Jeremiah and the Sacred Act of Voting

By Chloe Breyer

I must confess a soft spot for the prophet Jeremiah. In seminary I learned that he was a naturally sociable person who really disliked alienating everyone around him with is bad news. I had respect for the way he alternated between railing against Israel for ignoring the word of God, and complaining to God for making him the one to have to deliver this unpopular message. Teresa of Avila, upon reading about the relationship between God and Jeremiah, reflected, “If this is how God treats his friends, no wonder he has so few of them.” Of all the prophets, with perhaps the exception of Jonah, Jeremiah seemed among the most reluctant to me, a fact that only adds to his authenticity and raises him even further in my own estimation.

Jeremiah's prophetic religion has something . . . for those who argue that religious values should be kept out of the public square entirely. Second, Jeremiah has some advice for those who willingly bring their faith values into the public arena, and yet define those values so narrowly that they become arrogant, heretical. . .

Jeremiah's words are compelling right now – for all of us. On this, the eve of our General Election 2004 – an election that not only has vast consequences for this country but for other citizens of other nations around the world – and at a time when the debate over the role of religion in public life has become particularly intense, Jeremiah the prophet has a special gift for us, wisdom to give us as democratic citizens attempting to live out our lives faithfully. More specifically, Jeremiah's prophetic religion has something to two sorts of people in the thick of the debate: first, he has a word for those who argue that religious values should be kept out of the public square entirely. Second, Jeremiah has some advice for those who willingly bring their faith values into the public arena, and yet define those values so narrowly that they become arrogant, heretical, contrary to the diversity of creation so loved by God, and above all betray that cornerstone of true religious faith: humility.

But first, let's review the background. Jeremiah, a priest and Benjamite from a village just north of Judah, lived during the end of the 6th and beginning of the 5th centuries BCE. He received his prophetic calling just in time to warn the tone-deaf inhabitants of Jerusalem and the southern kingdom of Judah about the imminent destruction and invasion of the holy city at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians. Jeremiah delivered a series of oracles/sermons on the steps of the Jerusalem Temple and dictated scrolls to his secretary Baruch around 627.

Basically, his message was unpopular one, warning that that these rumblings from the north were serious, and that God was angry at the apostasy and deceit he saw among the kings and religious leaders of Jerusalem and Judah. When Nebuchadnezzar began attacking, and things look like they might develop along the lines Jeremiah had professed, King Zedekiah placed Jeremiah under house arrest, releasing him from prison occasionally to ask about God's will. After Jeremiah told people in Jerusalem that only those who surrendered to Babylonians would survive – his own version of “wrong war, wrong time, at the wrong place” – Zedekiah turned him over to his enemies who threw him into a deep well for this treasonous message. They accused Jeremiah of “discouraging the soldiers who are left in this city.” The prophet would have died were it not for an Egyptian friend who saved him. When Nebuchadnezzar came into Jerusalem, Jeremiah was sent out with his people into exile in Egypt. Only there did his words sound hopeful. All is not lost. God will restore Israel.

There is little doubt that when God calls Jeremiah, it is to address the collective life of his people and do so in very public ways: “Before I formed you in the womb” God says, “I knew you and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah, much to his chagrin, is called to proclaim the word of God, not to close family members, friends, or even his own religious followers, but rather to the world. In a time before television and radio, Jeremiah and his secretary Baruch took the most public of pulpits to deliver his dire warnings on the steps of the temple in Jerusalem. There he delivers his message – so contrary to the rosier picture given by false prophets at the time – to religious leaders and government officials alike. The trappings of religion will not save you, he said, God knows you lack integrity and honesty and as punishment, and he will deliver you into the hands of your enemies. Even as distantly removed from our social context today, we can see that Jeremiah confessed God ruler of all creation not one sphere of private life. He speaks out with clarity and boldness against the powers that be in the church and the state, at the risk of his own life.

The content of his message is something that the religious right, and those who would narrowly confine religious concerns to life before birth and sex, have a lot to learn from. For Jeremiah, as with all the prophets, God's concern is with truth-telling, social justice, and the plight of society's most vulnerable.

But even more relevant for today's pre-election debates than Jeremiah's willingness to speak to the nation (we, alas, have no shortage of religious zealots willing to do that today) is what exactly Jeremiah says on his public platform. The content of his message is something that the religious right, and those who would narrowly confine religious concerns to life before birth and sex, have a lot to learn from. For Jeremiah, as with all the prophets, God's concern is with truth-telling, social justice, and the plight of society's most vulnerable.

