By Jeremiah, Eugene and Me

“Go to the Recabite family and invite them to come to one of the side rooms of the house of the LORD… We have obeyed everything our forefather Jonadab son of Recab commanded us. Neither we nor our wives nor our sons and daughters have ever drunk wine or built houses to live in or had vineyards, fields or crops. We have lived in tents and have fully obeyed everything our forefather Jonadab commanded us. 16The descendants of Jonadab son of Recab have carried out the command their forefather gave them, but these people have not obeyed me.’  35.2,10-12,16

Eugene Peterson says Soren Kirkegaard insists ‘the crowd is untruth’ 372 ‘The more people the less truth.’  We can test this assertion easily. ‘Which promise is most likely to be kept: the promise spoken by a politician to a crowd of ten thousand or the promise exchanged between two friends?’299 Maybe crowds can predict the truth, (see crowd theory) but crowds are less likely to act on the truth. Crowds reduce our responsibility and turn us into spectators. Crowds make us consumers.299.

Jeremiah connected to crowds (in the streets and in the temple courts). But Jeremiah was ‘not crowd-conditioned’. The crowd did not shape his values. The crowd did not dictate his script. The crowd did not determine his message. 300

Jeremiah was what Kirkegaard called an ‘individual’ – a single-minded single person whose personal response was singularly shaped by the word of God.301

God pointed Jeremiah to the Rechabites – a small, travelling community of craftsmen who owned no land – and who had made a vow not to drink wine.302

‘The Rechabites were living evidence of the two things the crowd-conditioned people assumed were impossible. They were evidence that ordinary people could live lives directed by a personal command (and) that it was possible to maintain persistently a distinctive way of life’ without succumbing to pressure.303

God told Jeremiah to invite to the Rechabites to the temple and offer them wine to drink in front of the crowd that met in the temple courts. 303 Of course the Rechab refused to partake.305 Then Jeremiah turned to the crowd and said ‘the Rechab have kept the command which their father gave them, but this people have not obeyed me.’ 306 He did call the people to become Rechabites, but called them to keep their promises like the Rechabites had – for 250 years!.306

The Rechab show us we have no excuse for not keeping our promises to God.

The Rechab in my life are Jim and Ann at the Catholic Worker. They  have made vows of simplicity, hospitality and protest which they have kept over the years.

They show us we can be committed to a life of simplicity, hospitality and protest, regardless of the society in which we live and the daily pressure to do otherwise

I ask myself – What are some of the promises that I have made to God? Which ones have I kept? Which ones have I not kept? What am I going to do about it?

I have made a general vow to follow Jesus which I have kept all my life. I cannot think of a single major decision that I have made in my life without serious explicit conscious reference to Jesus. Including decisions about who I have married, and how I conduct my marriage; who I include in my family, and how I relate to my  community; and who I seek to be – and to become – in the context of Christ’s  calling to live a life of practical radical compassion where I live through what I do.

However, there are specific promises along the way that I have not kept. One is to make time to sit quietly and meditate, contemplate and pray first thing in the morning every day. Another is to recite the beatitudes every day and to select a be-attitude to practice every day. The challenge for me is to do these things daily.

My Rechab-ilitation requires that I need to make a vow to visit – but not dwell in – the internet or tv, and to keep my vows not to drink spirits and not eat industrially farmed red meat.

As I was raised as a teetotaller, of these three vows ‘not drinking spirits’ is easy. However, I was brought up as a meat-eater, and though I am totally convinced that not eating meat will reduce the harm we do to animals and the planet, I am finding the transition to vegetarianism difficult to make. The Dalai Lama and I both share a taste for pork crackling. I don’t know what the Dalai Lama is doing,  but I know I need to make a vow this year to ‘avoid eating any industrially farmed red meat at all’.

When I don’t have my wits about me I am too easily distracted in the morning by email and the evening by the news. I need to make a vow not to open my email in the morning till after I have had my prayers, and not to turn on the tv in the evening till after I have actually touched base with everybody in my family.

Dave Andrews

Numbers refer to pages in The Quest by Eugene Peterson Zondervan Grand Rapids 2000