Hello friends! Last week (Click here for Link) we read about the way the Israelite people broke their covenant with God because of their impatience and anger as they suffered while wandering in the desert. They were concentrating on their empty stomachs and their feelings of abandonment and not on the God who saved them from their oppressive servitude to the Egyptians. As they were drowning in their sorrows, they just couldn't seem to keep their eyes fixed upon God. I imagine we’ve all been there, done that at some time in our lives. And I imagine that at some point we've been called to move on!
The Egyptians were not the last ones to enslave the Israelite people. After a long period of peace in the Promised Land, followed by a time of the divided kingdoms and kings, the Northern Kingdom of Israel had been exiled to Assyria. The Southern Kingdom of Judah was later exiled to Babylon in three “movements” after Jerusalem and Solomon’s Temple had been destroyed in 587 BCE. The prophet Jeremiah is known for his laments … God had given him some very difficult messages to bring to the people leading up to the captivity and beyond. He is called the “weeping prophet” for very good reason. Led by unfaithful kings, the people of Israel had been unfaithful to their special relationship with God and they lost it all. However, this week’s passage indicates that Jeremiah is beginning to see light over the horizon. God has given him a good “word” to speak. God begins to talk about the future, “the days are surely coming!”
Jeremiah prophesied about a “new” covenant that God will make with the people. This covenant will be different! Once upon a time, God “wrote” on stone tablets but the new covenant will be written on the hearts of the people. It is important to note that in Hebrew thought heart means more than emotions, more than just having feelings toward God. Heart in this context means the “center of one’s being” and encompasses all of who we are: our thoughts, our feelings, our actions and our “will.” As we come ever closer to the cross making our way along our Lenten journey … we consider the special connection we have to this new covenant of which Jeremiah speaks – Jesus Christ, who lived and suffered and died and was raised so that we might have life, abundant and eternal.
I invite you to spend a few moments considering your covenant (we understand this more as relationship) with God and settle into a place of openness within yourself with a simple breath prayer. Use this one or create your own (six to eight syllables)
Breathe in ... write your Law (pause)
Breath out ... on my heart, O God! (pause)
and when you are ready to move deeper into the text ... Pray:
Holy God, I desire to know you, to walk with you and be your humble servant but often I wander off. As I read your Word, open my heart to receive your covenant written upon my heart. Forgive me and give me life! Amen.
Read Jeremiah 31:31-34 (NRSV) slowly and simply let the words fill your heart with confidence as you consider God’s presence and promise in your life.
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.
Read the passage again slowly and Reflect on just a word or phrase … Sit with your selection and listen to the whispers of God ... Listen with the ears of your heart! Repeat your word or phrase over and over in your mind. Let the Lord your God speak ... Listen with the ears of your heart! Where are you being invited to be in “covenant” relationship with God more deeply?
Read the passage again slowly and Respond to God. Once again turn your attention to your word or phrase, knowing that you may be drawn to a different word on this reading. As you contemplate your word or phrase or commandment, how are you being called to respond, in word … prayer … action … or in some other way?
Read the passage again and Rest. Allow God to forgive you and heal you of deep wounds that continue to burden you. Let God draw you deeper into the relationship of love that God has for you. Let all the words fade away ... until you are ready to take up your journal and write about your meditation. When you are ready to move out of your meditation … Pray:
Holy God, you are so generous and gracious to us, simple human beings that we are. Thank you for sending Jesus Christ to show us the way to know you. Amen.
Hey that sounds like words to a song … If music and/or visual images and/or nature are pathways to God for you take this link to a youtube video of In the Secret with a really lovely video montage of fall landscapes. I think this is Chris Tomlin's recording but it doesn't say ... I really like the photos because they show different paths I can imagine myself taking to find God or different places I might stop to meet God …
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