DIY Discipleship (Aug 28, 2022) Jeremiah 2.4-13

There are times when one cannot sleep and after lying in bed for a while, one decides that it is useless. So, one gets up and tries to figure out what to do to help get back to sleep. Usually, one falls back on to the time-honored method of going to the living room and turning on the TV. Now, late night/early morning TV watching is a relatively new thing. TV stations used to go off the air at around midnight. Then came the advent of 24-hour channels. Now, one can watch just about anything one wants all the time. But on many local stations the viewing opportunities are somewhat limited. The shows that are broadcast are known by a catchphrase: As Seen on TV!! Many a bad purchase or a bad idea has come from this late-night phenomenon. How many Ginsu knives or Ronco products (but wait!! There’s more!) have been purchased because someone could not sleep at night? But the ones that I really like are the Time Life commercials.

These could be trying to sell several things from music to maps to others, but the best (at least to me) were the books. One could find a whole library of topics that Time Life was willing to sell for a low price plus shipping and handling. And one of those series was on home repair. The promise was that you would be able to do any home repair or project without the expense of the professionals and the job would pay for itself in just a few uses. How many of those projects eventually turned into a professional having to come in and take over is unknown, but I am willing to bet that the margin was high. As my uncle once said to my dad, “A handyman’s dream equals a carpenter’s nightmare.” DIY projects promise that one can do something that one has no real experience with and one can get the credit for a job well done. Sometimes this works out as promised. Other times, favors are called in from friends to help stop the leak that sprung when “a 5/16” flange will do just as well as a ¼” flange”. Or a professional is called in to fix the wiring that now causes the lights to come on in the kitchen whenever the garage door is opened. It can cause havoc when one tries to do something on one’s own when there is no expertise. I know because I tried and now know to call a professional.

Judah was trying to do some DIY projects. Jeremiah was calling them to turn away from the gods that they were turning to in hopes that they would be able to turn back the nations that were coming in on them. They were trying to do things without the help of the professionals.

And so, God asks some questions.

The first question is “What wrong did your ancestors find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthless things, and became worthless themselves?[1]God is asking what wrong or what fault that God did to make them turn away and go after worthless things. The word fault in Hebrew can mean several things. It can mean fault or injustice or wrong. But it can also mean dishonesty or perversity. God is asking what those who came before these to whom Jeremiah is speaking found that was dishonest with God. Was there something that could be changed in the way God worked with the people? Or was there something else going on? Abraham Heschel said this about what is going on here: “What a sublime paradox for the Creator of heaven and earth to implore the people so humbly.”[2]

God continues with the questions. The people are not asking where is the one who brought them out of a hostile and desolate land, a land that was full of harmful things, where drought was and where no one could live. Why were they not asking this question? They were pursuing things that would not give them any comfort or anything good.

Then God goes on and tells them that God brought them to a land full of good things, a good and fruitful land. But the people defiled the land. They forgot the one who brought them there and the one who led them out of the land of the Wilderness.

And where are the ones who were supposed to be teaching them these things? The priests and those who know the Torah are to be teaching them about God and the things that God did for them and would still do for them if only they would turn back to God. But alas, those who are teaching them are teaching them the ways a Baal. Now, it is not that the people have totally left God. They have probably added the god Baal and others to a pantheon of gods which would include the God who brought them out of Egypt. They believed the “more the merrier” would apply to gods and that the more they had, the better the chance they would have against the Babylonians and other nations. They have gone after things that do not bring profit. They go after things that are worthless. And the ones who are supposed to be leading the people in the right paths, the leaders or shepherds, are leading them in the wrong ways. They are following the Baals themselves and because of this they are leading the people astray.

God is at a loss. What is this nation and this people doing? What can be done to bring them back from their own doing?

God brings an indictment against the people. God accuses the people, their children and their children’s children that they are turning away from God to worthless gods. God calls upon those who are witnessing, the heavens and those in the heavens, to look at this. God asks for them to look to the west and to the east, from Cyprus to Kedar, and see if there was ever such a thing. That thing is a nation who deserts their god. Cyprus and Kedar follow those who are not real gods but they continue to follow them, they are loyal and faithful to the ones that they have worshiped all along. “Not so my people,” says God. God says: “…my people have changed their glory for something that does not profit.”[3]Those who are witnessing are to be appalled at this. They have turned away from the one who gave them the good gifts so that they could do things on their own. Why is this? Adam C. Welch says that part of why they wanted to turn from God to the other “gods” was that it was much easier. Serving the God of Israel demanded self-surrender. The other gods only asked for some incense and a small sacrifice and then one would be on one’s way. One could do their own thing and be one their way with the satisfaction of things done that they thought were doing well.

God then states that the people have done two evils that must be addressed. They have first forsaken the fount of living water that God is. In a dry land such as Israel, clean, fresh water was at a premium. God is saying that God is the fresh water that they crave, a spring of ever-flowing water that will keep the people refreshed and cool. But the people will have none of it.

The second evil that they committed was that they build cisterns to store water. God is saying that the other gods they are following are the cisterns. Now, a cistern does just what it is supposed to do. It stores water for a time when there is a shortage of water. But what happens to water when it sits? It becomes brackish and stagnant, not fit to drink. The gods that the people followed are no good. In fact, God says, the cisterns that the people built, their DIY project, are cracked. They are covered with plaster and look good, but they leak. The water that is contained in them will flow out and never stay. The people will be dry and thirsty when they put their trust in the things that they have built for themselves.

Preaching the First, Testament can be tricky. Too often we want to discredit those living in these pages because, well, they should have, and did, know better. And besides, we have Jesus now. We are soo much better off than they were. But we are just like those in the text from today. We want to be disciples, but on our own terms. We live in a society that tells us to “pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and stand on our own two feet.” We like to imagine that we can do whatever we want on our own with no help because, well, we are Americans and we are exceptional. Jesus, however, calls us to give up everything to follow him, just as God called for Israel to do the same. We are to take his yoke upon ourselves. In return, we are given grace that we could never attain on our own. But that would crimp our style. We would have to do things God’s way and not our own. We would have to stand for justice and mercy. We would need to see people as created in the image of God, rather than as “others” who are not like us. We would need to ask for the help of others and become a community of saints, relying on one another to serve in places where we might not have the expertise to do the job and in turn lend a hand when others need it. In other words, we would need to be a community that shows one another the love of God and proclaims what God has done for us when we could not do it ourselves.

When we try our own DIY discipleship, we find that we are like those in Israel. We put our trust in things that like cracked cisterns that will leak the water and leave us dry and thirsty. That can be a leader we think is strong, a military that makes us dominant, a job that brings prestige, money that can buy us things, things that make others want to keep up with us. It can be anything that takes us away from the God who brought us to the land that is fruitful and good. But when we turn back to God, we find the living water that flows like an everlasting spring, water that will refresh us and keep us going. All we need to do is realize that we cannot do it on our own. That we need to turn back to God and be led rather than trying to do it own. Because sometimes the professional knows more than we can ever know. Amen.

[1] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989. Print. [2]Brown, Michael L. “Jeremiah.” The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Jeremiah–Ezekiel (Revised Edition). Ed. Tremper Longman III and David E. Garland. Vol. 7. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2010. 86. Print. [3] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989. Print.