TUESDAY, March 22

Jeremiah 2:1-13. What wrong did your ancestors find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthless things, and became worthless themselves?

In Jeremiah (and in Hosea a century earlier) we glimpse the passion of God. While we must take care not to humanize God to the point of reducing God to our own dimensions, human experiences and feelings can provide a window into the heart of the Almighty. Jeremiah, having suffered painful rejection at the hands of his countrymen, hears a word from the Lord that resonates with his own hurt. “I gave you every blessing, but to me you give the back of your hand,” he hears God saying. “What did I do to you that you have rejected me?”

When we fail to respond in kind to God’s gracious love, it hurts not only us, but God as well. The God of the Bible is no remote, impersonal deity impassively ensconced in the clouds, but one who engages us, challenges us, wrestles with us. When we err, God grieves with us and for us. Our God cries.

We see this most poignantly in the person of Jesus, the God-made-man. It is in Jesus that we gaze directly upon the love, the passion, the pain, and the victory of our God.

PRAY for the Diocese of Monmouth (Wales)

Ps 61, 62 * 68:1-20(21-23)24-36; Romans 1:16-25; John 4:43-54

View the daily Lectionary Readings at Satucket.com.
Or view the Bible passages at Biblegateway.com or Oremus Bible browser.

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Compassion

Mar 22, 2011 at 8:18 am

Written by Stephen,

Compassion is at the root of this God we follow. Jeremiah, the weeping profit had a passion for the need for God. There are many ways to become worthless. We can do many good things yet fail to give ourselves to others in meaningful life giving ways. My own waywardness may not be as dramatic as the Baal worshipers, but more "a slippery slope" as C.S. Lewis writes. We don't have a "gotcha" God, but a "got you" one as in "the whole world in his hands".

...

Mar 22, 2011 at 8:38 am

Written by Paulletta Garoutte-Aldridge,

It is a very real and comforting experience to know that when we hurt God hurts with us, and that in all things He understands....but I would like to be the person that makes God smile. God shares all our suffering but how often to we give Him joy?....or make Him laugh? God is God and not human but surely God desires moments of bliss.

...

Mar 22, 2011 at 9:00 am

Written by Steve Doutt,

Thank you Paulletta.

Giving God joy

Mar 22, 2011 at 9:42 am

Written by Leslie Ferguson,

In response to Paulletta Garoutte-Aldridge, that is a tough question. Rich Mullins reminds us that we don't have to impress God yet your question is about giving God joy. I think God gets joy when we live a life of faith and act in accordance with God's will. Sometimes I think we make God laugh when we have discussions like these - the attempt to define God in human fashion. I don't think discussions like this are heading in the wrong direction, rather I think they are humorous to God. I also think they give God a sense of bliss in one way because it shows that we are really thinking about our relationship with our creator.

Why did we make of Greed a God?

Mar 22, 2011 at 10:54 am

Written by Jeanette,

I have to say when I read the passage from Jeremiah I thought more about how Ayn Rand's Objectivist philosophy of "greed is good" caught hold in our society over the last 30 years or more. Of how we have allowed those who behaved unlawfully and frankly sinfully to not only be excused but rewarded. People like to talk about the abscense of God in our school rooms causing problems and I disagree. I see the presence and worship of Greed in our culture as the overlying problem.

...

Mar 22, 2011 at 11:02 am

Written by Paulletta Garoutte-Aldridge,

Thank you Leslie...you made me laugh and I agree with you...sometimes discussions like these may make God smile but when you think about it, isn't that an incredible feeling?

...

Mar 22, 2011 at 11:41 am

Written by Andrea,

God grieves, God rejoices... And yet God is big enough to be beyond our own human conception of emotions, as the writer of the meditation says. I think it's a problem to think of God as remote and emotionless AND a problem to make make God into a larger-than-life human being. I like the distinction between a "gotcha" God and "got you" God. I'm glad I can rest in the hands of God without having to manage God's emotions.

a copy of your day by day prayer

Mar 22, 2011 at 4:19 pm

Written by Maxine Nichols,

I would like a copy of your day by day prayer booklet; I thank you so very much. To: Maxine Nichols,1116 E.Avenida Cr. Casa Grande, Az. 85222

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