A Preacher's Words Propel God's History Forward

On the call of the Weeping Prophet

We will continue our Monday Night Live discussion of Bonhoeffer’s “Lectures on Christology” at 7:00 EST.

Here is the link.

Here is the reading:

Bonhoeffer Reading 3

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The Old Testament lectionary passage for this coming Sunday is the prophet’s call story in Jeremiah 1.4-10:

Now the word of the LORD came to me saying, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations." Then I said, "Ah, Lord GOD! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy." But the LORD said to me, "Do not say, 'I am only a boy,' for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD." Then the LORD put out his hand and touched my mouth, and the LORD said to me, "Now I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant."

Notice the careful, causal sequence in the final verses. The words which the LORD lays upon the prophet’s lips are themselves the active agents of the string of verbs at the end of the passage.

As Robert Jenson writes:

“The Word of prophecy does not so much predict events as create them.”

The proclaimed word of the LORD, uttered in modes of prophecy or promise, is nothing less than the very enactment of God’s will in history. It is little wonder then that Jeremiah becomes known as the Weeping Prophet. The world resists the will of the LORD. Not for nothing does the church describe such speech in the language of labor pains— delivery.