It's great to be with you. Now, I'm sure that
these words are very familiar to you. They're
words from Jeremiah, where he talks about the
new covenant. And he said, no longer will they
teach their neighbor or say to one another, know
the Lord, because they will all know me from
the least of them to the greatest of them. One
of the great promises there of the new covenant,
which, of course, is picked up in the book of
Hebrews. And we often, when we're preaching that
sort of text, we say, well, this is great because
we know that as New Testament believers, we have
the presence of the Holy Spirit and the knowledge
of God, that intimate personal relationship with
God that we can have in Christ is such a wonderful
blessing. And that's true. But I wonder if we
were to ask Jeremiah when he'd said that, well,
Jeremiah, what do you mean by knowing God? What
are you talking about? i think he probably would
have said well haven't you been listening because
twice already in his book He has talked about
knowing God and spoken exactly about what it
means. One of them is in Jeremiah chapter 22.
It's perhaps the more negative one. He's contrasting
the King Josiah with his father Jehoiakim, who
had been cruel and oppressive and unjust and
wicked and greedy. And Jeremiah says, but your
father, he's talking about Josiah, he did what
was right and just and all went well with him.
him he defended the cause of the poor and the
needy and so all went well is that not what it
means to know me says the Lord it's just a few
words in Hebrew that is To know me, says God,
is to do righteousness and justice. But the text
that I thought we would just spend a few moments,
the one that was read to us a moment or two ago,
is from Jeremiah chapter 9. Those are the beautiful
two verses there, 23 and 24. They're like a little
gem in the midst of a pretty miserable chapter.
I didn't ask for the whole bit to be read because
the last verse talks about dead bodies in the
field and things like that. But here we have
these two verses. And it's almost like a little
seesaw. balanced text On the one side are three
things that human beings value as good gifts.
Let not the wise boast of their wisdom, or the
strong boast of their strength, or the rich boast
of their riches. Three things, wisdom, strength,
riches. And on the other side of the fulcrum,
which we'll come to in a minute, are three things
that God values, which are actually characteristic
of him, that they understand and know me, that
I am the Lord who exists. exercises kindness
and justice and righteousness on the earth, for
in these things, says God, I delight. And in
the middle of that seesaw, the three things on
one side and three on the other, comes this,
that he knows me. The knowing of God is there
in the middle of those two verses. So let's just
think of the three good gifts of God that we
shouldn't boast about and what that means, and
then these three things that God values and delights,
and ask, well, how will that impact what we mean
by knowing God in our studies, in our life, in
our ministry, and in the future? Three wonderful
things. Verse 23, in fact, is rather surprising
when Jeremiah says don't boast about these things
because they're all very good things. Wisdom,
strength, riches, they're all gifts of God. They're
often described as a blessing. These are not,
in a sense, you know, some evil tycoon just throwing
his weight around. Wisdom. is highly praised,
isn't it? It's applied knowledge, it's experience,
it's skill, it's discernment. It's all over the
book of Proverbs and the wisdom literature requested
by Solomon instead of riches and given by God
who gave him both. So yeah, wisdom, it's a good
thing. It's God's gift. Strength, well, there's
physical strength is often thought of and praised
in the Old Testament. I mean, there's Moses who
could sort of zap an Egyptian at the age of 40
and look after sheep at 80 and climb a mountain
at 120. Clearly a man of enormous physical strength.
There's Samson. Book of Psalms celebrates when
it talks about God has lifted up my horn. In
other words, given me strength to do what God,
we sometimes talk about being as strong as an
ox. That's from the Psalms. So strength, again,
when we have it, is a good gift of God. And riches,
again, the gift of God. Here's what God promised
to the Israelites in Deuteronomy 28 and verses
8 to 11. If they would obey God and follow him,
then the Lord will send you a blessing on your
barns and everything you put your hand to, the
Lord will bless you in that land. Then all the
peoples on the earth will call you blessed because
you will have an abundance of prosperity. So
there's nothing wrong intrinsically with these
gifts of God. wisdom strength riches the problem
is what happens when we boast of them which is
what verse 23 says let not the wise or the strong
or the wealthy boast of those things. Because
then what happens is, of course, that we fall
into the trap again of what Deuteronomy warns
against in chapter eight, when he says, when
you get into that land and God has given you
all of these things, then you may say to yourself
in verse 17, my power and the strength of my
hands have produced this wealth for me. That's
the yuppies boast, isn't it? It's all mine. I've
done it. I've achieved it. And it's for me. And
when we boast of these things, then the good
gifts of God can actually become pretty horrible
parodies of themselves. So wisdom can easily
fall into the temptation of becoming intellectual
arrogance, which Proverbs says actually becomes
folly. The idolatry of the glittering prizes,
the things that somehow... Prove how wise and
able you are when you boast of it. Or strength
when it becomes simply violence and oppression.
