According to The Message, God called Jeremiah to "demolish, and then start over." Demolish not only the systems of oppression, but also "the old collapsed system of belief, holding on for dear life to an illusion."
Desmond Tutu was called to demolish apartheid in South Africa and then pursue peace and justice. In 2014 ("Never Give Up," Sojourners, November 2016), John Dear reported that Tutu said, "we have to keep working for peace and justice till the day we die." Then Dear wrote: "I was amazed to hear that he planned to leave the next day for Iran. He was in his 80s, in bad health, and relentless."
Later Dear asked, "How do you keep going?" Tutu replied, "My favorite prophet is Jeremiah. . . . Because he cries [weeps] a lot. . . . I cry a lot too. . . . I cry every day." Over oppression caused suffering.
Tutu described Cape Town: "We have the ultimate First World wealth and the worst Third World poverty, the biggest gap between rich and poor in the world." Tutu, Mandela and others had ended racial apartheid, but not economic apartheid. Suffering and oppression are widespread in South Africa today. There is much to weep about.
In Jeremiah 6, and repeated in chapter 8, Jeremiah (The Message) describes the condition of Israel:
"Everyone is after the dishonest dollar,
little people and big people alike.
Prophets and priests and everyone in between
twist words and doctor truth.
My people are broken---shattered!---
and they put on band-aids,
Saying [shalom, shalom], "It's not so bad. You'll be just fine."
But things are not just fine."
Read Jeremiah 7 to discover the depth of oppression, the deception, the distortion, of truth.
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