From the prophet Jeremiah:
"For from the least to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for unjust gain; and from prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely.
They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, 'Peace, peace,' when there is no peace.
Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed; they did not know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; at the time that I punish them, they shall be overthrown," says the LORD.
Thus says the LORD: "Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. But they said, 'We will not walk in it.'
I set watchmen over you, saying, 'Pay attention to the sound of the trumpet!' But they said, 'We will not pay attention.'
Therefore hear, O nations, and know, O congregation, what will happen to them. 'We will not walk in it.' 'We will not walk in it.'
Hear, O earth; behold, I am bringing disaster upon this people, the fruit of their devices, because they have not paid attention to my words; and as for my law, they have rejected it.
What use to me is frankincense that comes from Sheba, or sweet cane from a distant land? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices pleasing to me.
Therefore thus says the LORD: 'Behold, I will lay before this people stumbling blocks against which they shall stumble; fathers and sons together, neighbor and friend shall perish.'"
Thus says the LORD: "Behold, a people is coming from the north country, a great nation is stirring from the farthest parts of the earth.
They lay hold on bow and javelin; they are cruel and have no mercy; the sound of them is like the roaring sea; they ride on horses, set in array as a man for battle, against you, O daughter of Zion!"
We have heard the report of it; our hands fall helpless; anguish has taken hold of us, pain as of a woman in labor.
Go not out into the field, nor walk on the road, for the enemy has a sword; terror is on every side.
O daughter of my people, put on sackcloth, and roll in ashes; make mourning as for an only son, most bitter lamentation, for suddenly the destroyer will come upon us.
"I have made you a tester of metals among my people, that you may know and test their ways.
They are all stubbornly rebellious, going about with slanders; they are bronze and iron; all of them act corruptly.
The bellows blow fiercely; the lead is consumed by the fire; in vain the refining goes on, for the wicked are not removed.
Rejected silver they are called, for the LORD has rejected them."
Jeremiah 6:13-20
In a letter to the editor that was published in the The Living Church during the reign of Presiding Bishop Edmund Browning I mentioned how the prophets of the Old Testament call Israel back to the faith and practices that they received from Moses and earlier prophets. Liberals in pecusa like Browning love to talk about how their actions that are contrary to Scripture are "prophetic." In the reading above Jeremiah calls Israel to return to "the ancient path," "the good way." Conservatives in pecusa have been doing the same thing for decades, yet pecusa has repeatedly responded, 'We will not pay attention.'
With the episcopal election of a partnered lesbian in the Diocese of Los Angeles we see that pecusa is not at all ashamed of the abomination that they have brought into house of God. The present presiding bishop has said as much. The Anglican Communion laid out a path of return for pecusa back to full communion status (The Windsor Report) and pecusa has said, 'We will not walk in it.'
Disaster has befallen pecusa. Look at the liberal dioceses in pecusa like the DCNY and you will find diminishing congregations, diminishing finances and increasing spiritual ill health. pecusa loves to play dress up, to wear the eucharistic vestments of the Catholic tradition, but we know them for who they are. They are liberal protestants whose offerings cannot be acceptable to God because they go their own way in their lives ignoring God's teachings.
The power of judgement in our time comes from the Global South. It is from the Global South that we find churches going from strength to strength in the power of the Gospel. It is the Global South that is now the majority in the Anglican Communion. pecusa has tried to bribe the Global South to look the other way as pecusa walks further and further apart from the Anglican Communion. For the most part this has not worked.
God says through the prophet Jeremiah, I set watchmen over you, saying, 'Pay attention to the sound of the trumpet!' But they said, 'We will not pay attention.'
The watchmen have been sounding the trumpet now for over six years. The primates of the Anglican Communion, two Lambeth Conferences, the Archbishop of Canterbury, even the liberal Anglican Consultive Council have sounded the alarm over pecusa's apostate unilateralism. We have found that pecusa is stubbornly rebellious.
Will the Episcopal Fraud consent to the episcopal election of a partnered lesbian? We will soon see.
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