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Sermon for Sunday June 22nd, 2008

Sermon Theme: Personal Crosses and feeling deceived about their difficutly.

"O Lord you have deceived me." This is not the normal way most bible passages start on a Sunday morning. We often come to this place tired from the normal wear and tear of life looking for inspiration, looking for Gospel. Instead the first words we hear from the bible for this sixth Sunday after Pentecost is "O Lord You have deceived me." Not exactly the words of comfort for which we were looking. But today Jeremiah does give comfort just a very different kind of comfort. His Comfort is for those who are in the middle of difficulties,

Comfort for those who are in the middle of their own personal crosses.

Jeremiah definitely had his cross, his burden, his difficulty. God asked Jeremiah as a very young man to preach to the Kingdom of Judah, the southern part of Israel. His message was simple. "Repent." He was to preach repentance to these people so that they might turn from their ways before God's judgment came. If you want to know what these particular people were doing to merit God's judgment then just read through a few chapters before this one and you will get a real clear image. If you have any questions just give me a call some time and will talk about it.

Jeremiah, when he first starting preaching, the people responded. For really they knew what they were doing was sinful. We almost always know what activities we are doing are wrong before the eyes of God. We just don't want to stop them. But when a prophet of the Lord came and said here they are... here are your sins... turn and repent... at first they did. At first he got rather large crowds to listen to his message.

But then after a few years, when the judgment didn't immediately come, the crowds got smaller. After a few more years the crowds got smaller yet. And at the time of the Old Testament reading, when he was preaching in the temple that Solomon built, it had gotten so bad that the chief officer didn't want to even hear Jeremiah's message. So he beat Jeremiah and he put Jeremiah in the stocks.

For those of you who don't remember your medieval toture devices just go to Disney Land and find Pirates of the Caribbean and they have fake stocks there. And what they are are a board supported on a post and through this board are locked your hands and your head so that you can't move and you have to stay there all day. So when Jeremiah says, "I have become a laughing stock all the day," that is not metaphorical language. He was actually mocked all day long. .

But Jeremiah wasn't angry only about his treatment. He was also angry about the message that he had to give. His message, as he says, could be summed up in three word, "Violence and destruction." The message of what was going to happen to Jerusalem if no one turned back to God. What is interesting is that you all know the Hebrew for violence even if you have never taken a day of study in the Hebrew language. The Hebrew for violence is hamas.

So it is truly natural to understand that Jeremiah might no longer approve of the job the Lord gave him to do. It is understandable that he might say, "you deceived me." You told me to go out and preach your word to these people of Jerusalem. This was supposed to be a noble and holy job. You told me that I would have you supporting me and that you would be the one helping all along. But instead I get to say, "Hamas" and be mocked all day long.  

This is rather instructive for us because we too often can feel a touched deceived. I have already had the opportunity to marry a few people. I even remember marrying my wife. And you always go into it with such bright eyes and you talk about all these wonderful things that are going to happen. But I am sure that the couples I have married and even my dear wife Mary or any wife or husband at some point in time have probably prayed to the Lord and said, "O Lord you have deceived me." You told me marriage was this mutual circle of sacrifice and service but you never told me about the horrible sinner I would have to marry who doesn't ... and you can fill in the blanks...

At times we can even feel this way about our jobs. Usually at some point in time we find an aspect of our job that we don't really enjoy and it is rather easy to think, "O Lord you have deceived me." You have given me the talents and abilities to do this job but you deceived me about what all this entailed. Just so none of you are wondering what I think the Lord deceived me about - the one thing I don't relish doing is paper work. I am okay at it, but we all have aspects were we say, "Lord you deceived me this is a lot harder than I thought it would be."

And sometimes the deception can feel much deeper. Sometimes the deception can feel like it came out of no where and just slammed into us and we never saw it coming. So like Jeremiah we have to face the various difficulty that is before us and see that it is a cross that has been given us to bear. Some crosses are a little more humorous, some are a little more pleasant, but some are just that they are crosses, they are burdens, and they weigh us down. Sometimes so much that we feel we can no longer bear them.

When we bear these crosses it is the easiest thing in the world to feel like we completely alone as we bear them. If we have to raise our children in less then ideal situations, if we have to deal with care for another, especially ones who used to care for us, if we have to deal with family situations, children situations, adolescent situations, love situations, culture situations, political situations, financial situations, drug situations, cross, after cross, after cross, burden after burden after burden, it is so easy to feel their hammer blows one after another, and be in danger of trying to stand up under them alone. For we so often read that passage that the Lord will give us nothing that we cannot bear up underneath. But this does not mean that we bear up underneath alone.

For Jeremiah in the heart of his distress he does say, "O Lord you have deceived me, so I guess we are through. I am done with you." No instead he tells the Lord his anger and he says, "But the Lord is with me as a dread warrior; therefore my persecutors will stumble; they will not overcome." This dread warrior is the same dread warrior who stood banks of the Jordan and talked to Joshua. This is the same dread warrior who said, "I humbled Egypt Pharoah." This is the same dread warrior who will bring this world to an end on white horse on the last day.

This is the same dread warrior who also suffered at the hands of the chief officer of the temple. Who also like Jeremiah was imprisoned by kings. Who also was tied to wood pole so that those outside the temple gates could mock him all day long. Who also carried the burden of the cross of all crosses. Who carried in this one cross everyone of our burdens and everyone of our situations.

So when we deal with the difficulties of our lives, when we feel very deceived. The Lord directs our eyes back to Himself Jesus Christ who says to us that he has carried our burdens. He knows exactly how we feel. Even knows those sins we wish he did not know. Who always tries to lead us back to this place where we may confront them and be forgiven of them.

The reason he leads us back to this place is also so that we might others to help bear our burdens and so that we can help bear theirs. For so often we lead such hectic lives that it is difficult to spend more than an hour or two at one place. But remember as we go through our crosses that our Lord is not a weak frail little Jesus. Instead He is a "dread warrior." Warriors are capable of handling our angry words, our crosses, and our sins.

Because Jeremiah knows who the Lord truly is even after he spends a day in the stocks and knows that his preaching will lead him to harder and harder times, he is still able to say, "sing to the Lord. Praise the Lord! For He has delivered the life of the needy from the hand of evildoers." So too as we bear up under burdens, our crosses, let us also this day and every day, and especially Sunday, "Sing to the Lord. Praise the Lord." For He is our dread warrior, our king of kings, our savior, our burden bearer and the one who has delivered our lives. Amen