tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34855806.post-25366987574547301182007-10-14T12:36:00.000-04:002007-10-19T14:50:12.127-04:00Jeremiah 29.1-2, 4-7<br /><br />Section 1 – The Biblical Text<br />We find ourselves today in the middle of the book of Jeremiah. Our lection is a letter to the exiles from Jeremiah after the last of Judah’s royalty had been deported from Babylon. You remember that God’s chosen people have been divided into two kingdoms – Israel and Judah. Israel was weak and troubled and disappeared into the much stronger Babylonian Empire. Judah was stronger than Israel, but also unable to defend itself against the Babylonian threat.<br /><br />Jeremiah was a prophet, someone who spoke to the people for God. He had been telling everyone, the king, the priests, the people that Judah would be destroyed if they did not reform their ways. Rather than listen to him, the king and the priests banned Jeremiah from the court and the Temple. But he was willing to try anything to get the message out. So, he wrote all of it down, every oracle and prophecy he had ever made and he sent the scroll to the king. The king didn’t want to believe the scroll and he didn’t want anyone else to read it, so as he read each section, he tore it off and burned it. With that, all of the oracles of Jeremiah were gone…except that they were still in Jeremiah’s head. So he wrote them again. He dictated all of the oracles for Judah onto a scroll and his scribe wrote them down, which is how the book of Jeremiah is supposed to have come into existence.<br /><br />While Jeremiah was speaking on behalf of God, there were other people in Judah claiming to be prophets who were spreading lies. They were telling the Judeans that everything was going to be just fine. Even though the threat of war was clearly building, they were telling the people that peace was coming, and that they should keep doing what they had been doing. The false prophets gave Israel more rituals to do so that they could busy themselves instead of giving God what God desired, a loyal and obedient heart so that the covenant promises could be fulfilled.<a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=34855806#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1">[1]</a> The Judeans were looking for a quick fix. They trusted in things like the Ark, the rite of circumcision, the Temple, and the Torah, instead of trusting God, and the false prophets encouraged them.<br /><br />Jeremiah, on the other hand, was not willing to tell anyone what they wanted to hear. He was only willing to tell everyone what God said, but no one wanted to hear it. They didn’t want to hear that they were being complacent toward God. They didn’t want to hear that they were basically using God – doing whatever they wanted, even stuff they knew God didn’t like, and then offering sacrifices or confession or worship as if to make amends.<br /><br />Finally God decided to exercise judgment on the people of Judah. God decided to humble them in the face of their military foe, Babylon. It wasn’t that God was punishing the people of Judah. It was more like, because of their disobedience, God was withdrawing from the rebellious people, leaving them to face the Babylonians alone and suffer the destructive consequences of their own actions and attitudes.<a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=34855806#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2">[2]</a><br /><br />So, just as Jeremiah had prophesied, the people of Judah were defeated by the Babylonian army. Not only were they conquered and subjugated, but also they were deported from the Promised Land. The people of Judah were made to leave the only country they had known, the place where they had been born and had grown up. They were made to leave the place where they had attended school and the Temple. The Judeans were forcibly removed from their land and forced over the border into the foreign land of Babylon.<br /><br />They had been told by so many false prophets for so long that this would never happen, that they could not believe it when it did. Even as the Babylonians were forcing the Judeans to migrate across the Arabian Peninsula, they refused to believe that it would be a permanent move. The people swore by their desire to return home and hoped in the false prophets of the land, but still they were ushered east to Babylon.<br /><br />Once they got to the land, the people of Judah still refused to believe that they would stay their long. They refused to build houses. Their ancestors had wandered for forty years in tents and God had provided for them, they reasoned that surely God would do the same for them. They thought that God would not leave them in exile. God would not allow them to continue to feel such uncertainty. The people of Judah were certain that God would come and rescue them from the mess they had made and take them back to their land. They wouldn’t have to feel like an outsider or a stranger any longer. They wouldn’t have to feel like they didn’t know where their lives were going or like everything was always unsettled. God would come, they felt certain, and lead them back to the Promised Land.