Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Our reading this morning is from the Book of Jeremiah, chapter 36, verses 1 to 28. And unless you're the Thompsons who can critique my pronunciation from memory, you can find it on page 646 of your Pew Bible.
Alright, this is a lengthy one, so buckle up.
In the fourth year of the king Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord.
Take a scroll and write on it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel and Judah and all the nations from the day I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah until today.
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.
Then Jeremiah called Baruch son of Neriah, and Baruch wrote on a scroll at Jeremiah's dictation all the words that the Lord had spoken to him. And Jeremiah ordered Baruch, saying, I am prevented from entering the house of the Lord. So you go, and on a fast day, in the hearing of the people in the Lord's house, you shall read the words of the Lord from the scroll that you have written at my dictation, you shall read them also in the hearing of all the people of Judah who come up from their towns.
It may be that their plea will come before the Lord, and that all of them will turn from their evil ways. For great is the anger and wrath that the Lord has pronounced against this people. And Baruch son of Neriah, did all that the prophet Jeremiah ordered him about, reading from the scroll the words of the Lord in the Lord's house.
In the fifth year of King Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah, in the ninth month, all the people in Jerusalem and all the people who came from the towns of Judah to Jerusalem proclaimed a fast before the Lord.
Then in the hearing of all the people, Baruch read the words of Jeremiah from the scroll in the house of the Lord in the chamber of Jemariah, son of Shaphan, the secretary, which was in the upper court at the entry of the new gate of the Lord's house.
When Micaiah son of Jemariah, son of Shaphan, heard all the words of the Lord from the scroll, he went down to the king's house into the secretary's chamber, and all the officials were sitting there. Elishama the secretary, Delaiah son of Shemaiah, Elnathan son of Achbor, Gemariah son of Shaphan, Zedekiah son of Hananiah and all the officials.
And Micaiah told them all the words he had heard when Baruch read the scroll in the hearing of the people. Then all the officials sent Jehudai son of Netaniah, son of Shelemiah, son of Cushai, to say, baruch, bring the scroll that you read in the hearing of the people and come.
So Baruch son of Neriah, took the scroll in his hand and came to them.
And they said to him, sit down and read it to us. So Baruch read it to them. When they heard all the words, they turned to one another in alarm and said to Baruch, we certainly must report all these words to the king. Then they questioned Baruch, tell us now, how did you write all these words? Was it all his dictation?
Baruch answered them. He dictated all these words to me, and I wrote them with ink on the scroll.
Then the official said to Baruch, go and hide you and Jeremiah and let no one know where you are.
Leaving the scroll in the chamber of Elishama the secretary, they went to the court of the king and they reported all the words in the hearing of the king. Then the king sent Jehudi to get the scroll. He took it from the chamber of Elishama, the secretary. And Jehudi read it in the hearing of the king. And. And all the officials who stood beside the king. Now the king was sitting in his winter apartment. It was the ninth month, and there was a fire burning in the brazier before him. As Jehudi read three or four columns, he would cut them off with a penknife and throw them into the fire in the brazier until the entire scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the brazier. Yet neither the king nor any of his servants who heard all these words were alarmed to nor did they tear their garments.
Even when Elnathan and Delayah and Jemima urged the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them. And the king commanded Jeramiel, the king's son, and Sariah, son of Azrael and Shelemiah, son of Abdiel, to arrest the secretary Baruch and the prophet Jeremiah. But the Lord hid them.
Now, after the king had burned the scroll with the words that Baruch wrote at Jeremiah's dictation, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. Take another scroll and write on it all the former words that were on the first scroll which King Jehoiakim of Judah has burned.
This has been the word of the Lord.
[00:05:13] Speaker B: Thank you, Jim, for the reading of that scripture and glad it was you and not me.
