Jeremiah 28:10-17

¹⁰ Then the prophet Hananiah took the yoke from the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, and broke it. ¹¹ And Hananiah spoke in the presence of all the people, saying, “Thus says the Lord: This is how I will break the yoke of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon from the neck of all the nations within two years.” At this, the prophet Jeremiah went his way.

¹² Sometime after the prophet Hananiah had broken the yoke from the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: ¹³ Go, tell Hananiah, Thus says the Lord: You have broken wooden bars only to forge iron bars in place of them! ¹⁴ For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I have put an iron yoke on the neck of all these nations so that they may serve King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, and they shall indeed serve him; I have even given him the wild animals. ¹⁵ And the prophet Jeremiah said to the prophet Hananiah, “Listen, Hananiah, the Lord has not sent you, and you made this people trust in a lie. ¹⁶ Therefore thus says the Lord: I am going to send you off the face of the earth. Within this year you will be dead, because you have spoken rebellion against the Lord.”

My daughter shared with me that our 4 1/2 year-old granddaughter, Natalie, began a day looking longingly out the window to her friend’s house next door during quarantine in March. She wished she could go play with her friend but knew she couldn’t. She said, “I can’t wait until the world stops doing everything with the news.”

More than three months later, those words still ring true, don’t they? I imagine we all agree that we can’t wait until the world stops doing everything with the news.

You may have seen the YouTube offerings of John Krasinski called “SGN – Some Good News.” Krasinski is best known for his role in the TV show “The Office.” He started the weekly offering of SGN when the pandemic came about, offering some good news in the midst of all the bad news. The show went viral.

It reminds me of a song from the musical, “The Wiz,” called “Don’t Nobody Bring Me No Bad News!”

We want GOOD NEWS, not bad.

Hananiah offered some encouraging words to God’s people in exile, that the end of their captivity would soon come to an end.

Jeremiah received a different message from God and shared the not-so-good news with the people – Hananiah’s words are hopeful, but not helpful, not true.

Did you notice that there is no Hananiah book in the Bible?

The news is not always pleasant.

In our relationship with God, it’s the truth we need to hear – good and bad, right?

At a Maundy Thursday service at a small church, the congregation gathered in the sanctuary (Remember those days?). A visitor joined in that night with the 20 or so others for worship. Seeing the group was small, the pastor decided to invite them all forward for the communion liturgy. They gathered around the altar, and heard the words again, “…In the night in which he was betrayed…”

Then, the pastor instructed those gathered to share the meal with their neighbor. She offered the bread to the first person and said, “The body of Christ, broken for you.” Then the cup, “The blood of Christ, shed for you.” The pastor told those gathered to share the same words as the elements were passed from one to another.

The visitor, afraid of embarrassing himself in front of these strangers, kept repeating the words over and over to himself, willing himself not to forget, “The body of Christ…the blood of Christ…” He was doing alright until the woman next to him offered him communion. She said, “Take it. It’s for sinners.”

Bad news – we are sinners.

Let us Pray: 

Dear God, we pray for good news. We know you never abandon us even when there’s bad news. No matter the news, may we never forget the good news of great joy – in your Son we have a Savior. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.