Prayer: Creator God, may we do our best to follow your teaching and not undo all the good you have done. Amen.
Reading: Jeremiah 4: 11-12, 22-28 (Click to read text) Stop and GROW: After reading the text, discuss/ponder the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Book of Faith questions, which are part of Camp Mount Luther's GROW Time with campers. QUESTION 1: What scares, confuses, challenges, or doesn’t make sense to me in this text? QUESTION 2: What delights me in this text or is my favorite part of the story? QUESTION 3: What stories or memories does this text stir in me? QUESTION 4: What is God up to in this text? Reflection: (notes from the NRSV Study Bible - New Student Bible) - Jeremiah 4: 23 - Return to the Void - Jeremiah used words from Genesis 1: 2 to describe the effect of the Israelites' sin. It was as though the Israelites were carrying the earth back to the chaos before creation, destroying all the beauty and order God had made. Jeremiah is talking to the Israelites about their undoing. Undoing something already done and good. Reminds me of something that happened with my children. There was a day when the two of them were having trouble getting along. It was also laundry day and the freshly washed linens were ready to go back on the beds. So, my bright idea was to have the children help each other make their beds. Working together might build cooperation and teamwork. I handed them the sheets and pillowcases and encouragd them to get to it. Apparently my son struggled quite awhile to get the pillow into the case. No sooner had he dropped the finally encased pillow on the floor to move on to getting the sheets on the bed, his little sister, who had given up on wrestling with the sheets, picked up the pillow and shook it back out of the case. And the troubles began again. I guess I could have done a better job teaching them the steps of making a bed. God created and it was good. The prophet Jeremiah told the people they were pretty much undoing all God had done. If only they would follow what they had been taught. -- Ruth Gates
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