You may know the rhythm of the Jewish calendar is useful in bringing to memory both what God has done and what he wants from us as his people. For instance, we note Shabbat is a weekly reminder first of Creation and God resting and therefore what does God want from us? That we should rest. OK, that’s fairly straightforward. What about Shabbat being also a reminder of Passover and the deliverance from slavery in Egypt? Again, we learn of God’s capacity to remember us and our gratitude in that he does! We are a delivered, ransomed people for God’s pleasure.
I could litanize all the 7 annual mo’edim, but that’s not what I want to highlight this morning. Rather, as you might also know, the 9th day of the month of Av, Tisha B’Av will take place in about 10 days, on the 13th of August. It will have been 3 weeks since the 17th of Tammuz, the day which begins this special countdown. Maybe you are well aware of all this, but if you are not, these three weeks in which we find ourselves just now, are the saddest days in our calendar. And honestly, who wants to dwell on the subject of our sadness? Even so, that’s a key lesson for anyone who wants to succeed in the life God has given us.
Maybe you have been watching the Olympics on NBC or Peacock and are exhausted from cheering Simone who is from here in Houston or the swimmers or soccer players, the never-ending panorama of featured sportspeople, their backstories, and the tiniest of margins that separate gold from bronze or no medals at all. When I think about sadness, it could be pictured in a 25-year-old who has trained for 15 years, day after day after day, even giving up schooling to pursue his one goal in life, then in 30 seconds on a balance beam or with a bow and arrow or collapsing just shy of a medal to see those dreams end in misery. For each of them, this Olympics could herald a period of sadness such as they have never experienced. Both the mental fatigue and lack of future weigh into the sadness for each athlete, even the winners, but especially those who do not win.
I’m reminded of Solomon’s phrase, there is “a time to mourn.”
Five years ago today you read about a local tragedy in Texas. Yes, August 3 in El Paso, at a Walmart, 23 people were killed in a gunman’s attack. This tragedy fueled by racism that — with nearly 50 federal hate crime charges — became one of the country’s largest hate crime cases. And today, five years later, the city of El Paso is unveiling a monument, a memorial, to remind people both what happened and hopefully to prevent such from reoccurring. Another time to mourn.
However, I’m talking about much more than an unrealized athletic dream or a tragic Walmart episode. For the Jewish people, our memories during these three weeks are related to national pains and unrelenting evil over a period of hundreds of years. Sometimes these were perpetrated against us by ruthless overlords and sometimes, dare we say it, caused by our own devices. It is with that consideration that I want to speak to us today. And I’m speaking both to you and to me. Remember, I’m not an outsider any more than Jeremiah the prophet was an outsider when he preached to Judah and Jerusalem in his days around 600 BCE.
The three weeks began 11 days ago on 17 Tammuz. That’s the day we note, that according to the rabbis, we Jews made and worshipped a Golden Calf. Moses had gone to the mountain nearly 6 weeks previously and the people of Israel considered his not returning as an indicator of his never-going-to-return. After all, in our days, how many search and rescue missions give up on 80-year-olds who have been gone even a couple of weeks? This had gone on for nearly 40 days already, and there was no sign of Moses’ return.
We read the following in Exodus chapter 32.
“Now when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people assembled about Aaron and said to him, “Come, make us a god who will go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” 2 Aaron said to them, “Tear off the gold rings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” 3 Then all the people tore off the gold rings which were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. 4 He took this from their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool and made it into a molten calf; and they said, “This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.” 5 Now when Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD.” 6 So the next day they rose early and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.” (Ex. 32.1-6)
What was for them a feast and a day of eat/drink/and be merry would become for the Jewish people a day of mourning and sadness. This is the 17th of Tammuz. And that day is now etched in our calendar as the beginning of the three weeks of sadness and weeping. Truly these three weeks are a time to mourn.
As a result, during this season we read the Haftorah from the prophet Jeremiah for three straight weeks. Who is he? He is the son of a priest named Hilkiah, who lived in Anatot just northeast of Jerusalem about 3 miles, in the land of Benjamin. In the OED, the word jeremiad is a noun that means a long, mournful complaint or lamentation. Other synonyms include diatribe, screed, anger, berating, censure, condemnation, denunciation, dispute, fulmination, harangue, invective, lecture, malediction, philippic, ranting, revilement, sermon, tongue-lashing, vituperation.
