Is There No Justice?
Read: Jeremiah 12:1-4, 14-17 You are always righteous, Lord . . . Yet I would speak with you about your justice. (v. 1 NIV) We live in an age of protest. When society’s mechanisms for protecting fairness and human dignity break down, the cry resounds: Is there no justice? We ask this question rhetorically. But […]
Bad News
Read: Jeremiah 10:17-22 A voice, a rumor! Behold, it comes! (v. 22) “Fake news” is a new expression. But fake news itself is nothing new. It was all the rage in Jerusalem in the sixth century BC. Jeremiah faced condemnation from city leaders and competition from false prophets. These “shepherds” (v. 21) spun their own […]
No Substitutes
Read: Jeremiah 10:1-7 There is none like you, O Lord. (v. 6) The film Citizen Kane opens with the death of its title character. Charles Foster Kane spent his life acquiring everything a person could want. Yet on his deathbed he only wants one thing: “Rosebud.” It turns out that one thing is not really […]
Crushed
Read: Jeremiah 8:18-22 Since my people are crushed, I am crushed. (v. 21 NIV) At the beginning of the pandemic, news broke in the United States that some civil servants were privately selling off stocks even while they publicly downplayed the magnitude of the impending crisis. Members of the public were outraged by the possibility […]
If Only . . .
Read: Jeremiah 7:1-8 Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. (v. 3) The movie Leave No Trace is about a homeless father and daughter. The father, a veteran, suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. When he is offered a stable home, he rejects it in favor of life […]
No Peace (Know Peace)
Read: Jeremiah 6:9-17 They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, “Peace, peace,” when there is no peace. (v. 14) I live in the United States. In the last year, my country has been deeply divided over issues of social justice. As a pastor, I have seen that this division continues within the […]
Not . . . Completely
Read: Jeremiah 5:12-19 “Yet even in those days,” declares the LORD, “I will not destroy you completely.” (v. 18 NIV) In the early days of the COVID-19 crisis, some prominent Christian leaders implied (or stated outright) that the pandemic was God’s judgment for specific human sins. These statements missed two important truths. First, God’s judgment […]
Return, Faithless People
Read: Jeremiah 3:11-18 “Return, faithless Israel,” declares the LORD. “I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful.” (v. 12) In her memoir Wild, Cheryl Strayed describes a pattern of infidelity that led to the breakup of her first marriage. Lamenting the damage she caused her spouse and herself, she says, “I […]
Two Sins
Read: Jeremiah 2:1-13 I am with you, declares the LORD, to deliver you. (v.19) My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. (v. 13) In my role as a pastor, people regularly ask me, “Is […]