"Am I only a God nearby," declares the LORD, "and not a God far away?" – Jeremiah 23:23

Today's Scripture Reading (August 20, 2026): Jeremiah 23

We seem to think that for God to care, he has to be close. So, exactly how close is God to the pinnacle of his creation? Our response to that question is often that he is closer than your next breath. However, the question that plagues me is: Is closeness a necessary trait of God? Does he have to be close in order for him to care? Is closeness an attribute of God's providence? Or is it possible for God to care and provide and not be closer than our next breath? Don't get me wrong, I believe that God is closer than our next breath, but he is also a God who can be, or at least seem to be, far away.

As Christians, we often have an adverse reaction to the concept of a Watchmaker God. A Watchmaker God is essentially seen as a God who has designed this world we share, but when creation was completed, God walked away. The concept of a Watchmaker God is built around the idea that I don't need the creator of the watch to stay with me for the watch to work. In the same way, a watchmaker creator would not be needed after the initial creation of the world. In fact, adopters of this theology often argue that a world that continually needs his presence to work is poorly created. If God created the world right, couldn't he just walk away from his creation and still have everything he created continue to function according to his specifications? However, we interpret these words, arguing that a God who would walk away from his creation would also be a God who doesn't care.

The argument is really a false one. God is close by. He is as close as the next breath. His providential care is not in question. However, God declares that while he is close, he is also far away. He is the ultimate watchmaker who builds his creation to get along without him. He is a God who could walk away. The reality that our God could walk away makes the fact that he is close even more amazing. He is close because he cares for us: you, me, and everyone that we come in contact with.

This is who we joyfully gather to worship.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 24

This is what the LORD says: Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of the oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place. – Jeremiah 22:3

Today's Scripture Reading (August 19, 2026): Jeremiah 22

In November 1937, Prince Yasuhiko Asaka took control of the Japanese forces in China. He was placed in temporary command because of the illness of General Iwane Matsui. Because of the change in leadership, Asaka commanded the Japanese forces as they entered the Capital of the Republic of China, Nanking (now Nanjing), in early December 1937. The Chinese had decided not to defend Nanking after the fall of Shanghai because they felt defending the capital didn't make any logical sense. Regardless of what the Chinese Army did, the city would eventually fall to the advancing Japanese forces, so why waste soldiers on a city that could not be successfully defended? However, what the Japanese did in Nanking in late 1937 and early 1938 was something that the Chinese could never have imagined.

The event has been called the "Massacre of Nanking" or the "Rape of Nanking." The reason for the massacre was complex. The Japanese had been moving too fast. The supply line behind them had not been secured, and there were no reserve forces to be brought up to the front of the battle. And in the midst of all of this, Prince Asaka allegedly issued the order to "kill the captives." Whether it was really Asaka who issued the order, we will probably never know. But the whole world watched as events unfolded over the six weeks that followed the order. Estimates vary, but more than 200,000 civilians were killed, and 20,000 women ranging in age from children to the elderly were raped. Any military personnel left in the city were summarily executed. Altogether, the death toll in Nanking was over 300,000 people. There were no words or excuses that could be uttered to justify the events that took place in Nanking.

Jeremiah brings his people the word coming from God. Do what is just and right. Avoid the killing of the innocent, rescue the oppressed, and be concerned for the vulnerable. Even the foreigner was to be given God's protection. We are closest to exhibiting God's character when we engage in these things. In a massacre like the one that happened in Nanking, the will of God is never accomplished.

Because he was a member of the royal family, Prince Asaka could not be charged or punished. Later in life, he would convert to Roman Catholicism, becoming the first member of the imperial family to do so. General Iwane Matsui was not so lucky. In reviewing the aftermath of the Battle for Nanking, Matsui made this comment to an aide.

"I now realize that we have unknowingly wrought a most grievous effect on this city. When I think of the feelings and sentiments of many of my Chinese friends who have fled from Nanking and of the future of the two countries, I cannot but feel depressed. I am very lonely and can never get in a mood to rejoice about this victory" (General Iwane Matsui). 

