Can We Not Blush

Focus verses: Jeremiah 6:13-21

Jeremiah's words ring true for us today. Look at his description of the people.

Greedy for gain. People today are chasing the almighty dollar as if it could fix all their woes. We have TV programs that push consumerism and rampant greed. We purchase lottery tickets, hoping to win millions or tens of millions or hundreds of millions. We gamble on dogs or horses or sporting events or cards or in casinos hoping to gain money we did not earn.

Deceitful. Perhaps we are not all out and out liars, but we do seem to manage to bend the truth to fit our purposes. It's a matter of leaving out a detail or two -- or adding a bit of color that wasn't really there. We tell people what we think they want to hear instead of the unvarnished truth. We gloss over details in order to make a thing look better. Politicians do it. Admen do it. Employees and employers do it. Husbands tell wives only what they think the wife wants to hear. Wives tell husbands only what they cannot hide. We might as well all be fly-by-night peddlers of inferior goods.

"They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious." What can he mean here? Let's see. The moral fiber of our nation has been lost to secular humanism, our new religion. But we try to make laws - based on the ten commandments - without referring to them or to their originator. So we have rampant evil in our society. Murder and mayhem are common, so we try to fix them with incarceration as a deterrent. There is no deterrent when there is no conscience. And we have steadily educated the conscience out of our youth. We have taught them "situation ethics" which have replaced moral absolutes.

And we have no shame. We no longer know how to blush. Promiscuity, lewd behavior, grasping greed, and deceit have become our way of life, activities which are not only tolerated, but expected. And those who don't behave that way and call for a different standard of behavior are labeled "intolerant" -- the worst epithet this current generation can apply.

The Lord prescribes the cure: to look where the ancient path is and to walk in it. He promises rest for the soul, if we will but return to His standards of behavior. Are we simply too proud or too stupid to be embarrassed?

Father, God,

Help us to see the ancient path of righteousness. Give us the grace to drop our arrogance and pride and to seek You in humility and reverence. Teach us Your ways that we may remember how to blush at our faults and learn to correct them.

In Jesus' most precious name.
Amen.