, grace alone, grace of God alone!”  We’ve got the Methodists saying, “Yeah, but then you must seek and reach for perfection.”  We have still others who meet on Saturdays, warning us, “The Law is still God’s Word and must be followed, every jot and tittle.”

Some say, “God wants you to be wealthy and successful.”  Others say, “Store your treasures in heaven.”

So, tell me: how do you know you’re listening to the right message today?  What if you’re in the wrong place this morning?  Oh my, what if I’m standing in the wrong pulpit?  How can we tell?

 

I won’t bore you with the larger version of this story, since I’m one of a very few who think it’s at all funny.  (It was told to us by our seminary professor who taught Lutheran history.)  It’s about a good Lutheran pastor who is faithful to the gospel message his whole life.  He preaches, teaches and models nothing but St. Paul’s great message, “It’s not by works, but by the grace alone, grace alone, grace of God alone that you are saved!”

Well then, he dies.  He wakes, expecting a heavenly banquet with good German beer and lots of Norwegian lutefisk.  Instead, he sees a bunch of people crying and weeping and gnashing their teeth.  It begins to dawn on him: “I’m in the other place!”

A gorgon yanks him up and begins to push him through the maze of hell.  The pastor is saying over and over, “This can’t be!  This can’t be—I’ve always modeled and kept the gospel message!”  He sees a few people he knew, even more good Lutherans.  “There’s been a horrible mistake!”  He sees one of his old mentors, and he tries to ask him what has happened, but his mentor only turns and runs yelling, “It’s not my fault!  It’s not my fault!”

And then he looks into a room and recognizes someone who could only be… “Why, Dr. Martin Luther?  You of all good Lutherans, what are you doing down here?” 

The Reverend Doctor looks up and sobbingly replies, “O, horrible!  I was wrong!  It is by works, after all!”

 

…Like I said, I’m one of a very few that find that story funny.  …Maybe it’s because of a kind of prideful self-assurance and arrogance that says, "It couldn’t possibly happen that way"?

There’s another, better known, story about a tour group in heaven.  They see much of Paradise, excepting one room.  Whenever they walk by that closed door, St. Peter says, “Shhhh!” and makes them tiptoe past.  Finally, one of them asks about it, and St. Peter answers, “Oh, we have to be quiet, because behind that door we keep 144,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses, and they think they’re the only ones up here!”

 

Funny, but both of these stories come back to this important issue.  Some people are at least wrong or blind or misguided in their religious beliefs…or, at worst they might be condemned for what they honestly and sincerely believe.  I think that people who try to assure us that everyone has a different, but equally valid, version of the Truth are severely misguided.  We can’t all be right when some are saying that rest of us are condemned.  I am just as convinced, though, that people (including myself, at times) who are convinced that they own the Truth—that it’s their views, and only theirs, that are the ticket to heaven—are probably worse off.  They are worse off if I understand what Jesus was saying about pharisaic people.

The great Equalizer is death; we all go through it.  The great Truth-teller, the Revelation, is after death.  We must wait and see.  Time will tell.  That is where we’ll meet the only One with the whole-unclouded Truth.  In fact, we say that he is the Truth.

But what shall we do in the meantime?  I think the key is in what I just said, “He is the Truth.”  Since you and I cannot see, cannot be, and cannot own the unclouded Truth, then we had better cling to and patiently hold on to the One who is the Truth.  Yes, we may be wrong about one, two, or a great many things.  That is all the more reason to cling to him and pray for the forgiveness and faithfulness that is written throughout scripture.  And notice that he promised it—not to those who get it “right”—but most of all to those who cling to him in spite of questions, doubts, sins, fears, plagues, wars, disease and death.

Cling to him.  Seek him.  Call and pray to him.  And keep coming to the place where you hear that message from God.  And bring your neighbors, because this is not just the grace that saves and transforms you.  It is a grace that promises the power to save and transform whole nations …or, any people who finally hear and believe the message that has echoed for 2,595 years:

 

“I have plans for you,” God said, “Plans for peace and an end to war; plans to give you a future and a hope.  I will bring you home.”  It is not a question of if, …but when.

 

Click to go to: home page - or - sermon menu - or - sermon archives