Scripture for Sunday, June 22,2008

Scripture: Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost, A, cycle. Jeremiah 20:10-13.
Psalm 69:8-10.14.17.33-35. Romans 5:12-15. Matthew 10:26-33. Lectionary #
95:

Jeremiah the suffering prophet shows us that prophetic faith demands
great courage and even greater trust in the words of the Lord that he has
to speak. He is rejected by the King, the Temple authorities, imprisoned
and almost put to death in a cistern. All this happens to him because he
spoke the word of God truthfully and prophesied in the manner of Moses. He
met the criteria of an authentic prophet throughout his life. We have some
personal emotive insights into the sensitivity of this man and how much he
suffered. At times, his passages read like a personal diary. He is
definitely telling the leaders that they will be taken to Babylon and be in
a foreign land as poor servants.
Then in the selection from Romans we read why this happens to
Jeremiah and then to many in our own time. Power hungry people who just
trust in themselves and not in God or others show us that culture then and
now is affected by the original turning away from God. Romans 5:12 is the
key text for describing this inclination to sin which is termed "original
sin". It is both personal and communal in its effect for the principal
result of it is death and everyone undergoes this because of the turning
away from God at the beginning. We all inherit death. Even Jesus, Mary,
and Joseph underwent this effect of the first turning away from God. We
all stem from the way Genesis describes us...fragile ruddy and muddy clay
of earth and thus the term Adamah from the book of Genesis. Paul had to be
interpreting chapters 1-3 when he wrote Romans chapter 5.
In the Gospel, Jesus affirms our need to trust in God as Jeremiah did
by not worrying beyond the present day and by trusting in the providence of
God. We are encouraged to preach the word of God and Jesus courageously.
We are to show evidence of this trust in God by our actions as well as our
words. Paul also joins in this breakthrough against sin and death when he
tells us ,"But the gift is not like the offense. For if by the offense of
the one man all died, much more did the grace of God and the gracious gift
of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound for all." Amen.