Now, after the king had burned the scroll with the words that Baruch wrote at Jeremiah’s dictation, the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah
After Jeremiah had heard all these prophesies from God, he was finally asked to put them on a scroll. The king did not like what he’d heard from the scroll, what with the command to live right by the Lord and abide by the Lord. He burned the scrolls. And quoting a line from a great song by Unspoken (Bury the Workman), “God is not persuaded by the arrogance of men”. So God just dictated, and Jeremiah dictated a second scroll which contained everything from the first, and then some more, just for good measure. The king was ignoring God’s holiness, whereas Jeremiah, who hadn’t had an easy go of being a prophet, repeatedly responded in big and little ways to God’s requests. Go write another scroll. Um, ok.
The accompanying reflection for this section is from Eugene Peterson, and he focuses on holiness. We strive to live holy lives, or at least find holy moments. And then life interrupts and we find ourselves painting window trim, grocery shopping, mowing, picking up kids, and we feel like our holy moment has passed by without us.
Peterson argues that holiness isn’t necessarily time set apart, or being pious, or going to church. Holiness occurs when we are fully present in all of the moments of our lives. Yes, when we’re at church, or in our prayer chair. But also when we are in traffic, mowing, dictating a scroll, or chopping onions. There is nowhere and nothing that cannot be imbued with holiness. God is present in all of those places and things; our challenge is to remember that and rest in that holiness in the mundane.
This morning, I’m thinking about my day’s tasks. Grocery shopping, window trim painting, meal planning, dinner prep, staining a door, and going to church. None of these moments are more or less holy. God is not present some places and absent others. Every moment of my day has the potential for holiness. Even the rough moments. I just need to live like that’s true.
No comments:
Post a Comment