Observation: Jeremiah has scathing words of criticism for the people of Judah. They refuse to repent of their greed. From the least to the greatest, everyone is greedy for unjust gain. They cry "Peace, peace," when there is no peace. For this reason, God threatens to give their fields to conquerors. Their regime shall be overthrown.
Application: Wow. On the one hand, there is a Bible scholar's voice in my head, reminding me that it's irresponsible to take the words of a prophet, addressed to Judah, a nation which has a covenant with the Lord, and apply it directly and uncritically to a modern secular democracy like the United States in 2022. It's not an apples to apples comparison.
On the other hand, there are plenty of people of faith in our country today, who do claim a close relationship with the same Lord in whose name Jeremiah spoke so many years ago...and we have a lot of the same problems Jeremiah warned about. We let greed cloud our judgments. We hold fast to lies. We cry, "Peace, peace!" when there is no peace. And when God calls us on it, we don't repent. We double down. It's true, our nation has no specific "deal" with God the way Judah did. But there are a lot of baptized people here, who are called to commit their lives to Jesus. And for us, reading the prophet's words today should remind us that just saying there is peace in our land doesn't make it so. Ignoring greed and injustice doesn't make it go away. It makes it worse. There's not a lot of "good news" in our text today, except that the truth is ours if we will have it, and it has great power if we can swallow our pride and speak it.
Prayer: God, help us to be a prophetic people. Deliver us from denial and lies, and give us faith to know that what we allow ourselves to speak about in your presence can indeed be healed by your mercy. In Jesus' name, amen.
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