Preached · January 13, 2021
Text · Jeremiah 2
Introduce myself. (Pastor at The Table since March of last year; husband, father to 2; know Pastor Rai from The Table)
The question to answer today: How to say, "I told you so."
Dad to two young kids. Kids are dumb.
Let's be clear, the Black church has long been a prophetic voice in America. In 1953, Martin Luther King, Jr preached, "One cannot worship this false god of nationalism and the God of christianity at the same time."
Malcolm X said, "You're not to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or says it."
Willie James Jennings said, "‘Christianity in the Western world lives and moves within a diseased social imagination."
What's happening in our country isn't new. It wasn't unforeseen. But you had to be listening to the right voices.
If America had been listening to the voices of the Black, Latino, and other voices that have been marginalized by white Christianity, we would not be in the precarious place we are today.
A Capitol violently attacked. 20,000 national guard coming to protect an inauguration. Not to mention every Black, indigenous, brown, and middle eastern life that was lost because of the violence of white supremacy, white nationalism, and white violent expressions of Christianity.
So, when you've proven right, how do we respond in a way that honors God and looks like Jesus?
To answer this question, I want to look at the life of Jeremiah. In his ministry of prophetic word, we see he teaches us 3 things about how to say, "I told you so."
1) If you suffer, I suffer. 2) Being right isn't enough 3) The intention of repentance is reconciliation
1. If you suffer, I suffer Brush up on Jewish history: Jeremiah was a prophet to Judah in the 600s BC. Warned them of bad political alliances. Unjust social arrangements. Idolatry and nationalism.
Jeremiah was imprisoned, exiled, and was repeatedly brought forth on charges of sedition to be executed.
Eventually everything he says comes true. Babylon comes and burns Jerusalem to the ground in 586 BC.
This is what Jeremiah says in [[Lamentations 1]]:14, "From on high Yahweh sent fire, sent it down into my bones. He spread a trap for my feet and turned me back. He made me desolate, faint all the day long." And later in the chapter, "See, Yahweh, how distressed I am. I am in torment within, and in my heart I am disturbed, for I have been most rebellious."
If you look at different Bible translations, you'll notice that there is lots of disagreement about where to put the quotation marks in [[Lamentations]]. Is Jerusalem talking as its own character? Or is it Jeremiah?
Well, the answer is yes. Jeremiah is talking as if he is Judah, is Jerusalem. Just like I could say, "Indiana don't back down." Jeremiah realizes that he was right...but it was his nation that suffered the consequences. It was his neighborhood that burned down.
The pain he tried to prevent is now the pain he has to own.
2. Being right isn't enough Which leads us to our second point. Being right isn't enough.
Just listen to chapter 3...
This man may have been right. His prophecies were dead on. He called every action that was going to happen down to the day and the time. And he doesn't seem to happy about it.
When my kid does the dumb thing, falls off the couch or the step stool or the ceiling fan, yes, there's an instant of like, "Haha you fool. I told you it would hurt when you fell." I also, believe it or not, hurt with my kid.
As I watch friends and family make decisions that lead to their pain or hurt or heartache, yes, I feel vindicated. But I also feel pain.
And sometimes, watching someone else make bad decisions not only hurt our hearts, it actually in reality hurts us. We get the blowback of someone else's immorality, stupidity, or combination thereof.
Now, listen. As we watch a population of people accept white Christian supremacy and nationalism down, and decide to embrace it and fan its flames, there's a section of ya'll watching that can rightfully say, "I told you so." But sitting on that truth doesn't take away the pain of the destruction. Being right doesn't take away what we've lost because someone else was wrong.
I told you so, may be true. But it ain't enough.
3. The intention of repentance is reconciliation Which takes us to our last point. The point of being right isn't to gloat, its for repentance and reconciliation.
Look at Lamentations 3:19-33.
The point of Jeremiah's prophecies were not to just make Judah feel bad. It wasn't so they could make better siege preparation against Babylon. No the point was repentance. And the repentance was meant to lead to reconciliation.
I know reconciliation can be a touchy word, because sometimes it can be code for, "Let's pretend like I didn't do anything wrong." But that's not reconciliation. That's just trying to get away with something.
Willie James Jennings. “The concept of reconciliation is not irretrievable, but I am convinced that before we can interpret the depths of the divine action of reconciliation we must first articulate the profound deformities of Christian intimacy and identity in modernity. Until we do, all discussions of reconciliation will only ever be exactly what they tend to be:
(a) ideological tools for facilitating negotiations of power; or (b) socially exhausted idealist claims masquerading as serious theological accounts.
In truth, it is not at all clear that most Christians are ready to imagine reconciliation.”
Repentance without reconciliation is vengeance.
Reconciliation with repentance is oppression.
"I told you so" has to be the first part of a question that ends, "Now are you ready to make this right?"
If the answer is no, walk away. But if the answer is yes, then we get to live out the beauty of Lamentations 3. God's compassions new every morning. New hope showing up at the break of every day.
We see this in the last chapter of the book of John, when Jesus and Peter have a conversion. Peter had denied Jesus 3 times, ran away from Jesus' trial, and is absent from Jesus' crucifixion. Jesus is resurrected and could give Peter the biggest I told you so of all time.
Instead, Jesus asks Peter a question, "Do you love me." And he asks the question 3 times, just like Peter denied Jesus 3 times.
It's Jesus' subtle way saying both, "I know what you did," and "I'm offering you a chance to make it right."
In the end, that's what the best "I told you so's" should do. Offer the opportunity to make it right. If the opportunity is refused, then be like Jeremiah and keep on telling them.
But if the opportunity is taken to make it right, then, if you can, accept it and pray that, like Jeremiah, God's great faithfulness can be revealed once more.
