June 25, 2023 Text: Jeremiah 20:7-13
Dear Friends in Christ,
Come on, Jeremiah, it can’t be this bad. Do you hear what he says about the Lord? The Lord has “deceived me.” Wow. Really?
OK, Jeremiah, maybe you are having a tough time in the ministry. It happens to all of us. People who misunderstand. Criticize without knowing all the facts. It comes with being a Pastor to saints who are still sinners.
Maybe you need some time off, brother Jeremiah. Get away from all this. Concordia Health Plans has some great resources. If you need some inspiration before throwing in the towel, try expastors.com for some encouraging articles. They take seriously the burdens of pastoral ministry in our world and culture today.
Yes, it’s true Jeremiah, we didn’t prepare you for all of this at the seminary. You have to experience it. It can be rough out there. We get it. We hear you. It can be lonely. But . . .
“IS IT REALLY THAT BAD?”
You have a calling. You did the only thing you can do. You turn to the Lord and not to some power within yourself. It is His ministry, not yours, not ours, not mine. He sends you out with His Word and it will not come back empty. You will be vindicated in the end.
But Jeremiah, my brother, you should have held off with the words that follow where the lectionary stopped. You are cursing the day you were born. You wonder why you had to come out of the womb to see toil and sorrow and spend your days in shame. (Jer. 20:14, 18) How can you talk to God that way? Is it really that bad? You have stood up to the opposition. You have proclaimed God’s judgment. You have proclaimed God’s restoration with conviction. Do you really feel like you should not have been born? How can you talk to God that way?
Well, because you have free will and can talk to God that way. So can we. It is OK. At times the ministry can be rough. Share it with God, let it out. He called us into this . . . and He will hear the pleas. He is always there for us, even when we think it is that bad.
When preaching and teaching a countercultural message, the arrows can come our way. For Jeremiah, he was preaching during the last days of the monarchy of King David. His people had escaped the Assyrian bullet, but there would be no escaping the Babylonians. This is going to finish off Judah and the Davidic kingship. The final judgment is upon them. No changes are coming. In biblical terms. It is a matter of death and life.
In the message we preach we know that we have already died. We have died to sin. We are participants in a new creation, after death, after judgment.
The burdens of the ministry can be difficult. But Christ shares them. More than that, He has borne them. He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. When we think the non-believer is winning, the God haters are triumphing, the progressives are moving their ball toward the goal line, the Lord reminds us we have already died. They can’t kill us now. We live a life that cannot be taken away. They can kill the body, but not baptismal life.
This is the Word of God active in our lives. We proclaim not our good efforts or even our failures. The Word of God is always burning and cannot be put out by the opposition. This Word must be let out, sent out, proclaimed to all the world. In the end, it is only about the Word of God in Christ and His promises.
Jeremiah does find occasion for this, the last verse of our text: “Sing to the Lord; praise the Lord! For he has delivered the life of the needy from the hand of evildoers.” (v. 13)
Dear friends in Christ, we are not alone. Things are not that bad. As someone in Jeremiah’s shoes I can tell you that the blessings far outweigh the curses. In Christ’s death and resurrection, he has shared our burdens. We are not alone, you and I. We go forth surrounded by the apostles and prophets. We find inspiration and encouragement from those in our day, who take a stand and don’t wilt under the politically correct pressure. We forever look to those who have suffered death for the name of Jesus. Who saw the bad, but triumphed in the good. Those who, like us, actually did seek first the kingdom of God, the kingdom of God and His righteousness, which is ours now and forever in Jesus, the Christ.
Amen.