Jeremiah
And what of the future – land
is bought during a siege, ungenerous wealth ends beyond a great abyss.
Here Jeremiah’s
mission begins the gradual turn from judgment to hope.
“Gradual” is the
word, because Jeremiah did not offer any favorable prospects to the stubborn
rebels in Jerusalem . Seventy years must pass before any prospects
of recovery can be looked for in Judah ’s
devastated land (Jeremiah 25:11; 29:4-7, and especially 29:10).
Unlike our recent
readings from Jeremiah, this passage does not offer impassioned visions and
laments over the judgment and suffering of a wicked people and city. This is a very deliberate and reasoned
presentation of a highly improbable message.
Like the potter incident of chapter 18, this is prophecy by symbolic
action, which the prophet experiences as guidance by God’s word.
The narrative
dwells on the details of this symbolic transaction. You hear what is going to happen, then you
hear it happen. You hear about both
copies of the purchase deed, and you get details such as the earthen jar in
which the deed copies are to be stored.
You get the names and once even the grandfather’s name of the principal
players of the episode. This is being
drawn out in detail as if it were the signing of the Treaty of Versailles.
All for a simple
message: “Houses and fields and vineyards
shall again be bought in this land” (verse 15, NRSV ).
The importance of
the message must be seen against the background of the occasion. The city is under siege. It has been in rebellion against the world’s
main super-power for sometime, and will eventually hold out for a year and a
half. That was a very long time for a
city to hold out – and very expensive in troops and resources tied up so
long! When the city does finally fall,
how will the conqueror react?
He will be
ruthless, and everything will be devastated!
Every scrap of wealth will be taken away and all the people will die, be
transported to distant lands, or left to wander in the land if they would have
no commercial value as exiles.
With this
prospect obvious to every realistic observer, what is happening to real
estate values, both here and in the suburbs? What will the demand for land be in Anathoth
(three miles north of Jerusalem )
when Nebuchadnezzar has finished this campaign?
That is the
background of Jeremiah’s purchase of the family land in Anathoth. When things look absolutely the worst for
future prospects in this county, Jeremiah is directed by God to buy land.
Land, however,
for use in the distant future. For the
moment, the only hope lies with the Diaspora (see Chapter 29, which we will
read in two weeks).
Psalm 91:1-6, 14-16.
The Psalm reading
is for those who survive the destruction of the city of refuge besieged
by Nebuchadnezzar. When there is no
earthly city available for God’s faithful, they remain dependent on God. Being without a holy sanctuary, they are not
without God. The Diaspora is where
they now “live in the shelter of the Most High,” abide “in the shadow of the
Almighty.”
The first part of
the psalm is assurance that there IS such shelter for the faithful one. It is a promise, almost in spite of all
odds. The dangers of unprotected places
in the world are drawn out. Safety from
the “fowler,” from epidemic in the land (pestilence); safety from terrors at
night, from drive-by shootings in the daytime (verse 5), and from all the
diseases that threaten by night or day.
God’s protected
one will be secure from these.
These assurances
are given to the individual. Diaspora
is a life condition imposed first on individuals – which makes their communing
together so much more important than in their old civic society. All the pronouns of Psalm 91 are
singular. “You (singular) who live… who
abide (singular)…” (verse 1). When the
great city is gone, each soul is alone with God.
As other
testimonies will make clear, this will lead to community, a community of
survivors, one that is defined and shaped by having passed through God’s
judgment. For such a community of souls
who love and trust God, God speaks directly but individually the promises of saving
and well-being given in verses 14-16.
I Timothy 6:6-19.
The Epistle
reading, like so many other readings this season, places the gospel in opposition
to seeking riches. First, there IS
“gain” for the believer, who attains at least a godly life and “contentment”
(sufficiency for life’s needs, see II Corinthians 9:8, where the same word is
used).
It is the nature
of life that we brought nothing into the world with us and will take nothing
out with us. And yet – the temptation is
before us of wanting to become rich.
Thus, “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil” (verse 10, NRSV ),
and even leads some to abandon their faith.
But the Apostle
makes an urgent appeal, in what may be liturgical or hymnic language, to avoid
such lures to destruction (verses 11-12).
The believer is to imitate Jesus in the “good confession” he made before
Pontius Pilate. (The only reference to
Pilate outside the Gospels and Acts.)
The “commandment” – all the instructions for the faithful – is to be
kept until Jesus’ manifestation at the end time, to whom a doxology is chanted
in verses 15-16.
But the Apostle
seems to recognize that there are some of the faithful who will be
rich – and will not immediately lose their possessions. Guidance for them is given in verses 17-19,
consisting mostly of urging them to seek the riches of righteousness and
generosity rather than of the world. By
so doing, they may yet “take hold of the life that is really life” (verse 19).
In the Gospel,
the issue of wealth meets us in the classic story of the Rich Man and
Lazarus. (The text does not call
this a parable, but interpreters invariably classify it as such.)
What matters
during their lives is the great disparity between the wealthy and the
poverty-stricken. The rich man is
extremely rich, one who dressed exquisitely and dined sumptuously every
day. Lazarus (the only figure given a
name in Jesus’ parables), lying right outside the entrance to the mansion
(through some lapse in local vagrancy laws) was extremely poor, hoping for only
some table crumbs. Both the poor man and
the rich man died and went to their rewards – and here is where the real story
begins.
The rich man
burns in hell while the poor man luxuriates in banquet companionship with old
patriarch Abraham. (This is one of the
clearest Biblical descriptions of this folklore view of the afterlife.) The center of the episode (parable) is the
dialogue between the rich man and Abraham.
The rich man
looks up and pleads with Abraham for a little relief from the fire of hell, but
Abraham declares that there is an uncrossable abyss between heaven and
hell. (“You can’t get here from
there!”) The rich man had his rewards in
the earthly life; now he pays the price.
Abandoning hope
for himself, the rich man has an altruistic urge and asks that Lazarus be sent
to warn the rich man’s five brothers, who are still living it up in earthly
plenty. The reply is that they have
Moses and the prophets, the law and the words of judgment and promise. If living folks will not learn their
responsibility from these, there is no hope for them – and even a dead man
raised back to life will not convince them.
(The Lazarus who
is raised from the dead in the Gospel According to John, chapter 11, does not
look like our poor man of Luke’s parable, but there also the scoffing opponents
are not convinced by a resurrection from the dead.)
The real
abyss. This story of the rich man
and the poor man further confirms, in a more folksy way, the great abyss that
this Gospel places between the rich and the saved (compare 6:20 and 24, the
rich fool in 12:13-21, comments in 12:32-34, and “mammon” in 16:9-13). This story insists that all have the
scriptures to guide and warn them. If
you really heard the scriptures, you would find the extreme disparity between
great wealth and great poverty unacceptable for the human community.
The teaching here
also insists that at some point it is too late. The abyss, cutting off the chance to return to
faithfulness to God, will come – leaving only the fires of hell in place of
extreme wealth.
So it was told, as Jesus continued his journey to
No comments:
Post a Comment