Special

Passage: Lamentations 1:1-7

The character at the center of the film Polish Wedding is the matriarch of a working-class immigrant family living in a suburb of Detroit.  The mother of five young-adult children, she is comfortable in her role as head of her household.  Her hard-working husband is devoted to her.  And she’s involved in a longtime affair with her boss.  At a certain point this boss points out that she holds herself in surprisingly high esteem for a low-paid cleaning lady.  She responds, “At home, I am queen.” And in that moment she realizes the truth.  To her boss she’s merely a plaything.  A disposable object who is nothing special.   She thinks of herself as a queen because her husband – the one at home while she’s out fooling around – has always treated her as his prize.

The Book of Lamentations begins at this very moment of recognition for God’s chosen people.  Jeremiah the prophet pours out his grief as his people are carried off to slavery in Babylon.  In the words of his lament Jeremiah captures the truth: Israel is a tiny nation in a world full of tiny nations.  And as is the lot of every tiny nation, Israel has become the plaything of a much more powerful empire. 

This is a devastating wake-up call for a nation that has always thought of itself as a crown jewel.  As the most important people on earth.  Given their numbers and their obvious vulnerability, why in the world would the Israelites think that they’re so special?

Because this is what God has always told them.  In Deuteronomy 7, God tells the Israelites that they are the object of his affection.  And he tells them why:

The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments. (Deuteronomy 7:7-9)

The Israelites are where they are because they’ve let God’s marvelous love go to their heads.  They’ve concluded, “God loves us because we’re so special.”  This assumption has led them to toy with God’s affection, and flirt with neighbors that seem a little more flashy and glamorous than their faithful, attentive, steady God.  Too late they’ve realized that to their substitute – their lover – sees them as a disposable object.

God doesn’t love them because they’re special.  They’re special because God loves them.  The thing is, in spite of their repeated infidelities, God never stops loving his people.  He continues to invite them to come back and be special again.  Through Jeremiah God says,

“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.” (Jeremiah 29:13-14)

This is God’s invitation to all of us.  Stop trying to be special by proving you’re better than the people around you.  Stop believing that the only way you’ll be loved is by being more special than anyone else.  Discover anew that you are cherished by God – the object of his affection – and learn what it means to be special because he loves you.

Sure Thing

Passage: Jeremiah 42

I remember the first time I stuck my tongue on a piece of frozen metal.  My dad had warned me on some earlier occasion never to lick something metal if it was cold outside.  Growing up in Canada, this was a pertinent message.  There was a lot of cold metal lying around.  My dad said that, without fail, my tongue would stick to the metal and I’d lose skin when I pulled it off.  And it would hurt.  Every time.  My suffering would be inevitable.

Through the Prophet Jeremiah God warns his people of the inevitable.  They have seen the Babylonian Empire encroaching on their territory.  They are convinced that there’s no way they can stand up to the Babylonians.  So they come up with a plan.  They’ll flee to Egypt, and find solace in the shelter of another pagan superpower.  God sends a clear message: If you go to Egypt, you will die.  Does God have something specific against Egypt?  No.  What God has something against is his people’s continued adherence to a strategy that never works: looking to an earthly power for ultimate security.  God says, “If you stay put, you will see what I’m capable of.  Trust me to protect you.”  He goes on, “If you go to Egypt, you will die.  Why?  Because they can’t protect you.”  If you depend on a person, political entity, or military force to preserve your life, you will be disappointed because it will fail.  Maybe not the first time, but eventually.  Inevitably.  There’s only one sure thing, says God.  Trust in me.

So it is with us.  We persistently go back to the same people and same places for comfort, security, and reassurance.  Inevitably each of those things will fail to do what deep down we hope it will: keep pain, infirmity and death at bay.  God says, “If you seek shelter in that thing, you’ll die.”  What’s the alternative?  To find our shelter and solace in the one who faced death and won.  The God who promised to deliver Israel if they’d just listen; the God who came to us in person to deliver on his promise.  Our one sure thing.  Remain in him; he will build you up; he will deliver you not only from the momentary and fleeting troubles of this life, but from death itself.  

Inside Out

Passage: Jeremiah 14:13-22

The leader of a training seminar I once attended talked about narcissistic personality disorder.  This is a condition whereby an individual is so pathologically dishonest that they believe their own lies and create an alternate reality in their minds.  They become so convinced of this internal reality that the people around them become convinced of it, too.  The instructor went on to say that narcissists appear with disproportionate regularity in the following four professions: politics; entertainment; corporate leadership; and ministry.  One of the things that guarantees success in each of these fields is selling a constituency on your view of reality – particularly if your view is more optimistic than that of your competitors. 

In Jeremiah 14 the prophet of God is surrounded by narcissists – people who are convinced God has spoken to them.  And people who claim that God’s forecast is rosy.  Jeremiah on the other hand has heard dire predictions from God – threats of impending doom if God’s people don’t change their ways.  Who wants to hear that?  Jeremiah’s competitors get their own TV programs and radio spots.  Jeremiah gets tossed out on his ear.  The problem, of course, is that Jeremiah’s telling the truth.  Jeremiah’s predicting a coming storm that will wipe his people off the face of the map unless they prepare for it.  He has what they need to correct their course and survive.  But they can’t hear it for the noise of the narcissists. 

We have become a society of narcissists.  In a recent address, Tim Keller observed that we increasingly attribute our problems to forces outside us rather than recognize the internal impulses that lead us astray.  We say, “I’m not the problem.  It’s everyone else that’s the problem.”  We refuse to listen to any voice that implies we need to change.  Keller says, “If all your problems are external, you’re hopeless.  Why? Because you can’t change those things.”  If, on the other hand, you accept what the Bible teaches – that is, that the root of our problem is the sin that has infected each one of us – then there’s hope. The antidote to narcissism is also the antidote to our problems: the Holy Spirit of God.  At Pentecost, the Spirit descends in power on those who believe in Jesus Christ.  The Spirit continues to be the agent of transformation and renewal – of our hearts and minds; and of the world around us. 

But the Spirit cannot complete his work in us if we insist the problem isn’t us.  We have to accept the Spirit’s testimony: you’re not right. So doing we can receive the rest his message: I can make you right.  We have to tune out the voices that simply reinforce our internal realities – that say, “You’re fine – it’s the rest of the world that has a problem”.   And tune in to the voices that tell us we need to change from the inside out.  We need a voice from the outside, and a power from the outside, to come and transform us from the inside.  Be willing to hear what you don’t want to hear.  And receive the one power that’s bigger than your problems.  Let the Spirit transform your inner reality, and bring you into God’s reality.