“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

It’s November 2005. Israeli soldiers raid a refugee camp inside the small Palestinian city of Jenin, in the northern part of the West Bank occupied territories. The soldiers had been there before. This time, they shoot a young boy holding a toy gun. This, too, has happened before. Twelve-year-old Ahmed Khatib dies, as have many children before and after him.

But this story of Ahmed in Jenin is more than a blip in this stream of predictable news. Ahmed’s parents, in an act of peaceful resistance and anger, chose to donate his organs to save other lives. Within hours of his death in an Israeli hospital, Ahmed’s heart, kidneys, liver and lungs were restoring life to six other people. And his parents, knowing these gifts of life might well go to the “enemies” on the Israeli side of the wall, decided to make the donation without restriction.

Shot in the back of the head, Ahmed had no real chance of surviving after the bullet exploded into deadly fragments. He had been playing a dangerous game.

In the bleak world of the refugee camp, pestering soldiers on raids is one of the few entertainments available to kids. Ahmed’s mother, Abla Khatib, candidly acknowledged that her son used to throw stones at the soldiers. The kids lived in a partisan world and regarded the armed fighters on the Palestinian side as their heroes. Those armed fighters were the usual targets of the raiding Israeli soldiers. Ahmed had collected posters of death notices for the Palestinian “martyrs,” 59 of whom had been killed just blocks from his home in a fierce attack three years earlier.

The day Ahmed was shot should have been a special day. It was the first day of Eid el-Fitr, the close of Ramadan’s month-long fasting typically celebrated with numerous festivities. Ahmed had new clothes for the occasion, and he arose before dawn to help his mother with preparations. He left for the mosque just after daybreak, passing along the graveyard where his heroes, the “martyrs” of the intifada (armed resistance of the occupation) were buried. But when word of the soldiers’ arrival on yet another raid spread through the streets, Ahmed and many other youngsters swarmed into action. His parents say he did not own a toy gun, for they knew that would be dangerous. But he must have found one in that moment. And the toy he grabbed made him a target.

How deeply must parents reach for the courage to turn such a tragedy into a peace-seeking protest? Ahmed’s father, Ismail, knew suffering firsthand. He had lost a brother to kidney failure two decades earlier after a lengthy struggle, in spite of Ismail regularly donating blood for him. Had this and other hardships of living under the Israeli occupation deepened their compassion for others’ suffering? Or perhaps the parents’ compassion sprang from encountering people awaiting organ transplants while Ahmed lived out his final days on life support in an Israeli hospital.

Ismail consulted with his local religious authorities to check whether Islamic law permitted donation practices and received clear affirmation. Ahmed’s heart was given to a 12-year-old Israeli Arab girl. His lungs went to a Jewish teenager with cystic fibrosis. One kidney went to a three-year-old Jewish girl and another to a five-year-old Bedouin Arab. Ahmed’s liver was divided between a seven-month-old Jewish girl and an older Jewish mother with hepatitis.

A flurry of news coverage widely reported the surprising story, and leading Israeli politicians including then Deputy Prime Minster Ehud Olmert, called to apologize to the parents for the shooting death of their son.

Ahmed’s mother, Abla, gave this perspective: “To give away his organs was a different kind of resistance. Violence against violence is worthless. Maybe this will reach the ears of the whole world so they can distinguish between just and unjust. Maybe the Israelis will think of us differently. Maybe just one Israeli will decide not to shoot.”

Ahmed’s father adds, “The hope is that those people will learn the lesson from what I have done. Those six people will learn the lesson that we are human beings; their families, even if they were serving in the army, will consider what I have done.”

Reprinted from Hope Indeed: Remarkable Stories of Peacemakers by N. Gerald Shenk. © by Good Books (www.GoodBooks.com).  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.

http://mcc.org/stories/news/compassion-more-widespread-violence-haiti

In an historic open letter a coalition of imams, muftis and ayatollahs called upon Christians to recognize that ‘Muslims and Christians together make up well over half of the world’s population’. They wrote that ’the future of the world depends on peace between Muslims and Christians’. On what foundation can we build a lasting peace? they asked. Then they answered the question by saying ‘ the basis for this peace already exists. It is part of the very found- ational principles of both faiths: love of God, and love of neighbour.’ If we practice this, there can be peace.

As a Christian I have responded to the Imams’ invitation and signed on as a public supporter of the Muslim call to be committed to this ‘Common Word’.

There are many Aussie Muslims and Christians who are showing us simple ways we can practice our love for God and for our neighbour – and rebuild the bridges between us that the extremists keep blowing up.

After the attack on the World Trade Towers on 9/11, the first mosque burnt down in retaliation anywhere in the world was in Logan. However, the Imam Mohamed Abdallah, did not call for retaliation in return. Instead of seeking vengeance, he extended forgiveness.  The local Uniting Church responded by offering the use of their church for prayers until the mosque was rebuilt.

