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The Sermon for Septuagesima Sunday, February 16th, 2025
The Lessons: Jeremiah 17:5-10; Psalm 1; 1 Corinthians 15:12-20; Luke 6:17-26
The Text: Jeremiah 17:5-10
INTRODUCTION
In ancient China, people wanted protection from barbarian hordes from the North. So the Great Wall of China was built: thirty feet high, eighteen feet thick, and more than fifteen hundred miles long.
The Chinese goal was to build an absolutely impenetrable defense – too high to climb over, too thick to break down, and too long to go around. The people trusted this wall to keep them safe. But during the first hundred years of the wall’s existence, China was successfully invaded three times.
It wasn’t the wall’s fault. During all three invasions, the barbaric hordes never climbed over the wall, broke it down, or went around it; they simply bribed a gatekeeper and then marched in through an open door. The purpose of the wall failed because of a breakdown in values.
– James Emery White: You Can Experience a Purposeful Life (Word, 2000)[1]
Such a wall was unable to keep out determined invaders, and a nation’s efforts to protect itself failed. Though the physical barrier against invaders was formidable, the patriotic loyalty of the guards vanished in the face of an enemy’s bribes. This is an ancient problem – the sinfulness of human beings.
JEREMIAH 17:5-10: THE CURSE OF TRUSTING IN MAN VERSUS THE BLESSING OF TRUSTING IN GOD
Our Old Testament Lesson begins with wisdom sayings that pronounce both a curse on the person who trusts in human beings and a blessing on the one who trusts in the Lord (Jeremiah 17:5-8). Similar wisdom sayings are found in Psalm 1, our Psalter lesson for today. The opening verses of our Old Testament Lesson follow a passage in which God declares that Judah’s sin is engraved on the tablet of their hearts, that is, their sin of idolatry. This sin resulted in the loss of their wealth and in their exile to Babylon (Jeremiah 17:1-4). The wisdom saying that follows is God’s diagnosis not only of Judah’s sinful condition, but of mankind’s sin as well:
Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.
(Jeremiah 17:5, KJV)
There are three aspects of this wisdom saying, all of which merit God’s curse. The first is to trust in human beings as if they can bring the help that one can only receive from God, the second is to rely on human resources, and the third is to depart from the Lord. All of these work together and amount to disobedient attitudes and behavior.
Then the Lord compares such a person to “heath in the desert” (Jer. 17:6a, KJV), or it could be juniper (NEB, REB), tamarisk (LXX), or a shrub (NRSV). All these types of plant would be parched and withered in the desert. Such a person is blind, not being able to see when good comes, just as plants in a desert don’t know when the next rain shower will be. A salty waste, where no plants can grow, an arid and uninhabited wilderness is a picture of the spiritual state of the person who lives life trusting in himself and man’s strength and resources instead of in God.
By contrast, the person who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord, is blessed (Jer.17:7). The picture of the blessed man who trusts in the Lord is a tree – note, not a shrub – planted next to the water, which spreads her roots to extract the moisture from the riverbed. Such a person is not blind to when the good comes, but does not fear when the scorching heat comes, nor is he anxious in a year of drought, but is like a tree with green leaves, continually yielding good fruit.
The choice, then, is which of these two will we be? Are we those who trust in ourselves, in others, in human resources and achievements, or do we trust in the Lord and make him our hope?
Th final two verses are really a warning. People may think that they trust the Lord and are living life trusting the Lord, but what’s really going on deep in their minds? Still waters run deep, the English proverb goes. In the first half of Jeremiah 17:9, God gives the diagnosis of the human heart (intellect, emotion and will). It is “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jer.17:9a, KJV). The second part of the verse asks the question who can know the human heart. The answer to this question is given in verse ten. The Lord knows the heart, and he searches it, and “tries the reins” (KJV)/ “examines the mind” (NIV).
Holy Scripture testifies to God’s diagnosis of man’s sinful state in other places, for example, even after the Flood, when the Lord has accepted Noah’s sacrifice, and when he promises not to destroy the world again in a flood, he acknowledges that “the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Genesis 9:21).
In some cases, a husband, or a wife, after many years of smooth sailing in their marriage, suddenly leaves his or her spouse for someone else, and the spouse never saw it coming. Deep in the heart of the other, there was a deceit, and wickedness that was not discerned. What is the answer? All of us, in all our relationships, and in all our doings must turn to the Lord for discernment and trust the revelation that He gives us.
In Psalm 19, the psalmist utters a prayer that God will cleanse him from all secret faults:
Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression. Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.
(Psalm 19:12-14, KJV)
In this context, there is a prayer in the Family Prayer section of our Prayer Book that reflects this trust in the Lord that we should have:
For Guidance.
O GOD, by whom the meek are guided in judgment, and light riseth up in darkness for the godly; Grant us, in all our doubts and uncertainties, the grace to ask what thou wouldest have us to do, that the Spirit of Wisdom may save us from all false choices, and that in thy light we may see light, and in thy straight path may not stumble; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
(p.595, Book of Common Prayer, 1928)
TRUST IN THE LORD
This prayer was composed by William Bright and was based on Psalm 25:8, which reads, “Them that are meek shall he guide in judgment; * and such as are gentle, them shall he learn his way.” (p.370, Book of Common Prayer, 1928). We are reminded of the Beatitudes in today’s Gospel Lesson that teach the importance of depending on the Lord. Trusting in the Lord leads to many blessings, and it produces meekness and teachability. These qualities help us receive and obey God’s wisdom and guidance for our lives.
Now trusting in the Lord does not apply only to the beginning of our Christian life, but also to its entire course. We all must learn to trust God in many ways, and to rely on him for all the guidance that we need throughout our lives.
CONCLUSION
Our trust in the Lord is essential for our spiritual growth and productivity in God’s kingdom. Do you trust in God, and is the Lord your hope in all aspects of your life?
[1] Quoted on p.466, Craig Brian Larson & Phyllis Ten Elshof (General Editors): 1001 Illustrations that Connect. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, Christianity Today International, 2008.