But as soon as Jeremiah finished telling all the people everything the Lord had commanded him to say, the priests, the prophets, and all the people seized him and said, “You must die!”

Back in July of 2001 a nearly unbelievable film clip made the rounds on the internet. I say “nearly” because I am always amazed at the stupid things people will do. The film clip showed a tourist boat near Cape Jarvis in Australia ferrying people to the site where a dead whale washed up close to shore. There were white sharks feeding on the carcass. The people were walking out on the whale having their pictures taken and some were even seen “petting” the sharks while they were coming in to feed on the whale. A local official was outraged and immediately sought legislation to “protect the people from themselves.” It is an inconvenient truth that sometimes we have to be protected from ourselves. All three of our lessons today speak to that inconvenient truth.

Jeremiah was commanded by God- carried along by the Holy Spirit- to tell the people they were on a path to devastation: If you do not turn away from your sins, destruction is on the horizon. You priests are failing to rightly lead the people- you are soft selling the Word of God- massaging the message; some of you are claiming to be prophets, claiming to speak for God, but you are speaking from your own sinful desires with your own agendas; others of you have only the appearance of godliness but your hearts are far from God, and still others of you have simply gone astray and worship all manner of false gods. If you do not turn from your sins and self-serving justification, then even this place, this city and this temple will become like Shiloh- a desolate and deserted wasted land.

Shiloh was one of the original places of worship in Israel. Everyone assumed it would last forever- They must have thought: “He would never abandon us…we are, after all, His chosen people”. But God cannot be mocked, deceived or manipulated and in 1050 BC the Philistines overran Shiloh and laid waste to it, and it became a desolate place.

Plainly and directly Jeremiah spoke an inconvenient truth. God had told him not to omit even one word God had given him. The people aren’t going to want to hear it. They will close their ears to you and even cry out, “You must die!...You have prophesied against this city.” When I hear of them trying to cut off the message I am reminded of one of my sons who used to cover his ears and say, “LA LA LA LEE,LEE!!!!!” to try to drown out things he didn’t want to hear.

In the Epistle Paul speaks an inconvenient truth; He speaks of the destruction of another group of people who are much like us. Paul tells us that many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. How many people, how many of us, are acting as if we were still in our teens or early twenties: thinking we are bullet-proof, knowing everything, and are invincible?

In our Gospel lesson Jesus speaks of those who He longs to gather unto Himself like a hen gathers her chicks under her protective wings, but you were not willing! Those people were willing to send Him away, dismiss Him, and even kill Him if necessary to stop from hearing His message. As a result of their repeated resistance to God, His message and His messenger “their house”- their lives- will be left desolate, and they will be destroyed.

Our reaction to all this, to the likes of them and even many of people around us, may be one of self-righteousness: those people out there better straighten up and turn back, and while that may be true, what about us? How many of us have a form of godliness but really doubt His power? How many of us will hear God’s Word to a point until it begins to make us uncomfortable, shows us our sins, seeks to have us turn out our pet sins? How often do we, like “them,” begin to ignore God’s words and warnings; how many of us become selectively deaf to what God has to say? How many of us are good at justifying our sinful attitudes and actions? How many of us, like the Philippians, fail to realize that all our little compromises with the world and subtle denials have in sum total made us enemies of the cross? How many of us can get down right hostile to the things of God that we don’t want to hear?

St. Paul once wrote to Timothy be careful there will come a time when people will gather around them a great number of teachers who will say what their itching ears want to hear; they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn to myths. How many of them, how many of us, think we “know better than eternal God? I see it all the time - people will shop for a messenger that will tell them what they want to hear- a messenger that will allow them to live life as they see fit. That turning away from God’s truth will lead to destruction and desolation if not now, then one heart beat after death.

BUT God has not left us in the wreckage caused by our sin. He has not left us in exile amidst the destruction and desolation that our sins deserve. Into the middle of all of this destruction and rejection and hostility, God sent His Son. Time and time again those who spoke the Word of God were rejected and so was God’s Son. Jesus spoke inconvenient truths, and for it, He was rejected and plotted against. To those who rejected His message He said, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you again and again kill the prophets and stone those sent to you. You think you know better but your arrogance against the Word of God will bring you to destruction, not just with the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. but eternal damnation if you think you can some how save yourselves.

Jesus had to come and suffer the rejection and destruction of the cross. Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrow, yet we considered Him stricken by God and afflicted.( Is 53.4) In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of law, and the elders mocked Him….Let Him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in Him. (Matt 27. 41-42) Truly, He was pierced for our rejections and compromises; He was crushed for our ongoing idolatry, hardheartedness, and arrogance against the rightful things of God. He suffered on the cross the total destruction and rejection that we, because of our sins, deserved. He who knew no sin became sin for us and then He died. They took His body and put it in a grave. As that stone covered the opening, He was cut it off from the land of living. His rejection, death and exile were complete - that should have been us but He took our place.

But the story doesn’t end there. Just as the children of Israel were brought back from Babylon, so too, we are not left in the exile of sin. On the third day Jesus rose from the dead. He came back from the destruction of death and exile of the grave. He rose up victorious over sin and death not just for Himself but for us. He rose declaring - repent of your sins, turn from them and receive forgiveness…. receive the full forgiveness for your sins. That forgiveness is transformational. It carries with it life and salvation. For where there is forgiveness of sins there is life and salvation. That forgiveness and transformation are given to you in, by and through God’s word and sacraments.

All around are people living lives of rebellion: some live openly shameful and ungodly; others are more subtle but still in rebellion, others live in self-satisfied denial, and still others proclaim a message of salvation that is not salvation at all for it seeks to replace the work of the cross with the works of man. They all need to know, just as we do, a very inconvenient truth: We are sinners incapable of saving ourselves but salvation is there by and through the cross of Christ. Salvation is there for all, but how will they hear if we are too worried about being rejected, ridiculed, or persecuted to tell them?

And it is said to all people, “The Lord sent me to speak His truth against this city and all who live here.” Repent of your ways and your actions; obey the Lord your God, and then the Lord will save you from the disaster and destruction you deserve. He will rescue you by His grace and mercy. He will give you His victory and its courage to live boldly in rebellious times.

Now what that means to you and me is that we have to go out on the whale, and then we have to talk “some Jesus” to those who are petting the sharks. We have been sent to save them from themselves. We may not want to go for lots of reasons, but remember someone once came for us!