Sunday 30 October

Lamentations 3:40-5:22

Didn’t he get it?  It was them who had sinned.  It was them who God had forsaken.  It was them who needed renewing.  Jeremiah was hearing from God and obeying his call.  Jeremiah should have just left them to it and ditched them all.  He should have separated himself from awful Israel both mentally and physically.  Then he would have had a far happier lot and he could have had the pleasure of being smug as well.  But that is not the way of the Lord.  All throughout the bible we have seen people’s identity is corporate.  In God’s eyes we are always part of something bigger than us - a family, a people-group, a nation.  Jeremiah was part of Israel even though his self-understanding, behaviour and perspective were vastly different from all the rest of his people.  He was an Israelite, come what may.  And he embraced that.  That was a picture of holiness.  He prayed for ‘us’ not for ‘them’, he says “woe to us, for we have sinned” even though he personally doesn’t really seem to have sinned at all.  He bought into the identity God had given him - an identity of unbreakable connection to others.  We belong to the church.  We are part of the people of God.  We belong to one another.  Do we criticise ‘them’?  Do we point out ‘their’ wrongs?  Do we list ways that ‘they’ need to change in order to sort themselves out? (I’m talking about the broad, international, inter-denominational church here).  I don’t think we are at liberty to talk and think that way.  We are in this thing with them.  We are called to give ourselves and to pray for ‘us’ to walk into holiness, for us to be all that God has called us to be, for us to repent and turn away from sin.  The Lord’s throne endures for ever, and his reign unites and binds together all of his people across all of the world throughout all of time.  

Hebrews 1:1-14

This is a complex book with intricate arguments addressing certain issues in the church (as you may have noticed it is not addressed to a particular church from a particular person like most of Paul’s letters are - and it has huge strength for being like that).  But the main thrust is a glorification of Jesus as the consummation of the Hebrew religion.  This letter goes crazy for Jesus.  This letter points out other common pretences of greatness or glory and elevates Jesus way above every one of them.  It shows that Jesus is and has always been and always will be the superior majestic glory in this universe.  Jesus is heir of all things - everything ultimately will sit in his house and he will do with them what he likes.  Jesus is the sustainer of all things - pumping lungs and beating hearts, overseeing photosynthesis and spinning the earth.  If he stopped working for even a second, everything would melt and warp into chaotic emptiness.  And Jesus was the source through whom all things were made.  The fabric of life passed through him and was pieced together in him.  He is vastly superior in the past, in the present and in the future.  And, to top it all, he is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being.  So, here’s to Jesus.  Let’s raise a toast to him and not to anyone else.  No-one else could be more worthy or more magnificent.  Jesus is more worthy of worship than anything.

Psalm 119:129-136

“Your statues are wonderful; therefore I obey them”.  If you can’t say the former, you probably won’t do the latter.