General Matsui was found guilty of war crimes. His trial concluded with the judgment that Matsui knew what was happening in Nanking and failed to stop it. He was executed on December 23, 1948, at the age of 70, for his failure to protect the innocent.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 23

Inquire now of the LORD for us because Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon is attacking us. Perhaps the LORD will perform wonders for us as in times past so that he will withdraw from us. – Jeremiah 21:2

Today's Scripture Reading (August 18, 2026): Jeremiah 21

In Canada, we have, over the past couple of decades, been involved in the fiasco of Native Residential Schools. The last federally funded Residential School was not closed until 1996. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the Christian Church meant well, that we even believed that we were following the will of God. But instead of helping the Native Canadians, the church helped to spread the disease of cultural assimilation, which aimed to beat the Aboriginal out of the First Nations children. Residential schools created an unacceptably high death rate in the schools. We weakened Native Canadian families and hindered their connection to their own culture. The church caused irreparable damage, and we continue to suffer the effects of the damage we created. And all of this because we moved ahead of God, and we tried to dress our own selfish will up as if it were the will of God.

We saw the same reaction during the Crusades, one of the darkest blots on Christianity's record. We ran ahead of God in declaring war against all who disbelieved in the Christian God. We were determined that we would tear from the hands of the infidels the city of Jerusalem. The cry of the Crusaders was simple: God wills it. But it doesn't appear that anyone actually asked if that was true. Instead, the Crusaders routinely killed people, and some of the victims were even Christians who just happened to be in the way of the Crusaders. 

We seem to have established a pattern: we act as we want to, and then ask God to perform a wonder to get us out of the trouble our actions have gotten us into. It is an old pattern. Jeremiah speaks to the pattern almost six centuries before Christ. Israel had set itself on a path that would ultimately carry it away from God. But when trouble came, then they went running to Jeremiah (they didn't have to go far; they had imprisoned him in the courtyard) and asked him to inquire of God. Maybe if Jeremiah asked, then God would move.

And so, we pray, "God move in this situation, even though we haven't listened to you, haven't asked the questions of you that we should have asked." And sometimes, God moves. But at other times, his response to us is much the same as it was to Jeremiah: "Now I am moving in a different direction. It didn't have to be this way, but this is the path that you have chosen, and I am willing to walk it in my way." Whenever we move ahead of God, destruction is always the result. History has shown it over and over again. And God wants us, needs us to understand that we need to hear his will before we embark on an action because we think "God wills it."

Maybe the church needs to join with Archbishop Michael Peers in his apology from the Anglican Church to the survivors of the Residential Schools.

I accept, and I confess before God and you, our failures in the residential schools. We failed you. We failed ourselves. We failed God.

I am sorry, more than I can say, that we were part of a system that took you and your children from home and family.

I am sorry, more than I can say, that we tried to remake you in our image, taking from you your language and the signs of your identity.

I am sorry, more than I can say, that in our schools so many were abused physically, sexually, culturally and emotionally.

On behalf of the Anglican Church of Canada, I present our apology.

We are all sorry for the destruction that results whenever we move ahead of God. We are sorry for proclaiming that "God wills it" when God has done no such thing. And we are sorry for asking God to bail us out when all we needed to do was to listen to God in the first place. To the world, we ask for your forgiveness for our misrepresentation of God.

And we promise to listen better in the future.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 22

There at Riblah, in the land of Hamath, the king had them executed. So Judah went into captivity, away from her land. – 2 Kings 25:21

Today's Scripture Reading (August 17, 2026): 2 Kings 25

The story is told of the early days of Abraham Lincoln's first term as President. In an unusual picture of humility, a common sight in Springfield was of the President-elect making his daily trip to the local post office to pick up his mail. Finally, Lincoln concluded that he needed help, and, with that determination in mind, early in 1861, he hired a young immigrant named John Nicolay as his private secretary. Nicolay would hold the office until Lincoln's assassination in 1865.

Nicolay was alarmed as he began reading the letters the President was receiving; many were threats against the newly elected President. Lincoln seemed to be unperturbed. Lincoln was unable to imagine how it could be that political hatred could ever be transformed into an attack that would cause physical harm. Yet, on the evening of his first inauguration, the president-elect found himself sneaking into Washington. At the same time, citizens who had planned the first assassination attempt on President Lincoln's life waited for him in Baltimore.

The strategy of killing the leaders is an ancient one. And as the saga of the Kingdom of Judah ends, that is exactly what happens. In all fairness to Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar had tried other avenues, but the nation had repeatedly rebelled against his rule. And so, as he closes this chapter, he expels the people and kills the leaders, both political and religious, of the nation.

