Today's Daily Lesson comes from Jeremiah chapter 7 verses 1-4:
The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah, you that enter these gates to worship the Lord. 3 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your doings, and let me dwell with you in this place. 4 Do not trust in these deceptive words: “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.”
This is an act of what John Lewis called "Good Trouble".
What Jeremiah does in his Temple Sermon is an example of non-violent, direct action, intended to draw attention to the defects of the society, as embodied in the Temple.
It got Jeremiah into trouble, but it was good trouble.
And later on Jesus himself did the same thing in the courtyard the heir of this same Temple, when he too disrupted business for the Temple cult.
Jesus' message was basically the same as Jeremiah's. "Don't think your religious act in this religious edifice will excuse you from the harder demands of God's justice outside the gates."
For what is a Temple without God? And what is a sacrifice without mercy?
NOTE: We are reading the Bible through this year. We are in Jeremiah. The Prophet just keeps going. Tomorrow's Lesson will come from chapters 10-13.
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