Be Silent No Longer
I absolutely love today the first reading from the book of the prophet Jeremiah (Jer 20:7-9). While its topic is somber, it always brings me a smile because I can just see it happening. I have been where Jeremiah is, I know how Jeremiah feels, and probably you do too.
A quick review of what we know about Jeremiah: he was called by God to be a prophet at a very young age, probably about 17. He resisted the call, telling God, “He was a mere youth and did not know how to speak.” God promised Jeremiah that he would give him the words that he needed. Words that would rouse the people and change their hearts.
Jeremiah’s message to the people was condemnations of them for their false worship and social injustice, with a summons to repentance. That was not the most popular message to be preaching. In this reading, we find Jeremiah hiding out, trying to escape the wrath of the people trying to kill him. He is wondering how he let himself get into this position. He says, “You duped me, O LORD, and I let myself be duped; you were too strong for me, and you triumphed. All-day, I am an object of laughter; everyone mocks me.”
The raw emotion of Jeremiah in the passage is so easy to identify with. He is asking himself the questions we all ask sometimes. “How did I let myself get talked into this?” “You fooled me, God, conned me, and I fell for it. I speak your Word when I see injustice and hear words of hate, and I get rejection.”
Have you ever felt that way? Like it would be better if you weren’t trying to be public in your faithfulness to the call of God. When you speak out in public situations about faith and the behavior God is calling us all to; people move away. Perhaps you lose friends. Maybe you are seen as a Pollyanna not living in the real world where it is “dog eat dog.” You may have been encouraged to remove your rose-colored glasses and face reality.
God’s message, when it is spoken and lived out loud, does that. It brings out the indignation in others. Suppose I give a full-throated challenge when I see people expressing judgments, bigotry, prejudice, and injustice toward others. I will meet their anger and annoyance. God’s truth is hard. It is challenging to be a beacon of love, shouting the message of God with a megaphone, and not being silent. Jeremiah, in the reading, is saying, I quit. I have had enough abuse—no more God. I will be quiet.
But silence doesn’t work. It didn’t work for Jeremiah, and it won’t work for us. It is as hard for us as it was for the prophet Jeremiah to be a megaphone for God. We do not want to offend. We do not want to get into it with people who are hell-bent on bias, bigotry, and judging others. They don’t seem to have any trouble using a megaphone on the street corner to spout the messages of division and hate. Yet we have difficulty publicly whispering the Word of God.
With Jeremiah, we want to put our hands over our ears, close our eyes, and hope it will go away. But God is relentless. He has called us. God has given us His Spirit and sent us out as sheep among wolves. He nudges and pushes and nags our hearts until our love will allow us to be silent no longer.
Humbly, I suggest that perhaps now, right now, when our world and our country seem so broken, God is nudging us to dust off our megaphone and speak loudly and clearly. He is asking us to preach the Word planted in our souls. His Word will rouse the hearts of the people and bring them back to God’s way. Like Jeremiah, we must not be silent.
In God’s Unending Love,
Gwen
