Rev. George Miller
March 18, 2026
Jeremiah 50:6-7
Tonight you are witnessing a message
recorded the day before my surgery. This
message was created in anticipation, filmed in preparation, and now it is being
viewed, while I am feeling like a healing sheep that is far from the flock,
dealing with my own unique wounds and experience.
Tonight, we see through the lens of
Jeremiah, who was known as the “Weeping Prophet.” His sense of empathy for the people led him
to have deep emotional expression.
Jeremiah’s emotionality caused him to
speak up and to speak out, to address issues that everyone saw; to create
insight into the path the people were heading.
Because of this, Jeremiah was not always
liked, or listened to. There were those
who wanted to silence him. In chapter 18
he feels as if a pit has been dug for him, how they laid snares at his feet,
hoping to kill him and his words.
Jeremiah isn’t so much the sheep that has
gone astray or been lost, he is more like the black sheep of the family, the
one that everyone feels uncomfortable around, the one everyone would rather not
discuss.
But this does not stop his prophetic word,
nor his care for the children, the youth and men who could die in war, or the
wives who could become widows.
So he speaks and he cries, he reveals and
he encourages, all with an unshakeable trust in the future; that eventually
there will be restoration and rebirth.
In tonight’s reading he refers to the
people as lost sheep; but not just lost- they are sheep who have been led
astray by their shepherds.
They are sheep who have been led away from
the mountains of nourishment and faithful living, into a place where the
shepherds have made them forget who they are, the flock they are a part of.
This has made the flock vulnerable, easy
targets for their enemies and outsiders to come and devour them, to hurt them.
This evening, let us take a moment to
think of how we may feel as if we are being led astray by shepherds meant to
protect us.
Tonight, let us pause and reflect on how
there are shepherds who have tried to separate the flock and pull us away from
one another.
Tonight, let us think of the ways in which
we can become vulnerable as a people, nation, faith because of such shepherds.
Tonight, let us take a moment to
symbolically weep just as Jeremiah would.
To weep, and to wonder- “as a people, all we like sheep that have been
led astray?”
How do we erase the guilt of our collected
sins? How can we reclaim the true
pasture of the Lord, and the hope of our ancestors? Easter can not come too soon. Amen.
