Jeremiah 29:1, 4–7
Jeremiah’s prophecies are both disturbing and inspiring. They remind us of how embedded we are to systems of injustice and idolatry, and how difficult it is to untangle and release ourselves from these webs of oppression. Jeremiah preaches through-out the reign of five Judean kings. The first king, Josiah, was a reformer. The Judean people had fallen away from God, adopting the customs and practices of the oppressive Assyrians while under their rule, but King Josiah recognized his people’s faithlessness, instituting and promoting reforms outlined in Deuteronomy. Though initially encouraged (see Jer. 11:1-8) Jeremiah viewed these reforms as too superficial, too little and too late. When King Josiah died, Judah fell back into idolatry. Subsequent kings would not work to uproot the oppressive, idolatrous systems in Judah and radically re-orient the Judeans towards a faithful covenantal relationship with God and one another. Jeremiah warned that this would lead to the total destruction of Jerusalem at the hands of the rising Babylonian Empire, the death of thousands of people, and the exile of the Judah’s political and religious leaders into Babylon. Relatively powerless and poor or rich and powerful, it didn’t matter, all suffered–in part–due to the political and religious leaders unwillingness to call their people to repentance and enact systemic change.
And yet, I write “in part,” because Babylon was just as complicit in oppression as the Judeans. Despite Jeremiah’s recognition that the overthrow of Jerusalem and exile was a result of Judah’s imitation of Assyria, and despite God’s providential use of Babylon, no one in this drama is faithful or justified. Jeremiah also preaches God’s condemnation against the Babylonians. This prompts Daniel Berrigan in his book Jeremiah: the World, the Wound of God to wonder what difference there really was between idolatrous Judah and Babylon, speculating that “perhaps… psychologically, spiritually, a form of exile was underway long before the Babylonians ‘came like a wolf on the fold,’” (Fortress Press: 1999, 107). If Judah was acting like Babylon they may as well be ruled by Babylonians… Which leads us to the verse in our lectionary today, often referred to as “a disturbing hope,” where the exiled Judeans are encouraged to humbly accept their defeat, their status as exiles, and settle in Babylon for at least a generation, even praying for the well-being of the city of exile. This would not have been a comforting word for political leaders who were actively planning their next revolt.
For the abolitionist preacher this context needs to be supplied to understand how this can preach in our time. While the Judeans are certainly an oppressed people in relation to Babylon, they are a people whose minds have been shaped by Imperial rule. The leaders are scheming with other powerful nations. They might seek reform and speak “peace, peace,” but their words are empty when the people are not committed to repentance and repair. The rule of Babylon is more blatant oppression, but it isn’t altogether different. And yet, in the midst of all of this, the poor suffer under political and military maneuvering. God is ultimately putting an end to this violent farce when he encourages the exiled leaders to accept their fate. God will work to renew and vindicate Jerusalem in a new generation under humbled leadership.
Though it would be a mistake to totally equate King Josiah’s reforms with current reformist policies, Jeremiah reminds us that reforms are not enough if they don’t transform the root of a problem. For abolitionist organizers, this relates to the need to totally reimagine what community care and justice look like. Jeremiah also reminds us that we must be willing to speak truth about political maneuvering that ultimately is using the oppressed for political gain. Consider, for example, leaders who will claim to be concerned about the well-being of prisoners as a pretext for building bigger jails or police reform that simply increases police budgets. Our naysaying to these reforms might, like Jeremiah’s word, feel overly strident and condemnatory, and our predictions of how these reforms will only lead to further violence and systematic oppression might feel as unreasonably dire as Jeremiah’s predictions sounded, but may his example embolden us as we preach against the systems of oppression and idolatry we are enmeshed in today.
Sarah Lynne Gershon (she/her) is an MDiv/MTS student, DOC pastor, and lives at the Bloomington Catholic Worker.