Jeremiah 1:4-8
Psalm 71:17-18

“What Stands in the Way of Your Voice?”

Four hundred years ago this month, the first enslaved Africans arrived in North America against their will, forced to work under the threat of violence. Millions of people suffered under slavery. The intergenerational trauma played out over hundreds of years. In the context of 400 years, slavery was legal for more than 60% of that time. We know that the effects of this great injustice is still felt today, as racism takes on new and evolving forms: voter suppression, mass incarceration, redlining. There is a repetition in the Hebrew Bible of the intergenerational impact of injustice.

I can’t help but feel there is a biblical significance of 400 years, too. Because the book of Genesis tells us that the people of God had suffered for 400 years under the oppression of slavery in Egypt when God brought them out to freedom. And the prophets spoke the words of God’s judgment and a call to repentance for a period of nearly 400 years before and after the Babylonian exile. Our modern era, if we could judge such a thing, has been defined by the history of slavery, exploitation, and colonialism.

I recently learned about The Slave Bible. It was a redacted version of the Bible printed to convert enslaved African Americans to Christianity. White slave owners believed that if they were converted to Christianity, they would be hardworking and subservient. The challenge was that while the Bible does present a call to servitude in Christ, this servitude was never intended to be rooted in systems of power. Over and over, God speaks out against injustice and the exploitation of the poor in the Bible. God sent the plagues in Egypt as a warning to the pharaoh to free the enslaved Hebrews.

But The Slave Bible didn’t include this history. The creators shaped the Word of God to tell their own story. They preached a false gospel of spiritual freedom while continuing to deny physical freedom to the people they sought to convert. This heresy is part of our history in the American church, and it maintains a powerful hold still today. Whose suffering does this theology silence?

When Jeremiah was called by God, there were many false prophets. The Book of Jeremiah repeatedly tells of people who claimed that God would ignore the injustice and unfaithfulness of the people. As a preacher, I can tell you honestly of the temptation to speak only words of encouragement, of hope, and of peace. But in the Book of Jeremiah, we also hear God saying “Woe to you who say, ‘Peace, Peace’ but there is no peace.” The reality is that sometimes God’s message for us does not sound kind.

God called Jeremiah when he was young. Various translations imagine him as a youth, or a boy, or even a young man. He was likely between 17 and 21. He wasn’t married and didn’t have any children. His status hadn’t been solidified in the community. And Jeremiah did what so many prophets before him did: Jeremiah said no.

I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy. I’m too young. The people over there don’t know me. I have tried and failed before. I am not ready for my life to change. I don’t want to disappoint my family. I don’t know how to speak.

Before Jeremiah could hear the plans God had for him, he decided the plans he had for himself. They were smaller, safer plans. Plans to stay in his own lane. Plans not to disrupt the social system of his day.

But before I go on making it sound as though Jeremiah was simply a coward, it is important to know that Jeremiah’s assumptions were right. He didn’t have a voice. When Jeremiah spoke God’s word to the people, they didn’t listen to him. This isn’t an underdog story where a young man realizes the power of his own voice and changes the hearts and minds of the people. Jeremiah was ridiculed, rejected, and imprisoned. His message was not received in his own time, and even today, we struggle with its harsh implications for our own lives of faith.

Jeremiah said no. The people said no. But God said yes. God had a plan for Jeremiah and the people, a long path of redemption which would not be realized for generations. God tells Jeremiah “I am with you. Do not be afraid.” And Jeremiah became a prophet to the people of God. It was not glamorous work. He did not make money or gain status. He made sacrifices. Jeremiah is remembered as the weeping prophet, because of his great suffering.

But Jeremiah went to people whose lives were in upheaval and reminded them of their identity. As people of God, they had commitments. To care for the poor. To be honorable stewards of resources. To take care of the land. And as people of God, their strength and salvation came from God alone. But the people experienced political upheaval and leadership change. It was tempting to look for security elsewhere. And the Book of Jeremiah tells us that they did just that. They forgot who they were. They forgot whose they were. If Jeremiah was the weeping prophet, his book presents the image of the weeping God, who was wounded and wearied and devastated by the failures of His people to love as He had loved them.

So what was the difference between Jeremiah and the people? Yes, God formed and called Jeremiah. God set him apart as a prophet. But had God really called Jeremiah alone to be a witness to God in the world? My guess is no. We find repetitions of this kind of language in other places in scripture, like Psalm 71. And while these words are particular, intended to express the intimate relationship Jeremiah and others had with God, they are not meant to be exclusive. The psalm speaks of God’s call from young to old, across generations. It is not a temporary experience, either, but a lifelong promise. God is our creator. God has made each one of us, calls us, and has a plan for us. And like Jeremiah, God will go with us. God’s Do Not Be Afraid is for us, too.

And we need these words now more than ever. As we seek to understand who we are and where we are going as a church. As we reorient ourselves to the mission God has for us here in Sacramento. As we recognize the things we need to leave behind and the new and surprising things God has in store for us.

Because, church, we have an important role to play. And we can’t play it if we are acting out of fear. Do not be afraid. Many of us here have known personally what it means not to have a voice. What it means to have our voices silenced. By oppressive governments, by our class, orientation, or gender, by insidious racism, and by our citizenship. We know that this silence is wrong.

But today, most of us here do have a voice, though there are still things which silence us. Our fears. Our doubts. Feelings of apathy. There is a voice in us which says I don’t know how to speak. What stands in the way of your voice? Speaking God’s truth in the face of injustice requires moral courage. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. reflected on the parable of the Good Samaritan, saying “The priest and the Levite asked ‘If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?’ The Good Samaritan reversed the question: ‘If I don’t stop to help him, what will happen to him?’”. The consequences of our silence are great. God’s call to us is persistent. God is telling us now: Do not say “We are only a small church” or “We are too old” or “too young”. Do not say “Let’s play it safe and bide our time, this, too, shall pass.”

God has given us a voice. A voice to build up. A voice to encourage. A voice to proclaim good news and challenge injustice. We are called to be witnesses. We have been called from before we were born, whether or not we knew it, whether or not we accepted it then or now. You are God’s beloved. We claim this truth at our baptism, asking God to lead us and guide us, and trusting in that promise “I am with you”. Always. Perfect love–God’s love– drives out fear.

Since my youth, O God, you have taught me,

and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds.

Even when I am old and gray,

do not forsake me, my God,

till I declare your power to the next generation,

your might to all who are to come.

Sixteen generations stand between us and the first enslaved Africans to step foot on our continent. God is breaking down the powers of evil at work in this world. The people have declared to the next generations, God is mighty. In spite of the circumstances, like Jeremiah, they have spoken the truth with great courage. Those who have known what it is like to be voiceless understand even more greatly the importance of speaking the truth. Whose voices are silenced today? Let us remember that our God is a friend of the weak and the voiceless.

God has given us each a voice. And God has also given us ears to hear and other senses to perceive. May we listen with God’s own ears to hear where God is calling us as the church. Thanks be to God.