Sermon – Jeremiah 31:15 – A Voice in Ramah

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Churches

Sermon – Jeremiah 31:15 – A Voice in Ramah

Advent 3

December 16, 2012

Last Friday it seemed that I was all ready for the weekend. The sermon from Zephaniah was complete. The bulletins were printed. I had everything ready for the White Gifts services. Just a few things remained and I could spend Saturday with the children of the church singing Christmas carols in Hartly Hall. But then I heard the news. 28 people including 20 children were murdered in a Connecticut elementary school. And I knew that as your pastor I had to try to make some sense out of this. Zephaniah can wait until next week. Let's pray.

“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

Jeremiah 31:15 15 This is what the LORD says: "A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because her children are no more."

Evil is a reality in our world. A young man brings a weapon into a school and starts shooting. This is just the most recent example of evil. We don't know where evil comes from. God created everything good. But evil is with us regardless of its source and we have to deal with it.

We do know that evil has a name. Scripture calls it Satan the accuser or the Devil. The Devil and his angels were banished from heaven only to wreck havoc on the world below. The Devil does his dirty work by tempting people to sin. He can use just about anything to tempt us. Maybe he will use some confusion about a tree in a garden. Maybe he will convince a disillusioned disciple to betray the messiah. Maybe he will put a gun where a disturbed young man will find it to shoot his mother and then kill innocent children at school. Satan is real good about finding something that will make us real bad.

Evil is a choice that people make. Satan can only tempt us. We either resist or succumb to this temptation. We either choose the way of the Devil or the way of God. Inanimate objects cannot be evil because they cannot make choices. A gun is not evil because a gun cannot choose to be evil. A gun is good because it is part of God's creation. And it can be used for good, provide food and protection, or for evil. The gun that was used to kill those children was not evil, but the person who fired it was.

There are many reactions that we have to evil. We can cower in fear. We can run away. We can try to confront it. There are good Christians arguing today that the government should ban guns. There are good Christian that say the government should allow prayer in schools. These things may help. But I know that the government has no power to stop evil. In fact there is no power on earth that can prevent evil from happening.

The parents of the children who were killed are weeping today. It will be very hard for those families to celebrate Christmas this year. My guess is that many of them had already put up the tree and wrapped the presents. My hope is that on this Christmas these families will find the child who was placed in a manger by his mother and is the savior of the world.

Jesus himself narrowly escape evil as a child. The king, Herod the Great, had heard from some wise men that a new king had been born in Bethlehem. So Herod ordered the killing of all the children age two and under to prevent one from usurping his throne. But God protected Jesus by having his parents take him to Egypt where they could live in safety until Herod was gone. We learn from this that God does not prevent evil from occurring, he let the children of Bethlehem die, but he did send a savior into the world to begin the process of destroying evil.

So how do we explain evil to parents of dead children? I read this from a chaplain at a hospital for children.

“Here are five things not to say to grieving family and friends:

1. Never ever say to a grieving family: "God just needed another angel."

Portraying God as someone who arbitrarily kills kids to fill celestial openings is neither faithful to God, nor helpful to grieving parents.

2. Never ever say to a grieving family: "Thank goodness you have other children," or, "You're young. You can have more kids."

Children are not interchangeable or replaceable. The loss of a child will always be a loss, no matter how many other children a parent has or will have.

3. Never ever say to a grieving family: He/she was just on loan to you from God.

The message is that God is so capricious that God will break parents' hearts at will just because God can. It also communicates to parents and loved ones that they are not really entitled to their grief.

4. Never ever say to a grieving family: God doesn't give you more than you can handle.

Actually, some people do get a lot more than any one person should ever have to handle. And it doesn't come from God. Don't trivialize someone's grief with a "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" mentality.

5. Never ever say to a grieving family: We may not understand it, but this was God's will.

Unless you are God, don't use this line.

And here are five things to say:

1. I don't believe God wanted this or willed it.

A grieving friend or family member is likely hearing that this is God's will from a number of other people. Affirm the idea that it may very well not be.

2. It's okay to be angry, and I'm a safe person for you express that anger to if you need it.

Anger is an essential part of the grieving process, but many don't know where to talk about it because they are often silenced by others when they express their feelings. (For instance, they may be told they have no right to be angry at God.) By saying you are a safe person to share all feelings, including anger, with, you help the grieving person know where they can turn.

3. It's not okay.

It seems so obvious, but sometimes this doesn't get said. Sometimes the pieces don't fit. Sometimes nothing works out right. And sometimes there is no way to fix it. Naming it can be helpful for some because it lets them know you won't sugarcoat their grief.

4. I don't know why this happened.

When trauma happens, the shock and emotion comes first. But not long after comes our human need to try to explain "why?" The reality is that often we cannot. The grieving person will likely have heard a lot of theories about why a trauma occurred. Sometimes it's best not to add to the chorus, but to just acknowledge what you do not know.

5. I can't imagine what you are going through, but I am here to support you in whatever way feels best.

Even if you have faced a similar loss, remember that each loss is different. Saying "I know how you're feeling" is often untrue. Instead, ask how the grieving person is feeling. And then ask what you can do to help. Then, do it and respect the boundaries around what they don't want help with at this point. You will be putting some control back into the hands of the grieving person, who often feels like they have lost so much of it.

Adapted from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-emily-c-heath/dealing-with-grief-five-t_b_2303910.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009

In the scripture I read to you earlier from Jeremiah the Judean army had suffered a major loss in battle. Many of the young men who had valiantly marched out to protect their land never came back. There mothers are weeping. God wants them to hear some good news so he sent the prophet to proclaim a message.

Jeremiah 31:16-17 ¹⁶ This is what the LORD says: "Restrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for your work will be rewarded," declares the LORD. "They will return from the land of the enemy. ¹⁷ So there is hope for your future," declares the LORD. "Your children will return to their own land.

The source of our hope in face of evil is not that God will prevent evil from occurring. Our hope is that God will defeat evil by defeating death itself. God does this by resurrecting the faithful from the dead to new life in Jesus Christ. And so the comforting thought is one day the grieving parents and the children they lost will be reunited in a glorious resurrection defeating evil once and for all. The promise of scripture is that evil will be defeated by the coming of a new creation with a new covenant between God and his people. God has promised to purge evil from our hearts and replace it with his own Spirit. We will be forgiven for all the evil we have done in our lives. And we will be restored in right relationship with God and with each other. Jeremiah puts it this way.

Jeremiah 31:31-34 ³¹ "The time is coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. ³² It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them," declares the LORD. ³³ "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the LORD. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. ³⁴ No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest," declares the LORD. "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."

So what can we do when we hear about such evil in the world? We can pray that the Devil will be purged from earth just as he has been purged from heaven. We can pray that God's kingdom, and a world free from evil will come sooner than later. We can pray that the families of the children lost will find peace and joy in God's love this Christmas. And we can pray that evil will not touch the ones we love. So let's pray.

Father in heaven we pray for the families who experienced loss in the shootings last Friday. Send your spirit to comfort them. Send your spirit to protect us and our children. Remind us of the joy we will experience when you gather us all together in the glorious resurrection. We await the coming of a savior who will banish evil. Come, Lord Jesus. Amen.