In West End Marty and Evonne Richards have built a joint social venture with Ali Karimi who first came to Australia fleeing persecution in Afghanistan as a boat person. Together they manage E.P.M. (Ethical Property Management) which provides environmentally sensitive local pest control services. And Ali’s wife Malika works with Marty and Evonne at Blackstar Roastery, a social venture that not only provides gourmet organic fair trade coffee but also creates a hospitable space for disparate groups of people in our community to come together.

As for me, I have joined AMARAH (Australian Muslims Advocating for the Rights of All Humanity) and together with a Muslim colleague, Nora Amath, host guided interfaith conversations at the Multi Faith Centre on peace, justice, community, economy and sustainability.

Each of us are discovering we can be the change we want to see in our world.

Dave Andrews

A Common Word www.acommonword.com AMARAH www.amarah.org

BlackStar Coffee www.blackstarcoffee.com.au EPM www.epm.onthenet.com.au

In the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD: “Take a scroll and write on it all the words I have spoken to you concerning Israel, Judah and all the other nations from the time I began speaking to you in the reign of Josiah till now. Perhaps when the people of Judah hear about every disaster I plan to inflict on them, each of them will turn from his wick-ed way; then I will forgive their wickedness and their sin.” So Jerem-iah called Baruch son of Neriah, and while Jeremiah dictated all the words the LORD had spoken to him, Baruch wrote them on the scroll 36.1-4

Eugene Peterson says: ‘The book Jeremiah read was Deuteronomy. It was discovered in the course of the temple repairs, it was the handbook for Josiah’s reforms.’288 By reading it Jeremiah developed a memory (of God’s activity in liberating his people from slavery), a theology (of the call to love which echoes throughout the book) and a sense of responsibility (in response to the multiple demands that love makes)289

‘The book Jeremiah read developed into the book that Jeremiah wrote. Just as Deuteronomy repreached the message of Moses to a people who had lost touch with Moses, so Jeremiah repreached the message of Deuteronomy to a people who had drifted from its moorings’. 290

Charles Williams says ‘There is no other institution that suffers from time so much as religion. At the moment when it is remotely possible that a whole gen-eration might have learned something of theory and practice, the learners and their learnings are removed by death, and the church is confronted with the ne-cessity of beginning all over again. The whole labour of regenerating mankind has to begin again every thirty years or so.’ 290

Jeremiah was directed: “Take a scroll and write on it all the words I have spoken …Perhaps when the people of Judah hear about every disaster I plan to inflict on them, each of them will turn from his wicked way; then I will forgive their wicked-ness and their sin.” The prophet’s task was to take a scroll and write God’s word.And he enlisted the help of Baruch as a scribe to not only write it but read it. 291

As Jeremiah ‘was forbidden to speak in public (he was persona non grata to King Jehoiakim), his message was now written so that it could be delivered by another . Baruch read out what Jeremiah wrote to the people in the temple. 292

‘Honest writing’ exposes the reality of the way we live, the way we ‘violate beauty’, the way we manipulate truth, the way we ‘dominate people’ and challenges us to change our ways. Such writing is not without pain for the reader. ‘Every significant utterance is a wound, but “faithful are the wounds of a friend”.’ 293

I wondered about the place of writing in my prophetic engagement with the world. After all, ‘of the making of many books, there is no end’ (Eccl.12.12)

According to  a survey by the Jenkins Group 80 percent of the (US) population want to write a book. 120,000 titles are published in the U.S. each year ( www.bookwire.com) And 293,550 titles are published in the world each year www.worldometers.info 70 percent of the titles published do not make a profit. In fact 70 percent of titles published do not even earn back their advance. ( www.JenkinsGroupInc.com)

In the U.S., each day people spend 4 hours watching TV, 3 hours listening to the radio and 14 minutes reading magazines. (Veronis, Suhler & Associates) On average, a bookstore browser spends 8 seconds looking at a book’s front cover and 15 seconds looking at the back cover. ( www.parapub.com) 33 per cent of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives. 42 percent of university graduates never read another book after college. 80 per cent of families did not buy or read a book last year. 70 percent of adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years. (www.JenkinsGroupInc.com)

Most people who read typically read fiction (53 percent). The favourite category is crime, mystery and suspense (19 percent). (Publishers Weekly) A successful non-fiction book sells only 7,500 copies. (www.authorsguild.org) And 57 percent of  the new books that are bought are not read to completion. (www.JenkinsGroupInc.com)

So, its not surprising Christ never wrote a book.

But, his followers did. And they managed to turn their book – The Bible – into the world’s biggest ever bestseller.

I have tried to follow in the footsteps of the followers of Christ and – like Mahatma Gandhi, CF Andrews, Stanley Jones, Studdart Kennedy, William Barclay, Leslie Weatherhead, Toyohiko Kagawa, Helder Camara, Jean Vanier & Henri Nouwen – tried to write personally as simply and as practically as I can about God’s call on our lives.

