Hear Ye, Hear Ye

There is a moment in the life of the prophet Jeremiah that would make a great scene in a movie. Picture an assembly of royal officials along with a king listening to a message that Jeremiah claimed was sent from God. The message was a warning of disaster coming unless the people changed their sinful ways.

The climax in the scene is the king’s reaction to what a royal secretary reads from the scroll. Picture the scroll like a roll of paper towels slowly unrolling onto the floor as it is read. The king shows his anger and disdain by slicing off the already read parts and tossing those pieces of papyri into a fire.

We shouldn’t be surprised that of all the prophets remembered in the Hebrew Bible, or Christian Old Testament, Jeremiah was the saddest of the lot. God instructs him to share his warnings in public places, such as the temple courts in Jerusalem, the royal palace, and the busy streets of the city. Jeremiah’s problem was that no one believed what he was saying. The king has his own prophets who gave the opposite message, that God would always protect the king and the nation. When Jeremiah said, “This is what the Lord has said,” the people’s response was “Nope, not going to believe that.”

We shouldn’t be surprised that the king took strong steps to silence Jeremiah. Arrested and imprisoned, Jeremiah even received death threats. Jeremiah felt so isolated and hated at times that he regretted being born. But as events unfolded, everything that Jeremiah warned the people about came to pass.

I was reminded of Jeremiah this past week when the Episcopal bishop, Mariann Budde, looked down at President Trump and told him a hard truth. Many groups and people in our country and elsewhere are afraid of him and his policies.

If you watch this scene on the internet, you will see that President Trump isn’t enjoying the moment. I suspect that if Trump had had a knife and fire nearby, he might have cut her sermon apart and tossed it into a fire.

Bishop Budde, like Jeremiah, has become the target of a lot of “how dare you” statements. “How dare you speak that way to our nation’s president!” “How dare you say that the man we love and voted for needs to reconsider his policies!” And beneath those sentiments is the question “Who are you to speak that way to our president?”

I admit that there is a jarring disconnect between the religious leaders who prayed and spoke at the inauguration and Bishop Budde’s warning. For some, Trump is a kind of savior; for others, he is a man with immense power and a lot of anger. Some feel protected by Trump; others feel targeted.

Bishop Budde, like Jeremiah, has also received death threats. While she hasn’t been imprisoned, she has had people suggest she should be deported. In other words, people intend to silence her.

American Christianity has for so long been an extension of nationalism that we don’t expect religious leaders to do anything but praise our leaders. The irony of last week’s inauguration was that it fell on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a day when we remember King confronting our nation, its leaders, and its policies on their failure to live up our country’s promises.

I have no doubt that if King had lived long enough to deliver the sermon in Washington’s National Cathedral last week, he would have said what Bishop Budde said. And like King, Bishop Budde isn’t likely to bow to pressure from the White House and apologize for her remarks.

You see, it’s a mistake to dismiss Jeremiah, King, or Bishop Budde as political spokespersons. They are something else—they are prophets. Nations and leaders can do what they want to silence prophets, but no one can ever silence their message.