Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

A song to sing as we climb.

Servants of the Lord

Jeremiah speaks in the Temple

7 The Lord gave this message to Jeremiah: ² ‘Stand at the gate of the Lord's temple and speak this message. Say, “Listen to the Lord's message, all you people of Judah. You come through this gate to worship the Lord. ³ This is what the Lord Almighty, Israel's God, says: Change the way that you live. Do things that are right. If you change, I will let you continue to live here. ⁴ People may say, ‘We are safe here! This is the temple of the Lord. It is the temple of the Lord!’ But the people who say that are deceiving you. Do not trust them. ⁵ You must change the way that you have been living. You must do what is right. Be fair to each other. ⁶ Do not be cruel to foreigners who are living among you. Do not be cruel to widows, or to children who have no family. You must stop murdering people. You must stop worshipping other gods. If you live like that, it will destroy you. ⁷ If you change how you live, I will let you live in this place. It is the land that I gave to your ancestors, to be their home for ever.

⁸ But look at how you live now! You believe in lies that cannot save you. ⁹ You rob people. You murder people. You have sex with someone else's wife or husband. You tell lies in court when you have promised to tell the truth. You offer sacrifices to the false god, Baal. You serve other gods that you never knew before. ¹⁰ You do that and then you come to meet me here, in my own house! You say, ‘We are safe!’ ¹¹ This is my temple! It is not a place where robbers can hide and be safe. Listen to me! I have seen the things that you have done.” That is what the Lord says.

¹² “Go to Shiloh, and see what I did there. It was the first place that I chose where people would worship me. But I destroyed it because of the wicked things that my people, the Israelites, did. ¹³ You have done the same wicked things. I have warned you many times, but you have not listened to me. I called out to you, but you refused to answer.” That is what the Lord says.

¹⁴ “So now I will destroy this temple that I chose to be my home. I gave this temple to you and to your ancestors. You think that it will keep you safe. But I will destroy it, as I destroyed Shiloh. ¹⁵ I will send you far away from me. I already did that to the other Israelites, the people of Ephraim's tribe.” ^[a]

⁸ You already have everything that you need, do you? You think that you are very rich already! You are ready to rule as kings. You no longer need us to help you. I think it would be good if you had really become kings. Then we could also rule together with you! ⁹ This is what I think: as apostles, God has put us last of everyone. People see us like we are prisoners at the end of the line. They are taking us to die in a public place. Everybody in the world has come to look at us, both people and angels.

¹⁰ We have become like fools so that we can serve Christ. But you think that you are wise because you belong to Christ. We seem like weak people, but you seem to be strong! People respect you but they insult us!

¹¹ Until now, we continue to be hungry and thirsty. Our clothes have become old. Sometimes people hit us for no reason. We do not have our own homes. ¹² We work hard, so that we become very tired. When people insult us, we ask God to bless them. When people give us trouble, we are patient and brave. ¹³ When people say bad things against us, we answer with kind words. We have become like dirty things that people throw away. That is still true, even today.