There is an almost eerie lack of emotion as the writer of 2 Kings announces the demise of the nation. A nation that began with acts of dependence on God and the faith of the people, first with the crossing of the Jordan at its flood stage when the water of the Jordan was the deepest and the swiftest, and then with the miraculous fall of the walled city of Jericho, over eight hundred years later ends with consecutive acts of idolatry, a dependence on other gods, and rebellion. It is with these acts of rebellion that the story of the nation ends. It had started as the story of a people given the honor of reaching the world and making it a better place. It ends as the people are scattered and driven from the land that God had promised to them, all because of their failure to fulfill that very responsibility that had been given to them by the God who had brought them out of Egypt in the first place.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 21

They became prostitutes in Egypt, engaging in prostitution from their youth. In that land their breasts were fondled and their virgin bosoms caressed. – Ezekiel 23:3

Today's Scripture Reading (August 16, 2026): Ezekiel 23

On December 7, 1941, at 7:48 in the morning, the first wave of Japanese fighters reached their target: Pearl Harbor. The U.S. Military base was attacked by 353 Japanese fighters, bombers, and torpedo planes launched from six Japanese aircraft carriers. The attack was intended to knock the United States out of World War II before it could formally enter the war. The overwhelming fight at Pearl Harbor was really a Japanese attempt to put into practice a military agenda that the United States, a few decades later, would master and label as "shock and awe." The intention was to demoralize the United States and convince them that they needed to stay out of the war. If they had succeeded in their mission, Japan would have been left unchallenged in the Pacific Theater of Operations. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto hatched the Pearl Harbor plan. But the Admiral quickly realized his error. Pride had led Japan into a fatal blunder. Yamamoto warned his colleagues just after the Pearl Harbor attack that "I fear all we have done is awaken the sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve." No words could have been truer. With the help of her allies (England, Australia, Canada, and the Soviet Union), American vengeance would be swift and complete. In the end, Japanese pride would cost them two of their largest cities as well as cause an embarrassing surrender of Japan to the United States.

As Ezekiel begins to describe the reason for the defeat of Judah, he describes the situation with a story of two adulterous sisters. The story itself has been called lewd and vulgar, and some have refused to read the story in public. But the words used in the story accurately describe the situation and the history of Judah. Ezekiel begins his story in Egypt. And the event he attempts to describe is Aaron's building of the golden calf, an act buried deep in the nation's past. In a moment when Israel was deeply indebted to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob because of the marvelous acts that he had performed in the presence of the Pharaoh, which included the parting of the Red Sea as Israel made their miraculous escape from the Egyptian army, the building of the golden calf was an incredibly vulgar and adulterous act which revealed the pride of a people who seemed to believe that they could serve whatever God they wanted. It was a pride that insisted that the people of Israel were indebted to no one.

The act would set the nation up for a series of vulgar adulterous acts throughout her history, all led by her pride that insisted that she could do whatever it was that she wanted. And she had decided that her future lay with gods other than Yahweh. That pride had been Israel's blunder, and the result was a reality through which Ezekiel and his friends in exile were now being forced to live. Their adulterous pride contained the seeds of their eventual defeat, and that day had finally arrived.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 2 Kings 25

As silver is melted in a furnace, so you will be melted inside her, and you will know that I the LORD have poured out my wrath on you.'" – Ezekiel 22:22

Today's Scripture Reading (August 15, 2026): Ezekiel 22

In 2014, NASCAR's Brad Keselowski spun out on lap 137, trying to make up a lap. Earlier in the race, Keselowski was involved in an incident with Danica Patrick, and he had been chasing the race ever since. But on lap 137, Keselowski, essentially out of the race by that time, aggressively tried to make up a lap. The spinout resulted in a crash involving 14 cars and shut down the track for over 10 minutes. What caused a backlash at the time was that Keselowski had criticized Matt Kenseth the week before for essentially doing the same thing. The issue did not seem to be that Keselowski's aggressive driving caused the pile-up, although drivers would like him to ease up a little. The real issue seems to be that Keselowski was still driving aggressively even though he was essentially out of the race. Some of the big names in the sport would have liked Keselowski to learn the difference between driving aggressively when the race was still in doubt and driving aggressively when there is no possibility of winning, or even of placing in the important top ten.

