"Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel," he says, "Amend your ways and your doings, and let me dwell with you in this place. Do not trust in these deceptive words: 'This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.'"
This is America. This is America. This is America.
Make America great again. Red hats and Confederate flags. Make America great again. Rig the courts. Betray decency. Make America great again. It's American exceptionalism: this distorted notion that ours is the only city on the only hill; this deceptive ideology of greatness and divinely ordained strength, invulnerable to moral corruption and wickedness. It's American exceptionalism. (And its kissing cousins: white supremacy and christian triumphalism.)
"'But if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly act justly one with another, if you do not oppress the immigrant, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not after other gods to your own hurt, then I will dwell with you in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your ancestors for ever and ever.'"
The essence of our calling--as a nation, as a people, as a community--is justice one with another and our care for the "immigrant, the orphan, and the widow." The price of compromising on this calling is severe. The cost of disobedience is dissolution. The prophet stands at the temple door, on the eve of an American election: and begs the people to remember, urges the nation to return, insists on justice and care. "If you truly amend your ways..."
As we do to the immigrant, the orphan and the widow--so it will be done to us.
Jeremiah 7, the Hebrew Bible:
May God add blessing and wisdom to our reading of these words.
