Last week I spent the time talking about Isaiah, and this week I want to touch on a different prophet: Jeremiah. 

• Born in Anathoth: Located within the tribe of Benjamin, this town is less than three miles from Jerusalem. It exists today under a new name, Anata. The ruins can be found about 1/2 a mile from the modern city. When reading the book of Jeremiah, this is important information because it puts Jeremiah close to the temple before the exile. It's a bigger deal for him than someone who maybe had to take a few days to journey to Jerusalem.
• A Priest Outside the Priesthood: This one lives within scholarly speculation. (Which, speculation has to exist all over the bible. The moment we start reading the bible we are adding our own speculation.) Because of where Jeremiah is from, it is believed he is part of a priestly line that has been "declassed." That means, his line was no longer considered legitimate by the monarchy. 
• An Auditory Call: Jeremiah wasn't called in a vision or a dream. His call was heard. That's not as important as how his call is similar to someone else's call: Moses. Jeremiah was called to be a prophet in exile, and Moses was called to be a prophet in the wilderness. There are some similarities between those two places. Namely, neither are home. Secondly, there is a need for comfort in both of these locations.

There is something else interesting about the text; something worthy of being mentioned here:

There are basically two versions of the Book of Jeremiah. You might initially be thinking I'm talking about the biblical text and an extra-biblical text. No. I'm talking about two texts that predate our English translation of the bible. 

The "original" Hebrew bible can be found in two languages: Hebrew and Greek. Here's what's interesting about these two translations. 

• The older translation is actually the Greek: The Dead Sea scrolls, which predates both the Greek and Hebrew translations showed us that the Greek was probably translated from an even older Hebrew text, than the Hebrew translation we have. (You might want to read that a couple of times. It's a mouthful.) It's true that a good amount of a Christian Bible is pulled from this Greek translation. There was a time the Hebrew people also pulled more from this Greek text. Then us silly Christians started using it, and they jumped ship to the Hebrew translation.
• There are places these texts diverge greatly: This isn't like our million English translations where we are arguing over whether a Greek word means "selfish" or"self-centered." This is where entire chapters are different, omitted or added. Possibly the place where this is seen the most clearly is the book of Jeremiah. 

Finally, the above picture. This is an image of Jeremiah, as painted by Michelangelo from the Sistine Chapel ceiling. 

There are two general camps when it comes to Isaiah.

1. One prophet wrote the entirety of the book of Isaiah, who went by the name Isaiah.
2. Three prophets wrote the book of Isaiah during the three periods: pre-exile, during exile, and post-exile.

The reason anyone would follow the first camp would be because they are in another camp: The Bible is the literal Word of God. If you are in this camp, there is no point reading any further. I'd have to have an entire conversation about canonization, the verbal story transitioning into written word, and pushing tradition against Biblical text. All these things are great to do with the Creation Narrative, but can get sidetracked here. 

I'm part of the camp that believes the Bible is the inspired Word of God. It's not literal, because the moment we became part of it's creation (it was human hands that wrote it down, and continued to write it down through the centuries) it necessarily becomes a flawed document. 

That being said, what do we know about Isaiah, and the book attributed to Isaiah?

First of all, some might get antsy hearing the book of Isaiah could have been penned by more than one author. You might be wondering if that makes most of the book a forgery. Don't. Scholars believe the pre-exile voice is the voice of Isaiah. They also believe he had his own disciples. It was not an uncommon occurance during this time period for the followers of a prolific voice to take up his name when continuing their call. This wasn't considered a forgery, but was actually what the average person expected. Let me put it this way, if the whole book was written by one man, that man would be hundreds of years old. Yes, we have people who live hundreds of years, but thats pre-Noah's Ark. No one during this time period is living that long.

Secondly, the book of Isaiah is a great look at the three kinds of prophecy, since the book contains all three types.

• ​Pre-exile: When things are heading in the wrong direction, a real prophet would be saying, "Turn back!" "Change your ways!" Basically, "Danger, Will Robinson!" (Sorry, that reference is a little dated, but kudo points if you get it.)
• During exile: When a people doesn't listen to a pre-exile prophet, they end up with a during exile prophet. There is something comforting about during exile prophets. You've messed up. All the bad things that were promised have come to fruition, because you just didn't listen. A during exile prophet rallies the troops, so to speak. During exile prophets tell the people that not all hope is lost.
• Post-exile: Well, they can turn dark. They are the ones talking about the end times. Therefore, don't trust an "end times" prophet in a pre-exile world.

Five years ago, almost to the day, I would give the most difficult sermon of my ministerial career. It's not an unknown story. God, I wish it was. I wish broken churches would immediately find healing, so they could continue helping others in an already broken world. Five years ago, I learned the depth of the pain the church is living with. Five years ago, almost to to the day, I was asked to resign from a small rural church. 

Now, if you are any average Jill or Joe you might think I had it coming. In truth, I did. I spent the first half of the call with a broken ankle, and wasn't allowed to drive. My secretary would pick me up so I could make visits to the hospital and to visit home bound residents. The second half of my call was spent pregnant, and she was a difficult pregnancy. I even made a secret trip to the hospital during the General Assembly in Nashville because something wasn't right. I spent my off days writing sermons, because they didn't offer maternity and I wasn't going to ask for it. (I was a foolish girl.) In fact, one elder suggested I should save my vacation so I would have something when she arrived.

Yeah, I had it coming. The writing was on the wall. When I went for the interview I made three things clear. I wanted to make sure the previous female minister left on good terms, because I didn't want my first full time call to be in a church where they had a negative view of female ministry. I made it clear that I was technology oriented, and explained how I used it up to that point. I wanted to be hired in a church that felt called to take on new ministers. I should have realized that congregants lie when they are desperate. I should have seen the writing on the wall. I didn't, and five years ago, almost to the day, I stood by myself in the parking lot, weeping.

Why was I weeping? I was preaching, even though the Elders thought I should just quit. They were told by higher powers if I didn't preach it would look like I was part of something terrible that would deserve immediate expulsion and having my standing taken away. They knew I hadn't done anything really. In fact, the conversation was simply, "It's a bad fit." So, there I was in the parking lot, preparing myself, when my Kindle did something it had never done, and hadn't done since. It began playing the above song on it's own, without anyone touching it.

That's when I lost it. The message hit me almost immediately. Yeah, the sermon was going to be really difficult to give. It didn't matter that it was written months before, and already sitting on the pulpit. I had to speak to people who wanted me gone, and people who were deeply hurt by the people who wanted me gone. I was about to willingly step into the furnace and allow myself to be burned alive. Yet, as long as I had love, I had something. Nothing I was losing that day was worth anything. I still had God. God was still my employer. The church was simply the accountant. 

This morning I was prepared to post something completely different. I was filled with anxiety and frustrations for things completely unrelated to my call as minister. Then the song came up in my feed, as a reminder of five years ago. It was a reminder of why I'm here. I'm a woman, called by God to lead her people. I'm not here for money. I'm not here for fame or glory. I am here because of love, the one love given by God through Jesus Christ. I'm here because I don't want broken ministers and congregants. I'm here because God is my employer, and I am willing to walk through fire to fulfill this call.