Scripture excerpts from this Sunday
Jeremiah 38–And so they took (the prophet) Jeremiah and threw him into the cistern of Prince Malchiah… letting him down with ropes. There was no water in the cistern, only mud, and Jeremiah sank into the mud. Yet Ebed-melech, a court official, went there from the palace and said to him: “My lord king, these men have been at fault in all they have done to the prophet Jeremiah, casting him into the cistern. He will die…” Then the king ordered Ebed-melech the Cushite to take three men along with him, and draw the prophet Jeremiah out of the cistern before he should die.
Psalm 40:2, 3, 4, 18 R. (14b) Lord, come to my aid!
I have waited, waited for the LORD, and he stooped toward me.
R. Lord, come to my aid! The LORD heard my cry. He drew me out of the pit of destruction, out of the mud of the swamp. R. Lord, come to my aid!
‘Stuck In Some Kind of Mud? ‘Need to Get Out? The Homily
When I was studying and preparing this sermon, many things or causes came to my mind as to how a person today could relate to this Jeremiah 38 situation, because they are stuck in the mud. Maybe physically or spiritually, or both!
Have they been thrown in a literal pit, like the prophet Jeremiah was in this awful account? Maybe not as bad as that—yet our bad stuck places can be bad enough, having us crying out to help.
Jeremiah cried out from the mud in the bottom of a deep well, where he had been cast down. He was a man of faith, but the situation seemed very dire. Perhaps he remembered a story from a Book of Moses that told of the great patriarch Joseph was subjected to a same predicament, but got out of it.
A hole you may be in—just not a well or jail. No—but people can be caught in different kinds of pits, and be stuck in their own mud.
There are basically too kinds of mud pit situations. First, you are innocent—like Jeremiah was here in this account, and lowered in the well and into its mud floor. So you cry out as one who has been a victim.
Second case, you are the cause or part-cause of being stuck seriously in the mud, and so you cry out as one who is stuck and want to get un-stuck with the help of God for you. With God’s merciful help.
Let’s look at the innocent version. Jeremiah was a witness for the Lord and so he got targeted as to be put in such peril, down a pit and stuck in mud to die. I can think of missionaries and would-be martyrs of blood or suffering who will live out their witness fearlessly, and for just causes. The consequences of their faith are of receiving a severe rejection by the world. The Mexican priest martyr and blessed Fr. Miguel Agustin Pro gave his life for the Church and Jesus. It was in 1927. Though a hundred years ago, his story still moves lives today.
In a simpler story, I can think of an innocent just person who tried to speak up versus gross injustices at her workplace, and she got fired for it. The result was getting into much difficulty finding a job after it. She suffered for her godly cause.
Another innocent version example are people who suffer losses of life in their immediate circle due to the random violence, random brokenness, and random carelessness of the world. It puts those families or immediate circle of someone into a mud pit of hurt. am talking of grandmothers seeing their grandchildren die in violence in the streets—for no sane reason for death but by the violent actions of people who don’t give a darn for others. There also are the innocents, who are the hurting parents of children who die in the womb, or the hurting siblings who accompany in care their loved one who dies of cancer. They call out to you, Lord, from a pit of hurting, and they need Your help—for this broken world has too many awful stories of suffering which appeal to You.
Then, in the carelessness of unbelievers in this world, we see a racing driver strike dead an innocent driver who was “in the way” of this crazed motorist. On the roadside is now put a makeshift cross memorial for where the innocent died in their car. These events keep on hurting in the loved ones who remain after the passing of their loved ones. I’ve been asked a few times to join a grieving family in a memorial prayer as the traffic fatality site.
As we talk of pits of mud in our lives like that— maybe another one to mention that happens to people too much is their “pit” can be of being stuck in unresolved childhood memories or of painful adult ones. It could be things that happened in our childhood that caused us serious hurt and pain. A child growing up under two alcoholic parents can be put in a pit of unresolved childhood memories, like of suffering neglect and inattention, or of abuse verbally or physically (in association with the parents’ drunken state then), and, even as grown adults now, the ACOA (Adult Child of an Alcoholic) can find it is difficult to go forward. You keep rehashing the hurt that was inflicted upon you. These unresolved memories or unhealed matters will then cause relationship problems, and also hinder their relationship with God. When you try to let it go, it finds a way to muddy your progress and there you are, you are still very stuck.
There you are in the prayer of Jeremiah—praying as a victim, since he was put in the pit without any cause of his own, but of being himself. You grew up not being a cause of your parents’ addiction—but just in being in the house with them led you to the treatment of being cast into the pit of mud, of your own life getting stuck, and with a feeling of being rather helpless to it. Lord, help me out of this!
Other family tragedies or disappoints linger on in people—having some people feel like they’ve been lowered into a hole they wonder if they can ever get out of.
I said there were two kinds of mud pit situations: First, as told to you, from the mud floor you cry out as one who has been a victim. Second case situation, you are the cause or part-cause of being stuck seriously in the mud, and so you cry out as one who is stuck and wants to get un-stuck with the help of God for you. You may even be taunted by the devil, or pawns of him—who does accuse you and say that ‘you are a worthless and helpless idiot, who’ll never get free of the pit.’
Ok, so you accept your part in being in the mud. You have fault in it. You have recklessly jumped into it and saw not have it would have you stuck ever after in it.
Maybe it is that you are the one who got stuck in mud and been so for years because of some addictions that have had you caught in its cycle of self-harm: that is, going again and again to drugs, pornography, or lust of something. No matter how hard you try to stop, you just can’t quit. You’re stuck in the mud. How did the very bad habit—this vice—ever get started? Did you know you’d ever in its slavery after the initial lustful pleasure of it? Some sins can do that: try to enslave us. The bad pleasure of it gives the momentary rush, but the after-effect is awful. We are addicted to a bad vice.
