“I will make your nation great again”

 (Jer.23, 1-8)

I will make you a great nation again.  That is the promise of God to Israel. The book of Jeremiah, the passage we read this Sunday, contains a diverse collection of prose and poetry directed at the kings who reign after King Josiah. The prophet is critical of these kings in that they fail to uphold the law on behalf of the people. His message consists of three prophecies dealing with the future of the people and of the Davidic monarchy. The first deals with three issues:  Judgment on Israel’s kings, the gathering of a remnant, and the raising up of new “shepherds.”  The second speaks of the coming of a new king, “a righteous branch from David’s line.”  The third speaks of a new exodus as God’s people are rescued from bondage.  The leaders of Israel were appointed to care for the people, reign over them, and maintain peace, security and justice throughout the land, and so enable the people to freely worship the Lord.  Yet they have failed in this duty.  Jeremiah’s word of “woe” from the Lord is “you have not attended” to my people, so “I am going to attend to you for your wicked deeds.”

What do our leaders need to learn from Jeremiah?  That God does punish wicked, corrupt and irresponsible leaders.  American people need to know that the Lord will always restore blessing and prosperity, preserve a remnant of the people, obviously a faithful remnant, a people like those who, so many years before, did not bow their knee to Baal.  It is time to stand up for God and reject, once for all, the idolatrous culture of today’s society.  It is time to long for the true righteousness, time to walk away from our wicked deeds. It is time to bring God back into our nation’s public square, the very place where our daily lives are discussed and shaped.

We Christians are that faithful “REMNANT,” through whom the work of restoration will be accomplished.  In our relationship with Christ, the Good Shepherd, we are that lost people found, no longer scattered, no longer terrified. Now found in him, our Shepherd cares for us wisely and well and through him we find righteousness in our favor.  We are no longer hiding from the divine, rather we are sheltering in him; we are no longer invisible to him, rather magnified before him. We find ourselves lost in our Shepherd, like refracting light displaying the glorious person we are.  Jesus has become the window of our soul.

— Fr Pothin