There is something powerful, isn't there, to hearing a whole section of God's Word, not just a few verses, but almost a full chapter read so you can get a sense of the context and the overall story. Well, friends, this is the fourth Sunday in the Easter season. And you might recall I wasn't here last Sunday. Jill and I were off visiting our daughter Lucy in New Jersey. But I was here with you two Sundays ago. And on that Sunday, you might recall that I had the chance to lead the children's sermon. And for that I had the children come forward and I told them about all our brand spanking new solar panels that are atop the atrium and how excited I was about that, how they represented one step that this congregation was taking in our efforts to try to be good stewards, particularly when it relates to energy use, to care for creation, and how exciting it was to have energy from the sun be used for things like cooling this sanctuary. And we prayed for the solar panels, praying they might bring glory to God.
What I didn't share with them or you that Sunday, but I'll share with you now, is that as I did that and as I even walked in to the church campus that morning, and even as I walked to the campus today and saw those solar panels, I actually had mixed feelings about them.
On the one hand, I am filled every time I see those panels with elation. And part of that comes from this. Not only do those panels convert solar energy into electricity that we can use, but to my mind, it's practically miraculous that that project came to fruition. It has been brewing in minds of some of you out here for more than a decade. We thought, hey, it'd be great to get solar panels, but the project just seemed too big, too expensive, would require too many meetings, too much financing, too much work, getting bids just too big.
And then I walk up and I see them each day and I have to almost pinch myself. Are they real? Yeah, there they are. And it fills me not only with delight, but hope, you know, hope that man, if you all, with God's guidance and inspiration, do something like that, what isn't possible, you know, with God's presence, inspiration and leading? It's a great feeling to think of all that's possible and seeing one tangible sign of how dreams with God's help can come to fruition.
But there's another feeling that comes up when I look at those solar panels each day when I see those 49 panels up atop our atrium, I can't help but think of the 20 solar panels that were atop the home that Jill, Lucy and I lived in. I can't help but think of those panels installed way back in 2012.
And then I remember soon after the Eaton fire, going to see that property for the first time. And over all the various debris and ash, there was this melted glass. And at first we wondered what that was, and then Jill realized, oh, oh, that's the remnants of the solar panels.
So as I look at those solar panels, they're kind of triggering in a way, you know, they remind me of that picture I can't unsee.
Jill and I met recently with a contractor as we begin to think about rebuilding, and we got a bid on building a new house on the side of our former home in Altadena. But as I'm looking over that bid, you know, there's a line saying solar panels.
It was kind of triggering, you know, and I wondered, where will I get the energy to do this? The vision, the imagination, the love for. I saw that awful potential before me, that all of it can burn to the ground.
All of us in Altadena, all of us in Pasadena, in greater LA county, you might say, have a season of rebuilding ahead of us. Those versed in the process of disaster recovery, of what happens after a natural disaster will say there are three distinct phases. There's relief, there's recovery, and there's rebuilding relief. That's when we extend and receive immediate help to one another. Shelter, food, clothing, that sort of thing. We've experienced that. Many of us continue to experience that. Then there's recovery. Emotionally, spiritually, physically. Being able to sort of get back to a life once again, to a routine. And then eventually you look ahead to rebuilding that third phase.
So how do you rebuild?
Knowing what we know, all of us, where might the energy, the vision, the hope come from to build again, plant again, labor again towards a new dream? When you've seen your previous effort turn to ash in a day, I thought we might ask that question of our scriptures.
And I thought we might interrogate in particular one figure who had firsthand knowledge of the damage one fire on one day can do.
And I thought such questions around rebuilding might be relevant not just to those of us who've lost homes or to a city in its work ahead of rebuilding, but if instead what you lost was in the wake of some other disaster, maybe a personal disaster, maybe some other loss, and it wasn't your physical house, but instead something happened some Conflagration occurred, and you saw your career or a job you'd loved go down in flames.
Or maybe a marriage.
Or maybe you've thrown yourself into service of your household, your church, your business, your community, your nation.
And you didn't see them pursuing some course that makes you fear for their future. You'd been serving them, hoping they would pursue a course of thriving and know a path of life. And it seemed like you were making great progress and accomplished great things with others. And then one day, it seemed like everything changed.
How do you start again after a fire?
I thought we'd ask the prophet Jeremiah that question.
And from today's passage and what we know of the prophet, this is what I can hear Jeremiah saying in response.
