Jeremiah 8:18-9:1; September 15, 2025; Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
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“My joy is gone; grief is upon me; my heart is sick.” – Jeremiah 8:18
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She put her in hand is his and they walked under the stars. And all Nick could think of was how lucky he was. That he should find her. That she should say yes.
Nick’s friend, Tom, liked to remind him that there was nothing lucky about it. For God had directed it. Authored it. Sarah was destined by Divine forces to meet Nick that day on the train.
“I guess,” is what Nick would cheerfully reply in return, though naturally his mind would drift to Jess, his fiancé from a couple years before. He always wanted to add: you know Tom, Jessica once found me too… was it God’s doing that she should leave me so that I could then meet Sarah? But, thinking better of it, he kept those words privately to himself and laughed at how ridiculous it would be for God to be up there playing matchmaker like Chuck Woolery.
Soon after, Nick and Sarah bought a house. They adopted a dog. And they conceived their first child. A serious, troubled sort of boy who was always talking back and questioning everything they would say. His name was Brian… Later came a daughter, and then another son, and Nick started to wonder if Tom was right. Perhaps he was touched by God after all. For all that he had was plentiful and wonderous.
Well, until the day when he was only five years away from retirement and his company pink-slipped him. Then Sarah abruptly announced that she had been having an affair and was leaving him. And though Nick called, his friend Tom was nowhere to be found. No pithy words of comfort this time, nor theological guidance or wisdom. So, Nick drifted into a mist of depression. A fog that would never lift.
His kids, soon grown and irreconcilable, decided to move far from the house. One married. One divorced. The other determined never to date nor relate at all.
And at 67, Nick was diagnosed with something serious. Terminal, the doctors said. “Do you have a last will and testament” a nun once asked? To which, Nick responded, “Oh yes, I do, and I am most bitter with God.”
At his funeral, the church gathered to sing Amazing Grace. The postlude was Bach. One of the ushers remarked how unseasonably cold it was outside. And Tom, the good friend from years before, was seen sitting in the last pew, muttering to himself… is there no balm in Gilead?
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The first question Nick asked God, when he got to Heaven, was “why?”
And God looked him dead in the eyes and said, “I’m Sorry.”
“I’m sorry!? That’s all you’ve got? You’re God!”
To which God replied, “Yeah, And…?” Just Because I Am God Doesn’t Mean That I’ve Got All The Answers.”
“…What!?”
“No, Really…” God continued. “That Was All A Theologian’s Fault. Some Bald Guy In The Early Centuries. I Mean, Have You Ever Read My Scriptures?”
“Uh…well…it’s been a while…”
“Well, I Destroy Things In Them. And Then I Promise Never To Do It Again. I Was Always Trying To Figure It Out. One Guy Named Job Almost Had Me Say Sorry, But I Gave Him A New Wife And Some Kids And We Called It Even.”
“Yeah…about that…”
“Listen, Nick, I Am Truly Sorry. Like My Son Jesus Wept Over His Friend Lazarus, I Have Wept Over Your Misfortune. I Wish I Could Have Done Something Different About It.”
“But you’re God! You could have done something different about it! You, supposedly, created everything, so it stands to reason that you could have fixed anything!”
“Says Who?”
“You!”
“Where?”
“I can’t believe this!”
“And Yet, You Were So Ready To Believe What Tom Told You About Me… Why Can’t You Bring Yourself To Believe What I, God, Am Telling You Right Now, Face To Face?”
“Well, you see there God, I didn’t believe everything that Tom told me about you. He would tell me all the time that you had a plan for me. A grand plan, he would say. One that purposefully led me from Jessica to Sarah, and then, apparently, back to an empty bed. Yeah, some grand plan you’ve got there o Mighty one.”
“I Never Said I Had A Grand Plan. I Mean, I Certainly Thought I Had A Decent One In The Beginning, But It Didn’t Turn Out The Way I Had Hoped. I Should Have Never Left That Darn Apple In The Garden.”
“Or, make the snake at all, I guess?
“Yeah, That Too! Good One Nick! But See… I Really Am Sorry.”
“You know, I am quite tired of hearing God say sorry.”
“What Would You Prefer That I Say?”
“I don’t know, how about….give me an answer or something!”
“Is ‘Sorry’ Not An Answer? You Know, Nick, One Of Your Planet’s Finest People Once Wrote, ‘”If one has the answers to all the questions—that is the proof that God is not with him. It means that he is a false prophet using religion for himself. You must leave room for the Lord, not for certainties.”’
“Yeah, well, what charlatan wrote that?”
“Pope Francis. Great Guy. Not A Perfect Guy. But A Great Gu…”
“You know, I don’t care! And why are we talking about Francis? Just give me an answer plainly! Please…I beg you”
“Well, I Once Gave My Prophet Jeremiah These Words To Say To People Just Like You: “For the brokenness of my people I too am broken, I mourn, and horror has seized me.”
“Oh, it’s horror that seizes you, huh?”
“Yes. All The Time. I Weep Over Your Brokenness. Everyday I Am Forced To Watch It. You Think You Were In A Depression Down There? Try Being Me For A Day Up Here. Forced To Watch My Creation Tear Itself Apart From Each and Every Corner. It’s Not An Easy Job And I Wouldn’t Wish It On You Or Anyone Else.”
“Well, why don’t you do something about it then? Why don’t you fix things?”
“I’m Trying…Look, Let Me Show You This New Planet That I Am Working On Over Here. It’s Much Better. Totally Improved.”
“I don’t care about that other planet! I care about mine, about me. About my world that fell apart. Where you and Tom were nowhere to be found when I needed you most!”
“I Won’t Speak For Tom, But I Have Always Been With You. Mourning And Crying With You. Rooting For You And Cheering You On. And Look, I Am With You Still.”
“…”
“And If I Can Promise You One Thing, My Son, It’s That I’ll Always Be With You. It Might Not Solve Your Pain, But I Will Never, Ever, Leave Your Side.”
“Oh, so like a faithful dog, huh?”
“Yes, Precisely. Like A Faithful Lab. The Best Of My Breeds. Happy To Sleep By Your Feet And Run To You Now That You’re Home.”
“But… unlike a dog, you just keep on living, huh?
“Yes. And I Already Told You How Hard That Is. To See What I See All The Time. And Harder Still Because I Never Even Asked To Be God To Begin With.”
“Wait just a second… about that… how did you come to be God in the first place? Have you really always existed?”
“Come, Let’s Save That For Another Conversation.”
Amen