In ‘Christi-Anarchy’ I wrote about the example of Christ – who was committed to an empowering rather than overpowering spirituality of compassion. In ‘Not Religion, But Love’ I wrote about how we can practice the principles of radical compassion that Christ personified in the context of our every day lives.

In ‘Compassionate Community Work’ I developed these ideas in more detail, giving people lots of suggestions as to how they could engage their community more compassionately. All these books have been ‘successful’, having been printed in multiple editions and distributed in lots of countries, including Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the USA, the UK., India, China and the Philippines. ‘Compassionate Community Work’ has become a text for the Micah network – a network of 300 hundred Christian aid and development agencies. And ‘Living Community’ – a generic version of ‘Compassionate Community’ – is going to be used as a textbook at universities and colleges to train community workers. (See books on www.daveandrews.com.au)

And now I have written the Plan Be series (Plan Be, Hey, Be And See and See What I Mean) calling for a d-i-y personal-political be-attitude revolution. In 2010 I’ll be launching it in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

I know I’m not a great writer, but I know my writings continue to stimulate great conversations. And for that I’m grateful.

Dave Andrews

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

http://ncronline.org/blogs/road-peace/hunger-strike-gaza

by Brian McLaren 12-17-2009

The president’s campaign speech in Philadelphia on race and his speech earlier this year to the Muslim world from Egypt were, in my mind, two of the most important presidential speeches of my lifetime. I had tears streaming down my face as I watched the former, and was so moved I could hardly speak after the latter. His more recent Oslo speech, given as he received the Nobel Peace Prize, also struck me as important, even though I hope that someday the president himself will come to differ with some of its content.

I agree with Jim Wallis, who offered an excellent summary of the speech, and said: “It was a more philosophical, and even theological, lecture than presidents normally give,” and so deserves careful study and engagement.

Two paragraphs in the president’s speech struck me in particular. After acknowledging with humility the complex circumstances around his being named the Nobel Peace Prize recipient, he said he was:

mindful of what Martin Luther King said in this same ceremony years ago — “Violence never brings permanent peace. It solves no social problem: it merely creates new and more complicated ones.” As someone who stands here as a direct consequence of Dr. King’s life’s work, I am living testimony to the moral force of nonviolence. I know there is nothing weak — nothing passive, nothing naïve — in the creed and lives of Gandhi and King. But as a head of state sworn to protect and defend my nation, I cannot be guided by their examples alone. I face the world as it is, and cannot stand idle in the face of threats to the American people. For make no mistake: evil does exist in the world. A nonviolent movement could not have halted Hitler’s armies. Negotiations cannot convince al Qaeda’s leaders to lay down their arms. To say that force is sometimes necessary is not a call to cynicism — it is a recognition of history; the imperfections of man and the limits of reason.

The unresolved irony of those two paragraphs wrestles under their composed and muscular syntax. On the one hand, “there is nothing naïve in the creed and lives of Gandhi and King.” On the other hand, “I face the world as it is … evil does exist in the world.” It’s hard to read the latter in any other way than denying the former: King and Gandhi were naïve, underestimating the reality of evil in the world.

Now I am the first to admit that heads of state have responsibilities and are privy to “intelligence” that the rest of us can’t imagine. I respect the president’s straightforwardness in saying, “We are at war, and I am responsible for the deployment of thousands of young Americans to battle … Some will kill. Some will be killed.” I have never felt a tiny fraction of the burden of responsibility he must feel in making those sorts of life-and-death decisions. Perhaps this is what happens when a movement leader or idealistic campaigner becomes an institutional leader, seated at the desk where the buck stops: idealism evaporates into a haze of naïveté and “realism” rises like a cold flood. (As I imagine that transformation, I can’t help but recall a former governor and VP candidate dismissing a lowly community organizer back in 2008; he didn’t have “actual responsibilities,” she snarled, as did even a small-town Alaskan mayor.)

These conflicted thoughts of war and peace, naïveté and realism were churning in my mind a day or so after the speech as I walked through a plaza in Riverside, California. Who is more naïve, I wondered – those who believe violence can overcome violence, or those who believe violence always creates new and more complicated problems? By chance, at that moment in my musings I came upon a monument to Gandhi that stands between the city’s Convention Center and old mission. As I slowly circled the monument, it wasn’t the quotes from Gandhi that seized my attention, but rather this quote from General Douglas MacArthur:

In the evolution of civilization, if it is to survive, all men cannot fail eventually to adopt Gandhi’s belief that the process of mass application of force to resolve contentious issues is fundamentally not only wrong but contains within itself the germs of self-destruction.

It would be one thing if these words were spoken by an idealistic young candidate, a community organizer, a pastor, a poet, or a movement leader. But when a seasoned general from World War II – well beyond naïveté about either war or evil – makes a statement like this, one hopes that the rest of us will at least give his words a second thought.

