Jeremiah 31:7-14
7 For thus says the Lord: Sing
aloud with gladness for Jacob, and raise shouts for the chief of the nations;
proclaim, give praise, and say, "Save, O Lord, your people, the remnant of
Israel." 8 See, I am going to bring them from the land of the north, and
gather them from the farthest parts of the earth, among them the blind and the
lame, those with child and those in labor, together; a great company, they
shall return here. 9 With weeping they shall come, and with consolations I will
lead them back, I will let them walk by brooks of water, in a straight path in
which they shall not stumble; for I have become a father to Israel, and Ephraim
is my firstborn. 10 Hear the word of the Lord, O nations, and declare it in the
coastlands far away; say, "He who scattered Israel will gather him, and
will keep him as a shepherd a flock." 11 For the Lord has ransomed Jacob,
and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him. 12 They shall come and sing
aloud on the height of Zion, and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the
Lord, over the grain, the wine, and the oil, and over the young of the flock
and the herd; their life shall become like a watered garden, and they shall
never languish again. 13 Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance, and
the young men and the old shall be merry. I will turn their mourning into joy,
I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow. 14 I will give the
priests their fill of fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my bounty,
says the Lord.
Take AL Highway 21 south past
Sylacauga where it merges with U.S. Highway 231. Stay on that highway all the
way into Montgomery and follow 231 into Troy. In Troy, you’ll take a right by
the Kangaroo station, then a left by Wiley Sanders Trucking Company, heading
towards Pike County Lake (it’s a bit of a shortcut). That road ends on AL
Highway 167, where you’ll turn right and head south straight into my hometown,
Enterprise. That’s the way we travel when we go to visit family for the
holidays; it’s the way home. Sure, a few things have changed on that route over
the years: service stations get new paint jobs along with new names, a shopping
center or two opens, a shopping center or two closes, a Jack’s pops up here, while
a Zaxby’s pops up there…but the way itself has always been the same.
We took that way home about a week
and a half ago. Right after our Christmas Eve service here at the church,
Sallie and I stopped by our house, loaded our pets and bags in the truck, and
headed south on the way home, and we made pretty good time too, getting into to
my mother-in-law’s house just after ten o’clock. During our time there we
traveled to my uncle’s house to meet with my mom’s family for Christmas, then
out to my dad’s house to be with that side of my family, and before we left, we
trekked out to my mom’s house. We travelled on roads by which I had travelled
all my life—the way home (whether to my mom’s house or my dad’s) was a way I
could travel without reminder, without the need of a map or GPS navigation. And
while many things had changed about my hometown, the way to parents’ houses was
still pretty much the same (save a new traffic light or two).
I imagine human beings have shared
in this sort of homing instinct for centuries. In some strange way, our minds
have a way of mapping out the way home, of tracing the route in our hearts so
that street names and landmarks are no longer needed in order to navigate the
course home. Perhaps it’s because the very idea of home is something so central
to what we are as humans in the first place. We’re not necessarily prone to
migration, and even if we move around as individuals, there is still some sense
of “home” we carry with us wherever we may be, some sense of a place where we
came from, some sense of a place where we may one day return.
It is precisely that sense of home
to which the prophet Jeremiah speaks in passage we’ve read together today. For
the first twenty-nine chapters of the book bearing his name, the prophet
Jeremiah unyieldingly prophesied against rising apostasy, increasing moral
erosion, and the ethical deterioration of the southern kingdom of Judah. Hardly
a century prior to his prophetic arrival, the northern kingdom of Israel had
fallen to the Assyrians; the prophesied punishment for that nation’s blatant
disregard of God and his calling. Jeremiah speaks of God’s coming judgment upon
the people, but in chapters 30 and 31 (the so-called “Book of Consolations”
within the book of the prophet Jeremiah) the prophet seems to pause in the
midst of prophetic pronunciations in order to offer some words of hope, some
exhortations to God’s people that indeed, one day, they will find the way home
once more.
One can hear this promise in the
words of Jeremiah in verses 7 and 8: “For thus says the Lord: Sing aloud with
gladness for Jacob, and raise shouts for the chief of the nations; proclaim,
give praise, and say, ‘Save, O Lord, your people, the remnant of Israel.’ See,
I am going to bring them from the land of the north, and gather them from the
farthest parts of the earth, and in verse 10: “Hear the word of the
Lord, O nations, and declare it in the coastlands far away; say, ‘He who
scattered Israel will gather him, and will keep him as a shepherd a
flock.’" Jeremiah speaks of God’s redemption of Judah, a time when
they will no longer endure the punishment of iniquity in exile, a time when
they will return from every corner of the earth to which they had been
scattered.
