postID: 6848; title: The Eighteenth Sunday After Pentecost
groupKey: secondary
groupKey: other
The Eighteenth Sunday After Pentecost
Lord, we pray thee that thy grace may always precede and follow us, and make us continually to be given to all good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Proper 23)
Array
(
[date] => 2014-10-12 16:00:00
[scope] =>
[year] =>
[month] =>
[post_id] => 1178
[series_id] =>
[day_titles_only] =>
[exclusive] => 1
[return] => formatted
[formatted] =>
[show_date] =>
[show_meta] =>
[show_content] => 1
[admin] =>
[debug] => 1
[filter_types] => Array
(
[0] => primary
[1] => secondary
)
[type_labels] => Array
(
[primary] => Primary
[secondary] => Secondary
[other] => Other
)
[the_date] => 2014-10-12 16:00:00
)
1 post(s) found for dateStr : 2014-10-12postID: 6848 (The Eighteenth Sunday After Pentecost)
--- getDisplayDates ---
litdate post_id: 6848; date_type: variable; year: 2014
Variable date => check date_calculations.
=> check date_assignments.
=> NO date_assignments found for postID: 6848
displayDates for postID: 6848/year: 2014
Array
(
[0] => 2014-10-12
)
postPriority: 3primaryPost found for date: 2014-10-12 with ID: 6848 (The Eighteenth Sunday After Pentecost)
The Eighteenth Sunday After Pentecost
Array
(
[date] => 2014-10-12 16:00:00
[scope] =>
[year] =>
[month] =>
[post_id] => 1178
[series_id] =>
[day_titles_only] =>
[exclusive] => 1
[return] => simple
[formatted] =>
[show_date] =>
[show_meta] =>
[show_content] => 1
[admin] =>
[debug] => 1
[filter_types] => Array
(
[0] => primary
[1] => secondary
)
[type_labels] => Array
(
[primary] => Primary
[secondary] => Secondary
[other] => Other
)
[the_date] => 2014-10-12 16:00:00
)
1 post(s) found for dateStr : 2014-10-12postID: 6848 (The Eighteenth Sunday After Pentecost)
--- getDisplayDates ---
litdate post_id: 6848; date_type: variable; year: 2014
Variable date => check date_calculations.
=> check date_assignments.
=> NO date_assignments found for postID: 6848
displayDates for postID: 6848/year: 2014
Array
(
[0] => 2014-10-12
)
postPriority: 3primaryPost found for date: 2014-10-12 with ID: 6848 (The Eighteenth Sunday After Pentecost)
The reading_id [153117] is already in the array.
No update needed.
Scripture citation(s): Jeremiah 36:1-10
A Sermon by
Fr. Daniels
on
Jeremiah 36:1-10
✛
Jehoiakim, the Tyrant
Array
(
[0] => 60726
)
book: [Array
(
[0] => 60726
)
] (reading_id: 153117)bbook_id: 60726
The bbook_id [60726] is already in the array.
No update needed for sermon_bbooks.
It is always a delight to have the alumni join the Choir for Evensong. It reminds me of the long tradition of Anglican music that St. Thomas both draws from and contributes to; a tradition that is as vital and dynamic today as it ever has been. When all of you are gathered as you are today, overflowing the stalls and filling the chancel with your sound, we are reminded of the way that this choir has enriched the spiritual lives of worshippers for generations—and we pray for generations to come. The newest members of the choir—Darin, Emanuel and Conor; Anders and R.J.; Elyot, Filip and Isaac—they have tonight stepped into that grand tradition.
Some may say that it is unfortunate, then, that the admission of these eight boys as choristers coincides with such an unpleasant reading from the book of Jeremiah, our first Scripture reading this evening. When lists are made of the Bible’s bad guys, Jehoiakim is usually on it. Jehoiakim was king of Judah in the early seventh century BC, and he was a tyrant of the customary kind. Some of the older boys, having lived with the headmaster now for a few years, may say that hearing about a tyrant, right after being admitted as a chorister, is actually not bad preparation for what is to come, but I assure you that Jehoiakim was much worse even than the headmaster.
It didn’t have to be this way. Jehoiakim’s father was King Josiah and, in this case, the apple really did fall far from the tree. Josiah is remembered as one of the greatest kings of Judah. We heard why last week, in our Evensong lessons taken from the books of the Kings: Josiah dipped into his country’s savings to pay for a renovation of the Temple and, in the course of doing so, one of the priests found—that is, re-discovered—what he called “The Book of the Law.” These were the laws that God laid down for Israel as part of the covenant, but which had subsequently been lost. Josiah was startled by this discovery, and in response he initiated a series of national reforms, cleansing the Temple of signs of foreign gods, returning the Ark of the Covenant to the Temple, destroying the sanctuaries of idols found throughout the country, and even executing the pagan priests. He is remembered as one of the Bible’s good guys.