I don’t judge the president; I’m just a citizen with a lot less intelligence (of whatever sort) than he has. But I wonder if someday he will see that he was right in his first assessment of Gandhi and King: they spoke not from naïveté about evil and violence but from “a recognition of history; the imperfections of man and the limits of reason.” Yes, one can be naïve about the insidious reality of evil, but one can also be naïve about the “germs of self-destruction” contained within our attempts to overcome evil through “the mass application of force.” Somehow we must live with vigilance against both kinds of naïveté, presidents and citizens alike.

Brian McLaren (brianmclaren.net) is a speaker and author, most recently of Everything Must Change and Finding Our Way Again

‘For twenty-three years–from the thirteenth year of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah until this very day–the word of the LORD has come to me and I have spoken to you again and again, but you have not listened. And though the LORD has sent all his servants the prophets to you again and again, you have not listened or paid any attention. They said, “Turn now, each of you, from your evil ways and your evil practices, and you can stay in the land the LORD gave to you and your fathers for ever and ever. 25.3-5

Persistence is at the heart of Jeremiah’s struggle, says Eugene Petersen..

While you were doing all these things, declares the LORD, I spoke to you persistently, but you did not listen; I called you, but you did not answer. 7.13

From the time your forefathers left Egypt until now, day after day, persistently sent you my servants the prophets. But they did not listen to me or pay attention. They were stiff-necked and did more evil than their forefathers.’ 7.25-26

From the time I brought your forefathers up from Egypt until today, I warned them persistently, saying, “Obey me.” 8But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubbornness of their evil hearts. So I brought on them all the curses of the covenant I had commanded them to follow but that they did not keep.’ ” 11.7-8

For twenty-three years–from the thirteenth year of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah until this very day–the word of the LORD has come to me and I have spoken to you persistently, but you have not listened. 25.3

And though the LORD has sent all his servants the prophets to you persistently, you have not listened or paid any attention. 25.4

if you do not listen to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I have sent to you persistently (though you have not listened), then I will make this house like Shiloh and this city an object of cursing among all the nations of the earth.’ ” 26.5

For they have not listened to my words,” declares the LORD, “words that I sent to them persistently by my servants the prophets. And you exiles have not listened either,” declares the LORD. 29.19

They turned their backs to me and not their faces; though I taught them persist-ently, they would not listen or respond to discipline. 32.33

But I have spoken to you persistently, yet you have not obeyed me. 35.14

Persistently I sent all my servants the prophets to you. They said, “Each of you must turn from your wicked ways and reform your actions; 35.15

Persistently I sent my servants the prophets, who said, `Do not do this detestable thing that I hate!’ 44.4

For twenty-three years Jeremiah sought to listen to the word of God. For twenty-three years Jeremiah sought to speak God’s word to the people. And for twenty-three years the people heard refused to hear what he had to say to them. 279.

‘The mark of a certain kind of genius (required for prophetic ministry) is the ability to keep returning to the same task relentlessly, imaginatively, for a lifetime.’286

‘The word hashkem (persistently) has a sunrise in it. Jeremiah is up before the sun to do his work. There is an early morning lightness in him.’281

‘The five poem-prayers in Lamentations (written in the tradition of Jeremiah) express the suffering God’s people experienced during and after the fall of Jerusalem, the most devastating disaster in their history. At the very centre of this dark time, and placed at almost the exact centre of these five poems that lament the suffering, there is the verse: ”The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness.”(Lam.3.22-23)’284 ‘That is the source of Jeremiah’s persistence’.285

‘Jeremiah did not resolve to stick it out for twenty-three years, no matter what. He got every morning with the sun’. He didn’t get up to face the people, he got up to face God. ‘He didn’t rise to put up with another round of mockery’, he rose to be embraced by the grace of God that was so great it enabled him to cope with the mockery that came his way. 281 ‘Every day was a new adventure of living the prophetic life. (And) the days added up to a life of incredible tenacity’.282

Garry Wills says ‘A very original man (sic) must shape his life, make a schedule that allows him to reflect, and study and create.’ 285

1. We need to make sure we get enough sleep each night, so that we can wake up every morning, not groggy, not grumpy, but glad to be alive. And as we wake we can be more aware of the love of God in us and around us and give ourselves over to the joy of living more freely and more faithfully.

2. In order to prepare ourselves for the day we can take a bit of time just to sense the tensions in our bodies that signal things we are uptight about. Often these are grievances, real or perceived, of ways that people thwart our plans. We can note the issues they raise that we need to address. Then let them go.

3. Once we let our grievances go we can begin to let the love flow. We can try to do this by bringing to mind all the people that we are connected to in our community, then one by one, picture their face, speak their name, and pronounce a blessing upon each and every one them, friend and foe alike.

4.We can often be in a hurry. On the move from morning to night. But at regular intervals throughout the day we can always take the time to stop, to look, and to listen. And to deliberate on the activities, conversations, and undercurrents in our community.

5. Every now and again we can try to get a bit of distance from our community and put it into a bit of perspective. We can meditate on our community. As it is. And as it might be. Imagining all the things we could do to bring people in the locality together more.