I was really struck just the other day reading
some interview with Stephen Miller, who is one
of the closest advisors to President Trump in
the White House. And this is what he said in
an interview with CNN. He said, we live in a
world in which you can talk all you like about
international niceties. Presumably meaning international
law, I presume he means, and everything else.
But we live in a world, the real world, Jake,
that is governed by strength, that is governed
by force, that is governed by power. And so he
went on. And that is clearly being shown in the
kind of way strength is being used and abused
by some in God's world. And riches, well, of
course, as we know, can easily lead to greed,
to exploitation, to misery, to the growing inequality
that we see in our world today. So good gifts
are also dangerous gifts. They're good in themselves,
but when we exalt them, when we idolize them,
they corrupt us. And I think the temptation in
all of these three areas is just as real when
we're thinking about Christian ministry and mission
and what God calls us into, especially if we
are in this world of theological education and
training for God's work. Wisdom, even in Christian
missions and ministry and organization in churches,
there's the wisdom of our strategic plans. and
our traditions and our excellencies and our consultancies
and so on. We can boast of those. Or we can boast
of our strength, the resources that God gives
to us, our management, our leadership, our wonderful
staff, our structures, our governance. Or we
can think of our riches, if we have them, fortunate
enough, with endowments and income and so on.
So gifts that are there, but when they're boasted
of, they themselves can become idolatrous and
indeed something that lack anything of the character
of god himself so what then does god through
jeremiah say is the fulcrum here what what really
matters well god says don't boast of those things
but if you're going to boast at all it should
be about that you have the understanding to know
me which is an interesting way of putting it
not just that you know me but you know what it
means to know me You understand that knowing
God is actually more important than anything
else. And so for the person who knows God, says
God, they need to also share what God himself
delights in. And what's that? Well, that's what
verse 24 tells us. Kindness and justice and righteousness.
Kindness in our Bible, of course, is one of the
many possible translations of that beautiful
Hebrew word chesed, which, yes, means mercy,
kindness. It also means faithfulness, committed
love, unfailing love. It's characteristic of
God, of course, as we were singing. No, we weren't
singing it. We were reciting in Psalm 103 all
the way through the compassion, the unfailing
love of God. But then it is practiced by those
who know God. And so we see it exemplified, for
example, in Moses with his committed, faithful
love for the crowd of stiff -necked rebels that
God entrusted to him, that God actually offered
to get rid of them. Say, you know, get rid of
this lot and I'll start again with you, Moses.
And Moses says, not a bit, God. You can't do
that. You've got to be faithful to your promise
to Abraham. And if you're faithful to that promise,
then I will go on looking after these people.
Or, of course, there's the faithfulness of Boaz
and of Ruth to Naomi, and, of course, the chesed
mercy, kindness, and love of Jesus himself to
outsiders, to the needy, to a Bartimaeus, a blind
beggar, to a Zacchaeus or the prostitutes. And
so this chesed love, that's characteristic of
God, and one who knows God should therefore be
characterized by that too. And then justice,
mishpat, the act of putting things right for
those who are wronged. The Old Testament often
speaks of the widow's case, advocating for those
who are otherwise on the wrong end of what's
happening in society. And that's what we saw
just a moment ago from Jeremiah 22, that Jeremiah
talks about Josiah. He was one who did justice
for the poor and the needy. And so, says God,
That's what it means to know me. And I was just
reflecting on this, that within our Anglican
communion, as you know, there's the thing called
the five marks of mission. I hope you've heard
of that expression. I was just discussing it
a bit with a few students earlier, that the theory
that within the church's mission, there is, of
course, evangelism, proclaiming the kingdom,
discipling and teaching new believers, but also
works of compassion and mercy, doing good, as
Jesus did, and seeking justice. as we are commanded
to do. And yesterday evening, in our prayer gathering
at All Souls Church, we were thinking of the
ministry of Tamar, which is the ministry of All
Souls among trafficked women, people in the sex
industry, which is not just showing compassion
for these women, but also seeking, wherever possible,
to act justly for them, to advocate for them,
to seek to give them the means of getting their
immigration status sorted out or be freed from
the influence of gangs and so on. So to be...
