Daniel and I are excited to have the opportunity to volunteer as part of the Community Life team at the ELCA National Youth Gathering this summer in Detroit. We volunteered in 2012 in New Orleans, and while we aren't able to lead a group of youth to this Gathering, I will be paying close attention to best practices for bringing youth and keep our fingers crossed for 2018! Also, Michigan is one of the last six states I need to have all fifty, so...
Anyway - in honor of the Gathering, and Detroit, here's a sermon I preached back in September 2013 at Gettysburg Seminary, on Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15.
Over internship in the mountains of North Carolina, one of the experiences I had was watching the church council deal with issues related to some property that had been gifted by a member. The property was out in the woods, and was landlocked. The congregation wanted to use it for hikes and youth events, but they had no legal way to physically get to the property. Lawyers were consulted, absent neighbors were contacted, and my supervisor even called an elderly lady on the phone using his “Wilkes County voice.” All this for the chance to pay money to draw up an agreement that would establish a right-of-way for the congregation to get to the property and use it. Needless to say, it was a giant headache for a number of months. So, when I turned to Jeremiah 32 in my Bible and saw the heading “Jeremiah Buys a Field During the Siege,” my first thought was, Oh no. Not this again. This isn’t going to end well.
Anyway - in honor of the Gathering, and Detroit, here's a sermon I preached back in September 2013 at Gettysburg Seminary, on Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15.
Over internship in the mountains of North Carolina, one of the experiences I had was watching the church council deal with issues related to some property that had been gifted by a member. The property was out in the woods, and was landlocked. The congregation wanted to use it for hikes and youth events, but they had no legal way to physically get to the property. Lawyers were consulted, absent neighbors were contacted, and my supervisor even called an elderly lady on the phone using his “Wilkes County voice.” All this for the chance to pay money to draw up an agreement that would establish a right-of-way for the congregation to get to the property and use it. Needless to say, it was a giant headache for a number of months. So, when I turned to Jeremiah 32 in my Bible and saw the heading “Jeremiah Buys a Field During the Siege,” my first thought was, Oh no. Not this again. This isn’t going to end well.
“This isn’t going to end well” was probably the
thought that many in Jerusalem shared at the time Jeremiah was prophesying. In
the chapters preceding where we jump in, Jeremiah speaks words from God of
destruction, death, exile, and invasion. The people of Israel and Judah have
worshiped Baal, engaged in idolatry, and broken the covenant God made with
them. The language is harsh, the punishments seem harsher, and, frankly, it all
seems well-deserved. Interspersed with judgment, the people have been given
opportunity after opportunity, chance after chance to repent. The language is
beautiful, the images are hopeful - but the people of Judah don’t repent.
Jeremiah’s own life has been threatened
multiple times by those unhappy about his prophesies. In chapter 21, King
Zedekiah sent some messengers to Jeremiah, saying, “Please inquire of the Lord
on our behalf, for King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon is making war against us;
perhaps the Lord will perform a wonderful deed for us, as he has often done,
and will make him withdraw from us.” Imagine King Zedekiah’s surprise when he
hears back from the prophet – not only will God not make the Babylonians
withdraw, but even God will fight against Judah with outstretched hand and
mighty arm, in anger, in fury, and in great wrath. The city of Jerusalem will
be given into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.
Jeremiah dutifully shares this prophesy with
all the cities of Judah that come to worship in the Temple. As you might
imagine, it’s not a message that anyone is happy to hear. Those hearing
the prophesy cry that Jeremiah deserves the sentence of death for prophesying
against the city. He isn’t sentenced to death, but he is thrown in jail.
And that’s where we pick things up, with Jeremiah confined in the court of the
guard that was in the palace of the king of Judah.
It is while Jeremiah is sitting in captivity,
perhaps peering out the window at the Babylonian siege ramps pushed up against
the walls of the city, that God gives yet another prophesy. Except, this
prophesy doesn’t sound like the other messages Jeremiah has conveyed. God tells
Jeremiah that his cousin will come to sell him some land, and, sure enough, it
happens. Cousin Hanamel comes and tells Jeremiah to buy the land, for the right
of possession and redemption is his.
