Scripture: Jeremiah 9:4-5
Be wary of your friends! Don’t trust your sibling! Every sibling is a cheater, and every friend traffics in slander. One cheats the other; no one tells the truth; they train themselves to lie; they wear themselves out by doing wrong.
Thought for the Day: Let’s be real – not EVERY sibling is a cheat and not EVERY friend’s primary communication tool is slander. The prophets were known for using over-the-top language – exaggerations and hyperbole. The point is to make a point, to make a strong impression upon the reader/listener. Too often our current faith tradition approaches the prophets as if they were to be read in a strict literal fashion, but once again, such an approach will fail to grasp the intended meaning…and might just have people believing the very opposite. There was clearly a problem among the people of Judah, and some (maybe many) were making choices that were so self-centered that the consequences of those choices were damaging to family and friends. And for a religion (Judaism) that is based in the centrality of community, this behavior and disrespect was the greatest of sins. Later in vs. 21, the prophet writes: Death has climbed through our windows; it has entered our fortresses to eliminate children from the streets, the youth from the squares… The windows and fortress are not to be understood as the windows of a literal house and the fortress is not to be understood as a palace or temple in Jerusalem. Once again, this shelter was the structure of the community that was being torn apart by the instruments of death (injustice, hate, disregard for the poor and orphans, inability to demonstrate hospitality). These destructive forces were finding their way inside the community structure. In today’s world, people point to all kinds of things as proof for why they believe society is falling apart. The only problem is that many of the things being implicated are simply the natural progress of a society – and the discomfort felt is the stress that comes with change. These distractions get our eyes off the things the prophets, including Jeremiah, believed were the real instruments of death – injustice, hate, disregard for the poor and orphans, and an inability to demonstrate hospitality.
Prayer: The life of your gracious Spirit is still at work in our world, O Giver of Grace. Allow us to see the good happenings among us while also standing strong against the powers that seek to rip apart community. We make this request in the name of the gracious one, Jesus Christ. Amen.
SUNDAY’S SERMON
Last Sunday on Jeremiah
And sorry,
but the Blood Drive
scheduled for Sunday
has been postponed.
