Transcription

 It is good to be with you today. I'm so excited that the snow decided to wait until 11 o'clock tonight so that we didn't have to change our plans this morning. It is good to be with you on this 12th day of Christmas, and as I mentioned before, this is the final day of Christmas. If you're not used to the Anglican tradition or Catholic, we have 12 days. It's a whole season. And so today's gospel passage is about Jesus being brought into the temple, presented in the temple, and actually we're gonna have a whole feast day for that on February 2nd, which this year occurs on a Sunday. It's called Candlemas, and I'll introduce you to that as it gets closer. We'll have a procession with candles. It's going to be a delight.

So I'm not going to preach out of our gospel passage today, because I'm going to do it in a few weeks. So I wanted to spend some time this morning in our Jeremiah passage. This is a passage that might be unfamiliar to you, and as we look at Jeremiah chapter 31, let me pray for us. “In the name of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be always acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer. Amen.”

It was back a decade ago, it's hard to believe, in 2015. I was a pastoral intern. Before I was ordained, I was working at a church, and the priest I was working under gave me a really challenging assignment. There was a family in the church that sadly experienced a stillbirth, and the priest that I was working for had asked me to find a liturgy that she could pray through with this family. The loss of pregnancy and infertility are not things we often talk about from the front. They're very painful, and they're also very common, and they're very grief-worthy. And this, as an intern, was my introduction to how common these things are in the church. And I was looking through all kinds of liturgical resources to try and find something to help this priest pray with this family in a way that wasn't going to bypass their suffering, that would enter the depths of grief with them, but also that would point them to the real hope that was in Jesus, our Christ who has suffered with us, who suffered for us.

And as I looked through different liturgies, it was interesting what passage came up over and over again surrounding birth issues, and that is Jeremiah chapter 31. It was a verse that we didn't read this morning. It was one verse afterward, verse 15, and it says, “Thus says the Lord, a voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children. She refuses to be comforted for her children because they are no more.” And I have come to love that passage over the last ten years.

There are two images of God in our passage today in Jeremiah that are meant to be a hope for the grieving, which ties in really well to the gospel in Christmas. The hope for Israel in this passage comes from two images that are mentioned explicitly, one that we can infer by extension. And again, this fits with the gospel, the good news of Christmas, which, you know, Christ entered into the darkness, the light of the world to bring new creation. 

And so God in Jeremiah 31, he's pictured first as a shepherd, and then he's also pictured as a bereft mother, and I'll explain that later. And by extension, this is mentioned implicitly, he's pictured as a gatherer. So these three images form the good news in Jeremiah chapter 31. And so if you have ever felt excluded, like if people really knew you, they wouldn't like you, if you don't really feel like you belong, this passage is an encouragement for you. If you've ever experienced deep loss and deep grief, this passage is hope that your grief is meaningful, that it is a productive kind of grief. And so this passage is an encouragement to all of us in one way or another, and it shows that our God is the God who pursues the broken, and he pursues the scattered to bring them home.

God as Shepherd

First, God is a shepherd. In the history of Israel, you may not be familiar with how these things shook out. Israel had split into two kingdoms, the North and the South, and in the South, some of the older kids, if you know the answer to this, do you know what two tribes comprised the South? Hmm. Yeah, exactly, Judah and Benjamin, which had two different mothers, historically, in the book of Genesis. And the northern ten tribes were all the others. And the northern tribes came to be referred to by the most famous tribe among them, which is Ephraim.

And interestingly, Ephraim's grandmother is actually Benjamin's mother. I should have put a chart up there for that. Anyhow, so Ephraim is a shorthand way of referring to the northern kingdom of Israel, and I don't know if you heard this during the reading today, there was a lot of mention of Ephraim in the text, which is weird, because Jeremiah is prophesying in the South. And Jeremiah is prophesying at a time where the northern kingdom had already been exiled a hundred years before he was actually prophesying. Or sorry, I should say it this way, they were exiled, and a hundred years later, the South would be exiled. And in between those two exiles, Jeremiah is prophesying God's Word to the southern kingdom in Jerusalem, to the religious institution, the seat of power.

And his ministry would be a very polarizing one. It would often be a ministry of rejection, wherein his call was really to solidify the hardness of people's hearts. And interestingly, there's these alternations between oracles of judgment and oracles of salvation. Today is a happy one, it is an oracle of salvation. And so what's interesting in this passage is, rather than being a condemnation for all the injustices the South is doing, it's this joyful exhortation to the remnant in the South who is going to follow the Lord faithfully. It's this oracle of salvation reminding them to trust the Lord no matter what, because the God who has scattered is going to be the one who will gather them in.