6. Because there’s so many things we could do, it’s very difficult to figure out exactly what we should do. We are often confused. So we can seek clarity by listening to the still small voice inside us. We can listen until we hear a word that is right for us. Then we can take that word to heart.

7. We can take it to heart. But not go for it on our own. We can run it by a group of people whose opinions we trust. And together decide on what we are going to do. Discern the direction we ought to take, on the basis of consensus and consent.

8. Even if we get the direction right, doesn’t mean we get the action right.  We may get it wrong far more often than we’d like to admit. So it’s important to be a part of a group that can help us monitor our progress by reflecting on our actions.

9. When we reflect on our actions, we are brought face to face with our failures, as well as our successes. And if we’re not careful we can let our failures discount our successes. So it’s important to be a part of a group that can help us not only evaluate our progress but validate our progress.

10. Last, but not least, we need to keep coming back to the examples of people like Jeremiah and let the radical spirit of compassion embodied in their lives engage us, challenge us and change us.

‘There is only one thing needful. And there is only today in which to do it. Do it. Then do it again. And again. Persistently. With all the exuberance of an encore’. 286

Dave Andrews

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

You understand, O LORD;

remember me and care for me.

Avenge me on my persecutors.

You are long-suffering–do not take me away;

think of how I suffer reproach for your sake.

When your words came, I ate them;

they were my joy and my heart’s delight,

for I bear your name,

O LORD God Almighty.

I never sat in the company of revelers,

never made merry with them;

I sat alone because your hand was on me

and you had filled me with indignation.

Why is my pain unending

and my wound grievous and incurable?

Will you be to me like a deceptive brook,

like a spring that fails?

15.15, 17-18

Eugene Person says Jeremiah doesn’t say prayers, he prays. He doesn’t recite liturgy, he expresses himself – passionately – to God. Given how Jeremiah feels, when he prays, he doesn’t speak in beautiful poetic literary phrases, he expresses his desperation.

You understand, O LORD;

remember me and care for me.

Avenge me on my persecutors.

15.15

John Bright translates this prayer: “do not through patience destroy me. Consider for thy sake I suffer abuse.” ‘Which seems to mean, ”Don’t be so lenient with my persecutors that they have the time to destroy me.” There is desperation in that sentence.’269

• Jeremiah is lonely.

When your words came, I ate them;

they were my joy and my heart’s delight,

for I bear your name,

O LORD God Almighty.

I never sat in the company of revelers,

never made merry with them;

I sat alone because your hand was on me

and you had filled me with indignation.

15.16-17

‘Jeremiah received God’s word with enthusiasm. He gave himself without reserve to (a) way of life that meant taking God’s word more seriously than any human word. But having plunged into this way, he found no one was with him. He was all by himself. What would he do? Go back to the party (and join in the trivial cocktail chatter) until others decided to come along? He couldn’t do that. He was committed. (But) it was a lonely business. It meant years of solitude.’270

• Jeremiah is in agony.

Why is my pain unending

and my wound grievous and incurable?

15.17

‘The sin of the people, the cruelty of the wicked, the giddy indifference of the everyday – all this was a deep wound to Jeremiah. He hurt because he cared. He had undertaken to speak for God, to speak that eternal love to fickle people. Now he felt in his own being all the aching hurt of unrequited love. He felt the rejection in every bone and muscle. Their blasphemies cut him; their rebellions bruised him; their thoughtless rituals salted his open wounds. And there was no cure in sight, for the only cure was a people who repent…’and there was no sign of that. 271

• Jeremiah is very angry.

Will you be to me like a deceptive brook,

like a spring that fails?

15.18

‘Once he had preached that God was “the fountain of living water”(2.13); now he accuse him of being “a deceitful brook” – one of those streambeds in the desert that looks as if water should be flowing in it but when you arrive at its banks it is dry. Water only flows in it after rain; it cannot be depended upon between times. What he says in effect is ”God you tricked me. You promised but you did not deliver”.’271

Later was to famously say:

O LORD, you deceived me, and I was deceived;

you overpowered me and prevailed.

I am ridiculed all day long;

everyone mocks me.

20.7

‘A blunt but literal rendering is “first you seduced me, then you raped me.” You lured me by enticing words, then you seized me by force and made me  submit to your  will’ 271 You screwed me!

‘(Then) Jeremiah stops speaking but the prayer continues, for prayer does not end when we end. In prayer God is not merely an audience, he is a partner. Jeremiah has spoken honestly, now he listens expectantly.’272

• Jeremiah is encouraged to re-turn and be re-stored.

“If you repent, I will restore you

that you may stand before me;

15.19

Eugene Peterson says ‘throughout the passage there is a play on the word return/repent’ and that God is saying ‘Don’t wallow in pain tinged with self-pity. Repent. Turn away from it. If you turn (from such talk) then I will turn you (restore you)’ 272 But I disagree.

Sure there is a call to turn; sure there is a word play on the need to return/repent.

