St Theodore's Sermon

	St Theodore's Wattle Park

Sermon of the Week

11/6/00

Discernment or Deceptive Words Jer 7:1-15

   We live in an age when image is everything. Anyone who matters has their own career manager. Politicians employ professional PR consultants, sometimes known as spin doctors, to present them in a positive light no matter what they've been doing. Even in the Church, we all know that image is what matters, don't we? It's important to be seen regularly at church. It's important that people know you have a daily quiet time. When we come to Church we're always on our best behaviour. We'd never use foul language at Church even if we do from time to time in the privacy of our own home, or at the office, or on the sporting field. When we're at Church we're the first to pray for justice in the world, even if we do work for organisations that exploit the poor and powerless, even if we do pass blindly by the poverty of the inner city on our way to work, even if we do change the channel whenever there's a report on famine or natural disaster in the 3rd world. We know, don't we that what matters is our faith in Jesus Christ. It's his saving work on the cross that saves us, not our own righteousness. But how often does that become an excuse for ignoring his call to righteous living.

   As I said last week, when Jeremiah was born, Manasseh was the King of Judah and he was the worst king they'd ever had. He reigned for 55 years and in that half century the nation of Judah became a place of evil and corruption beyond belief. He encouraged pagan worship, involving whole communities in sexual orgies. He installed cult prostitutes at shrines throughout the countryside. He imported wizards and sorcerers who enslaved the people in superstitions and manipulated them with their magic. There seemed to be no end to his cruelty. One day he even placed his own son on the altar and burned him as an offering.

   The great Temple of Solomon wasn't immune from his evils either. He even introduced idols into the temple so people could worship the gods of the stars at the same time as worshiping the Lord. In the end the writer of the history of the Kings summed up his life like this: "Manasseh misled them to do more evil than the nations had done that the LORD destroyed before the people of Israel." (2 Ki 21:9 NRSV) The ancient faith of Israel seemed to be in tatters. It seemed that God's plan to bring his people into the promised land to enjoy his blessing had been thwarted. But then Manasseh died and his son Amon succeeded him, and the people waited to see if things would improve. Well, they didn't. The evil continued until his officials got so sick of it they assassinated him. With that his 8-year old son Josiah was put on the throne.

   With Josiah things began to change. For some reason he chose to follow the way of the Lord. Did he have good advisors? Was it the influence of his mother Jedidah? Was it that he was sufficiently young and innocent not to have been corrupted by his father and grandfather? We're not told, but what we are told is that by the time he was 26 he'd decided to restore the temple.

   That was a turning point for the nation, because as they were renovating the Temple, Hilkiah, the high priest, found an old book there, a book of the Law. It was, in fact, the book of Deuteronomy. Imagine how Josiah must have felt as he read this book for the first time. Here he was, trying to overcome the evils of his father and grandfather, yet without any real guidance in how to do it. And now this great document appears telling him how God wants the people of Israel to live. So his response is immediate. He calls the people together and reads the words of the law to them. He orders the Temple to be cleansed of all the remnants of idol worship, he purges the land of all the high places, all the places of idol worship. He re-institutes the worship of Yahweh in the Temple at Jerusalem. It looks like things have changed in Judah. But had they?

   Josiah has got rid of the idols, he's stopped the temple prostitution, he's banned immoral worship. But getting rid of external evils doesn't make people good. Deep down the people are much the same. As the French proverb says, everything has changed but everything remains the same.

   And so we find Jeremiah standing at the gate of the temple proclaiming God's message to the people: "Hear the word of the LORD, all you people of Judah, you that enter these gates to worship the LORD. ³Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your doings, and let me dwell with you in this place. ⁴Do not trust in these deceptive words: 'This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.'" On the surface, all seemed well. The Temple worship had been cleaned up, the old sacrifices were being offered once more, and there was a real sense of joy that the nation was back on the right footing with God. People were coming to worship rejoicing that this was 'the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord.' But Jeremiah says to them don't trust those deceptive words. Don't think that because you're in the right place, because you're saying the right words, or the current religious clichés, that everything must be fine. There's more that's needed. Religion is more than places and buildings and words. It's a matter of life and love and mercy and obedience.

   Sure it's important to come together with others to worship God. It's important that the places we gather in be conducive to worship. It's important that the words we use are fitting, that the hymns we sing help us raise our voices in praise to God. But if that's all we do, our religion is empty. Standing in a church singing hymns doesn't make us any more holy than climbing into a kennel and barking will make us a dog. Saying the right words is important if we want to express who we truly are and what we truly believe. But mindlessly repeating holy words will no more create a relationship with God than saying 'I love you' twenty times a day will make us good lovers.

   What the people had missed was that the religious reforms of Josiah were only part of the teaching of Deuteronomy. As Jeremiah goes on to outline the failings of the people we catch a glimpse of the teaching of Deuteronomy regarding holy living that they'd ignored. He says: "if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly act justly one with another, ⁶if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt, ⁷then I will dwell with you in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your ancestors forever and ever." It's almost a series of direct quotes from Deuteronomy. They thought that if they went through the right rituals they'd be OK, but what God wants is righteousness of heart, not just the right rituals.

