An invitation

Linda Pollock March 09, 2018 0 0

Playlists

Add to Favourites

Save for later

Jeremiah 7: 23-28

23 But this command I gave them, ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk only in the way that I command you, so that it may be well with you.’ 24 Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but, in the stubbornness of their evil will, they walked in their own counsels, and looked backwards rather than forwards. 25 From the day that your ancestors came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day; 26 yet they did not listen to me, or pay attention, but they stiffened their necks. They did worse than their ancestors did.

27 So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. You shall call to them, but they will not answer you. 28 You shall say to them: This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the Lord their God, and did not accept discipline; truth has perished; it is cut off from their lips.

I can see why in today’s reading Yahweh is angry, and I appreciate His rage at the refusal of His constant invitation, issued generation after generation… I understand Yahweh’s desire to punish and wipe out Judah... His Love has been rejected - again. 

The One Who names every star in the heavens, the One Who gathers every tear that falls from our eyes, the One Who knit us together us in our mothers’ wombs… rejected.

Richard Rohr writes, “We do not live ourselves into a new way of thinking, we think ourselves into a new way of living…”

Repent is a word that for some has negative connotations. At its core, the word means to change how we think, to turn around our mindset, to return to God and accept His invitation - that’s all we’re asked to do. 

Thankfully Jeremiah Chapter 7 is not the end of the story of God and His people.

Eternal God, 

for Your Love, 

steadfast, 

we give You thanks. 

Amen.