Open-ended, Life-centred,
Gospel-Focused Explorations of the Australian Prayer Book Supplementary
Hebrew Bible
Eucharistic Readings.
(For Gospel
Explorations scroll on this site.)
JEREMIAH 33: 23-26... ADVENT 1 (Year 3)
NOTES: 1]As
a matter of principle,always read the Hebrew Bible in the light
of the new (which Christians see as its fulfilment) & not
vice-versa.2] Jeremiah
was born in Judea about 646BC, & called by God to be a Prophet in
626-7.He survived two destructions of Jerusalem & deportations of
its people by the Babylonians in 597 & 587. 3] 'The
word of the Lord came to.....'. is to be taken as a guarantee that God
is the source of the message, not the Prophet himself. 4] In v.24, the 'two families' are
Israel, the Northern & Southern kingdoms of Israel (destroyed by
the
Assyrians in 721) & Judah (see above N.1).
WARMING UP: Do we ever
feel we need a message of hopefulness in the midst of times of strain
& stress?
TREASURES OLD & NEW:
Identify God at work in anything this week?
ENTERING INTO THE STORY: 23
How do we know when we're hearing the 'word of the
Lord', or whether it's someone else's word? How do we test whether any
'word of the Lord' is true or not? Is there any reliable test other
than seeing if it happens, comes true? What if that takes longer than
we feel we can wait? Or doesn't happen in the way we expect? Does God
have 'short term' & 'long term' goals
like motivationists talk about?
24
How much does it matter to us what people think about God? How much
does it matter what they think about our relationship with God?
What if they give evidence of holding God and / or us in contempt? Is
the fact that something doesn't seem to be working out for us
sufficient basis on which to decide that 'God isn't on our side' any
more? Is that as wise a question as asking whether we're on God's side
any more? Does it matter to us what people think of us as a
nation? Should it? On what basis should we, as Christians, judge our
nation? Does God come into that 'auditing' process at all?
25-26 Does
God's indignation at the very suggestion he might have abandoned his people,
the children of Jacob (= Israel) & David, reverberate with us at
all? What about when we feel
abandoned? How
closely do we see ourselves connecting with these ancient biblical
families, or don't they matter any more except to the Hebrew people?
Are we more used to beating up on ourselves for being unfaithful to
God, than celebrating how faithful God is to us? If our faith revolves
too much around dwelling on & confessing our unfaifhfulnesses of one kind or
another, is that likely to dampen our ongoing, spontaneous celebration
of God's unwavering, unconditional faithfulness to us? Whether he has
religious beliefs or not, might David Hicks' father, Terry, be an
example of that kind of faithfulness at a human level? Is our
faithfulness to God a conscious response to God's faithfulness to
us, or something else? Where do Jesus & the Gospel he demonstrates
come into this
faithfulness business?
How much do we still depend on God to choose our national
leaders? Or has he abdicated
that right in favour of democracy & political parties? Do we get
any impression from either the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, or our
experience of the Spirit, that God is a democrat? What might it mean
for
us that God would 'restore our fortunes'? And what kind of mercy might
we be looking for, needing. from God now in our day?
