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At that time, says the Lord, I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people … I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you … A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more … after I had turned away I repented; and after I was discovered, I struck my thigh; I was ashamed, and I was dismayed because I bore the disgrace of my youth” … I will satisfy the weary, and all who are faint I will replenish. Thereupon I awoke and looked, and my sleep was pleasant to me … But all shall die for their own sins; the teeth of everyone who eats sour grapes shall be set on edge. –– Jeremiah 31:1, 3b, 15, 19, 25-26, 30
The collection of emotions expressed in Jeremiah 31 strike me like the canvas of a Jackson Pollock painting. They are all over the place and it can be a challenge to make some sense out of them. Yet, one could say that jumble of emotions is appropriate in that my life and your lives are also composed of a jumble of unpredictable emotions that can both feed off one another and conflict with one another –– the warmth and solace of knowing you are embraced by a love that is unearned, and yet steadfast; the inconsolable grief that sends a rupturing crack through your heart; the burning of embarrassment that assumes all eyes are obsessed with your disgrace; the encouragement that feeds you with a second wind; that rare serendipity of peace that grants you restful sleep; the consuming anxiety or the unexpected fear or the surge of anger that grinds your teeth down and leaves you with a sore neck and an aching head. The prophet reminds us of those ping-pong days when our emotions are slapped back and forth by events, encounters, accidents, wounds, disappointments, and unexpected mercies. Perhaps you have noticed that, sometimes, tears and laughter may come from the same source, and it doesn’t matter if that same source is tragedy or triumph.
The hope we find in Jeremiah (not a dude usually brimming with hope) and the peace we find in Jesus are that in spite of the fact that our emotions seem to be in a continuously running tumble dryer, the love and presence of God remain steadfast. To my surprise and yours, God actually relishes the notion of making God’s home with us. As Jeremiah puts it –– “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”
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