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Care Enough to Confront

Pastor: 

Pastor Mike

Sermon Date: 
February 28, 2010
Bible Passage: 

Jeremiah 26:7-15

                Confrontation. It probably ranks between stubbing your toe and digging out a sliver on the list of your favorite pastimes. Confrontation is an activity most of us try to avoid. It’s the conversation we’re going to get to first thing tomorrow…but tomorrow comes and we really should check our email. And by then it’s 9:40 and lunch is just around the corner. And after lunch is a bad time since people are normally tired. And by mid-afternoon, no one is ready for a heavy conversation. After all, five o’clock is only two and a half hours away. But we’ll get to it tomorrow…right after we check our email. No one looks forward to confrontation, but it’s necessary. It’s necessary in business. And, according to Jesus, it’s necessary if we really love God and really love people.

                That’s a good reason to study the prophets. The Old Testament prophets were the kings of confrontation. Amos and Micah and Isaiah all had a bachelors in the art of confrontation. And Jeremiah was a PhD. Around 600 B.C., he confronted the people of Jerusalem. He yelled at them during church. He followed them on their day off with a bullhorn. He threatened that Jerusalem would become a smoldering pile of garbage if they didn’t repent. Jeremiah didn’t give suggestions or offer advice; he confronted people. He declared, “God says so. Now repent.”
                Ever played the part of a prophet? Ever confronted someone because of their sin? Ever spoken those bold words, “God says. So stop. Quit it. Repent.”? Maybe a friend posts something sinful on Facebook. Maybe your daughter moves in with her boyfriend. Maybe your cousin is planning a bachelor party Jesus wouldn’t attend. Maybe your coworker is swiping office supplies. Ever confronted someone and not suggested or hinted, but commanded? Ever been a Jeremiah? Faced with that moment when you could either say what they wanted to hear or what they needed to hear? 
                If so, Jeremiah could guess what happened to you. The confronted generally don’t thank the confronters. Those who have been prodded and preached at generally don’t thank the prophet. No, normally it’s an ugly reaction. They walk away. They call a friend to call you every name your grandma never used. They turn around and confront you with your weaknesses and failures. Things get ugly. I remember an intramural game in college where a classmate decided that shouting God’s name when he missed a shot was a godly choice. After hearing his sin echo off the gym walls for the tenth time, I confronted him. Right there in front of everyone. I yelled at him to stop it. His reaction? With rage in his voice, he screamed out the same sinful phrase again and again and again. “Is that better?” he mocked. It was pathetic to see a Christian act that way.
                But maybe I shouldn’t have been so surprised. After all, he was acting just like this other guy in our class. Me. I’ve been confronted and I hated it just as much. To be called out and called wrong—no one likes that. Maybe that’s good for Christians to remember. Maybe we should expect things to get ugly. Maybe it would help if we prepared ourselves for the push-back when we play the prophet. When you tell him to stop worshiping his work and put God and his family before his career. When you tell them they love their kids’ sports more than they love God. When you tell her she loves sex and saving rent money more than she loves purity and Jesus. Maybe we should just pray and prepare ourselves for the reaction.
                That ugly reaction is exactly what Jeremiah faced. Look at verse 7. “The priests, the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speak these words in the house of the LORD. 8 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! 9 Why do you prophesy in the LORD's name that this house will be like Shiloh and this city will be desolate and deserted?" And all the people crowded around Jeremiah in the house of the LORD.  10 When the officials of Judah heard about these things, they went up from the royal palace to the house of the LORD and took their places at the entrance of the New Gate of the LORD's house. 11 Then the priests and the prophets said to the officials and all the people, "This man should be sentenced to death because he has prophesied against this city. You have heard it with your own ears!"
                They didn’t just hate him. They tried to kill him! Jeremiah spoke in the name of the LORD against the city of Jerusalem. King David’s city. The city where God’s Temple was. Jeremiah said it would be like Shiloh. Oooh, that was a threat. Do you remember Shiloh? Shiloh was an important city in the Bible. Shiloh used to be the place where God’s people gathered for worship. Shiloh formerly was the center of all Israel. But then Shiloh was abandoned by God. Destroyed. Conquered. Deserted. And now Jeremiah had the nerve, the guts, to say Jerusalem would be the same. Such blasphemy deserved death! The uproar was so intense the city officials came rushing to the scene and gathered at the gate, the place where business was done and official decisions were made. They would decide if Jeremiah deserved to die.
                Why would anyone choose that? Why would Jeremiah confront his people like that? He had to know they wouldn’t take it well. And why would Jesus confront his people like that? He knew they would hate him for it? And why would you confront people? You know it’s going to get ugly. Why do God’s faithful people confront? Jeremiah gives two reasons to the city officials and to the fuming crowd. “12Then Jeremiah said to all the officials and all the people: "The LORD sent me to prophesy against this house and this city all the things you have heard. 13 Now reform your ways and your actions and obey the LORD your God. Then the LORD will relent and not bring the disaster he has pronounced against you. 14 As for me, I am in your hands; do with me whatever you think is good and right. 15 Be assured, however, that if you put me to death, you will bring the guilt of innocent blood on yourselves and on this city and on those who live in it, for in truth the LORD has sent me to you to speak all these words in your hearing.”