By four years into his son Jehoiakim’s reign, however, Judah has slid away from these reforms. A terrible king has taken a faithful nation into unfaithfulness. This is the background for the reading we heard this evening from the book of the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah is sometimes known as the “weeping prophet” because of the tone of some of his prophecies, as he bewailed the future that he could see Judah was coming to. These prophecies were given to Jeremiah by God, and in today’s reading God tells Jeremiah, “Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken unto thee against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations….”
Jeremiah does so; or, actually, he has someone do it for him. Jeremiah tells Baruch what to write, and Baruch writes. Baruch then goes to the Temple on a fast day when the Temple would have been full of people, and reads the scroll out loud. With this accomplished, our reading today comes to an end.
But you can imagine what will happen next. Kings can’t abide prophets alarming the people like this, especially when Jehoiakim’s iniquity was the target of the prophecy: it was a condemnation of everything the king stood for, and were prophesying the imminent destruction of both the king and his kingdom. Jehoiakim had the scroll brought to him and, as each section was read to him, and cut it off with a knife, and threw it into the fire. That’s what Jehoiakim thinks about Jeremiah.
It’s a brief episode in the story of Judah, and our reading today is just one small piece of the overall narrative. But even in this brief reading there are some important things to take note of; things that are highly relevant to our faith today.
The first is that while idolatry is the problem that is going to result in Jerusalem’s destruction, Jeremiah makes it clear that the idolatry itself is an external reflection of an internal problem—that is, a problem of the heart. In the prophet’s telling, it’s the hearts of the people that have turned away from God; the hearts of the people that no longer love that God who has chosen them; the hearts that will have to be transformed and brought back to relationship with their God. Turn to God and live, Jeremiah says. Return—that is, turn again—to the God of life and love, and be saved. This isn’t just a matter of substituting one god for another. It’s the resolution to cleanse the heart; to turn to God and live. It makes me think of the psalmist’s verse, “O God my heart is ready,” words that are something like the unofficial motto of the Saint Thomas Choir, as the musical prayers themselves are intended to effect this return to God; to make our hearts ready.
Second, there is a reason that Jehoiakim in particular was the target of the prophecy. As the king, he could allow, or prohibit, different religious activities in Judah. As it was in the beginning, so it is now: kings have a kind of authority that no one else has. So in Judah, a righteous king would lead to a righteous nation, and a sinful king would lead to a sinful nation. And Jehoiakim used the power he had for evil, and not for good. And he had a lot of power.
Now, most of us are not, I imagine, kings. A few weeks ago the United Nations was in town, and perhaps there were some kings around at that point; maybe some of them even cycled through our humble parish. But most of us are like the run-of-the-mill Judeans. But even we non-royalty have authority over one thing or another. We are active participants in the world, and most of us have our own spheres of influence, whether it’s an influence in the wider community, or just over our own lives, and we should think very hard—and pray very hard—about whether the effects of our lives will be more like the effects of a Josiah, or that of a Jehoiakim.
Finally, you’ll note something important about what is sometimes called “the God of the Old Testament.” In the modern age, the so-called “Old Testament God” has a bad reputation, and there are indeed some aspects of the scriptures that make us, these days, quite uncomfortable. But it’s not all that way, and we can see that in today’s reading if we look closely. Listen again to the words of God to Jeremiah. First comes the instruction: “Take a scroll and write on it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel and Judah and all the nations.” But then God explains why he’s giving this instruction: “It may be that when the house of Judah hears of all the disasters that I intend to do to them, all of them may turn from their evil ways, so that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.”
In other words, that conversion of the heart—that return to the Lord—is what God really wants: God wants a relationship with Judah. There is no sense of God’s indifference to the ruin of his people, much less his desiring it. In fact, the prophecy is given to Jeremiah for the express purpose of bringing them back. And, if they will come back, their destruction at the hands of the Babylonians would be averted. Even in this very short reading, we see God reaching out, with his own explicit hope that he will have the opportunity to be reconciled with Israel. He wants a relationship with them, and will do anything he can to have one.
What we read here in Jeremiah is the promise of God that grounds everything we do. God reached out to Jeremiah in his prophesies; when that didn’t work, and they ended up in Babylon, God reached out and brought them back; when that didn’t work, and they went astray again, he reached out with his only-begotten Son, and sought after the whole world.
God wants a relationship with his people, and we are all his people. He wanted that relationship 2,500 years ago when he spoke to Jeremiah, and he wants that relationship now. Old boys; new boys; sisters and brothers: make your heart be ready, and then turn to the Lord, and live.