   It's the same message that Amos brought 100 years earlier: (Amos 5:21-24 NRSV) "I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. ²²Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals I will not look upon. ²³Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. ²⁴But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an everflowing stream." The same message is given to us in James 1:26-27 "If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. ²⁷Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world." (NRSV) Or, James 2:14-17: "What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? ¹⁵If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, ¹⁶and one of you says to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill," and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? ¹⁷So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead." (NRSV)

   We can be great at proclaiming our faith. We can know the seven arguments for the resurrection, we can be able to explain the Trinity, we can be able to quote Romans backwards, but if that's all it is we might as well just go around chanting 'Saved by faith, saved by faith, saved by faith.'

   The trouble is we can presume on God's goodness and love to the point that we forget his holiness and purity. See what he says to them in vs 9-11? "Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, ¹⁰and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, "We are safe!"--only to go on doing all these abominations? ¹¹Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your sight?" You see, they were treating God's house as a robbers' den. As a safe house that they could run back to when they'd finished cheating and robbing and murdering, and no-one would catch them. How foolish! As if they could presume on God's grace and favour when they were clearly disobeying him! As if the things they did and thought would be hidden from Him! Don't be so stupid. He knows the innermost thoughts of our hearts.

   And if that isn't enough to convince you, he says, go back to your history books. Take a trip up to Shiloh. Shiloh was one of the first places where the people of Israel had set up an altar to the Lord. It was the place where people used to go for advice from God. Where Samuel became the prophet of God and from which he spoke the words of the Lord. But Shiloh was gone. It was part of the Northern kingdom that was now destroyed forever. The people of Israel had ignored God and turned to other gods. They'd done the same things that Jeremiah was now accusing the people of Judah of. Things had gone from bad to worse there until God's patience ran out and he sent the Assyrians to destroy them. And the same was going to happen to Judah if the people failed to repent. If it could happen to Shiloh it could just as easily happen to Jerusalem. And the warning for us is that if it could happen to Jerusalem, it could just as easily happen to any other place where people come together to worship God.

   Are you presuming on God's grace and mercy? Or are you seeking to serve him with all your heart and soul and mind and strength? It's not enough that we say the right words, that we use the right liturgy, even that we pray to him every day. Our words have to be accompanied by a walk with God, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It's not enough to profess faith in Jesus Christ, our lives have to reflect that faith in the way we show love and forgiveness, in the way we work for justice, in the way we seek to bring others into God's kingdom, in the way we care for one another. So let's love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. Let's be sure the life we live truly reflects the faith we profess.

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	Sermon of the Week
	11/6/00
	Discernment or Deceptive Words	Jer 7:1-15

