The prophet Jeremiah in today’s first reading calls us to hear the Voice of God. Jeremiah becomes God’s mouthpiece, speaking the very words of God: “Listen to my voice; then I will be your God and you shall be my people.” Today’s reading is taken from Jeremiah’s Temple Sermon (7:1-34). God instructs the prophet to stand at the gate of the Jerusalem Temple and greet the worshippers as they enter with these words: “Reform your ways and your deeds so that I [God] may dwell with you in this place.” (7:3). God demands not only worship but also justice: “Only if you thoroughly reform your ways and your deeds; if each of you deals justly with your neighbor; if you no longer oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow…only then will I let you continue to dwell in this place.” (7:5-7). God even threatens the destruction of the Temple: “I will do to this house, which bears my name, in which you trust…exactly what I did to Siloh.” (Jeremiah 7:14). God destroyed the shrine at Siloh where Eli and Samuel ministered, and he threatens to do the same to the Temple in Jerusalem.
Jeremiah as a prophet speaks the words of the Lord and becomes the Voice of God. In today’s reading we hear that the people refused to receive this message: “But they did not listen to me, nor did they pay attention. They walked in the stubbornness of their evil hearts and turned their backs, not their faces, to me.” (Jeremiah 7:25). In a similar way in today’s Gospel people refused to hear the Voice of God in the words and ministry of Jesus. Instead, they demonized him, accusing him of being in league with the devil: “By the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons, he drives out demons.” Jesus challenges them to recognize the Voice of God in his words and the action of God in his deeds: “But if it is by the finger of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.”
Today you and I are called upon to hear the Voice of God. God speaks to us and challenges us to join our acts of worship with deeds of charity. Jesus speaks as the voice of God and he teaches us that love of God and love of neighbor are conjoined and can never be separated.
Image: “Jerusalem Temple” by midiman is licensed under CC BY 2.0.