As far as Keselowski was concerned, if he was on the track and had a steering wheel in his hands, he wanted to compete to the best of his abilities. To be honest, this is the attitude of a winner. In any other sport, we want to see our teams compete until the final whistle, no matter how lopsided the score might be.

What we sometimes miss is that heat (and fire), whether we are talking about a competitive fire in sports or a physical fire, often come with two very different outcomes. One is to destroy. Fire burns and destroys what it touches. We witness the destructive power of fire whenever it breaks out in places where we don't want it, and we put in significant effort to fight it. But the second purpose of fire is to cleanse. Here, destruction is not the purpose; fire removes the impurities within something. For Keselowski in 2014, maybe that was the hope. No one wanted the figurative fire of criticism to destroy the drivers; rather, they hoped Keselowski, Kenseth, and others would emerge as better, more competitive NASCAR drivers as a direct result of the heat and scrutiny focused on their aggressive driving techniques at various stages of a race. The purpose of the fire of criticism was to purify and make the drivers better, and maybe a little safer on the track.

Biblically, it is often hard to tell the difference between these two fires. But it seems that the biblical use of fire is often for the second purpose, not the first. Some have even argued that the fires of Revelation, which we often take as purely destructive, are really intended to have a purification aspect.

But in Ezekiel, the author really leaves us no doubt. Even though we are told that it is God's wrath that has burned toward Israel, this is not about the destruction of the nation; it is about purification and making something better out of what has come before. And the clue is that Ezekiel speaks about the melting of silver, a melting which is done very purposefully for purification reasons. While God's wrath may have been part of the reason for the exile, the overwhelming message is that God is not done with Israel yet. He still has more in store for his people. God's intention was and still is to burn away everything that does not belong so that it is only the pure us, which is actually the real us, that is left.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 23

Son of man, set your face against Jerusalem and preach against the sanctuary. Prophesy against the land of Israel. – Ezekiel 21:2

Today's Scripture Reading (August 14, 2026): Ezekiel 21

Jews (and admittedly Christians) from all over the world are drawn to the Western Wall in Jerusalem. The Western Wall is believed to be the outer wall of the western perimeter section of the partition that separated the court area of the Temple in Jerusalem from the rest of the city, or, more precisely, the Second Temple, which the Romans destroyed in 70 C.E. Still, the wall stands as a testimony to the power of Holy places in our lives. The Temple itself is no longer standing; the Ark of the Covenant and the holy relics are long gone, lost to antiquity, and yet this one wall still exerts its strange attraction on literally millions of people on our planet. And for each of these people, the wall provides a very tangible connection to God.

Maybe for the Christian, the wall we worship at is much closer. A while back, a gentleman walked into the church looking for a connection with God. He asked if he could take some time to pray in the sanctuary. After I said he could, he walked into the sanctuary, and I returned to my office. A few minutes later, he came to me looking a little confused. Why didn't our church have a cross? I smiled and said that it did, but it just wasn't where he expected it to be. In our sanctuary, the cross is in the middle of a side wall over the baptistery. My new friend returned to the sanctuary and located the cross.  A few minutes later, when I went to check on him, I found him kneeling at the side of the church as close to the cross as he could get. For him, the cross was his Western Wall and the point of his connection with God.

What sometimes surprises people is that we are often more attracted to these Holy Places than God would seem to be. God's requirement has always been that we live in obedience to him. And sacrifice and prayers at a particular Holy Place always take second place to that obedience. Therefore, God instructs Ezekiel to set his face against the city of Jerusalem, and more specifically against the sanctuary; against the Temple of God. It seems that, as far as God is concerned, if there is no obedience, there is no need for a Holy Place.

As God sets his face against the Temple, he seals the fate of the Holy Place. Without God, the Temple could not stand. Some experts think that it was not just the destruction of Solomon's Temple at the hands of the Babylonian Empire that God is speaking of, but also of the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E. at the hands of the Romans; the very destruction that left only the Western Wall standing. So, we continue to travel to the wall; to pray, to wail, and to ask of God what his plans are for our future. And as we come to the wall, God reminds us that we don't need a Holy place; we never have. We just need to decide to be obedient to him.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 22