Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time (A), Jeremiah 20:10-13. [Lectionary. 094, June 19, 2005]

This Sunday’s Old Testament and Gospel readings are about tension, struggle, and fear. In the Gospel reading, we see Jesus sending the Twelve out on an initial missionary journey. Almost all of Matthew’s 10th chapter consists of the instructions that Jesus gave them. In the verses that are read today, He assures them that, in spite of what they face, there will be no need for fear. Three times in these eight verses Jesus tells them not to be afraid.

This Sunday’s Old Testament reading is from Jeremiah, the most persecuted of the prophets. Our reading is a poetic reflection by Jeremiah that comes just after the narrative of how the prophet had been scourged and put in the stocks for proclaiming the destruction and exile that lay ahead of the Israelites at the hand of the Babylonians. Those events seem to have taken place some 18 or 20 years before the final destruction of Jerusalem in 587 B.C. Now the prophet reflects with God about his situation.

The reading is in three parts. In the first part (verse 10) the prophet enunciates his situation. One of the phrases that Jeremiah often used to describe the condition of the people, "Terror on every side," has now become a kind of mocking nickname for the prophet himself. "They’re all making fun of me," he says. "Let’s keep our eyes on him. Maybe he will make some mistake that we can use to destroy him and get back at him for all the discomfort that he has caused us."

In response to this, Jeremiah expressed his confidence in God (vv. 11-12). His persecutors will not triumph. God will see to it that they get what is coming to them. It is they who will stumble and fall.

Finally, in verse 13, we have a short hymn of praise. We are called to acknowledge the goodness of the Lord who defends those who rely on Him, who rescues the weak from the hands of the wicked.

The verses that constitute this Sunday’s readings are the most hopeful part of a much longer poem of lament in which Jeremiah gives fuller expression to profound distress and anxiety. "The word of the Lord has brought me derision and reproach. ... Cursed be the day on which I was born." He would like to stop proclaiming the Lord’s message, but he cannot endure the pain of keeping silent.

There is no doubt about the threats that Jeremiah was facing, no doubt about his fear. But there is also no doubt about his confidence in the Lord. Eventually the apostles of Jesus would face persecution, too, but they, also, would have learned by then that the power of the Lord was at hand to deliver them from the threats that faced them.

Not many of us are called to be special agents of God to proclaim future catastrophe as Jeremiah was. Not many are called to give their entire attention and energy to announcing the Gospel as the apostles were. But all of us are called to give witness to the Lord Jesus. We are all called to let people know that, in the Lord, we find purpose and meaning in our lives. We are called to witness to our respect for all human life, from conception to natural death. We are called to show our respect for marriage and human sexuality. We are called to be men and women of prayer, willing to be seen and known as such.

And all this will not necessarily make us popular or admired. People will disagree with our beliefs. They will make fun of our convictions. They will suggest that it’s all a pretext, that what we present as faith is nothing other than hypocrisy. Or we will simply be disregarded, looked at as women and men who really aren’t in tune with the times, who are out of touch with the way things really are.

We may not suffer outright persecution as Jeremiah and the apostles did, but we may find ourselves excluded from the inner circles at work or at school or in our community. We may find that we are subject to greater scrutiny than others because of what we profess.

To bear the word of God means to make oneself vulnerable to suffering, liable to be derided and misunderstood. God’s word inevitably encounters hostility and rejection, and those who present it often get hurt. It’s not unreasonable to be afraid of what might happen to us if we are serious about bearing witness to our faith. But it’s also not unreasonable to share Jeremiah’s confidence in the Lord and to take heart from Jesus’ instruction to His apostles: "Do not be afraid."

For reflection and discussion.

What do I fear?

What valid reason can a Christian ever have for being afraid?