But what is the call to turn from? From the talk of pain that is tinged with self-pity? No.  All talk of pain is tinged with self-pity. The call is to turn from self-pity  that  blinds us to the presence of God in the pain – and/or blinds us to his love for us.

We may feel God has screwed us. But he hasn’t. And our restoration depends on our re-turning to God repeatedly and experiencing his never-failing love for us…

God knows that it is only in the light of God’s love (“before me”) we can “stand” and “take our stand”, when we have been beaten and abused, time and again.

if you utter worthy, not worthless, words,

you will be my spokesman.

Let this people turn to you,

but you must not turn to them.

15.19

When we re-turn and are restored – renewed in the light of God’s love – then we can be true to ourselves – to the person God has created us and called us to be – regardless of whether we – as prophets – are truly accepted or totally rejected.

Prophets should not worry about what others say; only about what we say. What others say is up to them. But we need to make sure that what we say is of value – not ‘worthless’.  If people de-value what we say that’s their problem, not ours.

”Let them come to you; don’t go over to them.” God says to Jeremiah. 273

• God promises to “save you”, “deliver you”, and “redeem you”

I will make you a wall to this people,

a fortified wall of bronze;

they will fight against you

but will not overcome you,

for I am with you

to rescue and save you,”

declares the LORD.

“I will save you from the hands of the wicked

and redeem you from the grasp of the cruel.”

15.20

‘Jeremiah had heard these words in his youth(1.18-19).

But ‘it is not enough to remember, we must hear it again. It is not enough to carry memory verses around with us, we need daily encounter with the resonant voice of God. Prayer is the act in which we hear it again.’274

‘The world attacks (our trust in God). The relationship is under constant assault, and must be renewed constantly. Resolve is important, but not enough. In prayer God provides renewal. We pray. We listen. God speaks his word again – the same word – and we are restored and renewed in our commitment’. 275

When I was excommunicated by YWAM I experienced a terrible sense of rejection. People denounced me publicly, forbade anyone I knew to have anything to do with me, and threatened anyone who gave me shelter with immediate excommunication.

I felt that rejection as a physical pain in the centre of my chest – as if I was literally heart broken. Any time I bumped into a YWAMer I would shake  with fear.

So I packed my bags, went home, and stayed home – out   of sight.  During that time I used to drive into my driveway, park the car, run upstairs, close the door, pull the curtains and hide from people who might come by and knock at the door.

On a number of occasions I actually withdrew into my bedroom, lay down on my bed, curled up into a foetal position, hugged myself for comfort, and waited to die. And, on one such occasion, I felt such despair that I contemplated killing myself.

I don’t know whether I would have really been able to kill myself or not, but the fact that I was thinking about it made me realise that I was in big trouble – I had internalised the rejection to such a degree that now I was even rejecting myself.

I needed help. But didn’t know where to turn for help. I was a persona non grata.

Most of the Christians I knew had either turned their back on me or had been done over just like me. And many of the other Christians I talked to didn’t understand.

In desperation I turned to God for help. I used to find solace in God quite easily. But now it was quite difficult – because the very ‘word of God’ had been used to condemn me – and I had felt profoundly alienated from God by God’s people.

As it turned out, my salvation was in the fact that my experience of the love of God was deeper than my experience of alienation from God. Through Christ I was able to come to God and experience his magical, mystical, amazing love for me.

“Come to me’ Christ said ‘and I will offer you a place of rest, an oasis to restore your soul for the journey.’ ‘Abide in me’ he said ’and I’ll abide with you. Together we’ll be friends and you can ask of me whatever you like and I’ll do it for you.’

So I came to him as a leper – my body dripping with sores, my soul hungry for belonging – and I knelt before him; and Christ reached out to me and touched me, enfolded me, in his arms, embraced me in his love, and healed my broken heart.

Fragrant, unconditional, limitless love running down, like thick olive oil, into the recesses of my wounded soul. Refreshing, renewing, reforming, redeeming grace. Filling the void inside with the joy of being loved – and being able to love again.

Dave Andrews

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

Two sitting American Presidents, Woodrow Wilson (1919) and ninety years later, Barack Obama, (2009) have been presented the Nobel peace prize. Both men believed that they had an overarching role to move history in a more peaceful direction. Wilson was disappointed and died in office. His League of Nations was crippled from lack of support at home and then burned in the ashes of World War II. We hope for a better outcome for Obama. Former President Jimmy Carter received the prize in 2002, 22 years after he was defeated by Ronald Reagan for a second term. Henry Kissinger accepted the peace prize for negotiating with the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam (North Viet Nam) in the early 1970s while B52s simultaneously bombed his enemy. His counterpart, Le Duc Tho of North Viet Nam, refused to accept the prize. The war continued for two more years after the Paris Peace agreements. Between 1973-1975, another half a million Vietnamese were killed and wounded, 340,000 of them civilians.

