Thursday in the Third Week

Jeremiah 7:23-28; Psalm 95:6-11; Luke 11:14-23

“So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you” (Jer. 7:27).  Who exactly is being tested here?  The people have already failed; it seems that it is Jeremiah who is being tested.  Will he speak, knowing that it will only bring him trouble?  Jesus speaks to a similarly resistant crowd.  His words in today’s Gospel sound less like a reconciler than like a prophet of doom.

How do we remain faithful, when the truth is unpopular?  How do we find clarity and assurance that we hear God speaking, rather than our own egos?

Those who fought for civil rights in the 1950s and 1960s had a spiritual plan for waging that battle.  That plan was outlined by Martin Luther King Jr. in his “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”  The fourfold process of waging non-violent campaigns for justice includes collecting facts to determine if injustice is occurring, negotiation, self-purification through prayer and fasting, and finally direct action.

That plan is being revived today, as these rights are increasingly threatened and other goods, such as clean air, water, adequate food and shelter, health care, and education are being endangered again.  The Moral Resistance movement is just one group seeking to use this strategy for positive change.

This seems to me to be a Lenten call.  We may not succeed in turning the hearts of others in the ways that we hear God calling.  But success is not what God asked of Jeremiah.  God asked, God asks, for faithfulness.  

Sometimes the faithful path is gentle, and sometimes it is fierce.  But it is never hateful.  Jeremiah seeks the welfare of his city, even of its corrupt rulers.  Jesus seeks the welfare of all humanity.  But sometimes the medicine doesn't taste good, and the patient refuses to take it.  We cannot force another to turn to God, but we can choose for ourselves.

Is there something you need to say, to yourself or to others?  If you’re afraid, ask God for clarity and courage.  And pray for those prophets who speak up when it is unpopular or costly.  Pray that today we would hearken to God’s voice.