So you want to hear my fire story?
You want to hear how I lost so much in a fire and how I then stepped out in faith and hope and love, to labor again, to build and to plant?
I'll tell you, the story's been retold for millennia after all, in that book that bears my name, Jeremiah.
Well, the fire I'm going to tell you about happened one winter day, some 2,650 years before your Eaton and Palisades fires burned.
It took place in a section of the ancient Fertile Crescent between two seas, the Mediterranean on the west and the dead se to our east. This little nation where the fire burned my nation was called Judah. The king at the time was Jehoiakim. And I know the word king might call to your mind imagery of great power and authority, but let me remind you, our nation of Judah was a small one at the time. Don't be thinking right now of the days of King David, when 12 tribes and territories were united in one nation called Israel. The fire of which I speak occurred in much later than that.
It happened in an area comprising just a couple of those former tribes united in one single kingdom called Judah. Our king was not David. He was a vassal king named Jehoiakim, serving under the ultimate authority of a neighboring superpower. At the start of 605 BCE, Egypt was the power that ruled our land and taxed our people and appointed. Appointed our king.
But then, in the year of that fire, 605 BCE, the empire of Babylon defeated Egypt in a great battle. And after that, it was Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon who would demand taxes from our people and obedience from our king.
I was a prophet at that time. I was born into a priestly family, but it was the office of prophet that spoke to me. God called me to that office.
God said to me one day, when I was just a boy before you were born, I consecrated you.
I heard the voice of God saying to me, I've appointed you to be a prophet to the nations.
I said to God, I'm only a boy. I don't know how to speak. And God said, don't say I'm only a boy. For you shall go to whom I send you and shall speak what I command you. You will have authority over nations and kingdoms, to pluck up and pull down, to destroy and to build and to plant.
I then had my first vision.
One was of a boiling pot tilted away from the north. And God said, out of the north will come forth disaster. And you, Jeremiah, will warn the people about this. You will challenge kings, princes, priests and people to turn from their wicked ways, for they forsaken me and worshiped other gods. They worshiped the work of their own hands and think that will save them. You, Jeremiah, will warn them that path leads to destruction. You will call them back to me, back to my commandments, back to my embrace, back to my forgiving love, back to my way that leads to life.
And people will fight you.
People will challenge you at every turn. But don't worry. Don't worry, because I'll be with you, and they won't prevail against you.
Okay? I thought, if God will be with me, I'll do it. I'll go. I'll bring your word to the people. And I did.
Sometimes I'd use objects to make my point. I once buried a linen belt to show how God wanted to bury Judah's pride. I once smashed a clay jar in front of elders and priests to show how God would smash the nation of Judah if they didn't turn to the ways of God.
But even more than symbolic action, what I was most famous for, of course, were my words.
My spoken words. They defined my ministry. I once stood at the gate of the Jerusalem Temple, the house of the Lord, and I told them this.
I said, this is what the Lord of hosts is saying to you. Amend your ways. If you act justly with one another. If you stop oppressing the immigrant, the orphan and the widow, if you stop shedding innocent blood in this place, and if you stop going after other gods to your own hurt, I will dwell with you in this place.
This place you call my house. It's become a den of robbers, where people who steal and murder and commit adultery and swear falsely, who break the commandments, who go after other gods, then gather here and say, we are safe. Well, you're not. God sees everything.
Turn from that path that leads to destruction. Turn to the path God has for you that leads to life.
Those were the words God gave me, and I spoke them.
It got me into trouble, but not as much trouble as words that I spoke and were then written down. You see, I Learned from some 17 years prior that there's power not just in spoken word, there's power in the written word.
You know how I learned this?
Back in the time of King Josiah of Judah, a scroll was discovered during a temple renovation project. And the scroll was brought to the king. And the scroll included all kinds of commandments of God as to how to live and included the Ten Commandments. And Josiah. King Josiah heard these words, read these words that go back to the time of another prophet named Moses. And King Josiah tore his clothes as a sign that he and Judah were going to turn. They were going to take a new path. They were going to embrace me. And these vast reforms were undertaken in Judah that made me realize words can have an impact.