President Obama’s eloquent speech accepting the Nobel Prize on 10 December 2009, Human Rights Day, laid out the necessity of war and ruminated on his nation’s understanding of just war – “war waged as a last resort, or in self-defence; if the force used is proportional, and if, whenever possible, civilians are spared from violence.” To his credit he defined what theorists believe is a just war. He did not identify how his administration purports to fine tune war-making to meet the criteria of a just war in Iraq, according to him a dumb war and Afghanistan, a necessary conflict.

How will those who target drone attacks, and other expressions of air war make certain that no civilians are killed? How will a new chapter in just war be written in the basic training manuals of soldiers preparing for deployment, for interrogation of the enemy, for treatment of captives, and for clean up of military waste? Can Afred Nobel’s dynamite and its prolific offspring ever be controlled? Will the apparent unlimited use of US wealth for military purposes bankrupt its citizens as once happened in Rome?

For a century, the Nobel Prize for peace has hovered in that space between active peacemaking, represented by monumental efforts towards peace and justice like land mine eradication, civil rights, or relief efforts, and the work of nations to create a framework that will constrict war and its effects on civil society. The prize was not primarily intended to celebrate pacifist solutions to war although people who questioned all war and violence, like Martin Luther King and Jane Addams, received the award. The acknowledgement of their achievements gives hope.

In his speech, President Obama deftly distanced himself and his office from pacifist traditions as a President with responsibilities consistent with empire must do. To his credit, he did so without the normal checklist of charges of idealism, lack of realism and or even naivete, a checklist deeply embedded in the pillars of liberal democratic thinking upon which his politics relies for ideological ballast.

President Obama did not tell us if there are any serious negotiations with adversaries, coalitions of Pakhtoon villages or Taliban groups. In a part of the world where negotiations have been practised for 3000 years, it is hard to believe that nothing is happening to find an end to armed conflict. How is the conduct of the Afghan-Pakistan war creating the context for real peace, democracy or development? The people I talked to in Pakistan are not sure. How will his administration encourage, or even mandate, the military chaplain corps to become a genuine conscience and moral compass for “just combat” in the field? What about the thousands of soldiers who joined the nation’s forces and, in the process of soldiering, developed a conscientious objection to war? Will they be allowed to get out without having their dignity and personal integrity dishonoured?

For many peace people, church members and third world nations, Obama’s speeches on Afghanistan and his acceptance of the Nobel prize, despite their eloquence, were a disappointment. This was the moment when I realised that my long term hope for ending the practice of war, in say a century, will require harder, more focused work than ever. I believe I can use this experience as a time to bound forward. The speeches remind me that the Lamb of God, with even wider reach in the stretch for justice, can overcome the god of empire that imposes chaos and destruction under the guise of democratic order.

The speeches remind us that fundamentalist preachers or pundits are tethered together with the liberal establishment on the question of war. Both stumble through various versions of just war ethics as the Predator drones drag us into a scary future. Above all, the speeches remind us of the very limited options that are available to an imperial President in matters of peace and war. This is the moment to pull up our pants, turn off the TV, awaken our imaginations, listen to God’s spirit of compassion for all human kind, and get on with our work.

Some of us will be called to unexpected sacrifice of time, career, and life itself. The goal of a world without war is worth all of the sacrifice of a great army of unarmed soldiers. This dream of a nonviolent world may be the only realistic vision now, despite the fact that our leaders doff their hats to just war. The renewal of our spirit will come one step at a time in fresh and even larger ways as our spirits are awakened to the politics of renewal and hope, a politics, like Jesus himself, that is never dependent upon a president who is often powerless to transform an imperial culture that devours good policies and strong words.

The universality of this season’s mantra, “Peace on Earth, Good Will Towards People” is a good place to start and it gets the best angels involved. If the mantra is going to bring down the institution of war, we had better be prepared with discipline and armfuls of imagination infused with love. When we are called idealists, we do well to give the realist answer, all of creation is groaning for something better. That is where we will put our energy. Even elder Alfred Nobel might cheer us on.

http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/10850

———–

(c) Gene Stoltzfus is the founder of Christian Peacemaker Teams (www.cpt.org). He writes regularly athttp://peaceprobe.workpress.com

A Good Global Deal for the Poor

Over 80,000 people around Australia took part in the Walk Against Warming on Saturday 12th December to raise their voices about climate justice and to call for a good global deal at the Copenhagen Climate Change meetings happening right now. TEAR’s Phil Ireland has been tracking the meetings in Copenhagen and meeting with the Australian Government’s lead climate change negotiator, Louise Hand to ensure that justice for the global poor is firmly on the agenda.

• Read Phil’s blog to keep up to date on what a good global deal looks like.
• Send a letter to Penny Wong, Minister for Climate Change and Water.
• Be inspired by Desmond Tutu’s speech in Copenhagen about climate justice.
• Read Frequently Asked Questions about Copenhagen.
• Watch short films about how climate change is impacting the global poor.

