Friends of Jeremiah

Sermon manuscript for Green Lake Church of Seventh-day Adventists

Sabbath, September 6, 2014

(Note: this is the manuscript that was the basis for my sermon. It is different from what I put in the bulletin. Sorry about that.)

In October of 2002, six months before the United States launched its Tomahawk cruise missiles against Baghdad, I wrote an editorial opposing the war. I pointed out that Adventist soldiers in the American Army would be bombing Adventist Iraq civilians. American Christian soldiers would be shooting Iraq Christian soldiers. I wondered what would happen to Christian children and grandmothers when the bombs began to fall.

Tragically, history has proven me right. Yes, the American army got rid of the monster named Saddam Hussein. But unfortunately our work in Iraq opened the door for the much greater monstrosities of ethnic and religious factionalism and ultimately for the horror of ISIS which demonstrated its true character by beheading two journalists recently.

In 2002, my anti-war stance was wildly unpopular, especially among Christians. Here in America the demographic most in most in favor of starting a war against Iraq was conservative, Protestant Christians. There were members of my congregation who were very troubled that I would challenge the judgment of the president of the county. If he wanted to go to war, then surely war was necessary.

In those days, opposing the war was seen as unpatriotic or even “unChristian.” After all, those Iraqis were Muslims.

Opposing the war was unpopular, “unpatriotic,” maybe “unChristian.” But it was right.

Opposing the American invasion of Iraq was unpopular, but it didn't cost me anything. I didn't lose my job. I didn't got to jail. But sometimes speaking the truth carries great risk.

Consider, the story of Jeremiah the Prophet. He spent most of his very long career saying unpopular things. At least twice that we know of, people tried to silence Jeremiah by killing him. The first time it was the religious leaders who were after him, the second time it was members of the nobility.

This second attempt on his life happened shortly before the nation of Judea was obliterated by the armies of Babylon.

The capitol city, Jerusalem, had been surrounded by the Babylonian army for several years. People were getting hungry. Army morale was flagging. With this as a backdrop, Jeremiah walked into the center of town and delivered this speech:

“This is what the LORD says: ‘Everyone who stays in Jerusalem will die from war, famine, or disease, but those who surrender to the Babylonians will live. Their reward will be life. They will live!’ The LORD also says: ‘The city of Jerusalem will certainly be handed over to the army of the king of Babylon, who will capture it.’” (Jeremiah 38:2, 3 NLT Accessed through Blue Letter Bible.com.)

Several influential nobles heard the speech, including Shephatiah son of Mattan, Gedaliah son of Pashhur, Jehucal son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur son of Malkijah. These guys, understandably, were outraged at what Jeremiah was saying. He was undermining morale. He was giving aid and support to the enemy. It was treasonous. They marched off to the king and demanded that he do something. Well, not just “something.” They wanted the king to order Jeremiah executed for treason.

King Zedekiah answered, “He's in your hands. Do what you think necessary. I can't stop you.”

It was not the execution decree they wanted. The only person who could legally order an execution was the king and he pointedly had not given the order. On the other hand, he made it clear he wasn't going to interfere with much else they might have in mind.

So these nobles had Jeremiah arrested and thrown in “jail.” The jail they chose was a cistern that had no water but did have a deep layer of viscous mire. This jail offered a perfect quarantine for containing the prophet's negative words. Jeremiah would be completely cut off from any contact with the people. In the past the prophet had written letters that had powerful impact. The cistern provided absolute containment. The nation would be safe from the dangerous ideas voiced by the prophet.

For the more sadistic of the nobles, the cistern also promised perfect torture. As Jeremiah weakened he would sink into the mud. Eventually he would die, without a mark on him. He would die from asphyxiation maybe, if he couldn't keep his head out of the mud. Or certainly die of starvation as the city ran out of food.

It was the end of the road for Jeremiah. If Jeremiah had been the prophet Elisha, we might wonder if he would work some kind of magic to escape. But in all the stories of Jeremiah's career there is never the least hint of a miracle. Jeremiah's job consisted of telling the truth, usually unpopular truth. He had survived this long only because he had powerful friends in the nobility. But it looked they had finally run out of political capital.

Back in those days, there were all sorts of prophets claiming to speak for God. They frequently contradicted each other. From our position today, we confidently honor Jeremiah as God's spokesperson. Jeremiah was a real man of God. To us it's crystal clear. But think for a minute what you would have thought if you had been living in Jerusalem in those days.

Jeremiah predicted the institutional death of Israel. The nation of Israel was going to suffer utter defeat. And God's will was to surrender to the forces of Babylon.

What would we think today, if a prophet were to stand up and announce, the church is going bankrupt. It cannot be saved as an institution. If you are following God, go join our critics.

How would we respond to a message like this? If a modern Jeremiah stood up and said something like this how long before we got rid of him—with a little torture thrown in, if we had a chance?

We need to understand how radically unpopular, how absolutely unattractive, Jeremiah's words were. If I had been living in Jerusalem back then, I'm afraid I would have been right there with those nobles asking the king to have Jeremiah executed. And I'm afraid many of you would have been there with me. Jeremiah's error would have been so obvious, so egregious, we would not even need any time to think about it. Silence that man! By any means possible.

