In our scripture readings for today, we are introduced to the prophet Jeremiah, someone whose story we will focus on for the next five weeks. And we hear today of the calling of Jeremiah, how God chose him as the bearer of his message to the people of Judah. As we will see, this message is not a light and fluffy affirmation, a pat on the back for the faithful in Jerusalem. It is a message of condemnation, and so God prepares Jeremiah for pushback, just as he prepared his Son Jesus for the ULTIMATE pushback....
In the thirteenth year of King Josiah of Judah – this is the starting point of Jeremiah's ministry, and it is approximately the year 626 BC. For context, the northern kingdom of Israel was taken into exile in Assyria about 100 years ago, the golden age of King David was almost 400 years ago, and the conquest of the promised land was almost 800 years ago. The people of Judah have heard the warnings of the prophets Joel, Isaiah, and Micah, for three generations, and they have ignored them. And God's patience is running thin. Before the end of Jeremiah's career, within three kings and 40 years, God WILL inflict his promised punishment – the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of the people of Judah to the far-away land of Babylon. This is the last chance for God's message to be taken seriously. So God chooses a serious messenger.
And what is the gist of God's message? “Take Me seriously again! You listened to Me as I was leading you through the wilderness, and I crushed anyone who tried to mess with you. But when I took the promised land away from the evil people who held it, and gave it to you, you did not purge the land, but you kept the evil influence among you. And this influence has lead you away from Me, to go after worthless things, and you are becoming worthless as a result. You are becoming the worthless people I removed from the promised land, and so, unless there is a change of heart, I will remove YOU from that land.”
What goes through your mind when you hear the phrase, “worthless things?” Thankfully, we don't have to worry too much these days about Baal worship, but what about the worthlessness of worshipping influencers on social media? What about the worthlessness of many of our other forms of entertainment today? What about the worthlessness of stressing over global problems, when we have plenty of local problems we could actually solve if we focussed? In going after these worthless things, are we making ourselves worthless, to ourselves, to our families, to our church, to the kingdom of God? We are headed into an A.I.-driven world where meaningful things like meaningful work will be at a premium, and worthless things like worthless entertainment will be at a level of quality and quantity never before dreamt of. It will be hard to resist the worthless things...it's already hard to resist the worthless things, and any message that critiques the worthless things, will not be received gladly.