Observation: God calls Jeremiah to "stand at the gate of the Lord's house," the Temple in Jerusalem, and remind God's people that just showing up for worship does not give them permission to act unjustly toward their most vulnerable citizens in their daily lives. To simply repeat religious slogans, "The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord," is not enough. Jeremiah calls the Temple a "den of robbers", a phrase which Jesus will later quote when he disrupts temple worship. The prophet is called to make a promise to the people: "if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt, then I will dwell with you in this place..."
Application: You've probably heard some version of this quote before, "Sitting in a pew on Sunday doesn't make us Christians any more than sitting in a garage makes us Ferraris." Worship is a time to dwell in God's presence, hear and receive God's grace, celebrate and praise God's name, and be empowered to go out and be God's people. It's that last part that always trips us up. We are glad to admire and praise Jesus, but when it comes to imitating him, that's harder to do. Especially in a culture that increasingly views compassion for "the alien, the orphan, the widow" with suspicion, or even as a partisan act.
God's grace is real, all the time. If we were already perfect, we wouldn't need worship. Our very lives would worship God. But since we're...well...us, since we do fall short, since we have sometimes fallen silent or even spoken unkindly when strangers are rejected and the vulnerable are brushed aside, we need grace. But that grace isn't cheap. At least it wasn't to God. It cost Jesus his life. And if we truly understand that, the only faithful response is to pledge our lives to embodying God's grace and love for others.
Prayer: God, help us stand in the gates sometimes, as a reminder that sometimes the only true worship is justice and mercy. Amen.
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