[Uucf-bible] readings from lectionary for Sept. 5

[RevRonRobinson at aol.com]

Erika, thanks. Especially for adding in the Jeremiah reading. I try not to 
overload and so haven't been sending all the lectionary readings for each week, 
but I am glad you sent along this one. It is one of my favorite's too. 

I like the image of God as potter, the ability to change (a very process 
theology story here), the "ongoing revelation" that has been at the heart of 
Unitarianism, the ability for new starts, creation out of destruction. 

About that tough-love approach, lol, one of my parenting maxims with my 
children has been that "some people change not from seeing the light as much as 
from feeling the heat" and I thought of that with the passage from Jeremiah. He 
definitely was doing a "Momma told me not to come" thing. And of course 
warnings are a part of being a parent.

I am trying to remember if this passage from Jeremiah likely comes in between 
the time of the two invasions of Jerusalem by the Babylonians, between 597 
and 587. I think it is pretty close to that. I seem to recall (and maybe someone 
will remember or be able to check it out) that the Israelites were still 
being rebellious even after the first invasion and carrying off to exile and 
slavery, and Jeremiah was trying to make sense out of why that first invasion had 
happened, and so he blamed the leaders for what happened to the people; and 
what he pointed to might happen, did happen with the second wave of invasion that 
devastated the land. Jeremiah going on down to Eqypt with a few escaping 
souls, and I think if I remember my lessons, his scribe Baruch probably putting 
the finishing touches there of what became Jeremiah in the Bible. 

Hope some of this might help. Would love to hear a followup on how it all 
goes on Sunday.

blessings,
Ron