—Friedrich Nietzsche
Changes can be good; and, of course, some changes are unavoidable. Alternately, though, some changes must be resisted, no matter what.
There are all sorts of changes happening, lately, in our life. For example, we recently bought some new kitchen appliances. As a result, we’ve been passing interesting milestones; such as “last load of dishes in the old dishwasher” and “last funky smelling ice from the old ice maker.” Another change finds me donating my (very) old Hardy Boys novels to the local Friends of the Library for the annual book sale (I’m not abandoning my old chums; just need to get the updated language versions so I can read them to my Grands without having to stop and explain every fifth word).
Recently, my credit union merged with the NASA credit union. Between that and the SpaceX facility at the edge of our town, I am now one step closer to my life-long desire to be an intergalactic explorer.
So, yes, change can be good.
This week’s scriptures, though, capture several things that should not change; mutual love, hospitality; care for the poor, crippled, imprisoned, and blind; providing for those who cannot repay. These have been required of God’s people for millennia ... and still are. When we fail to do these kinds of things, when, as it indicates in Hebrews, we “neglect to do good and share what we have,” we are heading down a wrong path, one that places our focus on the wrong things.
God’s people often changed how they related to other people, kept failing to love and care for those in need, despite repeated messages from God to do so. They chose to ignore God’s instructions and, instead, followed idols: gods so false they were actually nothing.
Jeremiah delivered a spiritual metaphor from God to illustrate this. He said that substituting their own reasoning for God’s was the same as choosing false gods over God. This led to “two evils,” not just one: “they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that can hold no water.” Does it make any sense to ignore free, continuous water while simultaneously attempting to collect rain in a cracked container? It’s like walking away from a desert oasis, leaving behind the water source, assuming there will be enough rain out in the desert to meet our needs.
Sounds crazy to me.
There are consequences for making this kind of change, for choosing the empty path over the full one ... but the consequences are likely not what you think. God makes it clear in Psalm 81 that, should we keep choosing other paths over the one He established for us, He will give us over to our “stubborn hearts,” allow us to follow our “own counsel.” In other words, it’s not that God will strike us down or send some similar punishment. It is much worse: God will simply ... let us go our own way.
Changes can be good. But walking out into the desert of life without the living water of God is the same as becoming emptiness through worshipping emptiness ... that’s a change we must resist, no matter what.
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PHOTO: Adobe Spark Post
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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Proper 17 (22) (September 1, 2019)
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu//texts.php?id=277
Jeremiah 2:4-13
Psalm 81:1, 10-16
Proverbs 25:6-7
Psalm 112
Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16
Luke 14:1, 7-14
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Join us Friday morning at “Our Breakfast Place” (formerly The Egg and I) for DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast. The hour starts at 8:00 and is comfortably packed with Bible discussion, Breakfast, Prayer, and fellowship. We would love for you to join us.
Blessings,
Steve
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