When the Heat Comes

A Sermon for McAfee School of Theology

Jeremiah 17

7          Blessed is the one who trusts in the Author of Life,
            For whom the Womb of Life is their trust.
8          That person shall be like a tree transplanted by water,
           and by the stream stretching out its roots.
            It shall not fear when heat comes,
            and its leaves shall be luxurious.
            And, in the year of drought it is not anxious,
            and it does not cease bearing fruit.

Let us pray on the theme, When the Heat Comes:

This man has me all but believing that prayer is not effective. But not just this man. The past eight years have had me wondering if God is listening to us down here; or if she has, in biblical parlance, turned her face away. Or, is she still answering prayers but not mine and those who hope and pray like me. Is she listening to and responding to them and granting their prayers? That’s what they claim. God has answered their prayers in the middle of their persecution and sent them a Messiah to cast down Jezebel and the antichrist. They have a strong case, prima facie. The evidence is in their favor.

But Jeremiah ben Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin has a word for those who might be feeling some kind of way after watching them crown their king and proclaim him God’s new Messiah. But because a text without a context is a pretext, we need to understand something about who Jeremiah was and where he was from when he spoke this word.

Jeremiah ben Hilkiah: Hilkiah is a name that occurs in priestly families; more than half of the Hilkiahs in the Scriptures are clearly identified as Levites. Yet Jeremiah and his father Hilkiah are not merely Levites; they are kohanim, priests, and they live Anathoth, a priestly city with all their kinfolk. But not just any priestly city, Anathoth. Anathoth. Anathoth where Abiathar, the high priest in the days of David was exiled for backing a losing candidate. Some of you something about backing a losing candidate.

You see David had died without leaving public notice of an heir to the throne. So Bathsheba and Nathan made a play for the throne in the Solomon’s name. They gambled on David’s mental faculties being as impotent as his little… They gambled and they won. But, Abiathar, the high priest, backed David’s son Absalom for the throne. As a result, the high priest Abiathar and all his kin were banished to Anathoth and another was set up in his place. Anathoth, a city named for a tribal Canaanite goddess. Can you hear them talking about those priests from the wrong side of the track. Maybe even those ghetto priests or, those country priests. Wherever it was that they were from, the rest of the priests said, “they not like us.” Jeremiah and his father were from Anathoth in the lands of Benjamin.

Benjamin, the tribe known for producing the failed king, Saul. Benjamin, the tribe known for the most for brutal and depraved gang rape in the Scriptures. Benjamin, the tribe known for refusing to handover the rapists for punishment. Them Jeremiah’s people. If you were wondering why he was always treated so badly in the book bearing his name – slapped in the face, thrown in jail, thrown in a muddy cistern and even once, placed on death row; it was because Jeremiah and ‘em were beyond contempt because of who their people were, where they were from and what their ancestors had done. They wouldn’t even let him past the temple gates in Jerusalem. Someone else had to take his scroll in and read it before one of the priests. Because nobody wanted to hear a mumbling word from Jeremiah.

One time the folk told him, “As for the word that you have spoken to us in the Name of the Holy One, we are not going to listen to you.” (Jeremiah 44:5) Another time they said, “You are telling a lie. The Holy One our God did not send you to say, ‘Do not go to Egypt to settle there.’” (Jeremiah 43:2) No one wanted to hear a word from Jeremiah. The king even sliced and diced and burned the very first book of Jeremiah. (Jeremiah 36:23)

Nobody wanted to hear a mumbling word from Jeremiah. And Jeremiah preached anyway.

In chapter 16 Jeremiah tells the people that they are going into exile and then he proclaimed our text for today in chapter 17:

Jeremiah said, Blessed is the one who trusts in the Ageless God …when the heat comes…

When the heat comes. When the heat comes. The heat is coming. The heat is here. Blessed is the one who trusts in the God Who Dwells Above the Cherubim when the heat comes. And the heat is on. The heat is on anyone who dares proclaim that diversity and inclusion lead to excellence. The heat is on women and our doctors. The heat is on Black history and Latine history and Native American history and queer studies. The heat is on immigrants and refugees. The heat is on anybody who looks Hispanic or Haitian. The heat is on trans folk and the parents of trans and non-binary kids. The heat is on our children, our kinfolk and our skin folk, neighbors and strangers. The heat is on anybody and everybody erased or threatened by executive orders. The heat is already here. And more is coming.

But Jeremiah said when the heat comes the one who trusts in God, the Fount of Wisdom, will be like a tree transplanted by the water, stretching out its roots, not anxious but flourishing – and its leaves shall be luxurious.

When the heat comes. When the heat of presidential scrutiny and white supremacist fascist Christianity turn on your neighbors and the strangers who are also your neighbors, do not cease bearing fruit. Bear the fruit of righteous indignation. The bear the fruit of solidarity. Bear the fruit of love of neighbor. Bear the fruit of compassion. Bear the fruit of standing up, standing for and standing with.

Stretch out your roots and claim your space. Fear may come but stand anyway for, it will not stay. Anxiety may come but stretch anyway for, it will not stay. Drought may come but plant new life and create new art anyway for, the heat will not stay. Even with global climate warming, the heat will not stay forever. Especially if we stretch out our hands to that good and holy work.

There is one more thing I need to say before I take my seat. Being deeply rooted does not mean unmovable. You already know that trees sway and dance in the wind, bend under the force of the storm and sometimes, sometimes, they do break. But there is a master gardener, She Who Birthed the Earth, who knows just how much heat a tree can take. And every once in a while a tree is even dug up from its native soil and transplanted somewhere else so that it can flourish and its leaves, luxurious.

Stand your ground but don’t cling to a place in which you are not thriving. Let the hand of God move you. Be willing to be transplanted. Trust in the God who is the Fount of Justice and become like a tree transplanted by water; flourishing – and its leaves…luxurious. Trust.

Trust and hear the words of Isaiah in community with Jeremiah because the days of a prophet in the spotlight all by himself are over. We need to work together. For as Isaiah would say, The surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward. (37:31-31) A remnant. A remnant shall survive and go out and bear a fruit.

Hear me now, not every tree will survive. Not every precious soul shall survive. That is one of the hard truth of our present reality. Some will go to their deaths early and unnecessarily because of the great evil loosed onto the world by hands of all shades that idolize whiteness and aspire to it; whose fruit is rotten to the core, drooping limply from diseased branches sprouting from a worm-eaten trunk with invasive roots.

But there is a patch of solid ground in which we can root ourselves and never be uprooted. A patch of blood soaked and tear stained ground beneath an old rugged cross. And the one nailed to its tree, Jesus, says, Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. (John 15:4).

Stay rooted McAfee, stay rooted and be fruitful. Trust in the God Jeremiah could not quit and who would not quit Jeremiah. Trust in the God who will not abandon or forsake you. Trust in the God Jesus would not forsake even while feeling forsaken on that tree. Trust in the God who is worthy of our trust. Trust when the heat is on. Trust when the fires are raging. Trust when the water is arising. Trust when the frozen cold is biting. Trust when the winds are raging. Trust. Trust when executive orders are flying. Trust when everyone on TV is lying. Trust in the Rock Who Gave Us Birth and trust in the solid rock. Trust in the God who is worthy of our trust and we will not, we shall not trust in vain.