The Word of the Lord Cannot Be Destroyed

Reflecting on the Third Sunday after the Epiphany: Two Days After Sunday (Year C)

Scripture

Psalter: Psalm 119:89-96

Old Testament: Jeremiah 36:11-26

Epistle: 2 Corinthians 7:2-12

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Prayer

O God, you spoke your word and revealed your good news in Jesus, the Christ. Fill all creation with that word again, so that by proclaiming your joyful promises to all nations and singing of your glorious hope to all peoples, we may become one living body, your incarnate presence on the earth. Amen.

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Reflection

In his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451, writer Ray Bradbury weaves a tale of a future America where books are illegal. Firemen, as they are called, are tasked with burning any written material found. One fireman, Guy Montag has a change of heart about his job. He regrets his role as a destroyer of knowledge. He quits and starts on a new mission to preserve literature.

In the book of Jeremiah, King Jehoiakim opposes the word of the Lord from the Prophet Jeremiah. According to 2 Kings 23:37, he “did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.” As one of the last kings of Judah before the Babylonian exile, Jehoiakim continues to lead the people down the road of disobedience to Israel’s God, ensuring disaster.

Jeremiah’s secretary, Baruch has brought a scroll into the Temple to read before the priests and the people. It contains God’s message to Judah through Jeremiah. Baruch is the bearer of the scroll because the prophet has been banned from entering the Temple precinct. After Baruch is warned to leave the Temple and hide along with Jeremiah, the scroll is taken to the king. As each column of the scroll is read to Jehoiakim, he cuts each part of the scroll and throws it in the fire in obvious rejection of the word of the Lord.

Throughout history, there have been times when leaders and powers have attempted to wipe away the Scriptures, whether by fire or some other means. The Chinese government, in an attempt to control what Christians read are working on their own version of the Bible (edited with politically controversial passages removed) that once completed will be the only legal translation allowed. And yet, Christians in China are still risking fines and imprisonment for possessing and reading all of Scripture as it has been passed along throughout the centuries.

We read that and are rightly aghast at such egregious behavior of the Chinese government, but the question each of us must ask ourselves is what portions of the Bible have we functionally cut out of our lives? We don’t have to put fire on the pages of the Bible or cut out the portions we don’t like (e.g. The Jefferson Bible) to effectively destroy portions of the Word of God. We do that by ignoring what we don’t like or find too difficult; or we interpret difficult portions of the Bible in such a way to take out the scandal and make it palatable—love your enemies, take up your cross, give your money to the poor.

King Jehoiakim tried to destroy the word of the Lord in his time. The Chinese government is attempting to do it in our time. It didn’t work 2500 years ago, and it won’t work now. “The grass withers and the flower fades, says Isaiah, but the word of the Lord stands forever (Isaiah 40:8)

We are rightly appalled at the burning of Scripture as well as editing it for the purposes of an atheistic regime; but we need also to turn our critical gaze upon ourselves and ask where we have ignored the Word of the Lord given to us out of convenience?

The Word of God cannot be destroyed.

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