RANSOMED RETURN (49 OF 49)
Scripture: Jeremiah 31:7-14
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Ransomed Return (49 of 49)
Lectionary, Year C, Christmas 2
Christopher B. Harbin
Jeremiah 31:7-14
Have you ever left everything behind to start over? My family has had the experience of leaving a country we loved on short notice. We had resources at our disposal, however. We had a couple of weeks to sell belongings, pack a shipping crate, organize a place to stay, and get our kids and animals safely onto a plane with our luggage. It was a hard two weeks, but we knew where we were going. We still had several months' worth of income to plan with. We had a place to stay lined up and waiting. We did not become refugees in the normal sense of the word, even if we felt we had been exiled. I am living at my 41st address. I've moved a lot. I've always had some sense of where I was going and how I would navigate my new surroundings. Can you imagine starting over with nothing? I can't.
I question the Lectionary at times. We would expect today's readings to be about Christmas, as this is the second Sunday in the 12 days of the Christmas season. Today's passage from Jeremiah does not deal directly with Christmas. It is not really a Messianic text. It is about the return of the exiles from Babylonian captivity. The text set a counterpoint to Jeremiah's message generally characterized as doom and gloom. Well, while the passage has words in it about rejoicing and praising Yahweh, it still would have felt like doom and gloom to Jeremiah's audience.
See, in order for these words to become good news for anyone, the people first had to become hauled away from their land, kicked to the curb of humanity, and find themselves in utter despair. Only after more than one generation of living in exile would the good news in today's passage come into effect. To compound things, those who returned to the land, as Jeremiah describes them, would be refugees. They would be the dregs of society. They would be the blind and the lame. They would travel the road while pregnant or nursin ...
Lectionary, Year C, Christmas 2
Christopher B. Harbin
Jeremiah 31:7-14
Have you ever left everything behind to start over? My family has had the experience of leaving a country we loved on short notice. We had resources at our disposal, however. We had a couple of weeks to sell belongings, pack a shipping crate, organize a place to stay, and get our kids and animals safely onto a plane with our luggage. It was a hard two weeks, but we knew where we were going. We still had several months' worth of income to plan with. We had a place to stay lined up and waiting. We did not become refugees in the normal sense of the word, even if we felt we had been exiled. I am living at my 41st address. I've moved a lot. I've always had some sense of where I was going and how I would navigate my new surroundings. Can you imagine starting over with nothing? I can't.
I question the Lectionary at times. We would expect today's readings to be about Christmas, as this is the second Sunday in the 12 days of the Christmas season. Today's passage from Jeremiah does not deal directly with Christmas. It is not really a Messianic text. It is about the return of the exiles from Babylonian captivity. The text set a counterpoint to Jeremiah's message generally characterized as doom and gloom. Well, while the passage has words in it about rejoicing and praising Yahweh, it still would have felt like doom and gloom to Jeremiah's audience.
See, in order for these words to become good news for anyone, the people first had to become hauled away from their land, kicked to the curb of humanity, and find themselves in utter despair. Only after more than one generation of living in exile would the good news in today's passage come into effect. To compound things, those who returned to the land, as Jeremiah describes them, would be refugees. They would be the dregs of society. They would be the blind and the lame. They would travel the road while pregnant or nursin ...
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