Proper 25, Year B (RCL) Jeremiah notes

[Jeremiah 31:7-9]

--> Part of the 'Book of Consolation' or 'Book of Comfort'
- a note of hope in Jeremiah; promises of restoration

- This passage concerns the promise of the return of the Exiles back to the Promised Land.

- Psalmic language (compare today's Psalm 126)

--> God's concern and care
- Pastoral metaphor: God as shepherd (vv. 8a, 9b)
- Parental metaphor: God as Father (vv. 9c)

God's concern for God's people is for all of them, not just the strong and whole. This is not an army march of the most able-bodied young persons, but also

"Among them will be the blind and the lame,
expectant mothers and women in labor;
a great throng will return." (NIV)

God's concern is also for (or even especially for) those who are might be the most vulnerable during such a trip back to Judah.

Those returning are weak, potentially vulnerable, or in need of guidance. They are, however, a "great throng." Their great numbers, seen in light of their need for guidance and care, make them more like a flock following a shepherd than an army following a general.

--> Joy and weeping

- the oracle opens with a note of joy:

"Sing aloud with gladness (or with 'joy,' NIV) for Jacob,
and raise shouts for the chief of the nations;
proclaim, give praise..."

- the oracle continues with a note of sadness:

"With weeping they shall come,
and with consolation (or 'supplication') I will lead them back."

Perhaps this weeping is tears of joy, at the almost bittersweet sting of feeling joy after having been without hope for so long.

But perhaps also, these are tears of real sadness. This great crowd is still reeling from the experience of the pain and humiliation of exile. Some among them are weak, or blind, or with child, or even in the midst of labor. The return from exile is not some sort of God-sponsored "survival of the fittest," in which only the strong make it home. No, God guides and leads this "great company" as a shepherd leads his flock, "by brooks of water, in a straight path in which they shall not stumble."

--> A Vision of Consolation
- The "Book of Consolation/Comfort" in Jeremiah offered the exiles a vision of hope, an image of a restored Jerusalem, a new Zion which will enjoy an even closer relationship with God than it did of old.
- People will again bless the "abode of righteousness, the holy hill" of Jerusalem (31:23); after their experience of having been torn from their roots, God will "sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of humans and the seed of animals... [and] watch over them to build and plant" rather than to pluck up (31:28). And God will "make a new covenant with the house of Israel," (31:31), a new covenant which will be written on the very hearts of the people (31:33) so that they will not have to teach each other about the Lord, "for they all shall know me, from the least to the greatest"(31:34).
- What a promise of fidelity and intimate communion with God! God promises that only if his fixed order of Sun and Moon should cease, only if the very heavens could be measured, would he reject beloved Israel (31:36-37).
- The city shall be rebuilt, with even greater boundaries than before ("the measuring line shall go out farther"); even areas which were formerly desolate gravesites shall become part of the rebuilt city (31:38-40).

--> Hope and Honesty

Even while offering a vision of hope,
even in the very midst of an oracle of restoration,
God is deals honestly with the pain that the people are experiencing.

Returning to the promised land,
some of them will be homesick for Babylon:
even the land of exile becomes home after generations!
Some of them will be leaving behind loved ones,
friends, their own family members.

Returning to the promised land,
some will have a harder time of the journey than others:
among their number the blind and those in labor,
those who are weak, or old, or vulnerable,
the unlikely, the struggling.

Returning to the promised land,
all will feel the sting of uncertainty:
From the certainty of helplessness in Babylon,
from certainty of their own powerlessness--
The return is a rebirth,
as frightening and painful as first birth.
After knowing only their own helplessness,
they will have to get by for themselves.
After being marginal, powerless, an exiled minority in a strange land,
they will have to stand on their own two feet.

This oracle deals with the tears,
as well as the spontaneous laughter and shouts of joy.
Through it all, God will be there.
God will laugh with their songs of joy.
God will console when they weep.
God will hear their supplications and cries,
will lead them when they feel lost,
will support them when they stumble.