Jeremiah 20:10-13
Romans 5:12–15
Matthew 10:26–33
The word we have heard today is rather ominous in its tone. Jeremiah hears words of personal attack against him. He is being persecuted for what he has said. Paul brings us back to the origins of humanity when he speaks of sin and death entering the world and affecting all humanity. And Jesus speaks to his disciples about those who can kill both body and soul. Like Jeremiah, Jesus’ disciples know the fear of persecution for speaking the truth about the Kingdom.
But the lament of Jeremiah, the death humanity finds itself in and the fear of Jesus’ disciples in the face of persecution, are also balanced by words of trust in God and a promise of God’s commitment to those who are faithful. Particularly difficult moments and moments of fear are not the last word no matter how ominous the situation is whether it is Jeremiah, Jesus or Jesus’ followers or humanity itself.
As we listen to Jeremiah today we find him and Israel in one of the most difficult moments of Israel’s history. Jeremiah had a hard message to give and often did it with symbolic actions. He has just bought a clay jar and was told to bring the elders and priests along with him and the clay jar outside the city to the city garbage dump. There he smashed the clay pot to pieces and told the gathering that was what was to happen to them. The superpower of the day, Babylon, was coming and was to smash the city and temple down and take off the ruling elite and priests into exile. No one wanted to hear that. The authorities refused to listen to such language. So the temple police chief decided to put Jeremiah in the stocks for a while. Eventually he released him. But the event traumatized Jeremiah and we find him today hearing the voices around him that plan to shut him up, to make sure that his words do not prevail. He has been saying that their world will collapse and they with it. They don’t want to hear that. For it means that their special category of God’s people is also broken. As indeed it is. They have in reality broken the covenant. But who likes to be told that their way is no longer God’s way, that God is moving out on them. But such was Jeremiah’s ministry as a prophet: to say what others think is unspeakable. To say that our world is not just changing, but it is passing and won’t be the same. In the language of today, what you may have experienced as normal will not come back. Jeremiah lives at that critical turning point when the familiar is to be taken away and the future can only be seen through God’s eyes.
But Jeremiah shares with us more than the voices of threat and terror that he hears. In the midst of cries looking for vengeance, he sees God who will champion him, who will not let those who refuse to heed and believe his words triumph. We hear him affirm that he has entrusted himself to this champion God and he will leave his case with him. On the human side, Jeremiah is surrounded by voices tearing him down. But in the depths of his heart, he finds words to stand firm in the Holy One of Israel. His stand in the covenantal faith is such that he commits himself to the one who sides with the poor in the midst of being set upon. Jeremiah may lament his experience and perhaps put his hands over his ears so he doesn’t hear whisperings against him. But Jeremiah opens his mouth to speak to God and entrust himself totally into his hands. He cries out for justice but not on his terms, rather on God’s. The world that he and the people know may be coming to an end, but what does not come to an end is the God who knows his heart and knows his faithfulness. The exterior world may collapse but his God knows the inner word of mind and heart. This is where God has spoken to him and from this inner world Jeremiah can call out for justice. We may find it strange but in the midst of a threat on Jeremiah’s life, he can find reason to praise the Lord. His heart is in the covenant God makes with those who are faithful and never cease listening to his word.
Jesus seems to anticipate that his followers may find themselves in a situation where their lives are threatened because they act and speak from a perspective different from the prevailing world, society and culture. He senses their fear. Three times he tells the Twelve: Fear no one, do not be afraid. Jesus knows the crippling power of fear in the face of the unknown, in the face of things falling apart, in the face of losing grip on what is normal. It would be easy to succumb to fear. But Jesus says no. You stand in a new world now, a gracious gift from the Father. Speak about it; let the vision of the Kingdom be heard. Do not be afraid of the truth. It might be painful to hear, like the story of our original sin of racism and slavery. It may be hard to bear, but hiding it and pretending it is not there is only shoring up a world that is distant from the one the Father wants for us his children.
We have a new value system. You think that sparrows are only worth a dime a dozen. You count them in monetary terms. But the Father doesn’t see how cheap they are. What he sees is each time one falls. That touches him. He is moved when a common bird falls. And so does it touch him when any of his children lose just one hair on their head. That is the new value system you stand in—one of caring for the least as though it mattered the most. Why should you fear when you are linked forever in love to one who notices even a thread of your hair.
Jesus asks his followers to stand in the everlasting love that cares for what looks common but is very dear. If we stand in the conviction, in the faith, that our God is such a one who cares for the ordinary, then we can stand without fear in a world that is shifting—a world perhaps that doesn’t want to admit its fear. But even more, we can even glimpse at what the new world will stand on:
the same fidelity toward the poor,
the truth that breaks open darkness for healing to burst forth,
the mercy that forgoes self-justifying justice,
the love that embraces hearts and minds that both need love
and recognize it when our God touches them ever so gently in a harsh world.
To speak about that world there is no need to fear for the power in such world is transformative and gives life. In that world all lives matter, the common sparrow and each human being.
~Prior, Fr. Joel Macul, OSB