	We live in an age when image is everything. Anyone who matters has their own career manager. Politicians employ professional PR consultants, sometimes known as spin doctors, to present them in a positive light no matter what they've been doing. Even in the Church, we all know that image is what matters, don't we? It's important to be seen regularly at church. It's important that people know you have a daily quiet time. When we come to Church we're always on our best behaviour. We'd never use foul language at Church even if we do from time to time in the privacy of our own home, or at the office, or on the sporting field. When we're at Church we're the first to pray for justice in the world, even if we do work for organisations that exploit the poor and powerless, even if we do pass blindly by the poverty of the inner city on our way to work, even if we do change the channel whenever there's a report on famine or natural disaster in the 3rd world. We know, don't we that what matters is our faith in Jesus Christ. It's his saving work on the cross that saves us, not our own righteousness. But how often does that become an excuse for ignoring his call to righteous living.
	As I said last week, when Jeremiah was born, Manasseh was the King of Judah and he was the worst king they'd ever had. He reigned for 55 years and in that half century the nation of Judah became a place of evil and corruption beyond belief. He encouraged pagan worship, involving whole communities in sexual orgies. He installed cult prostitutes at shrines throughout the countryside. He imported wizards and sorcerers who enslaved the people in superstitions and manipulated them with their magic. There seemed to be no end to his cruelty. One day he even placed his own son on the altar and burned him as an offering.
	The great Temple of Solomon wasn't immune from his evils either. He even introduced idols into the temple so people could worship the gods of the stars at the same time as worshiping the Lord. In the end the writer of the history of the Kings summed up his life like this: "Manasseh misled them to do more evil than the nations had done that the LORD destroyed before the people of Israel." (2 Ki 21:9 NRSV) The ancient faith of Israel seemed to be in tatters. It seemed that God's plan to bring his people into the promised land to enjoy his blessing had been thwarted. But then Manasseh died and his son Amon succeeded him, and the people waited to see if things would improve. Well, they didn't. The evil continued until his officials got so sick of it they assassinated him. With that his 8-year old son Josiah was put on the throne.
	With Josiah things began to change. For some reason he chose to follow the way of the Lord. Did he have good advisors? Was it the influence of his mother Jedidah? Was it that he was sufficiently young and innocent not to have been corrupted by his father and grandfather? We're not told, but what we are told is that by the time he was 26 he'd decided to restore the temple.
	That was a turning point for the nation, because as they were renovating the Temple, Hilkiah, the high priest, found an old book there, a book of the Law. It was, in fact, the book of Deuteronomy. Imagine how Josiah must have felt as he read this book for the first time. Here he was, trying to overcome the evils of his father and grandfather, yet without any real guidance in how to do it. And now this great document appears telling him how God wants the people of Israel to live. So his response is immediate. He calls the people together and reads the words of the law to them. He orders the Temple to be cleansed of all the remnants of idol worship, he purges the land of all the high places, all the places of idol worship. He re-institutes the worship of Yahweh in the Temple at Jerusalem. It looks like things have changed in Judah. But had they?
	Josiah has got rid of the idols, he's stopped the temple prostitution, he's banned immoral worship. But getting rid of external evils doesn't make people good. Deep down the people are much the same. As the French proverb says, everything has changed but everything remains the same.
	And so we find Jeremiah standing at the gate of the temple proclaiming God's message to the people: "Hear the word of the LORD, all you people of Judah, you that enter these gates to worship the LORD. ³Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your doings, and let me dwell with you in this place. ⁴Do not trust in these deceptive words: 'This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.'" On the surface, all seemed well. The Temple worship had been cleaned up, the old sacrifices were being offered once more, and there was a real sense of joy that the nation was back on the right footing with God. People were coming to worship rejoicing that this was 'the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord.' But Jeremiah says to them don't trust those deceptive words. Don't think that because you're in the right place, because you're saying the right words, or the current religious clichés, that everything must be fine. There's more that's needed. Religion is more than places and buildings and words. It's a matter of life and love and mercy and obedience.
	Sure it's important to come together with others to worship God. It's important that the places we gather in be conducive to worship. It's important that the words we use are fitting, that the hymns we sing help us raise our voices in praise to God. But if that's all we do, our religion is empty. Standing in a church singing hymns doesn't make us any more holy than climbing into a kennel and barking will make us a dog. Saying the right words is important if we want to express who we truly are and what we truly believe. But mindlessly repeating holy words will no more create a relationship with God than saying 'I love you' twenty times a day will make us good lovers.
	What the people had missed was that the religious reforms of Josiah were only part of the teaching of Deuteronomy. As Jeremiah goes on to outline the failings of the people we catch a glimpse of the teaching of Deuteronomy regarding holy living that they'd ignored. He says: "if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly act justly one with another, ⁶if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt, ⁷then I will dwell with you in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your ancestors forever and ever." It's almost a series of direct quotes from Deuteronomy. They thought that if they went through the right rituals they'd be OK, but what God wants is righteousness of heart, not just the right rituals.
	It's the same message that Amos brought 100 years earlier: (Amos 5:21-24 NRSV) "I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. ²²Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals I will not look upon. ²³Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. ²⁴But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an everflowing stream." The same message is given to us in James 1:26-27 "If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. ²⁷Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world." (NRSV) Or, James 2:14-17: "What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? ¹⁵If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, ¹⁶and one of you says to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill," and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? ¹⁷So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead." (NRSV)
	We can be great at proclaiming our faith. We can know the seven arguments for the resurrection, we can be able to explain the Trinity, we can be able to quote Romans backwards, but if that's all it is we might as well just go around chanting 'Saved by faith, saved by faith, saved by faith.'
	The trouble is we can presume on God's goodness and love to the point that we forget his holiness and purity. See what he says to them in vs 9-11? "Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, ¹⁰and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, "We are safe!"--only to go on doing all these abominations? ¹¹Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your sight?" You see, they were treating God's house as a robbers' den. As a safe house that they could run back to when they'd finished cheating and robbing and murdering, and no-one would catch them. How foolish! As if they could presume on God's grace and favour when they were clearly disobeying him! As if the things they did and thought would be hidden from Him! Don't be so stupid. He knows the innermost thoughts of our hearts.
	And if that isn't enough to convince you, he says, go back to your history books. Take a trip up to Shiloh. Shiloh was one of the first places where the people of Israel had set up an altar to the Lord. It was the place where people used to go for advice from God. Where Samuel became the prophet of God and from which he spoke the words of the Lord. But Shiloh was gone. It was part of the Northern kingdom that was now destroyed forever. The people of Israel had ignored God and turned to other gods. They'd done the same things that Jeremiah was now accusing the people of Judah of. Things had gone from bad to worse there until God's patience ran out and he sent the Assyrians to destroy them. And the same was going to happen to Judah if the people failed to repent. If it could happen to Shiloh it could just as easily happen to Jerusalem. And the warning for us is that if it could happen to Jerusalem, it could just as easily happen to any other place where people come together to worship God.
	Are you presuming on God's grace and mercy? Or are you seeking to serve him with all your heart and soul and mind and strength? It's not enough that we say the right words, that we use the right liturgy, even that we pray to him every day. Our words have to be accompanied by a walk with God, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It's not enough to profess faith in Jesus Christ, our lives have to reflect that faith in the way we show love and forgiveness, in the way we work for justice, in the way we seek to bring others into God's kingdom, in the way we care for one another. So let's love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. Let's be sure the life we live truly reflects the faith we profess.


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