Scripture Passage

Jeremiah 33:1-13

Sermon Text

Here we have the prophet, Jeremiah, locked up in the court of the guard that was in the palace of King Zedekiah. Now King Zedekiah was the King of Judah, meaning Jeremiah wasn’t taken as a hostage. He’s not in an enemy’s courtyard. He is taken hostage and imprisoned by his own people by his own King. So what was his crime? He was charged with treason and insurrection because he’s been delivering difficult harsh messages to the King and the people. He spoke of the words of God’s judgment, condemnation regarding social injustice and adultery to the people. He forcefully, he desperately pleaded for them to repent, turn on their evil ways and return to God because they had forgotten who they are. They have forgotten who God is and that they had forgotten that their responsibility is God’s covenant people and his message of repentance changed the message of doom that Judah will fall and will be besieged and will be taken into exile by the Babylonians and people despised it.

As a result, he was shunned. He was beaten and he was rejected, but he continued to proclaim. He continue to deliver God’s difficult message. Can you believe it? Not just once, but for 40 years, he had to deliver this message to the people, and he didn’t stop until he was confined in jail – and even then he’s still proclaiming. And now everything that he had proclaimed was happening in Jerusalem. Babylonians were a few miles outside of Jerusalem and the city’s about to be besieged within days, they will be taken as captives into exile, they will be separated from their family, everything they had; all their possessions would be taken away. Their future had become uncertain and unknown. And they thought all along that they had it right: we have the right religion, we have the temple. There’s no way that Jerusalem will fall, they thought, but now the whole nation is about to fall before their eyes. And their hearts are starting to melt. They’re turning to panic and they are being paralyzed by fear.

And at such time as this God’s message came to Jeremiah, and right away he makes a note of people’s wickedness that resulted in sin. Sin runs its course and it will have consequence because God’s anger before sin is real. But mentioning sin related to suffering however, I think it’s important to note that not all suffering is result of personal sin. We try to explain suffering in a very simplistic way, sometimes we lay the burdens on ourselves and we especially try to do that to other people. And instead of leading them towards God, we make them turn away from God with that extra layer of guilt.

God alleviates our shame and guilt 
So, more times than not, we don’t know. And we cannot know the reason for suffering in our lives sometimes, right? We simply sometimes have to accept the fact that we live in a fallen world with its brokenness for judgment and forgiveness is realm of God. That’s God’s doing, not us. But I think when it comes to my own brokenness, looking at my heart, I think I realized that we do need to be attentive, sensitive, and reflective on what is going on in my heart. Cause we live in a world where, because the words: sin and abuse and guilt were abused, they are removed from our language. We get really uncomfortable when we hear them. And as a result, people don’t see the need for a sin or forgiveness or need for God. But does that remove people’s need for God? No. More than ever, people are struggling with shame, loneliness, a meaninglessness. There’s a significant difference between guilt and shame. Sometimes we use them interchangeably, but they’re different. Guilt says I did something bad. Shame says I am bad, I am worthless. And so sometimes guilt is considered good because it leads people to change their behavior, but shame just takes you deeper down into dark spiral because it’s constant knowing that you are worthless. Ultimately, it is only God who can remove shame and guilt and offer us the forgiveness that we need.

Going back to today’s text, in this particular case, through Jeremiah, God had warned them and now they’re facing their inescapable fall. But when we look at the text, it says in this particular dark and chaotic time, God speaks the message of healing. From Jeremiah chapter 30 – 33 is flooded, if you really look carefully, with message and image of healing and restoration. God says I’m going to bring it to recovery and healing. I will heal them and reveal to them abundance of prosperity and security. I will restore, I will rebuild, I will cleanse, I will forgive and there will once again be joy. There’ll be praise, there’ll be glory before all the nations of the earth who shall here the good that I did to them. At this climatic moment of national crisis and despair, why is God speaking the message of hope?

God is light in the darkness 
Why is God speaking the message restoration when you all of a sudden. We may ask, why now, in the midst of suffering? It is because in the time of our own despair, in the time of panic and crisis we lose something most crucial for us, our deepest need, which is the ability to see that there is better tomorrow, that there is a future. Because even if you are in a dark tunnel and you know that this is just a tunnel and you can see a glimpse of light, you can see the end. It doesn’t matter how long that tunnel is, you will take that journey. You will walk out that dark tunnel. The worst thing is you don’t see that light. You don’t see the end. Our will to continue, our will to persist, gets attacked. And so God knew what Israelites, and what we really need, at the moment of crisis and despair. And it’s the hope that we see at the end of the tunnel.

