“Jeremiah was a prophet. Was a good friend of mine. I never understood a single word he said, but I helped him drink his wine, and he always had some mighty fine wine.”
Often when I think about Jeremiah, this silly little tune runs through my head. Turns out, though, that the hit recording by Three Dog Night almost used prophet instead of bullfrog — thinking that the change added spiritual depth. But when it came time to record, Jeremiah remained a wine-drinking, mumbling bullfrog. Because bullfrogs are more rock and roll than prophets.
If anything, though, the prophet Jeremiah was more rock and roll than easy listening. He was rebellious, loud, in-your-face; more Johnny Rotten than Perry Como. He was called to speak boldly and loudly to the truth that the leaders and the people had turned from the covenant God had made with and for them, turned away from the poor and the suffering, and turned towards other gods, greed, power, and privilege.
As we think about our own day and age, how might we as persons and a community of faith cut through the noise and jeremiads that dominate the media, the public sphere, and the internet so that we can not only name the ways our nation and neighbors (and selves) are turned away from God’s call to love and serve the neighbor and serve only themselves?
How might we proclaim that in God in Christ by the Holy Spirit there is holy joy for the world, holy joy for you and me?
Pax,
Pastor Scott