                Jeremiah gave two simple reasons for his bold confrontation. First he stated, “The LORD sent me to say all this.   Don’t you understand? I didn’t come up with this. I wasn’t sipping on a daiquiri and suddenly decided, ‘You know what? I’m going to get some people really ticked at me. I know what I could say!’ No, God himself sent me to say this. This is his Word to you, not my own.” And the second reason was God’s heart. “Now reform your ways and obey God. Then he will relent. Then you will be saved. Your city doesn’t have to be like Shiloh.” God didn’t want his people to be destroyed. He wanted them to return to him in repentance. Earlier in Jeremiah’s ministry, God had said, “Faithless Israel has committed adultery…Return, faithless people, declares the LORD, for I am your husband.” God was like a husband who only wanted his wife to come home and love him. So Jeremiah weeps with the heart of God and confronts with the word of God, “Stop cheating on God and come home!”
                Why in the world would you confront someone? Why would you be so bold about their sin, knowing that they won’t react well? The same two reasons. First, God told you to do it. Morality isn’t a grass roots movement. We don’t decide as a culture what right or wrong. We don’t construct our own commandments. To claim you decide what the moral standard is the pinnacle of pride. That’s God’s prerogative. God has spoken with divine authority and therefore we are to speak the same way. Paul told Pastor Titus, “Rebuke and encourage with all authority,” and he told young Pastor Timothy, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching and rebuking.” Like Jeremiah, we speak because God has told us to. He has called every Christian to share the Word, to confront sin, to run off after straying sheep.
                And the second reason we confront is just as important. Have you ever seen an intervention? A&E has a show called “Intervention”. Camera crews follow mothers and brothers and friends who are stumbling through life high on methamphetamines or drunk by 9am. At the end of each show, a professional counselor leads family and friends in confronting their loved one. It’s rarely easy.   In one episode, Fabian, a musician and drug addict, walked into the room and, without letting go of the door knob, turned around and left. He wasn’t ready to be confronted. But in every confrontation-filled episode of “Intervention”, you’ll hear one word repeated endlessly by counselors, family, friends, coworkers, everyone—Love. “We’re doing this because we love you.” “We’re here today because we love you.” “I want you to do know that I only showed up today because I love you.” Family members read letters about love and shed tears of love and embrace each other in love.
                Why do we confront? Because we love people. Because we know some people are walking away from God. Because we know about Lent. Lent is God’s way of saying, “You have been unfaithful to me and I know you can’t erase the past…So I will. I will step in. I will suffer. I will take the guilt, the shame, the embarrassment for your sin. I will confront your past and take care of it. I will make us one again.” That’s why we do it. We don’t want each other to walk away from this God of grace. We don’t want anyone to choose the tiny pleasure of sin when God is offering eternal pleasures for free. We know friends don’t let friends drive drunk and Christian friends don’t let friends drive down sinful roads, drunk on the short-term pleasure of the moment. We love them enough to stand in the middle of the road and yell, “Don’t! Please, don’t! I can’t smile and wave as you go by. Please turn around. Please repent.”
                Friends, whom do you need to confront? Yourself? Is there some sin you’ve been holding on to, not repenting of? Is there some garbage you need to drag to the curb and watch Jesus take away? Or do you need to confront someone else? Someone who has been making excuses, someone who doesn’t need a whispering wake-up, but an air horn call of repentance.  Someone who needs a friend who loves enough to get uncomfortable? Someone who knows better but is just caught up in the moment and needs you to care enough to confront? Whomever it is, know that the confrontation will not be easier after the email or after lunch or after work or after whenever. Do it today. Pick up the phone when you get home and call. Invite her out for coffee tonight. Confront because you care.
                You may never know how much that person needs you. Israel’s King David was rich, famous, and powerful. But he was a guilt-filled mess underneath his royal robes. But then God sent a prophet. Nathan said what needed to be said. And David changed. He later wrote this song, “When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long…Then I acknowledged my sin…I said, ‘I will confess’…and you [Lord] forgave the guilt of my sin…Rejoice in the Lord and be glad..Sing, all you who are upright in heart!” So, friends, don’t fear the confrontation. The God who walked with Jeremiah will walk with you. The Word that changed David’s groaning into rejoicing can change their heart’s, too. Amen.
 

 

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Eastside Evangelical Lutheran Church and School
2310 Independence Lane Madison, WI 53704
Phone: 608-244-3045 info@eastsidelutheran.orglogin