Two days “continuing ministerial education” (that’s in-service training to everyone else). Six lectures on the Book of Jeremiah. That’s, let me see, yes, that’s six more Old Testament lectures than I have been to in the entire preceding thirty five years since leaving university. Not bad. And, in case you were wondering, it was entirely voluntary. No force was used to get me into the lecture room. I went willingly and enjoyed myself! And the food was good too! In fact, doing a degree in theology seems like a very attractive option. OK, I’ve already got one, but I bunked and flunked my way through it. The pints-of-beer to essays-completed ratio was seriously skewed. University is wasted on the young.
Anyway, Jeremiah. Defined in the dictionary as a “doleful complainer” (and he is listed just above another OT character, Jeroboam, who gives his name to an enormous bottle of champagne).
Jeremiah is seriously brilliant stuff. Completely relevant to today’s world, and to much that I’ve been doing later. Anyone having a ministerial crisis of confidence should read the so-called “Confessions of Jeremiah” (before you all rush, this is not confessions as in “Confessions of a Window-Cleaner”; it’s more thoughts, poetry, personal reflections and musings on matters personal and spiritual). Some of the most honest and challenging personal theology in the entire Bible. Jeremiah is not afraid to tell God EXACTLY what he thinks of him and the mess he has got him into.
Think that no-one listens to what you have to say? Jeremiah knew all about that. Think you can see exactly where society is going wrong, and that you can accurately predict the consequences? Jeremiah too? Yep. Fed up with people telling you to shut up and stop being a miserable bugger; God wouldn’t let it happen? Check.
Jeremiah is a meditation on disaster and aftermath which speaks into the modern world. You can read Jeremiah with profit when considering the Shoah/Holocaust; climate change; Al Qaida and terrorism; and much else besides. Walter Brueggemann has written powerfully on this, setting Jeremiah’s reflections on the destruction of Jerusalem in 587BCE alongside the destruction of the World Trade Centre in 2001CE. What about this?
“Taken as an act of brutality, the 9/11 event is not overly spectacular because in the end it entailed a relatively modest number of deaths. No doubt, that modest event has gained enormous symbolic importance because of its locus in New York City, a locus that invites perpetual media attention and commentary. Taken as a symbolic event … 9/11 is of enormous significance in US culture, for it has introduced into US awareness a dimension and depth of vulnerability that was heretofore unthinkable…. I submit that the loss of 9/11 is powerfully analogous to the loss of Jerusalem and its temple in 587BCE.”
Anyway, Jeremiah. Defined in the dictionary as a “doleful complainer” (and he is listed just above another OT character, Jeroboam, who gives his name to an enormous bottle of champagne).
Jeremiah is seriously brilliant stuff. Completely relevant to today’s world, and to much that I’ve been doing later. Anyone having a ministerial crisis of confidence should read the so-called “Confessions of Jeremiah” (before you all rush, this is not confessions as in “Confessions of a Window-Cleaner”; it’s more thoughts, poetry, personal reflections and musings on matters personal and spiritual). Some of the most honest and challenging personal theology in the entire Bible. Jeremiah is not afraid to tell God EXACTLY what he thinks of him and the mess he has got him into.
Think that no-one listens to what you have to say? Jeremiah knew all about that. Think you can see exactly where society is going wrong, and that you can accurately predict the consequences? Jeremiah too? Yep. Fed up with people telling you to shut up and stop being a miserable bugger; God wouldn’t let it happen? Check.
Jeremiah is a meditation on disaster and aftermath which speaks into the modern world. You can read Jeremiah with profit when considering the Shoah/Holocaust; climate change; Al Qaida and terrorism; and much else besides. Walter Brueggemann has written powerfully on this, setting Jeremiah’s reflections on the destruction of Jerusalem in 587BCE alongside the destruction of the World Trade Centre in 2001CE. What about this?
“Taken as an act of brutality, the 9/11 event is not overly spectacular because in the end it entailed a relatively modest number of deaths. No doubt, that modest event has gained enormous symbolic importance because of its locus in New York City, a locus that invites perpetual media attention and commentary. Taken as a symbolic event … 9/11 is of enormous significance in US culture, for it has introduced into US awareness a dimension and depth of vulnerability that was heretofore unthinkable…. I submit that the loss of 9/11 is powerfully analogous to the loss of Jerusalem and its temple in 587BCE.”
A Theology of the Book of Jeremiah: Walter Brueggemann 2007
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