GOOD MANNERS AND UGLY HABITS

Luke 11:14-23; JEremiah 7:23-28

We begin today with the last words of the prophet Jeremiah, "Faithfulness has disappeared; the word itself is banished from their speech."

This is quite the critique.  Jeremiah does not mess around nor does he dance around the issue, as we might see from modern so called prophets.

No, Jeremiah is clear, precise, plain, to the point.

Faithfulness has disappeared; the word itself has banished from their speech.

No wonder Jeremiah raised the ire of his contemporaries.  He aroused deadly hostility, conspiracies against his life, he was confined in stocks, flogged on another occasion, and eventually we are told he is stoned to death by Jews in Egypt.

The life of one who seeks to speak the truth is never a bed of roses. Certainly thorns though.

But the words of Jeremiah could easily be projected upon our current society.

Look around.  Faithfulness isn't what it use to be.

I am not just thinking faithfulness to God and His commands, but faithfulness to one another.

A man's word use to be golden, but now, not so much.

Don't get me wrong we still have plenty of good manners, we just added ugly habits to boot.

The ugly habit of breaking our word, rejecting our promise, refusing our oaths.  We sell ourselves out for comfort.

It is true what CS Lewis said, "we are not bad people, no we just are too easily satisfied."  We look for things to accommodate us and our wishes rather than digging deep and enduring for the sake of true love.  We all speak about the power o forgiveness and mercy but what we need to start realizing and speaking about is the power of accountability.  Here true strength rises.  Besides isn't forgiveness  hanged upon our own accountability.  As St Augustine states clearly somewhere in his many volumes of written word, we should accuse ourselves here and now because it is better than to be accessed later.

The lack of accountability is what has caused this malaise in fidelity.  We excuse our selves to frequently.  We are too busy building our alibis and not attentive enough to the grind of perseverance.

Circumstances and emotions to often dictate our fidelity and thus faithfulness as disappeared.

Good manners, ugly habits.

Be on the look out today for ugly habits disguised as good manners then call them out.  Be the prohet in the spirit of Jeremiah.