It doesn’t limit to the obvious stuff of drug addiction or money/materialism matters. One person said their shackles are on them from their poor choosing of some selfish repeated behavior and just getting stuck in that ‘persona.’ They explained that it was in their often-repeated poor behavior of belittling and criticizing others, and over so many childish things, but it was of their wanting (or needing) to act like the superior person in the room. They came to realize the ugliness of it and the stuck condition they were in—asking candidly to themselves: Where is that addiction of poor behavior stemming from? Could be the boomerang reaction of once being the victim to that—or was it of being raised so spoiled that the realization of their mean disrespect outwardly to others has no mirror effect for them to see? Can they now see for what awful attitude it has become in them—alienating so many from relationship with them?
For stuck in the mud people, we have seen how we’ve made mistakes and wrong choices in our lives, and it’s got us in the pit, feeling helpless or defeated and depressed by it.
The Big Question: Who can deliver us from being stuck in all of this? The rest of this homily is the Hope of One Who Can Surely Rescue and Deliver you.
The prophet Jeremiah was in his situation. In Jeremiah chapter 38, he shall call out to the Lord for help to get out of the mud. Not only does God hear it, but God helps a caring, believing, influential man named Ebed-Melech to hear the innocent cry of Jeremiah—and that man goes into action for the Lord’s purposes. God uses this court worker to go to the prince and convince him to get a rescue going for Jeremiah. Ebed-Melech is allowed to recruit three other men to pull out the prophet from the pit. Jeremiah is saved.
Ebed-Melech was a single Ethiopian man serving in King Hezekiah’s court. He is brave to get involved with Jeremiah’s plight. He will helpfully act in strong faith. He gets others to pull Jeremiah out. In the end, Jeremiah prophesizes something good to him, his rescuer man: Jeremiah pronounces: ‘You will survive something awful coming on ahead, all because the Lord has seen your faith and He wills to spare you.’ (He survives the siege of Jerusalem in 597bc.—it does come true. God helps the helper.)
There is help from God and He will choose how to send His deliverance to you and of when and how. Remember, too, that the eternal life that is seeded in you by God, and of Christ in you, is your ultimate deliverance for anything you are stuck in today.
King David knows all about how we know God as our Deliverer. He writes about it in Psalm 121: which starts out saying, “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from where and when will come my help. My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth.” It’s a Psalm that pairs well with our Psalm 40 of Mass.
David was both a victim of things at times, but also the cause of his own bad situations sometimes, too—when he needs help from God.
Let us pray the words once more of the Psalm of this Mass. From Psalm 40 of King David’s prayer treasury.
I have waited, waited for the LORD, and he stooped toward me.
I had said: Lord, come to my aid!
AND He, The LORD heard my cry. He drew me out of the pit of destruction,
out of the mud of the swamp.
Psalm 40 tells you this: If you have suffered pain and hurt, listen: You can go forward! God can heal your pain, whether it’s emotional or physical; you can be healed. God is so good to hear our appeal—in whatever has happened. God is our deliverer. He seeks life and everlasting answer to what is the woes of His people on earth. We can call out to Him and know Him as God our Deliverer.
Conclusion: God has seen you get into your trapped situation. You may be upset that God did not intervene and keep it from happening,
But realize this—God did not will for you to be stuck where you are in the mud and pit. This is all due to the human fallen condition and all that goes with it. The consequences of humankind’s sin and pride has led to the broken world we are in. All the upsetting things going on are because of living in a broken world.
The good news is that God does respond to us, all out of His compassion and love for us. God desires to deliver us. It is demonstrated in Jesus come to our world to set up a saving mystery up for us for our ultimate freedom and deliverance.
We can be glad that there is The Lord Who cares and will help us in our problems and pits.
Now, once again, are you or is someone you know in a Pit of mud?
We call out: God the Deliverer—come to my aid! In Hebrew this name for God is Yahweh Mephalti or Jehovah Mephalti. (YAH-way Meh-PAUL-tay.) (Ya-HO- vah Meh PAUL tay.)
I love singing or praying this title of The Lord. Even daily, the Liturgy of the Hours gives us as the opening of the day’s prayer: From Psalm 40: “God come to my assistance!”
God the Deliverer “Jehovah Mephalti” or “Yahweh Mephalti” I call out for Thy assistance. For me, or my neighbor in the mud. “Yahweh Mephalti” I call out for Thy assistance.
Pray it like you mean it. If you are calling out for God’s help of another, then be ready to be the agent of help. (Remember the man that responded to Jeremiah.)
If you’re praying for help and deliverance, then truly be dependent on God. Say: God, I am desperate for you. Yahweh Mephalti, I know that You have delivered your servant Jeremiah, and others… I know that You are delivering lives right now… and I know that You will deliver us all perfectly to Paradise one day in promise. Your Name has power to come to me in my need….You are LORD. All that or who that oppresses me will answer to You, Yahweh Maphalt— I will not be left in this pit…. O Jesus You trusted the Father, as in my place—and You were raised up and so shall I be raised up. I pray IN YOU, WITH YOU, BY YOU.
This mud situation is given over to You, O God, to be my Yahweh Maphalti.
I think of how innocent Jeremiah was in this pit— and while I may not be so innocent, it does not matter—for it is GOD’S NAME and reputation that is called upon in my prayer. Yahweh Mephalti, I trust in Your Aid.
Please, please see me in my need (or my neighbor in need) and bring Help!
To Whom Else do we turn?! You are IT!