Epiphany 6 / Ordinary Time 6
Devotional
Water From the Rock
Lectionary Devotional for Cycle C
Object:
Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength ...
-- Jeremiah 17:5
Jeremiah serves as a prophet during the destruction of Judah as a nation. The heights the Israelites achieved in the reigns of David and Solomon, and even the strength they found after the split into the two nations of Israel in the north and Judah in the south, was rapidly falling apart. While prophets had long warned of the destruction of the nation, now it appeared to be occurring before their eyes. All they had worked for, taken pride in, and saw as a sign of God's favor was rapidly disappearing. It was as if the urbane civilization of human achievement was returning once again to the uncivilized state of the desert. Yet the image of the desert provided for Jeremiah a means by which he also could help them recall their source of hope. It was in the wilderness or desert, where they wandered for forty years, that they were formed into a people of God.
It was during the wilderness experience that they learned the danger of depending on their own ability and the sureness of God to provide for them if they would simply trust in God. "Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord," said Jeremiah. He reminded his people who were currently teetering on the brink of chaos that there was one who has already demonstrated that he was not defeated by chaos. Using the image that is also found in Psalm 1, Jeremiah contrasted trust in God with trust in mortals. It was, suggested Jeremiah, "like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream."
The danger for the nation was not the external conditions. They had faced such dangers before. The danger was that they had lost the capacity to place their trust in God. The threat to their nation was a test of God. "I the Lord test the mind and search the heart, to give to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their doings." Given all of the dark predictions about the fate of the church in our time, perhaps it is again time to examine how much we trust God and how much we are placing our hope on the strength of mortals.
-- Jeremiah 17:5
Jeremiah serves as a prophet during the destruction of Judah as a nation. The heights the Israelites achieved in the reigns of David and Solomon, and even the strength they found after the split into the two nations of Israel in the north and Judah in the south, was rapidly falling apart. While prophets had long warned of the destruction of the nation, now it appeared to be occurring before their eyes. All they had worked for, taken pride in, and saw as a sign of God's favor was rapidly disappearing. It was as if the urbane civilization of human achievement was returning once again to the uncivilized state of the desert. Yet the image of the desert provided for Jeremiah a means by which he also could help them recall their source of hope. It was in the wilderness or desert, where they wandered for forty years, that they were formed into a people of God.
It was during the wilderness experience that they learned the danger of depending on their own ability and the sureness of God to provide for them if they would simply trust in God. "Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord," said Jeremiah. He reminded his people who were currently teetering on the brink of chaos that there was one who has already demonstrated that he was not defeated by chaos. Using the image that is also found in Psalm 1, Jeremiah contrasted trust in God with trust in mortals. It was, suggested Jeremiah, "like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream."
The danger for the nation was not the external conditions. They had faced such dangers before. The danger was that they had lost the capacity to place their trust in God. The threat to their nation was a test of God. "I the Lord test the mind and search the heart, to give to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their doings." Given all of the dark predictions about the fate of the church in our time, perhaps it is again time to examine how much we trust God and how much we are placing our hope on the strength of mortals.
