THURSDAY, March 24

Jeremiah 4:9-10, 19-28. For thus says the Lord: The whole land shall be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end. Because of this the earth shall mourn, and the heavens above grow black; for I have spoken, I have purposed; I have not relented nor will I turn back.

These terrifying words sound uncomfortably modern. Scientists studying the environment often talk like that. When Jeremiah spoke these words, he was calling for repentance and change. But that didn’t happen, and his dire predictions came true. Perhaps the scientists now calling for repentance and change are Jeremiah’s modern successors. Divine intervention will not save us if we knowingly destroy what God has given to sustain us.

Jeremiah was not without hope, however. Even if we are “foolish” and “stupid” (vs. 22), eradicating or defacing God’s good work, “Yet I will not make a full end,” the Lord says (vs. 27). God will still be God—and God is good. There will be another day, a day of renewal and revival for the remnant that is left. But if we heed the word of the Lord early on, we become God’s partners in caring for his creation, and what is left will be no mere remnant, but all of us and all the good things that God has made. Which will it be?

PRAY for the Dioceses of Montreal (Canada, Canada) and Moosonee (Ontario, Canada)

Ps [70], 71 * 74; Romans 2:12-24; John 5:19-29

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Mar 24, 2011 at 7:55 am

Written by sas,

No, but many of us have made those "scientists" our gods and have diverted our worship to a false religion.

Jeremiah's Cry

Mar 24, 2011 at 8:09 am

Written by jws,

It's one thing to say that G-d is good and faithful. Indeed that is the essence of our faith in a loving God as known through the sacrificial gift of Jesus Christ's life, death, and resurrection. Coincidentally, many of the verses of this passage point towards Jeremiah's understanding, within his own time and context, of a violent and vengeful God who brought down havoc upon the Israelites and People of Judea because of their unfaithfulness. Yahweh is a God that many people regrettably still believe in. God is going to punish us, someday, for the disasters of our own making. We need to somehow reconcile a latent fear of a mean-spirited God alongside of a God that compassionately beckons us, through Jesus Christ's sacrifice and love, to be good stewards of this wonderful planet and suffers with us rather than shouts at us in our ignorant and self-centered way.

Hope

Mar 24, 2011 at 10:00 am

Written by Patrick,

Sitting in a hotel room in new Orleans, I hear these words loud and clear.I hope we repent and care for our world but I also hope there will be many days of renewal!

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Mar 24, 2011 at 10:52 am

Written by Paulletta Garoutte-Aldridge,

No matter what has happened in the past, or is happening today or will happen tomorrow, as long as we love God there is hope....as long as there is God and we choose Him, there is hope....Because God sent His son into the world, there is hope...we will have to do our part however and work for God...and that means reaching out to others and bringing them into a life with God....saving our planet, saving our lives depends on us working with God.

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Mar 24, 2011 at 11:24 am

Written by The Rev. Canon Timothy M Nakayama, Priest retired.,

How relevant this day's meditation is for this time, although it must have been written much before now! The writer, and the chooser who decided that it be published for today wold not have known about the massive and unprecedented Earthquake in NE Japan on March 11, 2011! May these readings be relevant in all times and in all places!

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Mar 24, 2011 at 2:25 pm

Written by Donna,

I can't help reading this and seeing grace, God's and so many people's grace-filled response to other people's needs.

In spite of the earthquake and the tsunami, there is grace in the amazing structural integrity of the Japanese power plants, which have held together in their damaged states and been able to be technologically supported in their crippled state so that the devastated area around the plant has been available to rescue workers and family members who are seeking the lost, serving the sorrowing, and guiding the recovery. How much worse the suffering of the local people would have been, if help had been unable to come to them!

Perhaps it is my Lutheran upbringing and my seminary years, but I see law and gospel in all earth's broken, beautiful situations, and the responses of so many people in Japan to this triple tragedy have been humane, self-giving, disciplined and professional.

May God's hand continue to uphold the efforts, day after difficult day.

And may The Rev. Canon Timothy be comforted as he watches the suffering of Japan.

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