Week of Proper 12: Wednesday, Year 2

Above:  Fists

Complaining Against God

JULY 27, 2022

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Holy Women, Holy Men:  Celebrating the Saints (2010), of The Episcopal Church, contains an adapted two-years weekday lectionary for the Epiphany and Ordinary Time seasons from the Anglican Church of Canada.  I invite you to follow it with me.

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Jeremiah 15:10, 15-21 (TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures):

(Jeremiah speaking)

Woe is me, my mother, that you ever bore me–

A man of conflict and strife with all the land!

I have not lent,

And I have not borrowed;

Yet everyone curses me.

…

O LORD, you know–

Remember me and take thought of me,

Avenge me on those who persecute me;

Do not yield to Your patience,

Do not let me perish!

Consider how I have borne insult

On Your account.

When Your words were offered, I devoured them;

Your words were offered, I devoured them;

Your word brought me the delight and joy

Of knowing that Your name is attached to me,

O LORD, God of Hosts.

I have not sat in the company of revelers

And made merry!

I have sat lonely because of Your hand upon me,

For You have filled me with gloom.

Why must my pain be endless,

My wound incurable,

Resistant to healing?

You have been to me like a spring that fails,

Like waters that cannot be relied on.

Assuredly, thus said the LORD:

If you turn back, I shall take you back

And you shall stand before Me;

If you produce what is noble

Out of the worthless,

You shall be My spokesman.

They shall come back to you

As a fortified wall of bronze:

They shall attack you

But they shall not overcome you,

For I am with you to deliver and save you

–declares the LORD.

I will save you from the hands of the wicked

And rescue you from the clutches of the violent.

Psalm 59:1-4, 18-20 (1979 Book of Common Prayer):

1  Rescue me from my enemies, O God;

protect me from those who rise up against me.

2  Rescue me from evildoers

and save me from those who thirst for my blood.

3  See how they lie in wait for my life,

how the mighty gather together against me;

not for any offense or fault of mine, O LORD.

4  Not because of any guilt of mine

they run and prepare themselves for battle.

18  For my part, I will sing of your strength;

I will celebrate your love in the morning;

19  For you have become my stronghold,

a refuge in the day of my trouble.

20  To you, O my Strength, will I sing;

for you, O God, are my stronghold and my merciful God.

Matthew 13:44-46 (J. B. Phillips, 1972):

[Jesus continued,]

Again, the kingdom of Heaven is like some treasure which has been buried in a field.  A man finds it and buries it again, and goes off overjoyed to sell all his possessions to buy himself that field.

Or again, the kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls.  When he has found a single pearl of great value, he goes and sells all his possessions and buys it.

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The Collect:

O God, the protector of all who trust in you, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: Increase and multiply upon us your mercy; that, with you as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we lose not the things eternal; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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Some Related Posts:

Week of Proper 12:  Wednesday, Year 1:

https://ordinarytimedevotions.wordpress.com/2011/01/12/week-of-proper-12-wednesday-year-1/

A Prayer for Those Who Have Harmed Us:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2011/09/19/a-prayer-for-those-who-have-harmed-us/

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Jeremiah had a difficult vocation.  He delivered the bad news God had told him to utter.  For his trouble the prophet faced not only rampant unpopularity but persecution.  So here we find him in Chapter 15, at a breaking point.  Is this self-pity, for which he needs to repent, or is it a legitimate complaint?  Many Bible commentaries argues the former, but I side with the latter.  There is nothing wrong with demanding answers from God when one deserves them.  There is no error in shaking one’s fist at God and screaming, “Why!?!”  If the relationship is troubled, at least it exists.

Some, out of piety (surely a good motive), have stated that one ought not to argue with God.  Submit to God passively, they claim.  But the Old Testament contains stories of people who struggled with God and emerged stronger spiritually.  Consider Israel and Job, for example.  God was with them before, during, and after their struggles.  And God was with Jeremiah after the prophet’s complaint.

Did Jeremiah come dangerously close to committing blasphemy?  Some think so.  May we take a useful lesson away from the reading from Jeremiah 15:  Be honest, but do not commit blasphemy or come close to doing so.

KRT