Posts
Jeremiah
29:1-2, 4-7, 11-13
1 These are the words of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent
from Jerusalem to the remaining elders among the exiles, and to the priests,
the prophets, and all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from
Jerusalem to Babylon. This was after King
Jehoiachin[a] and the queen mother, the court
officials and the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the skilled workers and the
artisans had gone into exile from Jerusalem.4 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the
God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to
Babylon: 5 Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they
produce. 6 Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons,
and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters;
multiply there, and do not decrease. 7 But seek the welfare of the city where I
have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its
welfare you will find your welfare.11 For surely I know the plans I have for you, says
the Lord, plans for your
welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. 12 Then
when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. 13 When
you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart.
In the battle of Shiloh during the civil war, a story’s
told of a young Union soldier who suffered a serious bullet wound to his shin. Captain
Wells ordered him to the rear, however when he arrived at the rear of the
battle he found it still raging all around him.
So he ran to the east and then to the west, and still the battle raged
everywhere. Finally, the soldier hobbled back to his captain, saying “Cap’n,
give me a gun! This blamed fight ain’t got no rear!”[1] There was no way out in sight for that
wounded soldier. The psychologist Carl
Jung famously said that “Life is a battleground. It always will be, and if it were not so, existence
would come to an end.” Similar to that young wounded soldier, we can’t escape
the battle. Struggles and challenges are
a regular part of life. So what does
scripture have to say about how we weather life’s storms? What’s God’s promise for us in the less that
ideal circumstances that we’ll most certainly find ourselves in at some point
or another?
Today’s bible story from the book of Jeremiah sits
about 600 years before Christ[2]. It’s a story about when the Babylonians
invaded, sacked, and conquered Jerusalem.
It was bad. In a nutshell: the invaders (the Babylonians) gutted the
military and government. They carted off the King, the queen Mother, the
cabinet and congress, all the artists and all the skilled working class folks into
exile a good 900 miles away from their homeland. Gone are the days of sweet Jerusalem. Now the Israelites live in this massively
huge, foreign metropolis, complete with a 25 story statue of the local god,
Marduk, smack in the middle of the city.
The Israelites (or the Jews as they start to be known as about this
time) are uprooted, unhappy, discouraged and restless: “This isn’t
how it’s supposed to be! What are we doing here in Babylon! In exile! Where’s
the promised land! Aren’t we God’s chosen people, Israel? It’s not fair! It’s
not right! Didn’t God promise David that an heir would always sit on the throne? Well! …Where.
Is. The. throne? Where is God?!” They’re
fantasizing about either the good old days or the idealized days: If
only we could return to our homeland—to Jerusalem--things would be better.
IF.
ONLY.
Circumstances
in life are never ideal right? Sometimes,
we weather really tough situations like serious illness or tragedy. And then, sometimes, it’s the constant
irritation or dissatisfaction: prolonged unemployment, or the tired dream that
I would’ve/ should’ve/could’ve gotten married or started my family by this point
in my life. We had hoped that our financial
situation would be better at this point. I had hoped to be in a
different place in my career. I had
hoped that my blood pressure would have stabilized. I had hoped that this new master’s
degree would’ve open some doors. Nothing
is ever quite perfect right?
Even
when we give off that tricky illusion of balance, let’s be honest, things might
appear to be in balance over here, but little do you know that something
has totally tanked out of balance over there to make “this” happen. That whole “I don’t know how she does it!”
thing? Right, she doesn’t.
Circumstances
are never ideal. How we respond to adversity in our lives has a lot to do with
perspective. And although we might want to escape (or destroy!) the present
circumstances, the prophet, Jeremiah, comes to the ancient Jewish people and to
us with some different wisdom this morning.
In
our bible story, we read of Jeremiah, this young, tenacious prophet who sent a
pastoral letter off to the exiles camped around the edge of Babylon. In this letter, he explains that (obviously)
things are less than ideal in their new land—frankly, things are terrible—but,
he says to them, you are not getting out of this anytime soon, so keep your
heads up! There is blessing to be
found right there. Right where you are. You need to settle in. Build your houses, plant your gardens, have your
children and even grandchildren.
Work
towards peace and harmony in Babylon with your Babylonian enemies (who are also
your neighbors), God says—Yes, this is a mess, but pull that blessing up
right out of the earth and out of each other.
Because there is blessing to be found right there. Right where you are. In the midst of
all of it.
The
episcopal priest, John Claypool, told a story about a tornado that completely
uprooted his granddaddy’s plum tree and threw it on its’ side. It so happened
that the tree was full of fruit. It was bad. Standing there by the tree with
it’s roots in the air, a friend asked John’s granddaddy, “what are you going to
do with that tree?” And after a long pause, his granddaddy replied, “Well, I’m
going to pick the fruit and burn the rest.”[3] God
will “make all things new” and pull blessing out of any situation sometimes in
ways we never saw coming.
Mind
you, God does not “send us” less than ideal situations to teach us some
kind of lesson (or worse yet) punish us. But instead, God promises to come
close to us during the less than ideal moments of life. And inevitably, God
will pull a blessing out of whatever it is.
In
the case of the ancient Jewish people, scholars tell us that much good came out
of this time when they settled into their exile in Babylon. The Jewish faith changed, evolved and grew during
this time. Maybe we could even say that it bloomed. The Jewish people asked
hard questions and wrestled with God. Synagogues
(and in a sense Jewish congregations) became an important part of the
community. The people realized that worship wasn’t dependent on the temple but
could happen anywhere. A big part of the
Hebrew Bible (or Old Testament) was formed during this time.
So
settle in. Plant gardens, build houses, raise families. Do your work as
a disciple who loves God. And loves her neighbor. Strive for peace in our city.
Because there is no circumstance that is beyond God. There is no place where
God does not abide with us, loving us in our frustration, disappointment,
restlessness and heartache, coaxing
blessing out from between every rock and crevice and relentlessly making all
things new.
[1]
“Battle of Shiloh” Jack Kunkle
[2]
587 BCE
[3] Paraphrased
from “Searching for Happiness: How
Generosity, Faith, and Other Spiritual Habits Can Lead to a Full Life,” Martin
Thielen.
No comments:
Post a Comment