Hebrews 13:1:8

Jeremiah 2:4-13

Have you ever been called on the carpet?  Something happened and then you we reprimanded for your behavior.  It is never a pleasant prospect to deal with someone who has a complaint with you.  Earlier in my ministry a member wanted me to cut my hair and started a letter writing campaign to make that happen.  Fortunately that complaint fell on deaf ears and the situation quickly resolved.

Finding fault with someone is easy — getting to the bottom of it can be much more difficult. Sometimes you know instinctively what the stumbling block in the relationship is, and other times, you wrack your brain wondering about it. I’ve sat with many heart­broken spouses and puzzled with them over what could have made their partner break their commitment with them so suddenly. “What fault did he find in me that made him leave?” I’ve cried with many parents who have tried to make sense of their son or daughter’s complete and utter repudiation of them and their family life. “What did I not do for her?”

Sadly, there are many reasons why a person might find fault with a friend, a family member, a boss, or a coworker. Sometimes we don’t listen well, or we refuse to see an alternative possibility or perspective on reality. Sometimes the person rejecting us feels that we have not been honest with them or respectful of them.

In our reading, the prophet Jeremiah gives voice to God’s an­guish over Israel’s departure from the covenantal relationship.

“Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel. Thus says the Lord: What wrong did your ancestors find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthless things, and became worthless themselves?” (Jeremiah 2:4-5)

Truth is, some people do feel God has been in the wrong where their lives are concerned. Some people have judged God and have found God to be been unfair, less than gracious, and even spiteful.

One of the most unusual and highly public examples of a per­son finding fault with God is that of then Nebraska State Senator, Ernie Chambers. To be fair, Chambers was generally thought of as a hothead. He had a long history of taking controversial stands on issues. In response to a lawsuit filed in federal court that he consid­ered frivolous, Chambers set out to prove that anyone can sue any­one at anytime.

To prove his point, he got himself a lawyer and proceeded to sue God.  Sue God!

His lawsuit, filed in September 2007, accused God of making and continuing to make terrorist threats of grave harm to innumer­able persons, including constituents of his jurisdiction. In addi­tion, “God has caused fearsome floods, egregious earthquakes, horrendous hurricanes, terrifying tornadoes, pestilential plagues, ferocious famines, devastating droughts, genocidal wars, birth de­fects, and the like…without mercy or distinction” (Chrysanne Timm, sermons.com).

Now, Chambers’ efforts were little more than political grand­standing, but the senator is certainly not alone in his accusations. Perhaps one or two of you here have friends or family members who have judged God and found God lacking. Perhaps you your­self question some of God’s ways.

I have often struggled with why God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac. Of course he is stopped just in the nick of time.   But as a parent it is something I do not understand.  Maybe there are things in your life that feel like a test, or you wish God did not allow to happen. In those moments we really have two choices.  We can either turn from God who we find lacking, or we can cling to our faith and know God is with us in the midst of this difficult situation.

On our trip to Mexico, the boys and I went snorkeling on a catamaran.  We had a great time enjoying the Cabo coastline and the underwater wonders.  On the way home Parker, took a nap on the deck.  I kept asking him if he had applied sunscreen and he waved me off.  I worried about him, because I knew how powerful the sun can be.  I did not have the spray on sunscreen or I would have sprayed him while he slept.  Within an hour Parker was lobster red and in great pain.  Now sunscreen could have saved him from that pain.  I was trying to help him.  Yet like most of us, Parker did his own thing. He forgot the million times we talked about sunscreen.  He went against what he had been taught.  He might not have known how devastating the sun can be when surrounded by water near the equator.  So he paid the price.

The house of Israel paid the price as well.  They did their own thing, they forgot the saving power of God, they went against the lessons of their faith.  And Jeremiah was indicting them.  He was taking them to task.  The priests, prophets and kings, along with the people were breaking their covenant with God.

Jeremiah charges them with two evils: forsaking God and trying to do it on their own.  They forgot God who saved them from Egypt, and gave them the Promised Land.   They were trading their real God, Yahweh, for a fake god-Baal.  They turned away from the fountain of living water- the power source in their world- the divine power of God.  Rather than trusting in God, the living water, they trusted their own efforts, building cisterns to collect water, “cracked cisterns that can hold no water.”  Our solutions are always fleeting, while God’s ways are eternal.  We might hold water for a while, but only when we depend on God, the living water, do we find lasting solutions.   We live in faith trusting that “God will never leave or forsake you” (5) as the author of Hebrews reminds us.

You see the Israelites certainly needed their faith, because they were about to get annihilated with the destruction of Jerusalem.  Jeremiah was trying to bring them back to their source of life, their living water as they faced their darkest challenge.  Yet so many times it is our darkest challenge that turns us from God rather than rooting us deeper in our faith.  We are to hold on for dear life to God through “Jesus Christ who is the same yesterday, today and forever!”  We are to wear our faith in Christ like sunscreen protecting us from powerful forces that can bring us pain.  We are to remember and share the liberating acts of God from the exodus, to the cross, to our personal story of salvation.

For when we do, we can say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.  What can anyone do to me?”  Amen.