A Tale of Two Prophecies

And it came to pass the same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, and in the fifth month, that Hananiah the son of Azur the prophet, which was of Gibeon, spake unto me in the house of the Lord, in the presence of the priests and of all the people, saying, Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. Within two full years will I bring again into this place all the vessels of the Lord's house, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place, and carried them to Babylon: And I will bring again to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, with all the captives of Judah, that went into Babylon, saith the Lord: for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon. (Jeremiah 28:1-4)

Just a few days ago, a friend noted with wonder that there seemed to be a church on every second corner of my neighbourhood. And it is true, they are everywhere. The historical role of the Churches in the lives of North Americans, and Europeans, is evident if only in the vast number of buildings large and small. And you can see the immeasurable wealth once wielded by these churches - if not in gold and silver, than their very sizes and locations play testament to the central roles they once played in families, cities, nations - in how to govern, how to live and what it meant to be human.

But, as in the time of Jeremiah, the thieves have reached the Temple and the King has been taken from His throne. The riches of the churches have been taken away and God no longer finds a home there. The church has lost it's relevance to the common people - who have moved on to other pursuits. There is a great hunger for spirituality, but the people do not turn to the churches to satisfy that hunger. These august buildings lie close to empty, playing host once a week to tiny, aging congregations barely able to heat the building and pay the taxes - much less feed the hungry or clothe the poor. In fact, with the swelling property values under them, the buildings are being sold, or abandoned - transformed into luxury condominiums with security guards paid to eject the poor and the hungry that they were theoretically built to serve.

For the faithful, what can this mean? For the prophet Hananiah, a contemporary of Jeremiah, it was just a temporary setback. He told the people what they wanted to hear: God would never allow this embarrassment to continue. Within two years, he promised, the treasures of the Temple and the very King of Judah - stolen by the Babylonians - would be returned and order restored.

Jeremiah prayed that this might be true. But to him, these events were a sign that the nation had has lost it's way - that the people had become consumed with the work of their own hands and had forgotten the poor and the sick amongst them. God himself has been forgotten, abandoned, become irrelevant to everyday life - and his protection had been withdrawn from His People.

Jeremiah spoke in bitter irony of God Himself, wandering in the land, abandoned and forgotten by the people he loved. Bruised, betrayed, tortured by the punishment He was about to unleash. And His wrath was only beginning to be felt. A great and terrible suffering was coming and the only way to avoid it was to turn back to the justice, mercy and compassion He had demanded.

The nation of Judah chose to believe Hananiah. They chose to believe that their privileged status with God would protect them. It did not. Jerusalem fell and it was many years before order would be restored.

Which future will we see? Will the church remember it's purpose this time? Or will it be transfixed by a rose-coloured view of the world that blinds it to the suffering of the poor and worships the work of its hands.

God calls - gently, but urgently.