Every week I receive the bulletin for the upcoming Sunday worship service in my email. It contains the announcements and the Scripture reading which our pastor is going to base his sermon on. A few weeks ago, I decided to read the scripture passage and write a blog entry containing my thoughts on the passage as a way to prepare for Sunday morning worship. I do not know how long I will continue doing this, but it seems to be an exercise that has some value.

This weeks scripture passage is Jeremiah 2:20-37.

    I am having trouble this morning putting together a cohesive set of thoughts about this passage. The first phrase which struck me as relevant to our society today was “Israel is like a thief who feels shame only when he gets caught.” It sounds like so many in our society today. All too often when people apologize for doing wrong in our society their apology sounds like they are only sorry for getting caught. The other thought that came to me was that the comments Jeremiah made about those worshiping other gods seems to apply to syncretists (those who take pieces from various different religions and put them together). These are the people who claim to be Christian, but who say that all religions teach the same things. Jeremiah is condemning those who are constantly seeking to find common ground between Christianity and other religions. I want to note that this is different from those who look for themes in other religions which resemble things taught in Christianity as a jumping off point for preaching the Gospel.