Daily Lesson for March 3, 2021

 Today's Daily Lesson comes from Jeremiah chapter 3 verses 11 through 15:

11 Then the Lord said to me . . . 12Go, and proclaim these words towards the north, and say:

Return, faithless Israel,

says the Lord.

I will not look on you in anger,

for I am merciful,

says the Lord;

I will not be angry for ever.

13 Only acknowledge your guilt,

that you have rebelled against the Lord your God . . .

says the Lord.

14 Return, O faithless children,

says the Lord,

for I am your master;

I will take you, one from a city and two from a family,

and I will bring you to Zion.

15 I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.

It is the Lenten season, a time for reflection and self-examination. It is also a time for the acknowledgment of our sins -- individual and collective, and the changing of our course. In the Bible this is called "repentance", which literally means to "change one's mind".

But in order to be changed, we have to want to change. We have to see and acknowledge the error of our way and decide ourselves to change course. And as someone who has worked with a lot of individuals seeking change over the years, I can tell you that I am afraid that we as a collective don't seem ready to really repent.

January 6th should have been a sobering wake-up call for us all. It should have been the moment for really changing course. But here we are, not quite two months later giving credence to the same lies and manipulations which marshalled an army to the steps of the Capitol. And the same dog whistles which summoned the army are still being blown. And the director of the FBI just yesterday said domestic terrorism is "metastasizing". That means the ranks of the army are growing.

Some would say, we haven't hit rock bottom yet. Well, I don't want to hit rock bottom. I want enough of us to see where we're headed, what a hard rock it is at the end of all this, and decide it really is too dangerous to keep walking this knife's edge. We're not just playing with fire, we are playing with explosives; and if we don't quit the whole house is going to blow up.

The alarm bells went off on January 6. It's time to wake up. It's time to save the house while there's still time. And there is, if we'll see just how serious our condition really is.

The FBI Director said it is cancer; and it could be lethal. And the first thing we've got to do is to accept the diagnosis and admit how serious the condition really is.

Ryon Price is Senior Pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.