So knowing that, yes, it’s very difficult right now, and it’s scary. But because I see that light, because I think tomorrow will be better than today, I will continue, I will persist, I will come out of this tunnel. That’s what hope does to you. And that’s what the hope that God breeds into our being. It is when, not in our head, but at the ontological level, at this core of your being of where you form who you are; your values, that’s hope rises. And when hope rises, your thoughts change completely. It was dark. It was black, but you start to see, you start to think differently. You start to see new possibility that you’ve never saw before. That’s what hope does, and your feelings change. You can do this and without even knowing it, you’re moving into action. There’s courage. There’s willingness to walk out of the tunnel because you know that tomorrow, the future, is better than today.

This past year, while I was studying counseling down in the States, I was introduced to vast number of difficult and different psychopathologies. I was fascinated and many times appalled at how much people are suffering in this world, in ways that I never knew existed or thought was possible. And in all my counseling classes, over and over again, the professors/pastors would tell me: before you learn any technique, before you try to apply any methods, there are some things that you have to do. Number one is: first, you gotta have compassion. You gotta have compassion, unconditional positive regard, and absolutely no judgment. There cannot even be a tint of judgment in you that they experience. And most importantly, as a counselor, even if they can’t see it, you have to believe that they can change. You have to believe that no matter what condition they have, what kind of situation they are in, that they can change. And that is when your compassion and your belief that there is a new possibility in this person gets transferred. The change starts to happen because for many people, amazingly, that first encounter may be the first time they ever been validated. They heard their voice. They felt the warmth.

God is hope
And God revealed to me that I have a long way to go. This compassion; To really know it, to really grasp it and to really manifest compassion – I think it’s a lifelong journey. But the more I meditate, I realized my self alone doesn’t have hope, but as long as I’m attached to God, and as long as I’m abiding in God, there’s always hope for any individual that I will come across, including myself. Because God never gives up, because God breathed out hope and he wants to give hope. So, as long as God is present in your life, as long as his promises is living alive, there will always be hope. There will always be a way out of your tunnel, no matter how dark it may seem to be. For those of you (especially our Hi C, although I have absolutely no doubt that you are abiding deeply in God’s love – I truly believe that) if this love of God seems abstract, think of that one person in your life who never fails to believe in you. That one person to whom you can reveal and just be yourself and you say, you’ve done something awful. And yet, you know, that this person will still love you.

That one person who does need to strive, doesn’t need to put an effort in to see your strength, your beauty. They just naturally see it. They recognize this: your strength and beauty that sometimes you yourself don’t even see. Whose voice during your midterms or your finals says “it’s okay, you’ll do fine. You can do this.”, And that voice just calms the panic and storm rising inside of you. It is the voice and the presence of our mother, our grandmother, who believes in you. Who always sees a new possibility in you. They remind us of our God again, who never seizes to see the new possibility in us and in our life.

Hope brings change 
God turns that into commitment and action. It’s the hope that enables us to see ourselves differently and the world differently. It helps to bring people, bring hope in the lives around us. Our history shows us that it was those people, in times of despair, who saw new possibility. Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, jr. Dietrich, Bonhoeffer – they all spoke of new possibility, they had hope. And when everybody says, “it’s not going to work, that’s it. We’re we’re doomed, this is the end, it’s impossible”, they somehow saw something that nobody else saw – and they changed the course of history. Not only in history and not just these gigantic, in terms of their vision, people, but I do see people around me that are fighting against despair, fighting for life. Not just their lives, but lives of others. For those who are voiceless, those who are vulnerable, those who don’t have power. And they believe that something others or believe is impossible. They believe that it is possible – It may take more time, but it is possible. And I seen them God’s presence and God’s hope. And yes, it is possible.

May God bless us so that we may always rise with hope. May we always see new possibility in every, in every and any situation that we are in, and may God bless us with faith to see and to believe so that we can live out God’s radical hope, and we can see the great and hidden things he hasn’t planned for us.