Jeremiah 31:27-34
Individual Retribution
The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of humans and the seed of animals. And just as I have watched over them to pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring evil, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, says the Lord.
In those days they shall no longer say:
“The parents have eaten sour grapes,
and the children’s teeth are set on edge.”
But all shall die for their own sins; the teeth of everyone who eats sour grapes shall be set on edge.
A New Covenant
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.
Luke 18:1-8
The Parable of the Widow and the Unjust Judge
Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my opponent. ’ For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, ‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming. ’” And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
We're back with Jeremiah this week - and his good news for God's people in exile.
In our reading last week, the message and the challenge was for the people of God to make the best of where they were. In a strange, land, yes. Among strange people with different customs who were largely indifferent to their God. That too.
But the message was - not to simply mark time but to engage with the culture in which they found themselves. To establish themselves, put down roots and affect the people around them. It sounded a very familiar and timely message for the people of God today.
Encouraging for us, who find ourselves in a world often indifferent or even hostile to the God we serve.
Timely reassurance that, as God's people we can affect our communities for good. Not by remaining apart from the community. Not by being aggressive or over bearing but by simply living as God would have us live - within God's law of love.
And its that law that we hear more about today from Jeremiah.
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.
I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts.
The prophet Jeremiah, charged to bring good news to the people of God living in exile does an amazing job.
He brings a word of comfort and of challenge.
A word to encourage folk trying hard to maintain their identity, trying to practice all that they had been taught from an early age, all the things that made them distinctive as God's people.
As they worked hard to discern God's purpose for them - or even as they wrestled with the worry that God had abandoned them the prophet assures them of God's faithfulness.
And introduces them to a new facet of God.
It's like a God for Dummies.
A God who is not hard to fathom out.
A God whose only desire is to see the people do well, living in harmony, without fear.
A God whose ways are easy to follow- because those ways make perfect sense.
They are not complicated, no twists or tricks but straightforward, down to earth, right living.
No longer, the prophet tells them will you have to struggle to see God or to learn of Gods ways or to discern Gods purpose - those things will be as instinctive as life itself, as integral as breathing. Gods law will be written on their hearts.
That might seem like old news to us.
We have grown up in the light that Jesus brought into the world.
We are familiar with Jesus' paring the law down to love God and love your neighbour.
Few of us have ever tied ourselves in knots to fulfil God's law.
But, for God's people in Jeremiah's day, following God was fraught with all sorts of rules and regulations and the possibility of tripping up and falling foul at any time.
For Jeremiah to speak the word of God; I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts, was revolutionary.
And just what the people needed to hear in their exile.
In those few words they were freed from generations of burdens.
Freed from the burden of paying for all the mistakes of the past - not just their own but those of previous generations.
The people to whom Jeremiah brought Gods word were a people who expected to always be in arrears with God, to never measure up.
A people who were always looking back to find out what had gone wrong, always looking for others to blame for their sorry predicament.
Jeremiah's word from God opens for them a whole new range of possibility.
Jeremiah invites them to imagine a place where the past is no longer a millstone around their necks.
To imagine a place where they have no need to work out what went wrong or seek revenge.
A place where it is the present that matters.
A place where they can live in love with their neighbours and create a new reality.
And, yet again, the prophet's words jump out of the pages, hurtling through the ages, to confront us today.
Confront us with a new reality too - that we can move forward.
That we can be confident about the future when we rely on God's law written on our hearts, inscribed deep within each one of us.
A law that allows us to move forward free from what is now behind us, be it good or bad.
A law that not only allows us to move forward but urges us to do so.
How many of us have become stuck in the past?
Remembering old hurts or longing for former times?
How many of us lament the church we once knew and loved?
How many of us spend our time looking back, working out where it all went wrong, whose fault it was?
Still tasting the sour grapes of our Old Testament reading rather than hearing the words of hope that the prophet speaks and being assured that Gods law is still written on our hearts.
The law of love that frees us from the burdens of the past and allows us to live in harmony with the present that is ours today.
I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts.
It was with the conviction of that reality that the widow of whom we read in Luke's gospel lived.
She knew Gods law of love dwelt deep within all people - even the judge who ignored her pleas.
She had an expectation that justice would prevail because it forms part of God's law of love that is written on the hearts of God's people.
So she refused to give up demanding justice.
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.
Just imagine if we lived within that reality - the reality of being the people of God, having God's law written on our hearts. Expecting justice. Being persistent in looking for signs of love in ourselves and in others.
And, even when we find our spirits crushed or our hopes dashed, going back for more because we know that God has made a new reality possible.
Living in expectation of love.
Making it a reality for others by our loving actions - and encouraging others to do the same.
God's law is written on our hearts.
It is a law that frees, not constricts.
A law that, lived into, brings change to communities.
And then imagine the huge sigh of God as we live like that.
A sigh that says - At last, they've got it. It's not a dream for the future. It's available now when my people live in the law written on their hearts. It's not a remote possibility - it's a present reality. What else have I been trying to reveal to them for centuries? Why else would I write my law within them, so that living it becomes as instinctive as taking their next breath?
Lets hear that sigh of God as we finally "get it" today.
Gods law is written on our hearts.
May we live in God's law, sharing the transforming love of God and expecting no less from others whom God also calls beloved children.
And, by our expectations, may love and justice become realities in our community.
For the glory of God.
Amen
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