Of Jeremiah and Spirals

Long long time between posts! Going to take some of my own advice that will be in my homily this coming weekend, and that is to tell of the Lord. The scripture for this Sunday is Jeremiah telling God how he gets in trouble when he tells about him - but then he notices that if he tries to not tell of God there is this fire inside him that won’t let him keep quiet.

In my homily, I will note that this is a kind of beginning of a new year. It is, of course. School is about to start again and all of us are pretty much winding down vacation mode. Time to get back at it. And there is Jeremiah's message telling us in 2014 that means renewing our relationship with Christ and letting others know who we are. We do, after all, gush about our fabulous good friends, right? In my own case, we have told everyone about meeting up with Don and Janet again on our Las Vegas trip. We have even told - likely bragged - about a wonderful encounter with Louise Pitre who sat next to us on the airplane (Google her).

How easy it is to let that kind of thing slip with Christ. Who will never ever forget me. Who will never ever tsk tsk or roar or raise clenched fist at my stupidity but will rather do something like my dad did the night I couldn’t walk very well - I had been scared of his reaction but he looked and said softly, ‘You should have known better.’ I have remembered that better than any scolding I have ever received, and I have told all kinds of people about it. Really embarrassed on the one hand, really touched and grateful and influenced by it on the other. God is like that.

Sherry Weddell notes a theory called The Spiral of Silence. According to this theory, we are reluctant to speak up when we find that we are in the minority - because we fear being alienated by the majority. And so our voice goes quiet and what we have to offer might not get heard. Is that what Jeremiah was talking about? I bet it was. I have looked in the mirror and I have seen Jeremiah.

But I have also listened and kept track and monitored. The burning fire is there too. I guess we develop it. But we do not give it to ourselves. I think it is part of the design. Everyone of us has it. New year coming up. Time to pay attention maybe.