Daily Prophets
Day 90
“Why is this people-Jerusalem-rebellious with a persistent rebellion? They cling to deceit, they refuse to return. I have listened and heard: they do not speak honestly, no one regrets his wickedness. Because my people is shattered, I am shattered. I mourn and dismay has taken hold on me.”(Jeremiah 8:5,6,21).
Jeremiah is wailing for God because of the rebellion of Jerusalem. What is the rebellion? The turning away from God, is of course, the easy answer. The deeper call here, I believe, as with so many of the prophetic calls, is they rebel because they refuse to return. Jeremiah is reminding us that perfection is not the goal nor the expectation of God, rather the goal is a constant turning back, returning, learning how to serve God a little more each and every day.
Our need to deceive ourselves and another(s) with the myth of perfection and the inability to take responsibility for our errors is a big part of our deceit and our dishonesty. Both the prophet and God are waiting for the people of Jerusalem to take inventory of their actions and return with a renewed commitment and faith. Yet, the people “cling to their deceit”. We are still clinging to our deceit and self-deceptions and it is still causing God and the prophets of today to cry out and beg us to return to God’s ways.
Yet, no one is willing to “regret his wickedness”. No one is willing to own up to their errors because we believe it makes us weak. God, through Jeremiah, is telling us that owning up to our errors, regretting our bad actions, speaking truth and letting go of deceit will save us, make us stronger and cleanse us from our past mistakes. Yet, we are stuck in our “persistent rebellion” and, even worse, our self-deception tells some of us that we are doing God’s bidding!
To those people, I would suggest they look at the last verse above. Clinging to the self-deception allows some people to continue to lie, pervert the words of God, pervert justice for the poor and the needy, all of which shatters the people which in turn shatters the prophet. Jeremiah’s identification with and love for his people comes out so powerfully in this verse.
Rabbi Heschel teaches: “Over and above man’s blindness stood the wonder of repentance, the open gateway through which he could enter if he would…Jeremiah, looking upon the garishness of Jerusalem, felt hurt by the people’s guilt and by the knowledge that they had a dreadful debt to pay.” (The Prophets pg. 104,105). These words continue to remind us today that we can let go of our willful blindness, as Rabbi Heschel teaches, and open up to and walk through the gateway of repentance and return. He is reminding us of Jeremiah’s pain and hurt and dismay and despair at the fate of Jerusalem because of their wickedness. Rabbi Heschel is calling all of us to experience the wonder of repentance, enter this gateway and let go of our self-deception and false pride that we don’t need to repent nor return. The hubris of the people of Jerusalem and of people throughout the ages including today is that we can tell God what God’s ways are instead of following God’s ways and turning our life over to the care of God. We have, in our deceit, decided we know God better than the prophets knew God, even better than God knows God!
In recovery, we are so hyper-aware of our deceitful paths, our wickedness and the myriad of lives we shattered in our non-recovery living. We also know how blessed we are to have walked through the gateway of repentance and we marvel each and every day at the wonder of repentance, just as Jeremiah is teaching. In recovery, the first action we took was to let go of our deceit, stop rebelling against who knows what, and begin to seek truth, seek God. We learned and continue to practice speaking truth, being imperfect and making amends and learning new ways to be decent, kind, loving and follow God’s ways. We do claim our part of successes and failures in order to learn, grow and be right-sized. We repaired the ways we shattered another(s) both in ourselves and with another(s). In recovery, we don’t dismay, we believe change is possible because we are engaged in this change.
I rebelled for many years, in fact for most of my life. At first, I rebelled against God, I practiced deceit, refused to return, did not regret my wickedness nor was I interested in speaking truth. I was angry and I wanted to “get mine and get even”. This was my response to my father’s death when I was 14 and he was 42. I miss him to this day and the difference is I am no longer angry, I am grateful to be his son and to have learned so much from him. My rebellion these past 32 years has been against the status quo or deceit, wickedness, self-deception people in power practice, be they politicians, leaders, CEO’s, Clergy, parents, etc. I have seen the need for perfection in these people and I get dismayed and loud about and to their mendacity. I am not perfect and admit that, yet, so many people are afraid to admit their errors and believe that they are right and God is telling them to act in accordance with their self-deception! How sad, how frightening, how painful! Being right-sized, hearing the call of God and Jeremiah is not easy, it is simple and the more I work on it, the more I hear, see and do. Stay safe and God Bless, Rabbi Mark