So what does he say?

Yes, there is quite a bit about apostasy – about it being wrong to worship false idols. He makes fun of the wooden idols that the people ascribe power to and asks why they do so, since God has power over all things.

But there is more. Jeremiah says God is upset by the dishonesty in people's lives, particularly in the leadership, and the effect it has on relationships. “They make ready their tongue like a bow, to shoot lies; it is not by truth that they triumph in the land. They go from one sin to another, they do not acknowledge me says the lord” (9:3).

Jeremiah says God is also unhappy about the gap between nice religious words and good deeds, between the trappings of symbols of goodness and the actual enacting of them “Do not trust in these words” he says, “This is the temple of the Lord, this is the temple of the Lord, this is the temple of the Lord.” (The Temple's presence offered some mistaken assurance of protection for all the Israelites – as its simply being offered inoculation against misfortune). He also complains about the misrepresentation of the written law – Deuteronomy, probably – the way it is misinterpreted by those who administer it and the contrast with the proclaimed, living, word of God.

Finally, Jeremiah says God is extremely concerned about the oppression of the alien, the widow, and the orphan, and the shedding of innocent blood – the first casualties of corporate greed. “To the kings he says directly, do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of his oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the alien, the fatherless, or the widow and do not shed innocent blood.”

It would seem, to project a little on what these words mean translated into today's world, that Jeremiah's God is as, if not more, concerned with the one in 11 children living in poverty in this rich nation, as with the fate of unborn fetuses who may indeed live but have not yet formed the web of human relationships. . .

It would seem, to project a little on what these words mean translated into today's world, that Jeremiah's God is as, if not more, concerned with the one in 11 children living in poverty in this rich nation, as with the fate of unborn fetuses who may indeed live but have not yet formed the web of human relationships that is such an integral part of community life on this planet; that God is as, if not more, concerned with love for others as expressed in a collective will to provide equal education or access to healthcare, as to what gender of person an individual chooses to love.

Well, in light of Jeremiah's legacy, with all the rebukes he offers to secular and religious players of our time, I have a certain amount of confidence that the efforts carried out in this congregation and others around the country would be in the spirit of his words. I'm speaking of the enormous effort that this parish has put into voter registration and mobilization over the past weeks and months – the way we've knocked on over a thousand doors of people living in public housing in a voting precinct with historically low turn out rates – the conversations we have had in elevators seeking to persuade people that their vote really does matter, and while they may not be living in a swing state for this presidential elections, local politicians with the power to improve schools, health, environmental quality for this historically overlooked neighborhood, will pay attention to the number of their constituents who make it to the polls.

We are not alone in trying to get out the vote among low income and minority voters. Just last week I attended a press conference for the Vote All Your Values initiative, in which a variety of national religious leaders confessed that health, poverty, education, and war and peace are “religious issues.” Sojourners has raised millions of dollars to run ads saying “God is not a Republican or a Democrat” and “Life does not end at birth.” 450,000 new voters have been registered, and a million voter guides distributed with the message that ending poverty is a religious concern.

These efforts I believe are the fruits of prophetic religious faith. Because we have one thing the prophets and the early Israelites did not have. We here in this country have the opportunity to “speak truth to power” in a way that the average person in Jeremiah's day did not. We have a chance to go every few years to the polls and to judge the powers that be based on their performance as leaders.

Have our leaders struggled to tell us the truth, made good on the promises they offered us, or have   “they made ready their tongue like a bow, to shoot lies,” triumphing not by truth?

Have our leaders made every effort to protect the orphan, the widow, the alien, knowing that the judge of a nation's health is the way it treats the least of its members. Or have they “done wrong or violence to the alien, the fatherless, or the widow”?

And have our leaders acted in a moral way, or have they merely relied on the worlds and symbols of morality to assert their power?

These are things that you and I have the option of answering for ourselves on November 2 nd , and every future election in this country and neighborhood. Voting is not a sacrament; however, it is arguably the best way we have of enacting our prophetic ministry, and as such, I would argue is a sacred act that we are all called to perform.

[Ed. Note: This article was based on a sermon delivered at St. Mary's Episcopal Church, Manhattanville (N.Y.) on October 24, 2004.]

The Rev. Chloe Breyer is associate rector of St. Mary's Episcopal Church, Manhattanville, in New York City, and travels regularly to Central and South Asia. She is an occasional contributor to Slate.com and is the author of The Close: A Young Woman's First Year at Seminary . Chloe may be reached by email at cbreyer@cac.dioceseny.org .