Sermon — So Let it be Written… -

(The sermon is based off of Jeremiah 36:1–8; 21–23, 27–31. I preached it at Christ Lutheran Church, Harrisburg, PA on Sunday June 29, 2025)

You may remember that iconic moment in The Ten Commandments when Yul Brynner as Pharaoh declares:
“So let it be written, so let it be done.”

His word is law. No debate. No dissent.

But God has a word too.

And when God speaks, things change. Not just spiritually, but socially. Economically. Politically. That’s what’s happening in Jeremiah 36. The prophet speaks a word from the Lord-a scroll is written and read aloud-and King Jehoiakim is so shaken that he cuts it up and burns it. Not because he didn’t understand it, but because he did.

And here’s the truth: this has always been the danger-and the power-of Scripture. As Richard Rohr points out in this morning’s daily meditation, the Bible tells the story from the perspective of those at the bottom. The oppressed. The conquered. The abused. The enslaved. The exiled. And it consistently shows how God is on their side-not the side of the powerful, the privileged, the oppressor, or the abuser.

That has real-world consequences.

To take Scripture seriously is to be confronted with the reality that God does not bless empire. God delivers from it. That God is not a mascot for the powerful, but the advocate of the poor.