What’s more, it won’t only be those
who had been exiled from Judah who will return. Oh no! Jeremiah’s words speak
of a greater hope even than that. In speaking of God’s leading the people by
brooks of water, in this wonderful, loving language of God leading the people
like a shepherd as they rejoice in the goodness of the Lord, in the abundance
of grain, wine, and oil, as the young women dance and the men make merry, as
the prophet speaks of a time so abundant that the priests shall get fat just
from the offerings from the people, Jeremiah speaks of a time when ALL
of God’s people will be united once more. In other words, Jeremiah isn’t simply
speaking a word of consolation to the people of the southern kingdom in order
to give them hope that one day their
kingdom would “get back to normal.” No, Jeremiah’s words speak about a time
when both kingdoms—all twelve tribes of Israel—will be reunited in joy and
prosperity. Not only that, but ALL THE PEOPLE from those kingdoms
and tribes will be reunited in joy and prosperity.
Maybe you didn’t catch it at first;
it’s a small phrase from the prophet at the end of verse 8 where he talks about those who will return from the
farthest parts of the earth: “among them the blind and the lame, those
with child and those in labor, together; a great company, they shall return
here.” The blind, the lame, people with children, women in labor…If you
were standing in line at the airport behind these people what would be the
first thing to come into your mind (tell the truth, because you’re in church!)?
“Ugh! These folks slow everybody down. Why can’t they take a different way?
Should they even be traveling in the first place?”
Sometimes, in order to really get the brunt of the Lord’s words spoken
through one of the prophets, we have to be brutally honest with ourselves,
dropping the context of sitting in a church pew after having sung hymns about
the great mystery of God or the glory of heaven. We have to peel back the
biblical layers and allow ourselves to feel the way those first listeners felt
when they heard the prophetic words. You see, the citizens of the southern
kingdom have been told that there is coming a day when they will travel the way
home and be reunited with those who have been scattered to the corners of the
earth. The thing is, though, those who have been scattered were from the
northern kingdom, a rival nation. And not only that, they’ll have to be
reunited with those who are flawed (“the blind”), those who are
problematic and burdensome (“the lame”), and those will only
likely get in the way and cause headaches (“those with children and those in labor”).
This might not be what they want when they’ve made it back on the way home.
I’d be willing to bet, though, that most—if not all—of us in this place
today have felt the very same way recently. You see, the way home may be
engraved in our mind, and our desire to be there may be great, but chances are
when we arrive we realize that in the midst of all of those we love, all of
those whom we have longed to see, there are those who drive us just outside the
edge of crazy. When we arrive on the way back home, we may find that there are
those who we don’t know at all, those who we may have hoped had long since
moved on. In the midst of joy and prosperity we may find those with whom we
would rather not share it.
You see, that’s the gospel truth at the center of Jeremiah’s words here. (That’s
the gospel truth represented by the arrival of the Magi at the home of the
Christ-child.) When we find the way home, the way of salvation in Jesus Christ,
we join countless others on that way, and those countless others may not be the
kind of folks with whom we hope to be reunited someday! There are those whom
God is bringing back to God’s self from the corners of the earth and every nook
and cranny of human history who, like the blind, may seem flawed, handicapped,
disabled, or whatever label we care to give them, but God is calling them home
by the way of Christ just as God is calling you. There are those whom God is
bringing back who, like the lame, may seem broken, problematic, or a hassle,
but God is calling them home by the way of Christ just as God is calling you.
There are those who, like those with children and those in labor, who may seem
to you to be more trouble than they are worth, as those who can only get in the
way and slow things down, but God is calling them home just as God is calling
you.
Isn’t that really what the good news of Jesus Christ is all about? God is
bringing all of God’s people together, from every corner of the earth, from
every station in life, from every socio-economic level, from every nation,
tribe, race, and tongue. God is calling us ALL to take the way back home, the
way of Christ Jesus and the eternal love of God. May you this day answer God’s
call, come and follow Jesus on the way back home, and be reunited with all of
God’s people (maybe even those you might not like).
Let us pray…
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