[CatherineTorpey]

Hello all!

This Sunday, we get double the delight, with Rev. Jacqui and Rev. Ben both preaching! Their text is Jeremiah 23:23-29.

Jeremiah is one of the “major prophets” of the Hebrew Scriptures (“Old Testament”). Jeremiah is commonly referred to as the “weeping prophet,” because he hates his job as prophet. He lived after Isaiah, after the time of the Assyrian conquest of the Northern Kingdom. During his lifetime, Assyria was still strong and fierce, but Babylon was growing in strength. So there was danger from both of these great powers.

Jeremiah was born a priest. In ancient Israel, one was born into the priesthood. All 12 tribes each had their own area of the land of Israel, except the tribe of Levi, which did not have land because they made their living as priests. Jeremiah resided in the tribal land of Benjamin, which was the one tribal area (along with the much larger Judah) which constituted the Southern Kingdom which had not been conquered by Assyria.

In these high-anxiety times, there were many prophets, and most of them were false prophets. These false prophets were in cahoots with the authorities, who wanted the people to stay calm, and so these false prophets were full of reassuring words. They told the people, “Don’t worry, there will be peace.”

Jeremiah had the unfortunate task of being a true prophet, and relaying to the people the truth as he was receiving it from God. The truth in these years was that there was not much hope in little Israel fighting the oncoming conquest by Babylon.

No one wanted to hear what Jeremiah was saying, they only wanted false reassurance.

In this passage, we are hearing God speak via Jeremiah, saying that God is sick and tired of these fanciful “prophecies” which are really just woven from their imaginations (dreams).

[CatherineTorpey]

Oh and PS, PBS is going to be filming at the church! Very exciting. For more info, be sure to read Jacqui’s email from the other day.

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