I must say that none of those is inviting. They all sound like activities of a meanspirited high school vice principal or the noise associated with parental abuse of children. Let me say, therefore, that none of these is fully descriptive of the prophecies of Jeremiah. You might know that in some circles, he is labelled the “Weeping Prophet” and perhaps that more characterises the man whom we read in this season. By the way, his prophecy is the longest in the Bible and has more hope than you might initially observe and certainly than the OED gives in his name’s attribution.
The haftorahs include chapter 1 of Jeremiah and there we hear famous verses of God replying to the young prophet, “Do not say, ‘I am a youth,’ because everywhere I send you, you shall go, and all that I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you.” (1.7-8)
The phrase ‘do not fear’ which God speaks here is one of 365 repeats of that phrase in the Bible. One for each day of your year, I suppose, if that helps you. And each time, please, hear it as it is written, not as a command, “Thou shalt not fear” but rather as a parent inviting her child to cling to her. For “I am with you.” Lean into the loving arms of your Father in heaven. Chill. Relax. Trust me, God is saying.
Then God speaks and tells Jeremiah that not only is he going to be present during the impending judgment on the Jewish people, but so is his word. Listen to this in chapter 1 verse 12, “for I am watching over my word to perform it.”
In other words, God and his word are active and alive and God will both speak and accomplish what he promises. So what is to bring us sadness after all? If God is with us, won’t everything be just peachy keen and pleasant and wonderful? Isn’t that what we hear so often from pulpits either across town from here or promises made by preachers of “Things will get better.”? Isn’t next year going to be the best year ever? Isn’t your wallet going to be fatter, your children taller, your life more abundant? Isn’t that what they promise us?
For Jeremiah, that promise was more than 70 years away. By the time Judah was captured and sent to Babylon in 586 BCE, they had already tried to escape judgment by making alliances with Assyria and with Egypt. They had tried to hide or to pretend that judgment was not going to happen to them. Some carried on with the eat/drink/be merry escape plans of our forebears. No, the answer was first to accept the reality; God is going to judge us.
In Jeremiah chapter two, the prophet uses more imagery than an ambrosia salad to help Israel see her sins and the resultant problems. These 10 images are as follows: an unfaithful wife, broken cisterns, a lost slave, a mule-like stubborn animal, a corrupt vine, a defiled body, an animal in heat, a captured criminal, children who refuse discipline, and an unbroken prisoner of war.
Truth be told, Jewish people… you are in trouble!
THEN, what are God’s answers to those realities? If God is notifying us of impending doom, he must have a plan of escape. Paul the apostle would speak of that to the riotous living Corinthians centuries later. (1 Cor. 10.13)
What is God’s plan of escape? It’s a simple and continuous notification, a video loop from heaven that makes so many cringe. It’s the first, second and third steps of every AA program. We cannot fix ourselves. We have blown it. We have made our lives a mess. If we allow it, God can and will if we let him. We have to bow the knee; we have to admit our inability to self-repair and to cry out in humility to the one, the only One who can repair our mess. But here’s the rub. It’s not only a cry for help. Do you remember Abraham’s grandson Esau who recognized his loss when Jacob his twin brother tricked him of his birthright and blessing? Esau sought to get it back, even with tears. But that’s not what I’m saying here.
Listen, it’s a nuance of meaning and I don’t want you to miss it. Crying out for help is not saying, “I’m sorry… please give me what I lost.” It’s crying out for mercy, knowing we DO NOT DESERVE anything but judgment. It’s saying, “I cannot; you can; I surrender.” This is a time to mourn.
And go further, biblically, what does God want to hear? I was wrong. I have sinned. I did what you told me not to do. I have not done what you told me to make happen. This judgment is just. Esau would have cried, “That’s not fair!” But God is seeking for the admission of fairness or justice from the judged people of Judah in Jeremiah’s day. Yes, weep. Yes, cry out. But not a cry of “it’s not fair.” Not a cry of “I still deserve.” A cry of “I was wrong. I sinned. We have sinned. God, in your mercy, hear our prayer.” That’s the key to mourning. This is how a time to mourn has its work in you.
Repair the broken cistern.
Speak up for the widow and orphan.
Take in those without families.
Care for the other.
Back to Jeremiah 2, listen to the 10 images. I like what Peter Craigie says of the first, the unfaithful wife image.
“love and marriage are more than metaphors in v 2. The essence of the Sinai covenant had been a relationship of love between God and Israel, but that relationship had implications for both religion and politics. With respect to religion, a nation that loved God could not practice love for other gods, for example, the fertility cults whose worship was permeated with sexual activity. And with respect to politics, a nation bound in contract to the Lord could not also join itself by treaty to other nations as its lord and master. The divine memory was of pure love, before the religious and political perversions of love had arisen in later times to spoil the continuing relationship.” Now a quick look at the other nine images.
