Jeremiah and Optimistic America -- FPC sermon excerpt

It’s been a tough decade for optimists.

Nine years ago this month, our security and serenity was shattered by the 9-11 terrorist attacks. The crashing of airliners into the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania left us feeling stunned, frightened, and traumatized. I started my ministry at FPC in January 2001, and then in September — BANG! The world changed.

Since then, we have been stressed by participation in two foreign wars and a global economic meltdown.

“My joy is gone, grief is upon me, my heart is sick,” writes the prophet Jeremiah to the people of Israel (8:18). “For the hurt of my poor people I am hurt, I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me” (v. 21).

We know what Jeremiah is feeling, don’t we? Heartsickness, grief, loss of joy. Hurt, dismay, and deep mourning. We know it. Even if we don’t admit it.

The challenge of embracing Jeremiah is that his profound sadness runs against the grain of our natural American optimism. We have a predisposition to look on the bright side, accentuate the positive, search for the silver lining.

Author Barbara Ehrenreich says that we are Bright-Sided. This means that we embrace “possibility thinking” and books such as The Secret, Your Best Life Now, and the Chicken Soup for the Soul series. To be Bright-Sided is to turn your frown upside down. Don’t worry, be happy! If you dream it, you can do it.

I’ll be the first to admit: I am not a Bright-Sider.

Neither is the prophet Jeremiah. Instead, he is a Truth-Teller. He respects his people enough to be brutally honest, not overly optimistic. In ancient Israel and today, people facing tough times need the truth, not spin. When we suffer the sudden deaths of church members, we should grieve. When we see people around us losing their jobs, we should take these losses seriously. There is always a place for a message of hope, but it should be grounded in the promises of God, not in superficial platitudes and inspirational feel-good stories.

Barbara Ehrenreich first noticed that positive thinking was the law of the land when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Thrust into a world of pink ribbons, cancer walks, and uplifting testimonials from cancer survivors, she quickly discovered that something was missing: Outrage at the disease. She felt that she wasn’t supposed to be angry or melancholy, because such feelings were thought to aid the cancer.

“As in all forms of positive thinking,” reports Christianity Today magazine (January 2010), “the key was to ignore the negative emotions and realities and focus instead on your desired outcomes — health and wealth.” After this experience, Ehrenreich wrote the book Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America.

In the face of all this optimism, the prophet Jeremiah says, “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of my poor people not been restored? O that my head were a spring of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears, so that I might weep day and night for the slain of my poor people?” (8:22, 9:1).

There is nothing Bright-Sided in these words from the prophet. He is weeping day and night for the slain of his people, just as we might weep for the victims of 9-11, the soldiers killed in Iraq, the civilians injured in Afghanistan, and the senior citizens who lost their life savings in the global economic meltdown.

I agree with the prophet Jeremiah: It is always better to be honest than optimistic.