The Believer's Cry

Romans 7:13-25

There are passages of scripture that I find particularly poignant due to their truthful display of human frailty. Peter’s realization that he has indeed betrayed Jesus is one of them (Mark 14:72); Jeremiah, weeping for the people of Judah (Jeremiah 8:18-9:1) is, too; and the father who cries out in anguish, “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24) is another. Paul is also capable of honest emotion. “Wretched man that I am!” he writes. “Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24).

I once heard a minister lament, “It isn’t as if I didn’t want to believe what I say…” He left the comment hanging, but those of us who heard him knew what he meant. There are times when we simply do not have it within us to believe, to live in faith, to trust in God. At the bedside of a dying friend, in the wake of a natural catastrophe, at the end of a long and frustrating day we may find ourselves cloaked in doubt and despair. Who will rescue us from these circumstances?

If nothing else, we must recognize that the journey of God’s people has passed this way before. Peter, Jeremiah, the unnamed father, Paul, all of them have cried out in pain, and all of them have been heard. They and countless others have reached a limit in what they could do only to find God’s grace waiting for them. I know that when I am most challenged it is my own strength that fails me. But I also know that God remains active in my life and in yours. The honesty of scripture gives me the hope that soon I will join Paul in affirming, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:25a). And then I will continue my journey by God’s grace.

Prayer: Lord, I believe; help my unbelief. Amen.

Learning to Speak the Truth

Jeremiah 8:4-7, 18-9:6

Our reading from Jeremiah today continues to decry the sins of God’s people and the indifference with which they have turned away from God. “They all deceive their neighbors, and no one speaks the truth; they have taught their tongues to speak lies; they commit iniquity and are too weary to repent. Oppression upon oppression, deceit upon deceit! They refuse to know me, says the Lord” (Jeremiah 9:5-6).

At the heart of this particular accusation is that the people have “taught their tongues to speak lies.” This makes sense, too. As children we must learn to crawl and then to walk. We learn to dress ourselves and to tie our shoes. We learn sports and how to ride bicycles. We learn right from wrong and what is expected of us in certain situations. Somewhere in all of this we also learn to use language first speaking, then reading, and then writing. When does it occur to us to speak untruths? When does lying become a part of our skill set? According to Jeremiah’s words the art of lying is something that we teach ourselves, something at which we become adept over time. Once we have trained ourselves to be deceitful it becomes easier and easier to reject the truth and “to rely on the lie.” In doing so we move further from God and further from each other until we are completely set apart by our iniquity and our sinfulness. We may even lie to ourselves while we are lying to one another.

But just as we’ve learned to lie, we may also train ourselves to live in truth according to God’s word. It probably won’t happen overnight. It is difficult work that challenges who we are and the culture by which we are surrounded. But it is worth the effort for it moves us from separation to fellowship. It helps to dismantle the oppression that passes as human interaction, and the webs of deceit that pretend to be communication. We’ve learned to lie, now it is time to teach ourselves the truth.

Prayer: Lord, help us to speak the truth in love and to honor and cherish each other as gifts from you. Amen.