2025 08 24 Proper 16 year C Pentecost 11
Jeremiah 1:4-10
Psalm 71.1-6 Hebrews
12.18-29 Luke 13.10-17
When does God start
to love us? When does God first call
us? These are probably things that we
don’t really think about, but today we find the answer in God’s message to
Jeremiah. Before God formed us in the
womb, God knew us and called us.
Jeremiah had a
revelation via the word of the Lord.
This revelation is like the loving arms of a father, embracing his son
and lifting him on to a pedestal.
Jeremiah needed this confirmation of his call because his role would be a
tough one of great importance. He would
foretell of the captivity of the kingdom of Judah, and he spoke of a divine
restoration coming from the line of David.
Perhaps we too, need a revelation and confirmation that God has called
us.
There’s a hymn that tells us a little about the revelation
of God through the message of Jeremiah; “God of Jeremiah, Grieving with an aching heart, For an empire, Unbelieving
as it falls apart. When Your thunder goes unheard - We will tend the prophet's word, And in season, out of season - We will sing Your song.” There are a lot of words in this song that
probably need stopping and thinking about. While there was a strong message
from Jeremiah, in it we sense the love of God and the grief of God.
Did the people listen to Jeremiah? Some did, but extra Biblical traditions tell
us that Jeremiah was eventually stoned to death for his prophecies. In season and out of season, will we tend the
prophet’s words and sing the song of God’s message? It was out of season for Jeremiah. He was not appreciated for his words, yet he
was God’s chosen prophet, who accurately passed on the message of God and his
prophecies about going into exile came to pass. God did not allow Jeremiah to be put to
shame, however, in that moment Jeremiah was ridiculed and shamed in the eyes of
men…. and then God had the last word and proved him right…. But Jeremiah was gone…. His word and message live on.
God strengthened Jeremiah for the task by giving Jeremiah a
sure vision of his calling… An
understanding of God’s perspective and Jeremiah knew and knew that he knew that
God was with him.
Do we know that God has called us? Each one of us, God chose before he formed us
in the womb. We may be called to
different roles, but for certain, God has chosen us. He particularly formed and called each of us
individually and calls us together as a church.
We need to ask God to show us, just as he showed Jeremiah, that we have
each been so particularly created for his own purpose.
What is it that we are called to? Jesus knew his calling and he told the
people; when he read from the prophet Isaiah; ““The Spirit of the Lord is on
Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me
to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to
release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour”. It is because Jesus knew this that he had no
questions about healing on the Sabbath.
He was releasing the oppressed. (working to save life was above other laws).
The main reason people give for not submitting to God, is
that God allows bad things to happen. We
seem to have no answer, and yet the answer is simple. God longs for us all to be healed. He created us to be well, but we are no
longer in the Garden of Eden…. That is the reason. Mankind chose to go their own way, and God
respects our free will…. God told Adam
in the Garden of Eden, if you eat of the fruit, you will die. We spend so much time debating what this or
that is really about in the word of God that we sometime complicate what is
really simple. Our world is fallen
because mankind are fallen. But God
completely loves us still, and has made a clear path back.
Notice the compassion of Jesus compared to the
Pharisees? The Pharisees accept pain and
disease as a fact of life. They have
little sympathy for the woman. Jesus
shows that he understands the extent of her suffering when he says, ”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?"
In our story, the lady didn’t ask for healing. Jesus saw her, had compassion and declared out
loud, that she was healed. The lady had
been bound by Satan for 18 years.
Sometimes we dismiss the part that Satan has to play in our suffering,
but Jesus has no trouble in clarifying that it is not God’s will that this lady
is suffering. We as mankind, unwittingly
gave allegiance to Satan when we turned from God. Sin entered the world and so did
suffering. Now, we accept suffering as a
given and often as part of our identity.
Perhaps we too need God’s vision and God perspective on this and perhaps
this is why Jesus calls out to her that she is healed. She couldn’t possibly imagine herself
well. Her state had become part of her
identity, who she was, but Jesus came to set the oppressed free. He reminds them this woman is a daughter of
Abraham – a daughter of the promise.
There is a Spiritual world and there are spiritual laws
that are part of that world. We turned
from God. We may well be saying to
ourselves, “that is not fair, it wasn’t me in the garden of Eden.” But have any of us not sinned? In many ways that seem so insignificant, we
all make the same mistake; we choose selfishness and think that we know better
than God. After all…. What is a piece of
fruit from just one tree?????
Our reading from Hebrews explains that God gave the law at
Mount Sinai. We are told that this law
brought death. God was revealed on Mount
Sinai and we note that in His awesomeness none could stand. Mount
Sinai was to reveal the perfect nature of God and make it clear how “fallen and
human ” we are and how “perfect and God” God is. The Law on Mt. Sinai revealed just what was
needed to live a life that really was good and acceptable to God, and how no
human could - not a single person could ever keep the law - except Jesus.
And yet God loved us so much that he also continued to make ways so that
we could connect with him and in some way come to know him.
Hebrews tells us; “But you have come to Mount Zion and
to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable
angels in festal gathering,
and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in
heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous
made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the
sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.”
Those ”righteous made perfect” will be you and me one
day. Somehow, the life, death and
resurrection of Jesus has enabled us to enter into the promises of God and God
now counts Jesus’ righteousness as ours.
The sacrificial system of the Old Covenant was like a parable for what
Jesus would accomplish. The best way to
make this clear is to read or watch The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. The young boy, Edward, unwittingly gives
allegiance to the witch and there is then a price to pay…. Aslan, the Lion pays that price …. A life for
a life. However, in Jesus, ALL of our
lives are bought back. We are baptised
into Jesus…. We unite to him… In
communion we show that we accept his sacrifice… we partake in it by taking the
bread, which he said was his body given for us.
We accept his life in the wine, which is the blood shed for the
forgiveness of sin. In doing this we
unite with Christ. God the father
accepts us as his chosen and perfect son.
God also sees us as healed and set free. Yet we live in, what some have said as
“Saturday”, The in between time….the
Good News is now and yet not yet. God
has saved us, and does heal us, and we live in the time of promise, but the
full fulfilment is yet to come. Not everyone
is turned back to God, and we are still living in this fallen world. We are waiting for the time when even
creation will be redeemed (as scripture tells us in in Romans 8:22 “that the
creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and brought into the
glorious freedom of the children of God.”).
The fullness of this promise will be when Jesus comes back again and
reigns over the earth.
In the meantime, lets pray for God to show us our true
identity and his call on our lives. One
thing that I’m very sure of is this; Our vision of our selves and our lives
in the Kingdom of God is way smaller than the reality and I believe we need
to ask God for a divine glimpse. 1
Corinthians 2:9 tells us “No eye has seen, no ear has heard and no one’s
heart has imagined all the things that God has prepared for those who love
him.”
It is a glorious adventure that we are on together. But remember that one thing we do know is
that we are the body of Christ and Christ proclaimed the Good News to the poor,
set the oppressed free, etc…. Where Christ is, there we must be too… praying for healing, declaring the word of
God in and out of season, but also being involved in practical ways of setting
people free… We loved, called and
blessed so that we might also be a blessing and bring knowledge of God to our
world.
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