Trinity 10 2020
Jeremiah 7:1-11
August 16, 2020
Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID
In the middle of the 900s BC, when King Solomon had finished building the temple in Jerusalem, God said to him 3 “I have heard your prayer and your plea, which you have made before me. I have consecrated this house that you have built, by putting my name there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time. 4 And as for you, if you will walk before me, as David your father walked, with integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you, and keeping my statutes and my rules, 5 then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.’ 6 But if you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes that I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, 7 then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and the house that I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight, and Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples. 8 And this house will become a heap of ruins. Everyone passing by it will be astonished and will hiss, and they will say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?’ 9 Then they will say, ‘Because they abandoned the Lord their God who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt and laid hold on other gods and worshiped them and served them. Therefore the Lord has brought all this disaster on them.’” (1 Kings 9:3-10).
About 350 years later, the prophet Jeremiah stood in the gate of this very temple to remind them of God’s Word. Over the years, God’s people had treated the Lord’s house as a sort of good luck charm that warded off destruction and somehow guaranteed their nation in the land regardless of how unfaithful they were and how much they rebelled against His commands. They had a false trust in the security of the temple, not in God whose glory filled the temple, but in the majesty of the building and the work of their own hands. “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord” they chanted. They thought they were safe all the while turning God’s house of prayer into a den of robbers. But they only deceived themselves, as Jeremiah pointed out and called them to repentance.
Jeremiah’s message proceeds to challenge their spiritual hypocrisy, where they steal, murder, commit adultery, lie, and even worship other gods but then come to the temple and act like that’s enough. Again in Isaiah 29, God says through Isaiah, which also is later on quoted by Jesus, “because this people draw near with their mouth and honor Me with their lips, while their hearts are far from Me…”. God will not allow the desecration for long. The judgment that came upon Judah was the upcoming Babylonian exile, the diaspora. God’s people driven from the promised land because they continued in their sinful ways. The Divine Landlord serves the eviction notice to the people. So too Jesus wept over the upcoming destruction of Jerusalem and the people’s rejection over Him as the Messiah. That’s what the prophets have always challenged the people of God with: that if they don’t change, that they are going to spiritually die. That they may literally die.
It doesn’t matter if it occurs in Judah or America, by Jews or pagans or Lutherans, and it is the same abomination to the Lord in the 21st century as it was in 600 BC in Jeremiah’s time, or in the first century Jerusalem. The house of God should be a house of prayer, not a den of robbers who try to steal God’s grace in order to continue on in sin.
We might not burn incense to other gods, but what have we put in the place of real worship, and beyond that, really longing after what God longs after? Do we go about the other six days of the week however we want, every which way but loose, and then show up and go through the temple, and assume everything’s “good” with God? Some are tempted to place their trust in the possession of orthodoxy, or right belief, or of right ritualistic rules, or in saying prayers just the right way, or in the amount of service or offerings given as a sort of magical ward against bad things happening. Are our hearts right, or are we just fooling ourselves? Are we assuming that because we’ve convinced ourselves, that God is convinced, too?
God’s Word through Jeremiah makes it clear, however, that He is not interested in mere ritual compliance and outward observance. You can’t go on living a life of sin and then come to church only to go on doing all these abominations. This is more than a matter of hypocrisy, this is unbelief. It is not sin that damns. It is unbelief, remaining in sin, unforgiven sin. It’s not the sin of Israel that dooms them but instead their rejection of the Lord and His promises and His Christ. And also you and me, and the whole world. We are born in sin and unbelief, and only by God’s grace He rescues us out of it in the waters of baptism, by His promise of forgiveness and salvation for the sake of Christ’s death and resurrection.
So what are we to do? Hear the Word of the Lord, all you who enter these gates to worship. Disrespect for the divine Word of God is one of the greatest sins. God’s Word is the only means to bring us from sin into repentance and reconciliation with God. This is the house of God, the house of prayer, an all who enter here should expect an encounter with the risen Christ.
And amend, literally “make good”, your ways and your deeds. When lust enters your eyes, turn away. When thoughts of anger and hatred toward another come into your mind, pray for yourself and for those whom those feelings have been directed. When idols present themselves to distract you from Jesus, remove them and look to Jesus. The Word of the Lord proclaims, “Rend your hearts and not your garments! Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love; and He relents over disaster.” As drops of tears fall from Jesus’ face over sin, more importantly, drops of blood flow from His pierced hands, feet, and side. These too are shed because of the sinfulness of the world. They are shed for you, not out of sadness, but out of love. They are shed that you may have life. For Jesus has cleansed your heart your heart by His holy Word to prepare it for proper service in faithful devotion toward Him and love for others.