A Shrub in the Desert

​6th Sunday after Epiphany – C                                                                      LSB #’s 705, 704, 729
Text – Jeremiah 17:6
 
He is like a shrub in the desert, & shall not see any good come.  He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.
 
A SHRUB IN THE DESERT
 
 
If you drive through the flat lands out west,  you’re likely to see tumbleweeds rolling aimlessly across the desert.  It’s what eventually becomes of the shrubs that grow there.   It’s also the picture Jeremiah is painting for us  as the Holy Spirit inspires the OT reading: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man…  He is like a shrub in the desert…”  (17:5-6 ESV) 
God had given the land filled with milk & honey to the Israelites  as a gift & a blessing.  What happened  that now their Creator is referring to them as a shrub in the desert, dwelling “…in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land”?  (Jeremiah 17:6 ESV)   It wasn’t just  that the people had sinned.  It wasn’t just  that they violated the 1st commandment. 
And it’s not  that the people had physically moved into the desert  to live.    Rather, spiritually,  they had left the God of the Promised Land  & sworn their allegiance to the false gods of the unbelieving nations  around them.   Spiritually,  the Chosen People of God were unable to bear fruit  because they were now living in a wasteland that provided no nourishment. 
They had left the source of life & ignored His repeated attempts to call them back.  A few verses before the OT reading, Jeremiah defined the situation with these words, “The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron; with a point of diamond, it is engraved on the tablet of their heart, & on the corners of their altars.”  (17:1)  They were firmly entrenched in the sin of unbelief. 
Hundreds of years later, Jesus quoted Isaiah in speaking of the church leaders of His day, “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.”  (Matthew 15:8 ESV)   Jesus was calling them to repentance, but rather than turn back to their Creator for life,  they crucified Him.  It seems that a similar virus is infecting our nation today.  The corruption, fraud & waste in our federal government  is all over the news these days.  It spans all three branches – executive, congressional & judicial.   Sin becomes rampant when the hearts of people are far from God.  Is our nation is also becoming a shrub in the desert,  or is it already there? 
I say that because,  while many of our people still honor God with their lips, the majority of our citizens no longer attend church  at all.  Research shows that 40 million Americans have left the church, & no longer attend at all, in the past 25 years.   Of those,  68% say that their parents played at least some role, if not a significant one, in their leaving the church. 
Of the 40 million who’ve left the church,  two thirds say  they still believe the main teachings of Christianity.   In other words,  they’re still honoring God with their lips,  but their hearts seem to be drifting further & further away  from the house of God.  Removing themselves from the spiritual nourishment of the church,  are they becoming shrubs in the desert? 
Jeremiah was chastising the people of his time for wrongdoing that was not an isolated event.  Nor was it sin  in a moment of weakness.  Their pattern of evil was engraved by habit as deeply as an inscription chiseled into stone or steel.  Jeremiah wrote, “Cursed is the man who trusts in man & makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord.”  (17:5 ESV) 
If the people of our nation are trusting  that they still believe the main teachings of Christianity, are they like the people of Jeremiah’s day?  Are they trusting in what they believe rather than trusting in Jesus?  Are they trusting in their human wisdom & knowledge rather than devoting their very existence to the only source of life in this corrupted creation? 
As our people no longer yearn to be in God’s house,  are they taking their life out into the parched places of the wilderness?  That is Satan’s plan for you & for me.   If he can separate us from God’s Word,  then we will certainly die like a shrub in the desert.  With the Introit, earlier in the service, we confessed with words from Psalm 119, “Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with their whole heart.”  (119:2 ESV)   That is God’s plan for you & for me.  Living in this sinful world is not a safe space.  Though God gives us many blessings here, we draw our life from Him alone.  As Jeremiah wrote of people who trust in the Lord:
“He is like a tree planted by water,  that sends out its roots by the stream, & does not fear when heat comes,  for its leaves remain green, & is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.”  (Jeremiah 17:8 ESV)   How can a shrub in the desert plant itself by water?  How can you or I, who are dead in our sins, plant ourselves by the River of Life? 
It cannot be done.  Someone else has to transplant us who were born under the curse of God.  That is the curse of original sin.  Our parents were corrupt all the way back to Adam & Eve.  Sinful creatures do not conceive holy & perfect children.  All of us were conceived in sin, but our Creator created a plan to save us.  He created us for the purpose of being rescued. 
In Baptism, & through the Word of God,  the Holy Spirit transplants us  from the parched places of the wilderness,  to the River of Life.  That transplanting begins in this world, precarious as it may be.  There are still many dangers, & complacency in our spiritual lives always leads in the wrong direction.   For our sake, on the cross,  Jesus became the shrub in the desert. 
In V. 5 of the OT reading, Jeremiah writes, “Cursed is the man who trusts in man…”  The Hebrew word translated into English as cursed,  is the same word used by the Lord God  as He cursed the serpent in the Garden.  Jesus took on our curse that we might inherit God’s blessing.  In reality, Jesus has destroyed the curse,  in order that you & I might live  & even flourish. 
If we look at our lives, it’s easy to see many times when there appears to be no flourishing at all.  However, looking at our lives  is putting our trust in what human flesh can see.  To be certain of God’s blessing, to be certain of our flourishing, the only place to look is to Jesus.  The only thing that separates any of us from hell  is trusting that God already transplanted us into His kingdom.  Our corrupted eyesight struggles to see.   Jeremiah’s shrub in the desert is a man who trusts in his own flesh, his own eyesight.   A shrub in the desert can have no root in that hard packed soil,  so eventually it becomes a tumble weed, blown & tossed about by every wind. 
“Cursed is the man who trusts in man & makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord.  He is like a shrub in the desert, & shall not see any good come.  He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.”  (Jeremiah 17:5-6 ESV)    Those verses describe our old Adam that must die & be buried with Christ in Baptism. 
“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.  He is like a tree transplanted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, & does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, & is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.”  (Jeremiah 17:7-8) 
Those words describe the new man of faith, who rises to new life with Christ in Baptism.  As we remain rooted in Christ, we will not be afraid no matter what our eyes may see, & we will not cease to bear fruit.   
Through His Word & through Baptism, our Creator transplants us from the kingdom of Satan into the New Jerusalem, into His heavenly kingdom, even while we are still here on earth.  We will experience that fully, once we are resurrected from the dead.  Until then, what we see of our lives may appear to be nothing more than a shrub or a tumbleweed in the desert. 
Trusting in the Lord, God’s promise is that you will never cease to bear fruit.  Amen.
 
Renew me,  O eternal Light,  & let my heart & soul be bright,  illumined with the light of grace  that issues from Your holy face.    Remove the power of sin from me  & cleanse all my impurity  that I may have the strength & will  temptation of the flesh to still.   Grant that I only  You may love  & seek those things  which are above  till I behold You face to face,  O Light eternal,  through Your grace.  Amen.  LSB 704:1-2, 4.