And so we read verses 7 through 14 today, we didn't quite get to verse 15, and this exhortation to the South is to rejoice and sing. And surprisingly, it's not rejoice and sing because the South is going to be okay, but it's because God is going to rescue the northern kingdom, which is surprising. And again, that's indicated in verse 9, where it says, for I have become a father to Israel, not Judah, Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.

So God is referring to the North. God didn't take delight in the destruction and the exile of those northern ten tribes, and God is reminding them that he hasn't forgotten them. The rescue of the North is good news for the South, even if in reality the way this plays out is the salvation of the Samaritans in the book of Acts, but that's for epiphany.

So, well, let me connect the dots there. The northern kingdom becomes what is later the Samaritans when you read the New Testament, and God's salvation extends to those who were forgotten by those who are calling themselves Jews in the South. Verse 10 says that the one who has scattered Israel is going to gather them in as a shepherd does the flock.

And Jesus, in his incarnation, has come to deliver all people, which means those who are easily forgotten by others. Again, in Jesus's day, you could read the Samaritans there, but again, by extension, all of those that we so we so easily forget. And this encourages me to delight in God's work in other people. As you hear about the testimonies of God's faithfulness in other people, remind yourself that if God is at work in this or that person, he's at work in me also, and in us. So if you've ever felt like you just don't belong, like, you know, if people really got to know you, then they wouldn't like you. If you don't know exactly where you fit, this passage is an encouragement for you, and my suspicion is that probably everybody in the room at some point, right? Because imposter syndrome just kind of sits under the surface for everybody, and especially in northern Virginia, maybe even more than most other places.

And the good news is that God longs to save those who feel forgotten, that he brings in those who are scattered into his flock to bring them home. He longs to bring his people safe and secure into his flock in Christ. And so we've seen God is a shepherd, and then now I want to look at a surprising image that God is like a bereft mother in this passage.

God as Bereft Mother

Our passage, again, stopped at verse 14, but if we were to go on to verse 15, we would hear that famous verse that I quoted before. “Thus says the Lord, a voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children. She refuses to be comforted for her children because they are no more.” Now, Rachel was Jacob's favorite wife. If you go back to the book of Genesis, he had two wives and two servants of those two wives. And so the tribes of Israel were populated by four different women, and part of the reason for this is the favorite wife could not have children while the other ones were populating these tribes. It's sort of like an arms race of procreation, it's very bizarre to read. And so Rachel is Jacob's favorite wife in the book of Genesis, and she had been childless, and eventually though, God blesses her with the birth of Joseph, who the rest of the book of Genesis will talk about at length.

And then she gives birth to Benjamin. So remember when I talked about Benjamin was the other tribe in the south? So she has one child who will comprise the north, one child who will be part of the south. And Joseph, importantly, was the father to two half-tribes. Extra points for anybody who knows the half-tribes of the north. Any guesses? One of them is like a city in Virginia. Yeah, Manasseh, good.

 Manasseh, if you didn't put that together. Yeah, and Ephraim. Ephraim and Manasseh, these two half-tribes. Ephraim, the more famous of the two, becomes the sort of moniker, the symbol of the northern kingdom. And again, Rachel is Jacob's favorite wife. She's the mother now of the preeminent northern tribes. And it's thought that when she died, she was buried in a tomb at Ramah, which is north of Jerusalem, southern part of the northern kingdom. And this city would have had a good vantage point when the people are taken off from Ramah. You could see them being carted off.

And so what this passage is picturing is Rachel weeping from her grave as she sees her children being taken from her. And so you can see why, when you read this passage, it is such a poignant and helpful text. When thinking about, in the past, how the church has used this historically, both for the death of children, there's lots of homilies on that topic, and for the loss of pregnancy. And you can see why this text is so helpful for this. In fact, you may not be aware of this, but our fourth day of Christmas is actually honors the holy innocents, those infants who were killed in Bethlehem by King Herod. This is sort of the dark underside of the Christmas story, right? And so, but these these children are dying for the sake of Christ without consent to it, and without having actually seen the Messiah.

And in reflecting on that terrible scene, Matthew, the gospel writer, quotes Jeremiah 31, verse 15, about Rachel's voice being heard in Ramah, and her wailing and lamentation and weeping for her children. And so you hear the echoes of this over and over again, and there is good news in Jeremiah 31 as well. On the flip side of this passage, God is moved by the lamentation of Rachel. God is moved by the repentance of Ephraim, and who confesses, Ephraim confesses his sins in the text. And God comforts Rachel, and he tells her that she doesn't need to keep on weeping, she doesn't need to keep crying, because, and this is a really important phrase, there will be a reward for her work of grief. There will be a reward for her work of grief. That's verse 16. Ephraim will be brought back from the land of the enemy. And the text, really interestingly, connects the sorrow of Rachel with the sorrow of God's heart in verse 20.