According to a law recorded in Leviticus 25, a
person selling property had to give first rights of purchase to a family
member, a way to assure that property remained in the family. Jeremiah is the
likely new owner of the land his cousin is looking to sell, and he does as God
says, following all the legal protocols. He signs two deeds in front of
witnesses, and gives instructions for how they should be stored and kept.
And, all the while, anyone watching the
transaction probably thinks Jeremiah is crazy. Because, think about it: He’s in
jail, and his life has previously been threatened –an awfully precarious
position to be in. Why purchase land that he may not ever be free to use?
Furthermore, let’s not forget that the city of
Jerusalem was under siege! Why purchase land that is likely to be taken over by
a different ruling power? Do you think the Babylonians care that Jeremiah has
followed all the legal protocols in signing the deed? What a waste. What a
stupid investment. The present looks bleak and the future looks even bleaker.
What was God thinking?!
And then we are reminded that God’s vision is
broader than we can see. We are reminded that God is faithful. That God’s
promises are trustworthy. Here we have a beautiful example of a prophet living
out God’s word and promise. Actions speak louder than words, right? It was
not enough for God to promise that the people would return from exile. Words
were not sufficient to assure the anxious and fearful that punishment and
destruction are not the last words from God. So, Jeremiah buys a field. He
makes an investment in God’s future, based solely on God’s faithfulness. “For
thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards
shall again be bought in this land.”
God still calls us to invest in God’s future.
God still calls us to trust God’s own faithfulness, God’s own promises above
the bleakness and despair that surround the present time.
What does investing in God’s future look like?
What does it mean for us to look at the devastation around us and say, “God is
not done here”?
It might look a bit like having the ELCA’s
National Youth Gathering in Detroit in 2015. Detroit’s struggles are many and
varied. A declining population.
Abandoned houses and factories, especially from the auto industry. High
unemployment. High crime rates. And, as of this past summer, the largest US
city to file for bankruptcy. Things seem pretty bleak up in Detroit, to say the
least. At this point, the future doesn’t look too promising either.
Many have questioned the selection of Detroit
as the host city for the next Gathering. People have made comments along the
lines of, “Can it even be saved?” and “Shouldn’t we focus on someplace else
that has a better reputation?” and “Why on earth would you send high school
students to such a dangerous place?” And, we do need to be smart about safety
and security. But we also need to trust God’s call. The presence of 35,000
teenagers in Detroit is a message of hope, similar to the message of hope
proclaimed when Jeremiah bought a field. To 35,000 teenagers, spending time in
Detroit and working with efforts to revitalize the city is a sign that, where
God is concerned, new life is possible even when the circumstances around us
seem to say otherwise.
What does investing in God’s future look like?
What does it mean for us to look at the devastation around us and say, “God is
not done here”?
It might also look like answering God’s call to
come to seminary. The struggles of the church seem so prevalent these days. We
hear so frequently about the decline of members in our denomination. We hear
about the rise of the “nones,” those people with no religious affiliation. We
hear about a sluggish economy, the rising costs of education, and the growing
inability of many congregations to afford full-time pastors. Things seem pretty
bleak in the church. The future doesn’t necessarily look promising.
But God sees into the future better than we
can. God is calling us to invest in God’s future by investing in God’s people.
We build relationships, we train to be pastors and diaconal ministers and
associates in ministry as a sign that God is not done here. We teach and preach
and bless and baptize and commune as signs that God is among us, that God has
done the work necessary for our salvation, that God calls us into God’s future.
One of the great gifts of Lutheran theology is
our understanding of the Theology of the Cross. We know that God meets us in
precisely those places where suffering and despair are present. We know that
God redeems those people and places and things the world ignores and ridicules.
Devastation and sadness and a hazy view of the future are real life. They
are the real experience of all of us. And the God who is real and
present in our lives meets us in our suffering. God meets us in spite of and
because of our hazy vision, and invites us to invest in God’s future.
God is not done here. The Kingdom is breaking
in to our world and our lives, and we are called to join in proclaiming this
glorious Good News. Amen.
How might God be calling you to trust in God's vision for the future? When have you stepped forward in faith when things seemed pretty bleak?
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