Jeremiah 31:31-34

Easter 4
April 13, 2008
Jeremiah 31:31-34

Reader one: Jeremiah was a prophet about 600 years before the time of Christ. He was passionate – sometimes so passionate people thought he had lost touch with reality. He often acted out his prophecy by breaking pots, or walking through the street naked, or buying land when it made no sense to do so.

Reader two: Jeremiah began his career as a court prophet, very much in favour with the king and his court. But that relationship fell apart when Jeremiah began to prophesy that the Babylonian army was on its way, and there wasn’t much the Jews could do about it.

Reader one: That was not a popular opinion, so the king put Jeremiah under house-arrest. People could still come and talk to him, but he could no longer go about the country preaching, telling people that the army of Babylon was God’s punishment for their sin.

Reader two: Jeremiah is remembered for two things. His preaching was essentially a message of hope. Even when the Babylonian army had Jerusalem surrounded, he very publically arranged to buy a plot of land outside the city gates, to show that he believed the time would come when he would be able to plough and plant and harvest.

Reader one: Jeremiah is also remembered for preaching a message of individual response and responsibility to God. Most Hebrew prophets preached about the nation – the people. But Jeremiah told people that they, personally, could have a relationship with God. That God saw them as individuals, not simply as part of the Hebrew nation. And that it was possible for them to worship God anywhere, not just in the temple at Jerusalem.

(One second pause)

Reader two: The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt – a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, "Know the LORD," for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.

(One second pause)
Reader one: As Jeremiah had predicted, the army of Babylon overwhelmed Jerusalem and destroyed both the city and the temple – the centre of their worship.
The brightest and best of the Jews were herded off to Babylon. They were not treated badly in Babylon, but they were cut off from the temple. They no longer had a place to worship.
And so it was in Babylon that they remembered Jeremiah’s words.

Reader two: I will put my law within them. Yes, within them!
And I will write it on their hearts. Yes, I will write it on their hearts!

Ralph's list of readings and stories