Proper 7 Year A

Lectionary reflections - Year A
Ordinary Time
Proper 7

Jeremiah 20.7–13
Romans 6.1b–11
Matthew 10.24–39

The prophet Jeremiah lived through times of enormous political upheaval. His long career, lasting about 40 years, saw a good king, a couple of bad kings, a weak king and the forced deportation of all but the dregs of the population. Most of this Jeremiah warned his people about in advance, but his foresight won him no friends at all. He was increasingly isolated from the people he was born to serve, and at
times his life was threatened by those who could not bear to hear that the truth was so different from what they wanted.

It was not as though Jeremiah had any choice about his calling. At the beginning of the book (1.5), we hear God telling Jeremiah that, even while he was a foetus, he was being prepared for the role of God’s prophet. Perhaps he could have refused to pass on what God gave him to say – resisting a vocation is not unknown, after all – but in today’s lament, Jeremiah cries out that not to speak is as painful as the fear and loneliness that follows after he has spoken. It burns him up, and the pain of holding it in becomes too much (v. 9). (Actually, it sounds a bit like childbirth – you don’t want to push because it hurts too much, but the force is irresistible.) Nor does Jeremiah have any choice about what it is he has to say. God only gives him words of ‘violence and destruction’ (v. 8), however much he longs to speak love and reassurance...

Taken from Lectionary reflections year A by Jane Williams - Published by SPCK