Br. Lain Wilson Jeremiah 11:18-20 Here in the Chapel, you will never hear chanted portions of several psalms, or even the entirety of two. Our Society’s practice follows other monastic communities in “mak[ing] provision for optional omissions of imprecatory verses” as an expression of hospitality.[1] Imprecatory, meaning “to invoke evil upon” or “to curse,” certainly captures the thrust of much of my prayer as I look out on our troubled world. I see evil and suffering, and find myself wanting those perpetrating it to suffer in return. I’d like to say that I’m above that, but I’m not. It has been shockingly easy for me to get there in my prayer. I’ve found a real invitation in praying imprecatory verses – not to discover new horrible things to wish on others, but to discover that what I feel is distinctly human. Jeremiah, in today’s short passage, echoes the language of our psalm (7) in calling on God as righteous judge to exact retribution on those who have planned evil against the prophet. The word translated “retribution” is often also translated as “vengeance”; it’s the same word that appears in the stunning opening verse of psalm 94: “O Lord God of vengeance, O God of vengeance, show yourself. Rise up, O Judge of the world; give the arrogant their just deserts” (vv. 1-2). This word appears in Jeremiah more often than in any other book of scripture and there signals punishment for an action that is incompatible with, or transgresses, God’s sovereignty, rather than personal revenge.[2] We might think of this as God’s messenger asking God to punish these men for ignoring diplomatic immunity. The important thing here is that Jeremiah knows; God has revealed the situation to him.[3] By contrast, most of us, maybe all of us, will lack this firm assurance of what the sides truly are. We may be reassured by imprecatory verses that we aren’t alone in feeling these very human feelings in our prayer, but we are equally convicted by the inadequacy of our own knowledge and understanding, and the shackles that inadequacy place on us. Nicodemus recognizes this when he replies to the Pharisees’ fierce questioning of the temple police and denunciation of the crowd: “Our law does not judge people without first giving them a hearing to find out what they are doing, does it?” (John 7:51). We don’t have all the facts, and therefore we can’t exercise judgment. This is the crux of the matter. What we can know for sure is so limited in this life – our understanding of God and God’s plan for us; our perception of the “mystery present in the hearts of our brothers and sisters, strangers and enemies,” as we say in our Rule; indeed, our awareness of the movements of our own hearts. Only God can know, and when we rush to judgment, when we find ourselves desiring a sentence to be imposed, we are putting ourselves into the place of God. “Beloved, never avenge yourselves,” Saint Paul writes to the Romans. “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. . . . Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:19, 21). Jesus surely models Paul’s exhortation. “When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. Then Jesus said, ‘Father, forgiven them; for they do not know what they are doing’” (Luke 23:33-34). God is the righteous judge . . . and Jesus, who of anyone who has ever lived had the right to demand retribution from that judge, instead asks his Father to forgive. Jesus sees the shackles of their own ignorance and urges compassion. This may be beyond our own power. We do not know or understand, and we will still be limited humans and desire and pray for vengeance and violence and suffering. . . and Jesus, who suffered from that very same human impulse, and who redeems all human experience, redeems even that. Jesus, the Savior of the world, saves us, day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, from the shackles of our own short-sighted ignorance, offering us freedom in the example of his own life and death. Amen.   [1] “About the Daily Office Psalter,” in SSJE, The Ordo for the Daily Office and Holy Eucharist. [2] The Hebrew word neqamah appears in the book of Jeremiah 11 times, out of a total of 27 occurrences in the Hebrew Scriptures. On its meaning in Jeremiah: W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah 1 (Philadelphia, 1986), 374, citing an article by Mendenhall: “‘It is a command that the sovereign authority of Yahweh should be placed in action in order to punish/redress an action that is incompatible with the sovereignty of that same ultimate authority.’” [3] Jeremiah 11:18: “It was the Lord who made it known to me . . . [who] showed me their evil deeds.” Holladay (ibid., 363) underscores Jeremiah’s God-given knowledge in his rendering of the conclusion to verse 20: “for to me you have revealed my adversaries” (commentary at 374).