Baruch's Uncertain Help

By the Rivers of Bablylon, by Lika Tov

Baruch was written before Jesus came. We read it this week because it asks such helpful Advent questions. What have we done to get in such a bind? Why is it so easy to forget hard lessons learned we swore to remember? How can we live faithfully now?

These questions and the particular history of Baruch's six chapters speak very well to our present reality and quandary. The book was probably written in the last centuries before the common era--although it purports to be written many centuries before by an eye witness to the fall of Jerusalem and the captivity in Babylon (by Baruch, Jeremiah's secretary and friend). It's not a particularly original work-- it mostly cribs from other Hebrew scriptures. It's part of 'our' bible, but it's not exactly sacred scripture--it's 'deutero- canonical,' kind of second team. At a time when good Christians are nostalgic for certainty, we get to read a book written not by whom nor for whom nor when it was claimed.

Yet all this is part of the book's gift to us. By taking what is given and doing his best to speak to present needs, this author models how people have always worked passionately, wisely, and creatively to hear what the Spirit is saying to God's people.

Baruch's answer to the above questions (What have we done to get in such a bind? Why is it so easy to forget the hard lessons learned we swore to remember? How can we live faithfully now?) is that returning again and again to Wisdom and scripture--to both what is written and remembered and what is experienced and discerned--trusting deeply in God's help--we continually discover that God is continually making for us a way.