Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house and proclaim this word and say, “Hear the word of the lord, all you people of Judah you that enter these gates to worship the Lord, thus says the lord of hosts, the God of Israel, amend your ways and your doings and let me dwell with you in this place”. (Jeremiah 7: 2-4. )
Plain speaking indeed. Amend your ways and your doings. The newspapers and the television news have been filled recently with the scandal over the M.P.’s expenses. They seem to have claimed for everything from already paid off mortgages, to repairs, to cleaning and even in the bizarre for duck houses.
Most of us at this time are in one way or another being affected by what is being called the credit crunch. Jobs have been lost by the thousands, manufacturing shut down or scaled down, shares and interest rates have fallen through the floor, and many others have had their overtime and even their hours cut. We as a nation and as many individuals will also testify are struggling. Struggling to pay off one mortgage let alone two, struggling to keep our heads above water and to make ends meet. While pay goes down and petrol and the cost of living go up.
Amend your ways and your doings.
A number of M.P.s have been forced out, some have resigned, and now they are looking for a new speaker for the house. Maybe now is the time to amend the system. The system, let’s face it, sucks. It smacks of one rule for them and one rule for us, and no it is not fair. But then it never really has been, has it?
When I was a child I used occasionally to complain to my father “It’s not fair” to which he would reply, “Life isn’t fair”. But our ways are not God’s ways, nor our thoughts God’s thoughts. God shows us another way, a different path, not one of money and materialism, not one of status. God is the God of the under dog, of the dispossessed, the orphan, the widow, the abused, the sick. God is the God of the poor, he is the God of the common man, He is our God.
When we look to Jesus, Son of God, we see him in action taking no regard for the structures of the society in which he lives. He mixes with tax collectors and sinners, he talks to women and people from Samaria (despised in their day) he heals on the Sabbath (thus breaking the law). He shows nothing but total love and compassion for the orphan, the widow, the sick, the everyday people in everyday places. He does not set himself apart from or above others, he does not live according to the dictates of the world structure, he does not claim expenses. Jesus gives, and gives, and gives, himself, his time, his love everything he is. He is the embodiment of the new order, the right way.
Amend your ways and your doings.
M.P.s aside, governments aside, they must look to their own amendments and make changes as necessary if we are to have our faith restored in them. But we must look too at our ways, at the distribution of our own personal wealth (or otherwise), at the distribution of our personal time and the way in which we relate to others.
It will be a big job, we will feel constrained by opinion, by circumstance, but there is always room for improvement. Even in the smallest things, the smallest gift, the smallest gesture, for from little acorns mighty oaks can grow. I am having a bit of a clear out at home, decluttering, giving a little away, but I am also looking at my religious life; at what I do for God and for others. Traditionally these things are kept for lent, but the lent rule provides a good rule for life. Live simply so others may simply live.
So let’s live and let’s give, let’s amend our ways and our doings little by little so that we may enter the gates of the temple and worship the Lord with a little less baggage and a little more love.
Jan