The Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Jeremiah was informed that people were plotting against his life, most likely because his message was unpopular—the common lot of prophets. Jeremiah had announced the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, God’s house, which was blasphemous to the Israelites. Jeremiah had been complaining to the Lord about his difficult circumstances in heartfelt prayers, and demanding that God deliver him from danger. He then realizes that God had indeed saved him. Jeremiah had been ignorantly being led into danger “like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter,” but God delivered him into safety and will bring retribution upon Jeremiah’s enemies.

The letter of James is of the wisdom literature genre (Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes) and discusses the two kinds of wisdom: that which is heavenly and that which is from the world. James emphasizes that it is not enough to know what is right. One must also do what is right through one’s actions (“doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves”). James should make us squirm. We try to be faithful believers and show love to others, but we so often fail. In Romans, Paul writes something that should pierce all our hearts, “For what I do, I do not understand. For what I want, this I do not do; but what I hate, this I do.” This human condition will be with us until we die, but our hope is in eternal life where we will be Christlike in our actions and love for God and others.

—David Littrell