A FIRE IN OUR BONES

Reading: : Jeremiah 20: 7-13

Jeremiah has a totally honest relationship with God. If he has a complaint he lets it be known in no uncertain terms. If he is angry, he vents his wrath at God who allows such things to happen. If he is confused, he brings those imponderable questions. All his negative feelings and experiences he flings at the only One who can receive them, absorb them and not be diminished by them. It is a measure of Jeremiah’s trust in God that, like the psalmist, there is nothing that he holds back from him and that somehow, somewhere, even when everything else is stripped away, he knows that God will still be there at the end of it all. On this particular occasion he has been speaking out in obedience to the Lord and has suffered greatly for it. He is an object of ridicule and rumour. Even his one-time friends are ready to pounce, watching for a slip that will enable them to get their revenge on him. It is this that provokes what is probably Jeremiah’s ‘best known’ complaint to God. “O Lord, you persuaded me, and I allowed myself to be persuaded. You are stronger than I am, and you overpowered me. Now I am mocked by everyone in the city.” And yet, he can’t stop speaking. “If I say I’ll never mention the Lord again or speak in his name, his word burns in my heart like a fire. It’s like a fire in my bones! I am weary of holding it in.” He is in an unenviable position. If he speaks out he will be attacked. If he remains silent, he is attacked from within and, in the end, is compelled to speak. In this sense God has indeed overpowered Jeremiah, but Jeremiah is an obedient, if at times reluctant, vessel. Others who picked up the mantle of prophet, or later of apostle knew the same compulsion. Amos, also from Judah, said, “The lion has roared – tremble in fear! The Sovereign Lord has spoken – I dare not refuse to proclaim his message!” Centuries later Paul, the great missionary apostle, said, “Preaching the Good News is not something I can boast about. I am compelled by God to do it. How terrible for me if I didn’t do it!”

There have been many people of faith throughout the centuries who have felt such a compulsion. Sometimes they have been reluctant prophets but the word was like a fire in their bones and there came a point where they just had to speak. For them it was a crossing of the Rubicon. There was no turning back. Their whole lives were shaped by that word – people like Martin Luther King, Oscar Romero, Desmond Tutu, Jean Vanier, to name but a few. The call for justice, right relationships, truth, mercy and peace, a call from the heart of God himself became so strong that it overwhelmed them and they had to speak, no matter what it cost. They have had the best of precedents – Jeremiah and the other prophets, yes – but supremely Jesus. He said, “I have come to bring fire to the earth, and I wish that my task were already completed. There is a terrible baptism ahead of me, and I am under a heavy burden until it is accomplished.” Thanks be to God it is accomplished! As Easter people with Good News to share that will attract some and repel others, is there a fire in our bones that will not let us be silent?

Reflections in this series