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BREAKTHROUGH
Open-ended, Life-centred, Gospel-Focused Explorations of the Australian Prayer Book Supplementary Hebrew Bible Eucharistic Readings.
 (For Gospel Explorations scroll on this site.)
    JEREMIAH 33: 23-26... ADVENT 1 (Year 3)

NOTES: 1] As a matter of principle, always read the Hebrew Bible in the light of the new (which Christians see as its fulfilment) & not vice-versa.  2] Jeremiah  was born in Judea about 646BC, & called by God to be a Prophet in 626-7.He survived two destructions of Jerusalem & deportations of its people by the Babylonians in 597 & 587. 3] 'The word of the Lord came to.....'. is to be taken as a guarantee that God is the source of the message, not the Prophet himself. 4] In v.24, the 'two families' are Israel, the Northern & Southern kingdoms of Israel (destroyed by the Assyrians in 721) & Judah (see above N.1).

WARMING UP:  Do we ever feel we need a message of hopefulness in the midst of times of strain & stress?

TREASURES OLD & NEW: Identify God at work in anything this week?

ENTERING INTO THE STORY:
23          How do we know when we're hearing the 'word of the Lord', or whether it's someone else's word? How do we test whether any 'word of the Lord' is true or not? Is there any reliable test other than seeing if it happens, comes true? What if that takes longer than we feel we can wait? Or doesn't happen in the way we expect? Does God have 'short term' & 'long term' goals like motivationists talk about?
          
24          How much does it matter to us what people think about God? How much does it matter what they think about our relationship with God? What if they give evidence of holding God and / or us in contempt? Is the fact that something doesn't seem to be working out for us sufficient basis on which to decide that 'God isn't on our side' any more? Is that as wise a question as asking whether we're on God's side any more? Does it matter to us what people think of us as a nation? Should it? On what basis should we, as Christians, judge our nation? Does God come into that 'auditing' process at all?

25-26    Does God's indignation at the very suggestion he might have abandoned his people, the children of Jacob (= Israel) & David, reverberate with us at all? What about when we feel abandoned? How closely do we see ourselves connecting with these ancient biblical families, or don't they matter any more except to the Hebrew people? Are we more used to beating up on ourselves for being unfaithful to God, than celebrating how faithful God is to us? If our faith revolves too much around dwelling on & confessing our unfaifhfulnesses of one kind or another, is that likely to dampen our ongoing, spontaneous celebration of God's unwavering, unconditional faithfulness to us? Whether he has religious beliefs or not, might David Hicks' father, Terry, be an example of that kind of faithfulness at a human level? Is our faithfulness to God a conscious response to God's faithfulness to us, or something else? Where do Jesus & the Gospel he demonstrates come into this faithfulness business?

             How much do we still depend on God  to choose our national leaders? Or has he abdicated that right in favour of democracy & political parties? Do we get any impression from either the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, or our experience of the Spirit, that God is a democrat? What might it mean for us that God would 'restore our fortunes'? And what kind of mercy might we be looking for, needing. from God now in our day?