God says it this way, “Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he the child that I delight in?” The implied answer is yes. “As often as I speak against him, I still remember him. Therefore, I am deeply moved for him. I will surely have mercy upon him.” And so God mirrors the emotional state of the bereft mother and is moved to action, and that's often not a symbol or an image that we associate with the heart of God, but I do think it is so helpful because it is so real and so human. And so when our loss and grief feels like it's too much, we can trust in a God who knows the deep loss of a bereft mother, and we trust that, like this passage, he honors the work of grief.

And he honors the work of grief, eventually restoring what was lost, maybe not in the way that we would have anticipated, but does, in fact, honor the work of grief. And so God is pictured as a shepherd. God is pictured here as a bereft mother longing for the child that she loves.

And the good news, and why I love that this passage occurs in the last day of Christmas, is that when you go back to the prophets, it's the word of the Lord in Isaiah 40 that is speaking to the exiles that says, comfort, comfort my people, says the Lord your God. And the voice of the Lord, the word of the Lord is who is bringing the exiles back. And when we read John 1, which we read last week, we find that the word is incarnate.

The word takes on human flesh to bring God's people home. And so the shepherd the bereft mother longs to bring back her wayward children. And that is why also God, both implicitly and explicitly in this text, is called a gatherer. Here, like a shepherd, but more than that. So God is the one who has scattered them. God is the one who will bring them in and gather them back.

 God as Gatherer

And so that goes beyond just the Northern Kingdom, who potentially is forgotten, to include all Gentiles, which is good news for us. We were the ones who potentially would have been forgotten, except that God is the one who gathers us into his flock. Even to the most forgotten of Gentiles, or those who are sort of in between Jew and Gentile, like the Samaritans had been in Jesus's day.

And so whoever becomes excluded, whoever becomes made other, the good news is for them. That God is gathering them in, and that their joy is our joy, as we see God's work in their hearts. And that reminds me of a very early Eucharistic liturgy. There's this really beautiful document called the Didache. It was written in the second century, the teaching of the Twelve Apostles, and it probably has roots of tradition that go back to the time of the Apostles themselves. And it gives us one of the earliest Eucharistic prayers in the church.

And the prayer that the celebrant prays over the bread is this, we thank you, our Father, for the life and the knowledge which you made known to us, through Jesus your servant, to you be glory forever. Even as this broken bread was scattered over the hills, and was gathered together, and became one, so let your church be gathered together from the ends of the earth into your kingdom. And so here the Eucharist itself, the celebration of the Eucharist together in the church, recalls God's gathering together of a people into one body in Christ.

So our gospel passage was about Jesus's presentation into the temple. And we hear Zechariah's song, which is also in the daily office, daily prayer. So some of you pray that every day, and it probably threw you off when I read it from the ESV, because you've probably heard it from the the BCP.

And you know, that passage, Zechariah's song, and Anna's song, help us connect God's saving work that he's doing in Jeremiah 31 with the person of Jesus. Zechariah says, my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel. And so Jesus is the means by which God is bringing the least, the lost, and the forgotten into one body in Christ, to the praise of his glory, which is what we read about in the book of Ephesians today.

Conclusion

And we're going to talk a lot about the glory of God in the weeks that are coming up, because that really is what the season of Epiphany is all about, as the glory of God moves to the Gentiles, to the ends of the earth. But here, as we end the Christmas season together, we have this beautiful good news, that God longs for his people to turn to him like a shepherd who is gathering his wayward sheep, to turn to them like a mother who is desirous of her lost child. And from the Didache, that God is like a harvester who is gathering grain in from the mountains to bring it together into one bread.

 And so your loss is not too deep for God to know your grief. That's one of the encouragements. And that he will honor the work of grief. If you have ever felt like you don't belong, like if people really knew you that they wouldn't like you, that you're sort of on the fringes all the time, that you're unworthy of God's love unless you can really prove yourself, this passage from Jeremiah is an encouragement for you this morning. And so may we be a church where these things are true, where we reflect God's love for all people, where people find a home. May we be a church where people experience God's care for the grieving, where the work of grief is honored and given back with honor.

And that this would be a church where people are desiring to bring the scattered into one community in Christ, in the church. Let me pray for us. “Oh God, who wonderfully created and yet more wonderfully restored the dignity of human nature, grant that we may share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our humanity, your son Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.”

 Transcribed byTurboScribe.ai. Edited by the author.