Second cut

Jer. 23:1-6-Again we may have done this previously, so maybe I will fight laziness and look up previous posts. Anyway, here is the effort for Christ the King Sunday. right away, this puts us in a difficult place, as many churches in the reformed tradition don't recognize Christ the King Sunday.

 

Note: This could be a good time to discuss power as control or empowering others, when to relinquish power and when to use it ruthlessly, when to cede power- what is its source- should the business model of power be used in church? what sort of leadership qualities and actions should the church have? what should be the church's involvement in politics? should it receive state sanctions? when can one speak truth to power? when is power as ocntrol weak in the end? is the pen mightier than the sword? how about the gospel?

How are the little guys faring in 2010?:What are examples of governmental officials living too well or imperiously?

 

1)This concludes a series of thoughts on kingship in Jeremiah. Apparently the shepherd/king connection was common in the ancient Near East. Jeremiah inveighs against the kingship as it did not serve and protect, did not help the hurt. Again, the more radical Tea Party types would declare this wrong, but that is a discussion for the role of government.

2) NIB's Miller notes the heavy relational language god uses (744) with the pronoun, my.

3) the big turn is God moving in to do what the shepherds failed to do. That will get expanded in apocalyptic imagery over the years.

4) We look forward to a time where fear and dismay will be gone. That too gets picked up in apocalyptic material.

5) We then move into messianic territory with the new Davidic ruler to arise.

6) the basic program is clear(righteousness right relation) and equity, justice and safety. see royal psalms such as 72,82.

7) The king's name has to be a play on Zedekiah.

8) the last word is not trouble but hope for  a better world.

9) Brown in his excellent Ethos of the Cosmos notices that organic language is applied to the monarchy, including here where David (v.5) is a righteous sprout, semah tzaddik.

10) Breuggemann in TOT 615-17 sees Jeremiah as relentless against the monarchy, or at least a failed one of "royal failure and public demise."..power cannot survive unless administered justly. He argues that the public failure was kept alive in liturgy (616).