<br /><br />But the people were deported and the priests and the prophets and eventually the king and the leaders were sent to Babylon. And all of the people of Judah were taken to Babylon like a kindergarten class on a field trip lost in a museum. They didn’t know the land, or how to get back to the land they knew. They had no direction. Their leaders had no power. They had only one another and instability to cling to.<br /><br />Section 2 – Our World<br />Our lives feel all too much like exile. It feels like we are being forcibly moved from one place to another by our schedules or by the time eroding from our lives. One week bleeds one into the next. Our work load builds like a tsunami wave continually rising only to crash upon us imminently. Just when we get settled in one land, the circumstances change and we are unsettled and feel lost and strange. The assurance and confidence of eighth grade give way to harder class work and uncertainty about friends and unfamiliarity of a new school in High School. The spontaneity and freedom of youth give way to work and schedules and having kids and their schedules. The routine and identity of work give away into the uncharted territory of retirement. Just when we get settled into life, it seems that some change deports us from our comfort into chaos.<br /><br />Section 3 – The Good News of God’s Presence and Purpose<br />Jeremiah recognized the plight of the people of Judah. He could see what they were trying to do and he could understand why. They were making do in Babylon hoping that things would change, hoping that they would soon be back in their land. Then they would live their lives.<br />But Jeremiah insisted that their time in Babylon was not going to be a temporary sojourn. They were going to be there for seventy years, according to his prophecy. Seventy years was longer than the average life span. If the people did not live their lives now, they would not have lives to live. They couldn’t wait for something better. They couldn’t outlast God. So, Jeremiah instructed them to create their lives in Babylon. Marry, have children, encourage your children to marry, he said. And, he told them to seek the welfare of the city. That is, he told them to seek the peace, the health, the livelihood of the city. Not only were the Judeans not supposed to put things on hold, but also they were supposed to live so fully that their lives would be intertwined with the life of the city of their exile. Babylon was not just going to be some place they stayed for awhile. It was their city now. It was their home, and Jeremiah encouraged them to live their lives in a way that reflected that.<br /><br />In the exile, God had actually given Judah an opportunity, a chance to change their ways, not just to remain stuck in their old ways. Jeremiah’s urging for them to build their lives was not to build them as they had been, but to build them anew. Even though their lives felt like chaos, God had given them a fresh start and Jeremiah was urging them to use it. Jeremiah recognized the crisis of the exile as an opportunity for the people of God to turn back toward God, to get reacquainted with the God who did not allow them fade into non-existence, but sustained them in the exile.<br /><br />Section 4 – The Good News in Our World<br />All too often we put things on hold waiting for a better day or a better deal or a better time. We bear down and wait for things to change, to get better, to be easier. But Jeremiah encouraged the people of Judah, and us, not to wait. He urges us to live for today.<br />Now Jeremiah was not intending unabashed hedonism. He did not intend for the people of Judah or for us to live life recklessly looking toward no tomorrow. But neither did he intend for the people of Judah to wait to live until it was more convenient. Our lives are given as gifts of God not just to make do, but to live. And lest we debate what he meant by living, Jeremiah spelled it out for us. We are to care for one another, our friends and family. And we are to seek the well-being of the city, that is seek the well-being of people outside of our circle of friends. And we are to seek to have a relationship with God.<br /><br />We can’t live our lives waiting for the chaos to be over because it will not end. We cannot live our lives in spite of the chaos because the chaos will overtake us. Instead, we must learn, with God’s help, to live in the midst of the chaos. Like the Judeans, that is where our lives are and that how we can glorify God.<br /><br />God does not create chaos or tear apart our lives capriciously or arbitrarily. God does not wreak havoc impulsively or out of malice. But in the havoc we seek with our recalcitrance, God gives us an opportunity to seek peace and to live our lives go God’s Glory.<br /><a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=34855806#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1">[1]</a> p357<br /><a title="" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=34855806#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2">[2]</a> p359DMPChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01277904600747877931noreply@blogger.com