Image 2: Broken cisterns. The well looks deep. The well is where it belongs, but seriously, it’s broken. Look closely. Little fissures in the well cause lousy containers. You will be diluted. You have been compromised. Repair the breach!
Image 3: The lost slave. You aren’t supposed to be the slaves; you are redeemed. But you are choosing political slavery with foreign rulers. That’s D-U-M dumb. Not the role I have for you and for me. For us.
Image 4: Stubborn animal. It’s because you are settling in the wrong place and refusing to go on. I want you to walk with me, but you are refusing. The flip side of stubbornness is faithfulness, but this is being fixed in doing wrong. That’s not going to help you at all, Israel.
Image 5: Corrupt vine. Empty. Looks good on the outside, but produces nothing! It’s all for show. God help us who demonstrate so much of religion to those near us or who walk by us. Outer religion without the quiet love of God on our insides—what a waste!
Image 6: A defiled body. The red-light districts in New York or Amsterdam, even here on Bissonnet. Easy to track and find prostitution, a common biblical thread for wrong behaviour. It goes around and it comes around, it will bite you if you engage. It’s not only an act; it’s a joining with the other team which for Judah will eventuate in idolatry.
Image 7: An animal in heat. You are unable to stay away from the affections and lures of the enemy. The idols you worship will fail you, but you are stuck.
Image 8: A captured criminal. This criminal alleges his innocence, insisting on it, even though he’s caught red-handed.
Image 9: The refusal of discipline. Admit it… we are broken. We are needy. We do not deserve God’s forgetfulness. We deserve his judgment. Are you listening?
Image 10: The unbroken prisoner of war. We are on the wrong side of the battle. marching in an attempt to gain international recognition and security, but in the end, we are walking contrary to the plans of God.
Friends at CBM… today… if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. Admit your errors. Ask God for forgiveness. Admit your sins. Fall on his mercy. You have turned your ears from the cries of the poor. You have practised racism. You have sinned against God in thought, word, and deed, in what you have done, and what you have failed to do. Is that right? Are you listening?
Then keep listening. God is full of compassion and mercy. He wants to welcome you into his arms. He wants to give you life, today, and forever. And how do I know that?
Because of a book? Yes, but not only the book, but the true hero of the book, the main protagonist himself, God in the living person of his son Yeshua. If anyone lived in an era of self-justifying, self-commending, self-centeredness, it was Yeshua. Under Roman occupation, Jewish people looked for help, from religion, or foreign treaties, or hiding away from it, but all the while, what is God saying through all this? There are 10 images today that are listed. That list is not exhaustive. So live in truth. Live in harmony with the Almighty. Live righteous lives. When you are wrong, quickly admit wrong. When God brings things to the light in your life which are out-of-bounds, agree with God. Don’t turn your face from or your back towards him. Agree with the Almighty. One, that’s smart. Two, that’s his advice. Three--- it works!
What will you do with this information today?
The message for ancient pre-exilic Judah is the same as it is for us in 21st century Houston. Politicians won’t save us. Our 401-K won’t sustain us. Your Texans football team may do well in 2024, but that won’t be eternal. Where is your real sustaining, long-lasting, ongoing hope?
God is calling each of us to know him and to walk with him, today and throughout our days. Have you received Yeshua as your messiah and Lord? Have you renounced your sin, your idolatry, your forsaking God and given him First Place in your life? If not, please, do so now, just now, as we pray together. Use your own words, if you want, but yield, surrender, to the Lord of life.
If you get this time to mourn right, you will experience eternal life in a deep and real way. Repent and find God’s mercy. We are our own worst enemy, but God in his mercy wants to make us his, and members together of his eternal congregation.
I’m eternally grateful for all his benefits towards me and my family. Let’s live in gratitude this Shabbat, through the 3 weeks, and until Yeshua returns to make all things right in his kingdom. Amen?
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A couple of quotes from the commentary by Peter Craigie and Page Kelley, Word Biblical Commentary. Book of Jeremiah. 1991.
To see and hear a lesson I gave two years ago on Jeremiah chapter 2, https://youtu.be/I3AGsCBn83A
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This was the sermon I gave at Congregation Beth Messiah in Houston, Texas on Saturday 3 August 2024.
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