Lent Day 13--March 7, 2012

Lenten Reflection for Day 13

Date: March 7, 2012

Author: Elaine Day

Bible Passage: Jeremiah 2:23–25 (NRSV)

²³ How can you say, “I am not defiled, I have not gone after the Baals”? Look at your way in the valley; know what you have done— a restive young camel interlacing her tracks, ²⁴ a wild ass at home in the wilderness, in her heat sniffing the wind! Who can restrain her lust? None who seek her need weary themselves; in her month they will find her. ²⁵ Keep your feet from going unshod and your throat from thirst. But you said, “It is hopeless, for I have loved strangers, and after them I will go.”

Reflection:

I found the following translation of Jeremiah 2:23-25 from the Good News Bible a little easier to understand

“How can you say you have not defiled yourself, that you have never worshipped Baal? Look how you sinned in the valley; see what you have done. You are like a wild camel in heat, running around loose, rushing into the desert. When she is in heat, who can control her? No male that wants her has to trouble himself; she is always available in mating season. Israel, don’t wear your feet out, or let your throat become dry from chasing other gods. But you say, ‘No! I can’t turn back. I have loved foreign gods and will go after them.’”

Jeremiah has been chosen by God to tell the people of Israel that they will be punished because even after all that God did for them, the Israelites turned from God and worshipped idols. In the above verses, Jeremiah conveys how easily the people turned from God through the use of the carnal image of camels in heat. The tone of this passage clearly shows God’s disappointment and displeasure. The flesh is indeed weak and we are easily led astray.

I am reminded of these words from a song: “Modern times have brought us many comforts. People live in wealth and luxury. But the Master still asks this question, ‘Lovest thou me, more than these?’’ Does a desire for wealth and fame lead us astray? Will we be able to turn away from these “foreign gods” that have such an allure for us?

Prayer:

With God’s help, I pray that I will be able to turn away from temptation and respond to the question posed above, with the rest of the words of the song, “Oh, precious Lord, I love you more than all of these; more than fame, more than wealth, more than the world.”

Reflections on God's Gift of Law--Lent Day 10 (Week 2)

You may notice that I am posting both Friday's and Saturday's meditations on Friday. I am doing this ahead, as we have no electrical power at home. I am taking advantage of the opportunity to use the internet to do this posting.

Lent Day 10: Saturday February 27

Theme for the Week: God’s Gift of the Ten Commandments

Passage for the Day:

Exodus 20:1-4

¹Then God spoke all these words: ² I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; ³ you shall have no other gods before me.

⁴ You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

Reflection: This passage from Exodus, which is the basis for the First Commandment, and an underpinning of all the Commandments reminds us both of God’s graciousness, and God’s demand that we honor God as our only God. The command part of this passage demands that we have no god other than “the Lord your God”. We often think that this is an easy commandment. Surely, we don’t make idols of wood, stone, or gold, which we worship. We wouldn’t do anything that foolish! Or would we??? Martin Luther defined a god as anything in which you “trust and believe…with your whole heart” and “that in which find refuge in all need” What do we really trust, and where do we seek refuge? Do we trust our own skill or ambition? Do we trust our savings and our assets? Do we value our home as the place of greatest refuge? In the lives of privilege and abundance which so many of us enjoy, it is easy to slip into depending on our own skills, assets and securities rather than placing our trust and dependence on God.

In the promise part of this passage, we are reminded that God brought the Israelites “out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” God heard the cry of God’s people and freed them from oppression and slavery. These words have brought hope to many peoples throughout the ages who have been wrongly oppressed and enslaved. As 21^st century Americans, we are proud of our freedom and heritage. However, we are still slaves. Even though we have political freedom, we are, as St. Paul writes, slaves to sin. In these words of promise, we hear a foreshadowing of how God frees us from the oppression that comes from being weighed down with wrong doing. God has brought us, who are “free” Americans, out of the house of slavery, a mental state in which we could be trapped by the weight of all the ways in which we have alienated ourselves from God. Even though we sin by having other gods, other things which we put our trust in, the Lord our God forgives our sin because Jesus died to free us.

Prayer Themes: Thank God for releasing us from being slaves to sin. Pray that God would strengthen you in your resolve to depend on God rather than yourself or things you possess. Pray that you may learn to trust and believe in God with your whole heart.