Friday, September 20, 2019
“Jeremiah, say to the people, ‘This is what the Lord says: “‘When people fall down, don’t they get up again? When they discover they’re on the wrong road, don’t they turn back? Then why do these people stay on their self-destructive path? Why do the people of Jerusalem refuse to turn back? They cling tightly to their lies and will not turn around. I listen to their conversations and don’t hear a word of truth. Is anyone sorry for doing wrong? Does anyone say, “What a terrible thing I have done”? No! All are running down the path of sin as swiftly as a horse galloping into battle! Even the stork that flies across the sky knows the time of her migration, as do the turtledove, the swallow, and the crane. They all return at the proper time each year. But not my people! They do not know the Lord’s laws. “‘How can you say, “We are wise because we have the word of the Lord,” when your teachers have twisted it by writing lies? These wise teachers will fall into the trap of their own foolishness, for they have rejected the word of the Lord. Are they so wise after all? I will give their wives to others and their farms to strangers. From the least to the greatest, their lives are ruled by greed. Yes, even my prophets and priests are like that. They are all frauds. They offer superficial treatments for my people’s mortal wound. They give assurances of peace when there is no peace. Are they ashamed of these disgusting actions? Not at all—they don’t even know how to blush! Therefore, they will lie among the slaughtered. They will be brought down when I punish them, says the Lord. I will surely consume them. There will be no more harvests of figs and grapes. Their fruit trees will all die. Whatever I gave them will soon be gone. I, the Lord, have spoken!’ Jeremiah 8:4-13
I’ve never really seen a
sleeping serpent; every time I discover one they’re quite awake, staring at me,
and ready to pounce upon whatever part of me looks like it belongs on a
menu! A snake is NOT
my all-time favorite cuddly pet!
When you’re alarmed about
something which presents a danger to your existence, it makes perfect sense to
stay on alert and take appropriate action.
In the case of Israel, they did neither.
They accepted the words of false teachers and leaders. God was not pleased, and it became for that
nation a harsh sentence of captivity and bondage.
The false nature of what the
priests and leaders were offering was that palliative pablum of lukewarm
religion. Jeremiah declared that was
like a moral band aid on a deadly cancerous tumor.
In churches around the world
(what is left of them) Jeremiah’s scenario is currently played out with an I’m
OK – you’re OK kind of theology that somehow side-steps the issue
of sin. Like so many mindless children
following a pied piper, we have bought into the idea that we are basically
good, and just a few tweaks here and there on the moral issues, and we’ll be
just fine. However, sin is rampantly
storming through the culture like a tsunami of Noah’s day. And we can’t find a moral compass to stem the
turpitude of pastors, bishops, and so-called spiritual leaders who have lost
the ability to blush at even their own sinfulness, much less the sweeping
acceptance of sin in the camp.
One after another
denominations are winking at the termites walking in the front door. In our day we honor people who excel at
putting filth and violence in front of our children’s eyes. We elect representatives who wouldn’t
recognize a moral compass if it hit them in the face. We stand in awe of athletes who command $15
million a year to catch a ball and are moral midgets. And God?
We don’t even call Him by name; He is relegated to social media
epithets, O.M.G. And anytime we use His
name it’s uttered as an adjectival force to damn this or that. To the thoroughly modern person, God is a
joke. And where is the church in all
this? Blandly, inconsequentially patting
each other on the back for how good we are in a difficult situation.
For You Today
Serpents may sleep sometimes,
but there is one that is ever on the job; Lucifer never quits. The followers of Jesus should be so inclined!
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