I.
We continue this week listening to the Prophet Jeremiah. We’ll start this week as we do most weeks, placing this week’s passage in front of us, reading it slowly and with care so we hear the words of the Prophet as best we can.

As you’re taking time with the passage, open your mind so you notice anything that sounds familiar.

II.
Jeremiah 22:1-10 (New Revised Standard Version)

Thus says the Lord: Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word, and say: Hear the word of the Lord, O King of Judah sitting on the throne of David—you, and your servants, and your people who enter these gates. Thus says the Lord: Act with justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor anyone who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place. For if you will indeed obey this word, then through the gates of this house shall enter kings who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their servants, and their people. But if you will not heed these words, I swear by myself, says the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation. For thus says the Lord concerning the house of the king of Judah:

You are like Gilead to me,
like the summit of Lebanon;
but I swear that I will make you a desert,
an uninhabited city.[a]
I will prepare destroyers against you,
all with their weapons;
they shall cut down your choicest cedars
and cast them into the fire.

And many nations will pass by this city, and all of them will say one to another, “Why has the Lord dealt in this way with that great city?” And they will answer, “Because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord their God, and worshiped other gods and served them.”

Do not weep for him who is dead,
nor bemoan him;
weep rather for him who goes away,
for he shall return no more
to see his native land.

III.
What did you hear that you have heard before. Maybe even this past week.

You can find last week’s reading, Jeremiah 21:8-14, here –
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=jeremiah+21.8-14&version=NRSV

… and this week’s reading here –
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jeremiah+22%3A1-10&version=NRSV

You could open them side-by-side online or in your Bible and notice what is repeated and what is expanded.

Who is the audience? How is justice described? Who is asked/commanded to act justly? What kind of future(s) might await those to whom the Prophet is speaking? When will judgement come and how?

Spend time paying attention to Prophet Jeremiah noticing what he speaks both in an ancient time and what he still speaks to us.

We’ll talk later,

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}