But what happened in Jeremiah's story. According to the Bible, Jeremiah really was speaking for God. Jeremiah was telling the truth, even though it was a miserable, unpleasant truth.

God needed someone to rescue Jeremiah, but his latest message was so outrageous, so impossbile to believe that God couldn't find an Israelite to take action, so God called a foreigner, a Black man. A eunuch—which means he was not a volunteer. He was a slave.

This slave, named Ebed-Melech—heard about Jeremiah's situation and immediately went to the king.

My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet, whom they have cast into the dungeon, and he is likely to die from hunger in the place where he is. For there is no more bread in the city.” (Jeremiah 38:9. NLT Accessed through Blue Letter Bible.com.)

Now we see why the king had not ordered Jeremiah executed. The king knew Jeremiah was an honest prophet. Jeremiah's miserable words came from his absolute integrity. They were the words Jeremiah believed came straight from God. The king would not admit publicly Jeremiah was right. That would take far more guts than the king even dreamed of having. Still the king knew Jeremiah was telling the truth. So when someone else showed up willing to be the public face of Jeremiah's defense, the king was only too happy to cooperate. It appears that the courage of Ebed-Melech, the African slave, inspired the king to his own bit of courage.

The king gave a direct order: take thirty men and go rescue Jeremiah from the cistern. This is curious. The king did not simply issue a decree and leave Ebed-Melech, the African to try to persuade the guards at the cistern to let him rescue Jeremiah. The king give the African a force—thirty soldiers. When Ebed-Melech showed up at the cistern, there was no question about whether the jailers were going to allow him access to the prophet.

The rescue was a bit complicated. The cistern was too deep for a ladder. The muck at the bottom was extremely sucky and viscous. Ebed-Melech found old rags and clothing for the prophet to pad his arm pits then had him sling the rope under his arms so they could slowly extract him from terrible mud.

Because of Ebed-melech, the foreign-born slave, Jeremiah, the prophet of God, the person who spoke unpopular, even treasonous truth, lived to continue his ministry.

In this story, nothing is said about the faith of Ebed-melech. Ebed-melech is honored because of his courage and his energy in resisting injustice and saving life. The prophet Jeremiah—God's man—could do his work only because of the courage and force of a man with no religious pedigree.

In this story, the African slave and the Jewish prophet share the honors, with the foreigner getting the brighter glory.

Are you willing to act like Ebed-melech? Are you willing to speak up and take action when you see someone treated unjustly?

School is starting. One of the realities of school life is the development of cliques and in-groups. Some kids are in and some kids are out. Are you willing to speak up when you see another kid treated unfairly? This is the real test of your Christianity. Do you make it a point of being courteous to every student, every classmate?

When it comes to political matters, are we willing to see the humanity of people with whom we disagree? The Bible does not tell us that Ebed-melech agreed with Jeremiah's point of view. Ebed-melech just knew that it was wrong to imprison a man in a cistern because he spoke what he believed to be the word of God. Let's make sure we don't dehumanize people we disagree with politically. Let's make our arguments. Let's voice and vote our convictions. But let's remember those who have differing viewpoints are also motivated by a desire to see our community prosper.

I've been doing a series of sermons on the church and atheists. As I have said over and over, most of the atheists I know are driven by high ideals. Their atheism is driven by a radical commitment to justice and truth. These are values that live at the heart of the vision that gave birth to the church.

It is vital that we recognize that especially among young atheists, their distance from church is correlated to our distance from the ideals of Jesus. The closer we as a community come to living the ideals of the Master, the closer we will be to our young atheist friends. And the closer they will be to us.

It may well be that we will be able to hear God's truth—the new truth, the uncomfortable truth, the truth that is different from what we have always believed—only when we are confronted by “Ethiopians,” outsiders. Maybe our kids. Maybe our good friends. Maybe people who have not been Adventist for generations. Maybe people who are not Adventist at all.

Zedekiah was confronted by Ebed-melech and to his credit, even though he is infamous as a weak, vacillating character, he recognized the truth of Ebed-melech's defense of the prophet and supported Ebed-melech. Let's make sure we respond as well to the challenges of our children and friends.

If we will demonstrate courage and compassion, people sitting on the fence, people who secretly respect the truth, may themselves find courage to speak up, to take action. Our own actions will be multiplied. God's work will advance.

Special note regarding the life of the church beyond my own congregation:

At the recent Faith and Science Conference our General Conference president made very pointed remarks aimed at purging the church of people who point out inconvenient truth regarding geochronology and paleontology. Like King Zedekiah of old, he gave permission to the nobles in the Adventist Church—the bureaucrats and administrators—to eliminate the voices of faithful Adventists who speak or even think inconvenient truths. I pray that the work of any nobles who attempt to implement this immoral permission will be countered by courageous Ethiopians. Opposing the nobles is risky. But standing for truth is part of the essence of real nobility.