The consequences of living life can be a tough pill to swallow at times. Ask the people in our scripture reading this morning—the people of Judah and Israel. Here is a group of shattered people who have failed to live up to their covenant with God. In their unwillingness to honor the covenant they face the destruction of their nation and a long, bitter exile. The situation stinks, but the prophet Jeremiah has been telling them that they had it coming . . . and, they know it. Basically, they have broken every covenant God ever made with them. They have failed to be faithful to God, and to one another. The consequences will be tough to swallow and the people have no one to blame except themselves.
This is the prelude to the Babylonian Exile. The unfaithfulness of the people leading to this consequence was their unfaithfulness to God . . . their worshipping of other Gods . . . their disregard for God’s will and presence in their lives. The unfaithfulness of the people towards one another . . . especially the least of these. Enough is enough. The frustration of God with the stubbornness of the people to honor the covenant leads to this invasion from the Babylonians. To put it in simple terms that most people can understand . . . the people screwed up and now they were paying the price for that screw-up . . . and, they know it.
The writer tells us, “The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children teeth are set on edge.” Not only did the people blow it, but they are imprisoned by their past . . . imprisoned by the seemingly fatality of their choices and the guilt of having made those choices. The weight of the chains binding them to their past mistakes was stifling . . . how could they ever be worthy considering all the mistakes and messes they had created on their own? They had squandered their blessings and now feared that they had blown their birthright as the children of God. They had blown it and the end did not look promising.
As I stated earlier, the consequences of living life can sometimes be the toughest pill to swallow. Especially when those consequences are harsh and punishing because of the choices we have made . . . choices that were wrong, choices that hurt others, choices that turned our backs against God . . . stupid choices. Consequences that carry guilt and remorse. Consequences we believe signaling that we have blown it and destroyed relationships that we can never get back. Consequences that stymie us and our relationship with God and others. Freeze us in our tracks making us believe that we are unworthy of love . . . from others and God.
Sometimes the greatest barrier between us and God . . . us and others . . . is ourselves. When we believe that we are unworthy of God and others, it is difficult to grow in who God created us to be, to grow in relation to God, and to love and relate to others. It is tough to be faithful. Think about it . . . we are called upon to do two things: to love God and to love others as we love ourselves. If we cannot find it in ourselves to be worthy of love, how will we ever love God or others? We can’t.
That would be sad.
Fortunately, there is a lot of “good news” in our reading this morning. Yes, the people are on the eve of destruction for their mistaken choices. Yet, at the same time, despite their screw-up, there is hope. There is hope in the form of a new covenant offered by God to the people. God presents a seed of hope and assurance of restoration. But, mind you, this is a new covenant and with it comes differences from those old covenants.
Walter Brueggemann, noted biblical and theological scholar, points out three elements of this new covenant. First, there will be a new “solidarity”. The division within the kingdom—Judah and Israel, will end and they will once again be one people under the one true God. Second, there will be a new “knowledge” of God. The people will become aware of God’s saving nature—God’s grace, and the need to be obedient to God’s work. And, third, this new relationship will no longer be characterized by intermediation and a distance maintained between God and the majority of the people. No longer will there be those people with special knowledge and access of God who mediate the relationships between God and the people. From here on out, everyone will have access to God . . . from the poorest to the richest, the youngest to the oldest . . . all will have access to God. “They will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord.
And, it all happens because of grace . . . God’s forgiveness.
God forgives the people of their sin . . . forgives them of their past. In doing so God breaks the vicious cycle of sin and punishment that had trapped the people for so long. God will no longer bring their sin to mind. The people are released from all debts and in doing so, restores hope. All because God forgives them. God declares: “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
This is big stuff . . . especially the part that takes away the intermediates—people like priests and scholars and opens access to God to all. Suddenly from a secondary relationship with God through others, the people now have a one-to-one relationship with God. As wonderful as that sounds, there comes great responsibility. The people no longer have an excuse when they mess up because it is all in their hands now. This comes about because God has now put the “laws” within each individual person. God declares: “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.” So, when they screw-up now they will know . . . they will know because the heart will know. Their heart.
Well, with perfect 20/20 hindsight, I am not sure they ever succeeded in honoring this new covenant. We know it took quite some time before they exited Babylon . . . some time to restore the kingdom back from its split . . . and, well I am not too sure they were successful in following and being obedient to God’s will. If we are going to be honest, as we look around the world today, we are not quite living up to God’s call to love God or one another. We are still a way from realizing the Kingdom of God in all of its promise and glory.
And, it makes a person wonder . . . why?
Now this is my opinion, but I think that it comes down to a sense of worthiness and belief . . . that which the people were struggling with as they sat facing the consequences of their unfaithfulness in our reading this morning. They had a difficult time believing God would forgive them—after all, they had been really bad. They did not feel worthy of God’s forgiveness. Then they had a hard time of accepting that they were forgiven . . . that the slate had been wiped clean. Because of this they could not honor the new covenant . . . they were imprisoned by their inability to accept God’s grace of forgiveness.
And, like those people of old, I think that we also get caught up in this trap. I think that there are moments in our journey of faith and life that we feel unworthy of God’s love and grace . . . or God’s forgiveness. This impedes our growth as the children of God . . . impedes the development of God’s Kingdom . . . and, most importantly keeps us separated from God and one another. In the season of Lent as we journey through this time of examination of our faith, we discover this. We discover that we have not always been perfect and good . . . discover that we have not always believed . . . not always loved. We discover that we have not always been as close to God as we should be. We discover it because the heart lets us know and it bleeds out freezing our movement and growth because we do not feel worthy of God’s grace and love. And, if we cannot love ourselves, how are we going to love anyone else?
Consequences are a hard pill to swallow . . . especially when it comes to our faith. Yet, God promises to forgive us of our past . . . to wipe the slate clean . . . and, to set us down the path as a new creation in God. We know that this is true as we slowly trudge toward the gift of Easter and all that it represents through Jesus. The past is gone, tomorrow looks bright . . . all we must do is to get through today. In order to do that we have to believe . . . believe that God loves us, forgives us, and restores us. God tells us we are worthy in words and action . . . we are loved. The heart will know . . . believe! Amen.
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