I was seven, maybe eight, years old. I can’t remember the precise

circumstances surrounding the event, but I had been sent to

my room. In my mind, I was the subject of unjust persecution. I

slammed the door and locked it. I was crying angry tears, and

right then and there, I decided to resort to extreme measures.

You see, I had recently learned that there were words (I had a

partial list) you were not allowed to say. In fact, there were words

that God commanded you not to say. But where was God when

my parents acted in such an unfair way? I got into my bed, I

covered my head with blankets, and I said directly into my pillow,

“Heck.” I paused, anticipating divine punishment, but none came.

So, I upped the ante, whispering this time. ”Hell.” There was a

knock at my door. I prepared myself for utter obliteration. But the

visitor at my door was not God, just my dad coming to explain

the consequences of my action. I still can feel the relief that

washed over me.

Have you ever been so frustrated, so exhausted, so exasperated,

that you said something you weren’t sure you were allowed

to say? Maybe even to God? In this morning’s scripture text,

the prophet Jeremiah goes there. Oh God, how could you? You

tricked me into this. You never said it would be this hard.

Now, how can Jeremiah talk to God, the Sovereign Lord, the

Righteous Judge, the Creator of the Universe… How can

Jeremiah talk to God like this?

To understand, you have to go back to the beginning. Jeremiah’s

story starts with the voice of God spoken to a child.

Before you were born, I anointed you, I appointed you a prophet.

Now, child, I have put my words in your mouth. Today, I appoint

you over nations and kingdoms: to pluck up and pull down, to

destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.

And with that, the young prophet is sent into the world to tell the

truth and nothing but the truth. This may sound simple. But wait—

there’s more! What Jeremiah must declare is divine judgment.

Divine judgment against corrupt leadership, against religious

hypocrisy, against societal injustice and inequity. In the waning

years of the kingdom of Judah, Jeremiah confronts both King and

Council with the message:

You will soon reap what you have sown. Your fragile nation will be

undermined by idolatry of power and failure of compassion for the

weak. Eventually you will be overtaken by King Nebuchadnezzar

and the Babylonian Empire.

Jeremiah does not hold back. He speaks it in the public square.

He preaches it in the Temple. He tells the truth to anyone who

will listen. He proclaims God’s displeasure and describes the

consequences that are surely coming. Exile is on the horizon.

And so, the prophet does just as God commanded. I have put my

words in your mouth. I appoint you over nations and kingdoms.

Well, it goes about how you might expect.

Jeremiah is dismissed and then condemned by religious

officials. He is publicly beaten and placed in stocks. He is

denounced by false prophets who insist on smooth lies over

difficult truths. He is threatened with death. He is viewed as a

traitor to the nation he loves. All of this for speaking God’s word

and pleading with the powerful to change their ways—to return

to God with their hearts.

Jeremiah is sometimes called the weeping prophet. In this

morning’s text, we meet him in a place of utter exasperation.

Today’s tears come from a place of anger. The man is stuck

between an insistent God and a resistant people. He is ready to

give up. But first, he lets God have it. You enticed me, and I was

enticed. You overpowered me, and you prevailed. And because of

that, I have become a joke to my people.

How can you talk to God like that?

It was the kind of conversation that takes place whenever a

group of pastors gathers around cups of coffee to commiserate