Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Looking for God’s Favour

A song of ascents.

False Trust in the Temple

7 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ² ‘Stand in the gate of the house of the Lord^(A) and there call out this word: “Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah who enter through these gates to worship the Lord.

³ ‘ “This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Correct your ways and your actions,^(B) and I will allow you to live in this place. ⁴ Do not trust deceitful words, chanting, ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’ ⁵ Instead, if you really correct your ways and your actions, if you act justly towards one another,^{[a](C) 6} if you no longer oppress the resident foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow,^(D) and no longer shed innocent blood in this place or follow other gods, bringing harm on yourselves, ⁷ I will allow you to live in this place, the land I gave to your ancestors^(E) long ago and for ever. ⁸ But look, you keep trusting in deceitful words that cannot help.

⁹ ‘ “Do you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and follow other gods that you have not known?^{(F) 10} Then do you come and stand before me in this house^(G) that bears my name and say, ‘We are rescued, so we can continue doing all these detestable acts’? ¹¹ Has this house, which bears my name, become a den of robbers^(H) in your view? Yes, I too have seen it.^(I)

This is the Lord’s declaration.

Shiloh as a Warning

¹² ‘ “But return to my place that was at Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first.^(J) See what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel. ¹³ Now, because you have done all these things – this is the Lord’s declaration – and because I have spoken to you time and time again^[b] but you wouldn’t listen,^(K) and I have called to you, but you wouldn’t answer,^{(L) 14} what I did to Shiloh I will do to the house that bears my name,^(M) the house in which you trust, the place that I gave you and your ancestors. ¹⁵ I will banish you from my presence, just as I banished all of your brothers, all the descendants of Ephraim.” ^(N)

⁸ You are already full! You are already rich! You have begun to reign as kings without us – and I wish you did reign, so that we could also reign with you! ⁹ For I think that God has displayed us, the apostles, in last place, like men condemned to die: We have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to people. ¹⁰ We are fools for Christ, but you are wise in Christ!^(A) We are weak, but you are strong! You are distinguished, but we are dishonoured! ¹¹ Up to the present hour we are both hungry and thirsty; we are poorly clothed, roughly treated, homeless; ¹² we labour, working^(B) with our own hands.^(C) When we are reviled, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; ¹³ when we are slandered, we respond graciously. Even now, we are like the scum of the earth, like everyone’s rubbish.^(D)