The prophet Jeremiah speaks to all these different human responses to crisis. For God's people, he offers both challenge and comfort. He speaks harsh words to those caught up in false idols and desires for revenge. He speaks passionate words of hope to people broken by their experiences. He pulls no punches. As Peterson reflects on Jeremiah's words for us today, he says, "Anyone who lives in disruptive times looks for companions who have been through them earlier, wanting to know how they went through it, how they made it, what it was like. In looking for a companion who has lived through catastrophic disruption and survived with grace, biblical people, more often than not, come upon Jeremiah and receive him as a true, honest, and God-revealing companion for the worst of times." (The Message: Remix, p. 1344)

Today, we are still searching for answers as to what to do in disruptive times. We look back to the Great Depression of the early 20th century to see if it offers insights or answers to our current economic slide. We consider the outcomes of other political upheavals in order to justify our opinions about either the outgoing or the incoming leader of our own nation. We shudder at the malaise of our family branch of the Christian church and wonder if she has been rent asunder in other times and places in similar ways. As individuals we may be primarily concerned more about one thing or another, but collectively, we cannot fail to recognize that our current situation is also "one of brokenness." (Hungryhearts, Vol. 17, No. 5, p. 5)

At the 2008 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, an Overture came from the San Joaquin Presbytery calling for the church to seek the Lord in special times of prayer and worship known as solemn or sacred assemblies. This idea of solemn assemblies reflects old churchy language - not something we routinely do. This is not a call by some disgruntled parishioner to get the praise band removed from Sunday morning worship services. It is something very different. It calls for us to set aside time to acknowledge the brokenness of our world by recognizing our deep need for confession, conversion, and a deeper experience of the divine. Those who called for this time in the church recognized that, "Despite our abundant riches, people with broken lives are trying to stumble through the fragments of a shattered world. Families are torn asunder, the social fabric of care is torn, and our trust in institutions, including the church, is crushed. War, human-rights violations, environmental concerns, and global crises of fuel and food shortages are destabilizing life in alarming ways." (Hungryhearts, Vol. 17, No. 5, p. 5)

For many of us, this call to worship may seem like a strange proposition in a world like ours. For those of us who want to take action on these major concerns, spending this time in worship may seem superfluous, or even wasteful. What about feeding the hungry, healing the sick, and working tirelessly for the common good? Isn't that the sacrifice that is truly demanded of us?

Jeremiah was considering similar questions in his place and time. His world was a mess. The people of God were engaging in territorial disputes with their neighbors over wealth and power. They were addicted to alien gods who were "feel good deities" always promising them exactly what they wanted. They felt as though they deserved God's favor rather than thinking of it as a gift. Even the faithful had grown too attached to temple worship, the kind of worship that allowed you to be seen and heard for your commitment to the faith. Their hands were dirtied by holding on to the crumbling fragments of something they thought could last forever.

Can't you see why Jeremiah may be a good companion for us today? As both personal and public deficits grow, we are bargaining with our children's future to satisfy our greed for today. Nationally, we speak of exporting freedom to other nations of the world when our own political system is tied up in knots over owed favors and shifty alliances. And spiritually, we expend way too much energy hanging on to a church obsessed with which side wins any argument and burdened with the pain of wounded relationships that transcend generations. We have worshipped the easy-to-please gods of our own making, and we have stifled the greater demands of the Holy Spirit. This is most obvious when we get more worked up about changes in the forms of our faith than we take time to work on the practices that deepen our love of God and each other.

It will take true prophets like Jeremiah to speak again to our time. The false prophets will be known in an instant. They will be the ones telling us not to worry, that everything will be OK. They will promise prosperity to the faithful and punishment for the wicked, that is if you are on their side. The voices of true prophets will be much harder to hear. They will call us to account for our own behaviors. They will challenge everyone, including the faithful, to confess, to repent, to cover themselves with the proverbial sackcloth and ashes. They will speak the painful truth, and force us to witness the suffering and evil we've spread out like a blanket. But in the end, it is only a true prophet who can offer us a real picture of what hope looks like.

Perhaps General Assembly got this one right. Maybe it is time to call ourselves to solemn assemblies. Jeremiah preached that it was time to depart from idolatrous adoration of the temple and return to the basics, to practice the commandments, to love one another, to pray hard about the consequences of our actions to further generations. Maybe for us, it is time to take action though worship, to drink deeply from the well of living water, to return to Christ and follow simply like the woman at the well. She left behind those patterns and behaviors that were consuming her for a new life that told the good news of God's love to everyone she met.

It is interesting to me that Jeremiah preaches hope to a desperate people. "He who scattered Israel will gather him and will keep him as a shepherd a flock." When you are in the midst of being scattered and fragmented, it is always hard to see the bigger picture or to trust that God has a greater plan. But not for Jeremiah! He can see that one day there will be singing again in Zion and that life shall once again become like a watered garden.

Hear this word for us. No matter how bad it gets, economically, politically, socially, spiritually - God continues to renew God's people in the long stretch of time. We may not feel any immediate effects. That's not the point. But it is wholly important that we have hope for the future, that we look for a day when our own mourning is turned to joy, and God's people are given gladness for their sorrow. This hope takes work on our parts because it won't just come. In disruptive times, the more typical responses are cynicism, despair, and a big old case of "me-first, everyone for him or her-self" attitude.

Having hope and faith in God and in our fellow human beings seems rather off the wall in times like ours. Saying and trusting that life will flourish like a watered garden seems foolish the greater the need gets all around us. Go the distance with Jeremiah. Remember that Jesus' living water will always be there to quench our thirst. It may not be easy. Being honest with ourselves about the brokenness of our world and our part in creating that brokenness will hurt, but it is from that hurt that we begin to see a pathway to the healing. The water will always come. When we trust in God, anything is possible.

Amen.