lovers of mercy and seekers of justice and righteousness
tzedakah righteousness which means that which
is straight and true and honest the word for
that i think would be integrity in a personal
sense one of john stott's favorite verses in
the bible was first chronicles 29 verse 17. where
David, in the moment of his great, very successful
fundraising opportunity, when he raised all the
money for the building of the temple, says to
God, I know, my God, that you search the heart
and you are pleased with integrity. And John
Stott used to say that that was such an important
verse, that people who are serving the Lord should
be men and women of integrity on the inside and
the outside. So, says our text, these are the
things then that God delights in. They're not
just, in a sense, part of his character only.
They're not just, as it were, attributes of God.
They are actually things that bring a smile to
his face. God says, this is what gives me pleasure.
When I see on earth, not just in heaven, but
on earth, when I see acts of kindness and justice
and righteousness, integrity taking place, God
is pleased. And of course, we see that from not
just Psalm 103 that we quoted earlier, but from
Exodus chapter 34, God's name tag, as it were.
I had one here. I took it off. But when God gives
his name tag, he says he's the Lord, the Lord,
the compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding
in love. And even before that, when he called
Abraham to follow him, he said, I have chosen
Abraham. I've chosen him so that he will direct
his household to keep the way of the Lord by
doing righteousness and justice. even before
the law had been given so that the lord can bring
about what he has promised him which was blessing
for all nations so this is what god delights
in and therefore this is what it means to be
a people who know the lord god the mission of
israel in the old testament was supposed to be
to be the people of yahweh the god of israel
a people of chesed and righteousness and justice
and mercy in a world going the way of solomon
gomorrah which is precisely when God called Abraham
and gave him that commandment. That's what it
means to know God, and that's what it ought to
be, to be boasted of. So for us then to claim
to know God, if that's what we want to do, means
to know this God, the God who calls for and longs
for and delights in love and justice and righteousness.
Those are his priorities. And I think Jesus would
say, and if you seek those things, As part of
the kingdom of God, this is the way God exercises
his kingship. Then these other things will be
added to you. So you need wisdom? Well, says
James, if any of you lacks wisdom, you should
ask God because he gives it generously to all
without finding fault and it would be given to
him. Or you need strength? Well, remember Paul
who says, God said to him, my grace is sufficient
for you. My power is made perfect in weakness.
So Paul says, therefore, I will boast all the
more gladly about my weakness. Maybe he was thinking
of Jeremiah 9, 23, when he wrote that, so that
Christ's power may rest on me. For when I'm weak,
then I'm strong, says Paul. And you need money,
you need resources. We all do one way or another.
And we remember Paul saying that I have learned
what it is to be content, whatever circumstances.
whether well fed living in plenty or in want
and my god will meet all your needs according
to the riches of his glory in christ jesus so
wisdom strength riches resources they're all
ours in christ as long as you don't boast and
corrupt them so that's really all i wanted to
bring with these two verses and to suggest that
As you're here in some form of training or another
for some kind of ministry and service that God
wants you to do, some of you, I'm sure, will
go on to become pastors and leaders in God's
church. You'll be wanting to lead others to come
to know Christ. That's what you want to do, isn't
it? And those who already know Christ, to know
him more and to grow in their discipleship. But
I trust that you yourself will be someone who
knows God in this way and what it is as God to
know him. that you delight in the things that
bring delight to God himself. Let's pray together
as we move on to our communion. Heavenly Father,
we thank you for your word. We thank you for
the surprise that it sometimes brings to us in
the midst of the words of doom and judgment and
darkness that are there in the book of Jeremiah,
that we have this little gem of showing us what
it means to know you. We ask that you help us
to take these things to heart, that we will indeed
trust you for the wisdom and the strength and
the riches that we need, but that we may rather
know you by being people who are characterized
by loving kindness and by justice and seeking
justice, walking humbly with you, and men and
women of integrity and righteousness in all that
we do. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.