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I was like a gentle lamb

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led to the slaughter.

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I did not know that they had devised plots against me.

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But oh, lord of hosts.

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Let me see

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your vengeance on them for to you

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I have committed my cause this is our text.

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As a kid, I spent a fair amount of time with my best friend running

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around and sometimes, even being useful on his dad's farm.

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It was Southwest Nebraska and they raised turkeys

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And sheep.

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Neither of which rank among the brightest animals in creation.

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Orphaned sheep

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were a fact of life and meant a wonderful diversion for us

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when the wobbly wooly Lambs were brought home to be bottle

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fed. And live in the kitchen and then backyard of my friends house in

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town, just to block from my home

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in the parsonage.

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Barney became a particularly special lamb embraced as a family pet

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wandering in the yard like a dog.

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He was undeniably cute, funny and sweet, just like a lamb a supposed to

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be.

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Adorable gentle lambs

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they're great for baby animal books petting zoos and stuffed animals.

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And they provide the ideal metaphor for all that is innocent,

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vulnerable and naïve. When Jeremiah describes himself as a gentle lamb

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led to the slaughter.

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I think of Barney fluffy, cuddly, wide-eyed, harmless blissfully

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ignorant of

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any evil or disaster anywhere in the world, the very antithesis of

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street-smart.

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And so, frankly, it strikes me as well

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 more than a little bit odd that Jeremiah so willingly, designates

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himself in the like a gentle lamb, led to the slaughter category.

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His point is clear enough

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of course, he's just doing his job prophesying harsh things against

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his own people.

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Meanwhile, these people are busy plotting, his utter destruction.

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Even the people from his own hometown Anathoth.

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They want to wipe him and his name off the face of the Earth.

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They have had enough of the whining morose prophet who has nothing

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good to say.

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But for his part, Jeremiah is oblivious unaware of their schemes until

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Yahweh clues in his unwitting prophet.

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In a sense, Jeremiah saying I was busy with what you sent me to do

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God not even noticing that the these people, your people were up

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to. I'm as innocent and naive as well as a gentle lamb.

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That's quite an admission for any man,

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I think.

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I mean lambs are great and all that.

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Like I said, they're great for picture books and petting zoos but no

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one

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at least, no, dude wants to be one.

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In fact, no real man ever wants to be caught looking like a fool being

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duped by someone with more smarts than he's got. Getting the wool

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pulled over his eyes,

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that's not cool.

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It is an overwhelming priority for us all, and especially, I think for

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men not to look stupid.

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You're no one's pigeon.

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You weren't born yesterday, you've lived for a while.

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And you've got a few things figured out.

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You've got some Street, smarts.

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No, none of us

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eagerly signs up for the gentle as a lamb classification.

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No

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thanks.

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Jeremiah does apparently without blushing.

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In fact, he owns it.

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I have no idea what was going on? Street smarts

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hardly, Jeremiah is clueless.

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It seems that he's got better things to be doing than worrying about

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his reputation on the street or with his peers.

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Jeremiah it seems is more concerned about doing what God wants him to

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do.

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He's pretty wrapped up in the business of being a prophet and if that

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leaves him woefully lacking in Street smarts

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then so be it. Jeremiah doesn't seem to mind.

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I wonder if even in the church

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we are too often too eager to validate our own street savvy

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wisdom. Instead of letting God be the one with the street smarts.

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But we are simply content to do what he gives us to do.

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Even if that means looking a bit out of touch, naive,

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and gullible.

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I mean, maybe it's not so bad getting played by manipulative,

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parishioners.

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Disingenuous beggars.

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Or calculating power brokers in the bureaucracies of state and

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church.

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Instead of striving to be a shrewd and skillful player in the games

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and machinations of the world.

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Maybe we should be striving instead to see how innocence and ignorant

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of the world's corruption and game playing

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we can be.

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What glory is there in being a champion in the world's conniving power

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games?

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Why do Christians want to boast of their street smarts and cunning?

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Perhaps instead we should boast of our inability and susceptibility.

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Gentle as a lamb. Reliant, not on our cunning and craftiness but

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reliant on our God.

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The truth is we are all actually about as clever and self-sufficient

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and street

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smarts as a gentle lamb led to the slaughter.

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We just don't like to admit it. Like it or not

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we also all do, look a lot like Barney the lamb.

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Barney though did not remain a lamb.

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He left the bottles, the backyard in town behind and he returned to

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the farm.

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We're like a rogue warrior

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he patrolled the acreage roaming, free and warding off

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any living thing that ventured into territory

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he had claimed as his own. Barney, became a terror, stalking ,charging

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and budding ferociously.

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Even those who had once bottle-fed him.

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And when he wasn't executing a sneak attack from around a corner, he

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would bleat pitifully and loudly noisily complaining, about whatever

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it is that troubles sheep. Barney

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the gentle lamb had become Barney the bleeding ram.

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And Jeremiah it seems underwent a similar transformation.

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The innocent unknowing prophet being targeted by his own people doesn't

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sound gentle

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when he prays.

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Oh, Lord of hosts.

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Let me see your vengeance on them.

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Jeremiah the gentle has become Jeremiah the vindictive.

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It turns out that he can play on the same court with the street

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smart after all. On the street

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there is no doubt

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what goes around comes around and enemies deserve harsh

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justice. Jeremiah wants Justice.

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But he's Justified, isn't he?

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These were enemies of God who are causing him grief. In seeking

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vengeance

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isn't he after all simply seeking God's honor?

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The plotter's of Anathoth, well, they needed to be beat.

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And so do those who attack the gospel today, don't they?

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We need to be shrewd and street-smart. We to take on the enemies of

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God's truth.

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We need to do all that we can to beat them in classrooms and in social

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media and in popular culture and in court and in elections.

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Yes, even in war.

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The gospel is at stake.

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Victories are needed. Enemies

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must be defeated.

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We are right to pray for God's vindication indignant and angry.

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All righteously, so of course, we want God to settle the score.

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But instead of piling up proof texts and twisting truth to build a

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case to justify our human proclivities and confirm the validity of our

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street

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smarts that crave justice.

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Maybe.

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Maybe we need to renounce the bleeding ram within us.

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And embrace again

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the gentle lamb.

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Jesus has set the standard.

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Viciously, mercilessly attacked, vilified maligned crucified.

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He prayed for Grace. Better yet

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he gave Grace.

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For every gentle lamb, bleeding ram and street-smart

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enemy of God.

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Jesus gave Grace.

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What is not deserved

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is freely given.

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That's God's way.

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Yes, God does deal in justice, but that's his concern.

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Not mine.

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Not yours.

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Gentle lambs, follow the lamb, they live by his grace.

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They yearn for his grace.

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They pray for his grace and they offer his grace.

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To every sheep

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no matter how loud

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lost nasty, combative and conniving.

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And then they're content to let God do what God decides to do.

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Gentle

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Jeremiah did not forget that part, at least.

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Ask for vengeance, if you must

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but never stop being a gentle lamb.

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And rejoice

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that the slain but living lamb keep score his way.

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Not the way of the street, but the way of Grace.

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Amen.

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We stand for the Kyrie.