When the priest Pashhur son of Immer, the chief officer in the temple of the LORD, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things, he had Jere-miah the prophet beaten and put in the stocks at the Upper Gate of Benjamin at the LORD’s temple. 20.1-2

Eugene Peterson says ‘In Jeremiah’s lifetime there was a terrific revival of religion. Jeremiah was one of the preachers of reform. The most popular preacher in Jerusalem during those years, though, was probably Pashur. Pashur was the overseer in the temple, a man of prominence, the head of the flourishing religious establishment.  Every-one loved to hear him; he was positive, affirmative, confident. He had the ability to draw out the best from everything. He was able to search the scriptures and find texts that made the darkest days bright.’256 ‘Pashur was a national asset.’ He was as Flannery O’Connor said ‘a combination of a minister and masseur.’ 257 ‘The people loved him. They crowded to the temple to be reassured by his sonorous baritone, to be cheered by his dazzling smile: ‘Peace, peace’. 258

‘There was (only) one man in Jerusalem not impressed by Pashur. Jeremiah couldn’t stomach him. In angry exasperation, Jeremiah cried out, “From prophet to priest everyone deals falsely. They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, ‘peace, peace’, where there is no peace.” (8.10-11).258  As far as Jeremiah was concerned there was still ‘an inordinate amount of crime, scand-alous reports of injustice, a widening gap between rich and poor. And though the religious life of the people had been cleaned up in public, it was an open secret that all the old fertility rites were being practiced in out-of-the-way places in the country.’ (17.2) 257 And Jeremiah could not help but speak out about it. ‘There (were) persons all around who (were) being trampled and violated. Any preach-ing of peace that turns its back on these is a cruel farce.’258

‘What is wrong is to evaluate the worth of words and deeds by their popularity. What is scandalous is to approve only what is applauded. What is disastrous is to assume that only the celebrated is genuine.’259

‘There are times when the truth will receive a wide hearing and times when it will not. Jesus had a congregation of five thousand one day and four women and two bored soldiers another. His message was the same both days.’259

‘We must learn to live by the truth, not by the world’s opinion, not by what the lat-est statistical survey tells us. In the biblical faith we are trained to take lightly what the experts say, the politicians say, the pastors say. We are trained to test everything against what God reveals to us in Christ.’259

‘The task of the prophet is not to smooth things over – but to make things right. The function of religion is not to make people feel good, but to make them good.’ 258

‘Jeremiah arranged a conference with some of the leaders of the city. He took them three or four hundred yards south of the temple to the Valley of Hinnom at the site of Topeth. It was the garbage dump of the city. The place stank.  Child sacrifice had been carried out there and still was being done in secret.’260

‘Jeremiah had a pottery water jug under his arm. He spoke his concern to the leaders. He told them reform is useless if it does not change people’s lives. Its no good obeying the letter of the commands written in Deuteronomy if the spirit of love that permeates Deuteronomy is ignored. Its no good being enthusiastic about religious traditions if we treat the people we don’t like as scum.’260

‘Jeremiah accused these leaders of going along with a religion that assured them of success in whatever they undertook at the same time that they were abandon-ing the God who called then to live in love. He accused them of taking their relig-ion from the world around them, making a religious ritual out of gratification of lust, handing out formulas for financial prosperity.’261

‘When he finished his short speech, Jeremiah broke the pottery decanter by throwing it on the ground: ”Thus says the Lord of host: So will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter’s vessel, so that it can never be mended” (19.11)

‘Word traveled fast. The temple area in the city was buzzing. Pashur arrested Jeremiah (beat him) and put him in the stocks. Jeremiah was humiliated, but not intimidated. He yelled at Pashur. “Judgment is coming because of willful, entrenched sin, and all you do is sprinkle holy water on it”.’ But it was futile. It was Jeremiah, not Pashur, who was ‘in the stocks – a laughingstock’ 262

‘Jeremiah didn’t like it. He yelled at Pashur, and after he yelled at Pashur he yelled a God.(20.7-10) He didn’t like any of it, but he wasn’t afraid of it because the most important thing in his life was God – not comfort, not applause, not security, but the living God’. And he was fortified by his faith in the living God. ‘Unafraid of the stocks. Unintimidated by taunts. Undeterred by humiliation, or embarrassment, or failure, or pain, or doubt. “A fortified city, and bronze walls” indeed!’ 262

I need to come to terms with fact that from a biblical perspective true spirituality is not serenity, but sensibility that feels the pain of the world, empathizes with it and passionately engages it. It is anything but serene and peaceful. In fact, it cannot cope with a superficial serenity, which refuses to face the reality of pain and feel the pain at any real depth. Instead, it willingly sets aside (a)pathetic ‘peace’ for compassion in which there is ‘no peace’ and ‘never will be peace until all are at peace’.  Thus, true spirituality in scripture is accurately personified in Jeremiah – tormented, grief-stricken, angst-ridden, anxious, anguished, agonized and angry.

Like Jesus.

‘What a waste it would be to take these precious years that we are given and squander them in cocktail chatter when we can be like Jeremiah’ passionately committed to advocating God’s love and justice – whether we win or lose’. 263

Dave Andrews

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