Open-ended,
Life-centred,
Gospel-Focused Explorations of the Hebrew Bible
Eucharistic Readings from the Australian Prayer Book.
Jeremiah 17: 5-10... 6th S. after Epiphany, Year C ....(For Lk 6:17-26
scroll on site.)
NOTES: 1]Always read the Hebrew Bible in the light
of our Christian understanding of God revealed in Jesus in the New
Testament.2] Born
about 646BC, JER was
called to be a Prophet in 626-7, &
lived through the siege of
Jerusalem & the captivity of its people by Babylon in the mid
580's. 3] We're dealing with poetry again
here.
WARMING UP: Do we read
much poetry? Write any? Enjoy poetry?
TREASURES OLD & NEW:
Identify God at work in anything this week?
ENTERING INTO THE STORY:
5-6 Though 'blessed' is often part
of our vocabulary, has 'cursed' rather dropped out of usage, except as
a violent form of swearing perhaps? If cursing isn't on our Christian
agenda, how come it's OK for God to curse, as here? Or is that a
perception of God from JER's day that's brought up to date, amended by
Jesus? (Did Jesus ever curse anyone, anything apart from a fig tree?)
Do we ever trust in 'mere mortals', make mere flesh (our humanity) our
strength, or turn away from the Lord? If so, does the curse still
apply? Do we ever feel like 'a shrub in the desert'? Are we ever unable
to 'see when relief comes'? In what form is relief likely to come,
& where would it be likely to come from? Do we ever feel banished
to 'parched places'? Do we experience any personal wilderness(es)? When
it comes to that, & the following about 'uninhabited salt land' are
we as humanity already cursing ourself by things we've brought upon
ourselves: climate change, soil over-use, salinity, forest degradation,
etc.? Do we need to think more of such things as integrally part of the
whole way we live? If there is a curse of some sort in all this, &
we are bringing it about, where does God fit into this? Is someone on
the land likely to view any of this differently from those of us who
are urban based?
7-8 How
aware are we of our blessedness, or is it something we rather take for
granted? If so, do we need to take vv.5-6 on board more, & build on
them from the New Testament? Have those of us who are urbanised moved
too far away from such earthy language as JER uses here for him to
speak to us still? How secure do we feel, as a person, part of a
community, part of a Christian community? As Christians, are we any
more secure in the way we feel, or the way we actually are, than
society at large? How's our anxiety level? If it's high, what might we
need to do about it? What about our fruit-bearing ability? What kind of
fruit(s) do we bear? Fruit for whom? Does what JER says here relate to
the NT idea of 'fruits of the Spirit' as taught by S.Paul? Is Paul's
list necessarily exclusive of (good) fruits others identify?
9-10 Are our hearts
really 'devious above all else' or has JER maybe had some bad
experiences? Have we? Is the human heart really so perverse that no-one
can understand it? If so, what's gone wrong? What is 'the heart' anyhow? How much
more than a physical organ of our body is it, or what is our 'real'
heart, & where is it seated? Where do we draw the line
between physical & spiritual meanings here, or is it all a matter
of poetry? Is a spiritual heart just as vital for our soul as the
organic one is for our body? Or is our heart our soul?
How
conscious are we of God 'testing our mind', 'searching our heart'? Is
such an awareness more of a key to our spiritual & overall health
than we might like to think? Do we feel God is giving us 'according to
our ways', 'according to the fruit of our doings? Giving us what? Does
the Gospel (LK 6: 17-26) help us to draw on what JER is telling us here
as 21st C. Christians more than, or differently from 7th / 6th C. BC
Jewish believers?
