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Showing posts from September, 2020

Jeremiah 4: Whose fault? All are guilty!

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  Jeremiah Chapter 6/7    Jeremiah predicted that a great evil (Babylon) would come from the north and destroy Israel.  His prediction was based on an astute assessment of the current situation and a reasonable conclusion.  No one wanted to hear or head his warning.   Today we have many people making such assessments and judgments about the state of our nation and the threats to it from the south and from within.  If Jeremiah was here today, I think he would be reminding us that all of us (or many of us) have benefited from the last thirty years of unrestrained capitalism and unprecedented environmental destruction.  We need to get past the blame game and all pull together to change our ways, turn ourselves back to our Christian values of justice and peace, repentance and mercy, compassion and love.  We need in our personal and corporate lives to reflect those values or our destruction will come just as surely as Babylon destroyed Is...

Jeremiah 3: Still time: but not much

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  Chapter 4 of Jeremiah begins on a note of hope , but it is a faint hope.  If we cleanse our hearts, if turn away from our selfishness and greed, if … God seems to know that people do not give up their ill-gotten gains easily.  We continue along our chosen path , sowing among thorns (or with pesticides and fertilizers) hoping that the land won’t become barren even though we know it will.  We don’t like to read about a God who is determined to destroy us when we thought we had everything under control.  Yet it is not God but our ways and our doings that have brought the disaster upon us. (Ecological destruction, climate change, a torn social safety net and unrestrained capitalist growth have all contributed to the problems we face today.) The heart of the prophet who sees disaster coming yet cannot stop it is in anguish.   The politicians are astounded that they can no longer hold things together and keep going along their familiar path . ...

Jeremiah 2 Sin: turning away from God

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 Jeremiah Chapter 2   Jeremiah’s prophesy was to the nation of Israel after its glory days of King David and King Solomon and before its final defeat at the hands of the Babylonians.  Jeremiah’s message at the beginning of his ministry chastised the people for neglecting the God.  He accused them of ignoring the moral, social, economic and political laws given by God to Moses on which the nation was built. He also accused them of neglecting to worship the God who had led and protected them.  Instead they devoted themselves to the accumulation of wealth and power and sought spiritual guidance through the worship of foreign gods.  Jeremiah claimed that their turning away from God and God’s Way would lead to disaster (and it did!)  We live in a place and time in which we have everything we could possibly need and reasonably want.  Yet we have turned from the Christian faith and values that built our society, devoted ourselves to the accumulation of...

Jeremiah 1: Called (whether we like it or not)

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Jeremiah 1  Welcome to Jeremiah, my favourite prophet.  The message God gave to the prophets resonates with our time, perhaps with all time, because it speaks to our basest human condition and to God’s offer to live our best life.  Most of us live somewhere in the middle, hopefully closer to the option offered by God.  The prophets also remind us that we are not a solitary animal.  Our existence, in its basest or best state, is dependent on the society in which we participate.  The call of God, the call of Jesus to us, is not only to live our best self, but to encourage, persuade, even manipulate others to do the same and to do it together. Our best friends (and partners) are the ones who help us be our best selves but it is not easy to challenge and correct others in the choices they make, even those we love. Jeremiah was called to correct the leaders and the people of his time. Like Jeremiah, we find God’s call hard to hear, to understand and to accept. ...

Psalms for a Pandemic Summer 10 Psalm 107: Give Thanks

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  The summer of the pandemic is waning but the pandemic is still here!!  We are learning to live with it.  God’s wondrous world is not without it challenges but even in the midst of them we have much for which we can be thankful.  The human tribe has been through worse times, has learned some lessons, has endured and thrived.  Will we learn our lessons this time?  Will we not only survive but thrive having been shown our sins, repented of them, felt God’s gracious mercy and moved on in ways more loving, more just and more peaceful for all of God’s wondrous world.  Give thanks for God is good.    Psalm 107 Thanksgiving for Deliverance from Many Troubles 1  O give thanks to the  Lord , for he is good;      for his steadfast love endures forever. 2  Let the redeemed of the  Lord  say so,      those he redeemed from trouble 4  Some wandered in...