Reading: Jeremiah 20.7-13.
No one likes to bring bad news! Perhaps a child's pet budgie has escaped and three o'clock is getting closer! Or perhaps there has been an accident in which a family member has died and an aged grandparent has to be notified. The big question is "Who is going to tell her?" Sometimes the decision is deferred a day or two for fear of the effect on the old person's health. I'm sure that any of us who have had to carry bad news can testify - there's no easy way to bring bad news!
Tough as that assignment can be, what about a different kind of bad news. "Sir, I've just dropped in to let you know that you've been found out! It appears that you are corrupt, that you have things to answer for! Up to this point I have believed you to be a person of honesty and integrity, but the evidence is to the contrary! If proved guilty, you will be going for a long stay in jail!" I'm not suggesting, of course, that legal procedures operate just like this! I am not aware of anyone in this congregation who has given, or faced, that kind of bad news.
Three or four years ago, however, I was in contact with a situation that was like that! I received a phone call at about 4.00 a.m. and went to a couple whose home had been raided by police. Equipment that I believed to be theirs had been confiscated and court action was pending. I listened carefully to their side of the story and read through police transcripts of interviews. The transcript revealed nothing of substance. In fact, I became greatly concerned at police interviewing techniques. To me, it looked more and more as if they were the victims of someone else's crime - but could they prove that and avoid the threatened penalties?
Bad news? In fact it seems that some delight in bringing it! There is a difference between the policeman who checks whether you were heading to the bedside of a dying relative and the one who abrasively says, "You were going a bit fast, Fred! Here's your ticket!"
Bad news - there's no easy way to give it! unless you are a twisted type who likes hurting people, who gets a sense of power from seeing someone squirm!
Sometimes people have thought the Old Testament prophets were like that! They seemed to emerge at times of national crisis and moral decline. Often their message was harsh and unpalatable.
The prophet Jeremiah in a number of passages gives us a picture of the prophet's heart. He opens his feelings for us all to see. He did not like the message he had to bring. In fact, he saw his warnings fulfilled and almost all of the inhabitants of the kingdom of Judah deported to Babylon. Jeremiah was left with the small group who remained behind.
Lord, he complains, I don't like it at all! You've committed me to more than I bargained for! I have to give a message that I don't like and that others don't like. I am the subject of insults and threats. And, in the verses following our reading in Jeremiah 20, how I wish I had never been born! Cursed, not happy, my birthday! A curse on the man who made my father happy by telling him a son was born! O that I had died before birth!
He's not at all happy, is he? Note carefully verse 9 - "But if I say, `I will not mention him or speak any more in his name,' his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed I cannot." God has commissioned him to bring His word, to carry the truth - no matter what! He cannot escape that commission. God will not release him from that commission.
I believe God needs people today who will live by the truth no matter what. It's all too easy to live by the opinions of others, to justify what we do by what others accept, to be quiet about injustices when we should speak up, to conform in a whole lifestyle that is headed towards destruction. I believe that God needs people today who live by the truth no matter what and with his passionate love no matter what! It's all too easy to react against evil in a way that presents and presumes our own goodness, to view evil in terms of "us and them" instead of God and all of us, to set up our own little ghetto where we are protected from it all!
But notice verse 13 too! "Sing to the Lord! Give praise to the Lord! He rescues the life of the needy from the hands of the wicked." In the middle of his despairing complaint there is this burst of praise to God. God is here - no matter what! God is here to save - no matter what! Bad news? Unfortunately, yes - there is bad news! It's no use pretending - things are bad! But there is good news too! God is here! God is here to save!
In 1 Corinthians 9, Paul is writing about what it means to be an apostle. There were those in Corinth who were very critical of Paul and of the fact that people like Paul had to receive financial support from the people - though Paul himself makes it clear that he worked at his tent-making to support himself. In verse 16 he wrote this - "I have no right to boast just because I preach the gospel. After all, I am under orders to do so. And how terrible it would be for me if I did not preach the gospel!" (v.16) Well, that was good news, we say - and much easier than Jeremiah's task! Listen to what he wrote in 2 Corinthians 11 - "Five times I was given the thirty-nine lashes by the Jews; three times I was whipped by the Romans; and once I was stoned. I have been in three shipwrecks, and once I spent twenty-four hours in the water. In my many travels I have been in danger from floods and from robbers, in danger from fellow-Jews and from Gentiles; there have been dangers in the cities, dangers in the wilds, dangers on the high seas, and dangers from false friends. There has been work and toil; often I have gone without sleep; I have been hungry and thirsty; I have often been without enough food, shelter or clothing. And not to mention other things, every day I am under the pressure of my concern for all the churches. When someone is weak, then I feel weak too; when someone is led into sin, I am filled with distress." (vv.24-29). It really seems that sharing the good news has its moments too!
So, as we reflect on Jeremiah, it is reassuring that we can come to the Lord with absolutely everything. The Christian life is not a pretend life, but a life of real openness to him. But that doesn't let us off our responsibilities. We have in Jesus the supreme example of commitment, even though it meant the cross! The bad news of human sin and its consequences and the good news of God's redemptive love in Jesus Christ must go out into the community about us - no matter what! Like Paul, we are under orders to do so. Like Jeremiah, we need to have his word like a fire shut up in our bones that we cannot hold back.
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