June 13

Jeremiah 7
Recently I have been going to the Spudnut shop to do my Meditations on the Glory. I seem to get less interruptions there. Today a young lady waited upon me. She was wearing wrist band that says, “Life TV Church.” So, I asked her, “Why do you like Life TV Church?” She was so excited to answer that question. She immediately answered, “The message. And It is so non-traditional!” I have a passion that people walk with Jesus, not so much that they talk about their church but that they talk about HIm. (Although, Jesus has a passion for the church, so if we have a passion for Jesus, we will have a passion for His church.) But what is the church? I cannot help but question, “Is Jesus’ concept of the church for which He gave Himself one of sitting in front of a projected image of an excellent teacher and participating in excellent live worship,?” But I guess I have to also question, “Is what I subject the people in the congregation of which God has appointed me pastor any more church than Life TV?” The obvious answer would be, “I would hope so; otherwise, I should move the congregation to become more like Life TV.” But my point is not to get sidetracked into the differences between Life TV and my congregation, but rather to illustrate that we all have a lot of different ideas about what it means to be part of the people of God and Jeremiah 7 clearly addresses some of those ideas.
What does the Lord mean when He says through Jeremiah, “4Do not trust in these lying words, saying, ‘The temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD are these.’?” The people of Jeremiah’s day loved to attend temple. However, the observance of God’s commands at the temple had no effect upon their lives outside the temple. God is just. He expects His people to live justly. God is merciful; He expects His people to live mercifully. God is faithful to us; He expects His people to remain faithful to Him. God is true; He expects His people to remain true to Him and each other. The end result of their going to temple had no change upon their behavior in everyday life. Going to ‘temple’ or ‘church’ is not primarily about the liturgy. (All churches have liturgy. It is just that some are more organized than others.) Liturgy is performed at a building, but church is about the meaning of the liturgy, the Power behind the liturgy and the Person that drives the liturgy. The people of Jeremiah’s day used the temple as a cloak to practice their immorality. The liturgy was no longer about Yahweh, empowered by Yahweh or driven by Yahweh. It was about them, empowered by them and driven by them.
So what had the temple become? It had become a den of thieves (v.11). It is no accident that this is part of what Jesus quoted when He drove out the money changers. What else did He quote? He quoted Isaiah 56:7, “For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.” Church is not a building. It is the people of God. When we come together in a building, it is for prayer. It is for relationship with Him corporately. When it is about Him, empowered by Him and driven by Him, we become what He desires. We are in relationship with Him, we fulfill the function for which He created us. His glory is magnified abundantly. If that is not happening, we are not much less than a den of thieves. Jeremiah goes on to explain what happens to those who remain in “den of thieves” mode, and it is not pretty. But, that reveals His glory! Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john
P.S. Maybe on my next visit I will ask the girl what she thinks of Jesus, probably a more appropriate question.