Today’s Scripture Reading (February
18, 2014): Jeremiah 7
A few years
ago Craig Groeschel (Pastor of LifeChurch) wrote a book that he called “Christian
Atheists.” The book was an examination of the Christian Church in Western
Culture. The tag line of the book was “Believing in God but living as if he
doesn’t exist.” The uncomfortable idea was that many people within the Western
Christian Church led two very distinct lives. At church, and sometimes even at
home, they lived as Christians. But for the rest of the time these people lived
in the world as if God did not exist – and for most, they never even considered
that the Christian life could be lived in any other way. It is a betrayal of
the faith that the early church could not have imagined. One of the arguments
of the early church was whether or not it was possible be a Christian and deny
Christ under threat of death. Many Christians believed that the answer to that
question was no – and they died a martyr’s death for their faith. But to deny
Christ as just a part of daily life would have been simply unthinkable.
And yet that
is often exactly what we do. We go to church, sing the songs and pray the
prayers. We take part in the divine liturgies of the historical church that
have been carefully designed to draw us into the presence of God. And yet, when
we leave the church we often leave all of that belief behind – until the time
comes for us to put on our “Sunday-go-to- meeting-clothes” once more, and
return to the sanctuary to repeat the liturgies that we had left behind the
week before. We desire to be people of two worlds – within the church we
recognize that our belief in Christ saves us. And because we are saved, we think
we can then leave God’s sanctuary and move into world and behave as the world
demands.
It is
apparently not a new phenomenon. Jeremiah looked at his own culture, 600 years
before the birth of Christ, and saw his people doing the exact same thing. They
gathered in the temple on the holy days and brought their sacrifices; they
gathered weekly in their synagogues to hear the Word of God and participate in
their liturgies – and then they left these holy places behind and went on with
their daily lives as if God did not exist. It did not seem strange to them to
worship at the Altar of God and then move out into the world to worship at the
altar of Ba’al. But it was not just the worship of foreign gods that was at
issue. The people walked out of the temple and believed that they could
actively go against the directives of their God – and still be safe.
And Jeremiah
wants them to examine that belief. The reality is that to follow that kind of
pattern was to only partially believe in God. But the God of Israel is Jealous
God – and he demands not just part of us – but all of us.
We grow in
faith, sometimes our behavior does not quite measure up. We are like a child
who needs to learn what it is to live the faith. But belief is never a
gradient. Either we do – or we don’t. And the reality is that if we belief
fully, sin – although still sometimes a part of our lives – is never a welcomed
part. And when we fall short, we experience a greater pain than we would have
if our belief was either partial or non-existent. And it is that pain over the
sin in our lives, and in our world, that is the proof of our faith – proof of
our full belief in Christ.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading:
Jeremiah 8
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