Dearest e-votees-
Happy April Fool’s day. May our hearts be blessed as we draw near to God’s love and God’s call and God’s ways even though they may well seem foolish to many—possibly including ourselves.
Peace,
Karl
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The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.
Jeremiah 31:31-34, NRSV
The two halves of the divided kingdom—Israel and Judah—have broken covenant with God. In spite of the many ways that God has been faithful to these people of promise the relationship keeps breaking down. The external covenant doesn’t seem to have the lasting power.
The words of the second verse of the hymn “Spirit, Spirit of Gentleness” (With One Voice #684) come to mind:
You swept through the desert, you stung with the sand
And you goaded your people with a law and a land;
And when they were blinded with idols and lies,
Then you spoke through your prophets to open their eyes
Jeremiah is one of the prophets that God spoke through to open the veiled eyes of the people of promise.
In spite of the many ways that God has been faithful to us—God’s people of promise—the relationship keeps breaking down. External things—church, spiritual habits, Lenten disciplines, symbols and rites—don’t always seem to have the lasting power. We need God to speak to us.We get blinded too. We need stinging and goading too. But mostly we need God to write on our hearts also. We need God to change us from the inside out. We need to be so familiar with God that no one ever need to encourage us to “Know the Lord!” because we already do.
In order to get close to God, we need to be assured of forgiveness. Goading and stinging only gets worse in close proximity to a holy and righteous God. There is a reason people were so wary and fearful (all the kinds of fear) of God. Perhaps we have become too familiar in some ways.
But God beckons us in. God is like the second ghost in A Christmas Carol who calls out to us “Come in! and know me better, man!” (or woman if you are a she-Scrooge instead of a he-Scrooge) God writes on our innermost places and says our iniquity and our sin will be remembered no more. Because God makes this move we can move close to God. Because our hearts are changed our actions and our exteriors just might change too. Because God loves us—which seems reckless and foolish given our track record—we can love God. And we can love those made in God’s image. That is the move of Scrooge’s heart. Perhaps we can move that way too.
Holy God, draw us up into relationship with you with renewed and comforted hearts. Stir us to come in and know you better. And God bless us, everyone! Amen.
Happy April Fool’s day. May our hearts be blessed as we draw near to God’s love and God’s call and God’s ways even though they may well seem foolish to many—possibly including ourselves.
Peace,
Karl
-----------------
The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.
The two halves of the divided kingdom—Israel and Judah—have broken covenant with God. In spite of the many ways that God has been faithful to these people of promise the relationship keeps breaking down. The external covenant doesn’t seem to have the lasting power.
The words of the second verse of the hymn “Spirit, Spirit of Gentleness” (With One Voice #684) come to mind:
And you goaded your people with a law and a land;
And when they were blinded with idols and lies,
Then you spoke through your prophets to open their eyes
Jeremiah is one of the prophets that God spoke through to open the veiled eyes of the people of promise.
In spite of the many ways that God has been faithful to us—God’s people of promise—the relationship keeps breaking down. External things—church, spiritual habits, Lenten disciplines, symbols and rites—don’t always seem to have the lasting power. We need God to speak to us.We get blinded too. We need stinging and goading too. But mostly we need God to write on our hearts also. We need God to change us from the inside out. We need to be so familiar with God that no one ever need to encourage us to “Know the Lord!” because we already do.
In order to get close to God, we need to be assured of forgiveness. Goading and stinging only gets worse in close proximity to a holy and righteous God. There is a reason people were so wary and fearful (all the kinds of fear) of God. Perhaps we have become too familiar in some ways.
But God beckons us in. God is like the second ghost in A Christmas Carol who calls out to us “Come in! and know me better, man!” (or woman if you are a she-Scrooge instead of a he-Scrooge) God writes on our innermost places and says our iniquity and our sin will be remembered no more. Because God makes this move we can move close to God. Because our hearts are changed our actions and our exteriors just might change too. Because God loves us—which seems reckless and foolish given our track record—we can love God. And we can love those made in God’s image. That is the move of Scrooge’s heart. Perhaps we can move that way too.
Holy God, draw us up into relationship with you with renewed and comforted hearts. Stir us to come in and know you better. And God bless us, everyone! Amen.
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