Kingdom Building
October 15, 2019
Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 31:27-34
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 31:32-34
I am about to do a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
and rivers in the desert. –Isaiah 43:19
I will do a new thing in you;
I will do a new thing in you;
Whatever you ask for, whatever you pray for,
nothing shall be denied,”
saith the Lord; saith the Lord!*
I remember several years ago when the church I attended went through great division and disagreement over a pastor that resulted in the loss of some members and the wounding of most. After the dust began to settle, one of my fellow worshipers wanted to include in a service a confession of our behavior with a public communal request for forgiveness as we struggled to move beyond the pain and worked to regroup. I thought it was a good idea, but most did not, and we never did it. Perhaps healing began with the simple acknowledgment among the leader’s discussions on how to do a new thing. For sure, we were all changed by the experience. The prophets were the sages that challenged the Israelites to deal with their behavior leading up to the exile and the behavior needed following the exile.
I pray that we citizens of the USA do not have to face anything akin to the exile in our current state of crisis, but we do need to listen for the prophets and open ourselves to God’s writing on our hearts once again God’s ways of love not hate, working together to form a better world not playing a wicked game of divide and conquer.
Prayer: God of Mercy we ask that you forgive our iniquity and remember our sin no more as you write on our hearts a new way of being. Amen.
*https://hymnary.org/text/i_will_do_a_new_thing
All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.