22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

“Thus Saith The Lord: I Miss You”

A Service of the Word for the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
August 31, 2025: IN-PERSON and ONLINE at 10:30 a.m.
The Rev. Matthew Emery, lead minister, preaching
Jeremiah 2:4-13

This Sunday, we continue our multi-week dip into the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah was a "prophet"—one whose vocation is to "speak the Word of the Lord" into a particular time and situation. The witness of this ancient voice, who ministered around the time the Israelite nation was taken into exile in Babylon, proves surprisingly relevant in our own era—an era when, like Jeremiah's, talking heads "say 'Peace, peace,' when there is no peace"; an era when many, including the church itself, feel like they are in exile from all that seemed stable, familiar, and secure.

In this week's selection, we God lamenting over the people, and beginning to speak some hard truths about the ways they have wandered from their relationship with God. In particular, the people have forgotten where they have come from, who they are, and whose they are. Nevertheless, God's fountain of living water still flows, and in God's accusation and lament, we hear God's insatiable love and desire to be in relationship.