Willful Blindness
--> Jeremiah 7.1-16 ; Romans 9.14-26 Earlier this week the Houses of Parliament hosted an event in which the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar met to discuss the contributions of their religions to peace in the world. One MP took to Twitter to describe a conversation at the gate to the Palace of Westminster. A man in a dog collar approached a policeman to gain entry. ‘You here for the thing with the Archbishop of Canterbury’, said the policeman. ‘I am the Archbishop of Canterbury’, replied the cleric. In our first reading, Jeremiah is railing against those who look to particular practices and accomplishments as proof that they are safe from the judgement of God. “Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord.’” he warns his people. There is no complex theology in this warning, no difficult to read message. It is very simple. P...