They can change a people. Words spoken, words written.
So I decided I was going to produce a masterwork. I needed a partner for that. So I grabbed Baruch. He could write, I could speak. Great combo.
So together we produced a magnum opus. 605 BCE we finally had it completed and it was amazing. It include all these words. God had given me. Words going back to the time of Josiah, all the way to the time of King Jehoiakim. And I thought these words might just help save a people. They might remind people of a God who's ever reaching out to them, always present with them, loving them, calling them to a way that leads to life. Maybe they'll hear it and turn and know what it means to have life with God.
I couldn't go to the temple at the time. I'd gotten into some trouble for temple shenanigans before. But Baruch could. So Baruch went, and during a great festival, he read all these words that I had dictated and that he'd written down. He recited our magnum opus before the people.
And then he got in trouble for that. In fact, there were court officials who told him that he should flee and that I should also should go into hiding. And then that scroll eventually found its way to King Jehoiakim's chambers.
Maybe this scroll would change the heart and mind of a king, of a whole people. Well, I heard that this scroll was read in King Jehoiakim, hearing with other officials as well the words that we had labored over were read. And King Jehoiakim, did he tear his clothes like Josiah had?
No.
Instead, every time several sections of the scroll were read, Jehoiakim cut out that section and threw it in the fire.
When it was all done and the whole scroll had been read, all of our work had been reduced to ash in a single day.
And then the king sent people to arrest us. Baruch and I.
So, yes, I know what it means to have seen the work of your heart and hands burn up in a fire. I know what it means to have worked so hard for something, to have worked with others, to build something beautiful and valuable, something you pray will be a blessing to others and see it go down in flames in one single day.
I know what it means to see a community, a church, a nation you love and serve going down a path that worries you and feeling like all you're worth to strengthen that community, that household, to build it up in love and faith and hope. It just seems to have gone down in flames. A fire can destroy so much.
But I can tell you this from someone who has lived through a destructive fire, myself.
The God who spoke before the fire is still there after the fire.
The loving and forgiving presence of God, the God who once freed a people from enslavement and called people to a path of life away from a path of destruction. That God is still there after the flood, still there after the fire. No disaster can destroy God.
The God who first gave me words spoke to me again.
And with those words, I heard it, I saw it, I realized it. The God who spoke to me before the fire was still there after the fire.
Where you look for strength and inspiration, for vision and energy after a fire, the same place you looked for it before the fire. You look to the source of all things. You look to the one who first gave you and all of us life. You look to that one who's with us and inspiring us every day with good work to do.
Sometimes you see that work burn.
I did.
But then God said this.
Jeremiah and Baruch, take another scroll, take another scroll and write on it all the former words that were in that first scroll.
And God even added a whole lot of new words that weren't in that first scroll.
And I put those down, too.
You could burn up a book or a scroll or a house or a neighborhood, even a whole community, but you cannot stop God from speaking and loving and reaching out to a people and calling them to mercy and justice and love and life in the fullest. And if you don't Believe me.
Just look in that book you call the Bible and see the scroll that made it. The scroll that bears my name, Jeremiah.
Friends, in the season of Easter, the Christian church celebrates resurrection.
We recall how even death itself couldn't stop God from speaking. Can't hope to suppress the word of God that 600 years after the days of Jeremiah became flesh and dwelt among us in Jesus Christ. And with our Lord's resurrection, we celebrate and savor this great truth that nothing, neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor anything in creation can separate us from that love of God that we know firsthand in Jesus Christ, our Savior.
So in this time, after the fire, let's listen anew for God's word to us, the God who's still there with us. And for us after the fire and by God's strength, heeding God's call, let's build, let's plant.
Let's even install solar panels.
And if another fire takes them, well, we'll just listen again and we'll build and we'll plant again.
In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
Amen.
Let's pray.
Loving God, thank you for the gift of your word and the foundation it continues to be for our life. Thank you that you never stop speaking. Pray for the guidance and direction, the hope, the promise and the love to move forward in faith. In Christ's name we ask it. Amen.
