May 3rd, 2011
Today’s reading from Encounter with God

No Blank Checks

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Opening Prayer

My God, in my busy, cluttered world, I long to see Your face and be touched by Your healing grace.

Read JEREMIAH 7:1-29

[1] This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: [2] “Stand at the gate of the LORD’s house and there proclaim this message: “‘Hear the word of the LORD, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the LORD. [3] This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place. [4] Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD!” [5] If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, [6] if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, [7] then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your forefathers for ever and ever. [8] But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless. [9] “‘Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, [10] and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, “We are safe”-safe to do all these detestable things? [11] Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the LORD. [12] “‘Go now to the place in Shiloh where I first made a dwelling for my Name, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel. [13] While you were doing all these things, declares the LORD, I spoke to you again and again, but you did not listen; I called you, but you did not answer. [14] Therefore, what I did to Shiloh I will now do to the house that bears my Name, the temple you trust in, the place I gave to you and your fathers. [15] I will thrust you from my presence, just as I did all your brothers, the people of Ephraim.’ [16] “So do not pray for this people nor offer any plea or petition for them; do not plead with me, for I will not listen to you. [17] Do you not see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? [18] The children gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough and make cakes of bread for the Queen of Heaven. They pour out drink offerings to other gods to provoke me to anger. [19] But am I the one they are provoking? declares the LORD. Are they not rather harming themselves, to their own shame? [20] “‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: My anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, on man and beast, on the trees of the field and on the fruit of the ground, and it will burn and not be quenched. [21] “‘This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Go ahead, add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices and eat the meat yourselves! [22] For when I brought your forefathers out of Egypt and spoke to them, I did not just give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices, [23] but I gave them this command: Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in all the ways I command you, that it may go well with you. [24] But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubborn inclinations of their evil hearts. They went backward and not forward. [25] From the time your forefathers left Egypt until now, day after day, again and again I sent you my servants the prophets. [26] But they did not listen to me or pay attention. They were stiff-necked and did more evil than their forefathers.’ [27] “When you tell them all this, they will not listen to you; when you call to them, they will not answer. [28] Therefore say to them, ‘This is the nation that has not obeyed the LORD its God or responded to correction. Truth has perished; it has vanished from their lips. [29] Cut off your hair and throw it away; take up a lament on the barren heights, for the LORD has rejected and abandoned this generation that is under his wrath.

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. All rights reserved throughout the world. Used by permission of International Bible Society.

Meditate

Think of a building like a church or cathedral that has made a deep impression on you. What was it saying to you?

Think Further

Halfway from Jerusalem to Samaria lay the ruins of Shiloh, where Israel set down their Tent of Meeting. By Eli’s day, greedy priests were treating worshipers’ offerings with appalling disrespect and sleeping with the women who worked there (1 Sam 2:12-14,22). They sent the ark containing the Ten Commandments into battle as if it would guarantee God’s support, but the Philistines wiped out their shrine. From a priestly family in Anathoth, Jeremiah may well have been a descendant of Eli, with this history in his heart. Now he stands boldly on the steps of the refurbished Jerusalem temple, urging worshipers to learn the lesson of Shiloh.

Haunting poetry gives way to simple prose in this sermon. It is the contents of God’s law that matter, not the packaging in a place of worship (14) or a pattern of sacrifices (22). He singles out five of the commandments that are being flouted (9) but also stresses compassionate justice, with the phrase, found frequently in Deuteronomy, listing the three most vulnerable groups in society (5,6). “Reform your ways and your actions,” the prophet urges (3,5). Repeated behavior can form habits and attitudes. Conversely, attitudes carelessly picked up can lead to perverse actions. We can get so bound up in all the stress of our working lives or the paraphernalia of church activities that we fail to notice how we are slipping away from God’s values.

God offers no blanket guarantee to bless what we are doing. The temple will never be a safe den where robbers can rest (11); it may well finish up in rubble like Shiloh. The good news is that Shiloh was replaced by Jerusalem and, for us, the temple in Jerusalem was replaced by the body of Christ. Destruction in one generation offers opportunity for faithful people to build something new.

Apply

Be encouraged that God is faithful to his promises forever, but resolve never to take God for granted in what you are doing.

Closing prayer

My God, in my busy, cluttered world, I long to see Your face and be touched by Your healing grace.

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