We don’t often think of the prophet Jeremiah in terms of good news. His message generally is one of gloom and doom, trying to get the people’s attention, to wake them up to the consequences of ignoring God, of going their own way. But in our lesson for today, we hear the word of the Lord, ”I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.” That’s good news!

As we have been examining our lives these past weeks, we, no doubt, have found that we, like the Israelites, have all too often been ignoring God and going our own way. The psalmist proclaims our prayer for God’s saving grace, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your loving-kindness, in your great compassion blot out my offenses.” Take a few minutes to read the psalm appointed for today. Let the words of the psalmist become your words, experience the depth of the prayer, and take heart from Jeremiahs’ good news. We can trust God, who is ever-faithful, to “Give [us] the joy of [his] saving help again and sustain [us] with [his] bountiful Spirit.”

There is more good news. Through the prophet, God promises: “They shall all know me.” “Know” in this case is not merely intellectual knowing, nor does it speak to a nodding acquaintance with the Lord. The Hebrew word that is translated “know” means an intimate relationship, a deeply personal knowing. That says to me that God is working in and through each of us and all of us to develop a loving, trusting relationship with us, and that God won’t give up on us, no matter how rebellious or stand-offish we may be. I see the gospel promise in today’s reading: “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself,” as a renewing of that promise. Just imagine, all of us, drawn into the incredible, indivisible love of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; none left out, all encompassed in the saving embrace of Christ’s arms stretched out on the hard wood of the cross. Now that is good news!