Monday, September 14, 2015

Pentecost 17 B - Jeremiah 11:18-20

Jeremiah - Marc Chagall
Jeremiah gives voice to the cry and complaint of the un-numbered and un-named throughout human history who led to the slaughter have looked to God (or anyone who will listen) for help. But help does not always arrive in a timely fashion as Jeremiah himself will find out when his story of lament and complaint ends in obscurity. Despite all indications to the contrary we believe justice will have its day and the cause of the righteous will be upheld by the God who judges the heart and the mind. However, it may be that we who will have to pray forgiveness for things done and left undone, things said and left unsaid. It may be that we who waited for God to act on behalf of those who suffer while God waited for us to act will be judged as equally guilty. “It was the Lord who made it known to me” means we are God’s agents of mercy and justice in a world that devises evil schemes against the weak and powerless. Too often Christian backs bristle at slights against the practice of our individual piety while the plight of those literally “led to the slaughter” hardly registers a reaction. Granted, the world is not willing to conform to the kingdom of God and indeed actively works against the principles of God’s reign but when we are silent in the face of suffering we acquiesce to the evil schemes that would cut off the word of life from the land of the living. 

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