One of my all-time favorite movies is “Gone with the Wind.” I love the opulent costumes, the dramatic storyline, and the marvelous insights into Southern plantation life, all set against the backdrop of the Civil War. Over and above all that, of course, Rhett Butler is not so bad either – especially when he picks up Scarlet O’Hara and carries her up that long staircase for a night that is probably best left to our imaginations.
Now that Joe and I have our little farm in Naples, the ending of “Gone with the Wind” makes a lot more sense to me. Perhaps you recall the last scene when Scarlet is silhouetted against the Georgia evening sky, holding the red earth of Tara, her beloved plantation, in her hands, finally understanding something her father had told her years before. She might have lost her husband, lost her daughter, lost all the wealth she had grown accustomed to, but she still had the land – and from that she could forge a future.
Both the real and symbolic significance of land – real estate – goes back to the very beginnings of Biblical lore – stretching all the way in history to God’s promising land to Abraham – and the journey the old nomad and his family undertook to reach that Promised Land.
However, just as Moses died before he set foot on the land God gave to the Israelites, so Abraham never got there either. By the time he died, the only land he owned was the cemetery plot he had purchased for Sarah, his wife. It would be many hundreds of years later that Abraham’s descendents led by Joshua would finally take possession of the gifted land, only to lose it time and again as one empire or another overran the tiny Jewish nation.
The significance of land is a recurrent theme in the Old Testament – and so we should not be all that surprised to find real estate the topic of the passage we just read. Here, embedded in the book of Jeremiah, is a strange little story about the prophet purchasing utterly useless land on a real estate tip from God.
The year is 588 B.C. - five hundred and eighty eight years before the birth of Jesus. The city of Jerusalem is under siege, and the vast army of Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, is camped at its gates. Jeremiah is the top dog prophet of Zedekiah, the current King of Judah.
And Jeremiah knows what is going to happen. He is not called a prophet for nothing. Resistance is futile, he realizes. The Babylonian armies will prevail, the Holy City will fall – and, for the Israelites, all will once again be lost. And, being the good prophet and servant of Yahweh/God, Jeremiah told the King and the royal military commanders exactly that.
Well, you can imagine the impact of such an announcement on the morale of both the troops and the civilian populace. Not surprisingly, King Zedekiah was exceedingly displeased with the prophet’s report. As kings in that day were wont to do when they did not like what they were told and because Jeremiah was so maddeningly persistent in his prophecies of doom and gloom, King Zedekiah imprisoned Jeremiah, placing him under house-arrest as a traitor.
And there, while Jeremiah was in jail, something very unusual happened. God gave the prophet a real estate tip. "Your cousin is going to offer to sell you some land. When he does, buy it."
How crazy is that! The land is going to be overrun by the Babylonian army any minute now. The Jews will be ousted – and God says “Buy!”?
Jeremiah is in prison and will never see the land. The mightiest empire in the world will occupy it anyway. No one in Jeremiah’s generation will ever inhabit the land, much less prosper on it – and God says “Buy!”?
Vandals are camped outside the Holy City walls. The people inside are starving, sick, and desperate – unable to tend the land outside the city anyway. And everyone knows that being in a battle zone wreaks havoc on real estate - and God says “Buy!”?
Buy? When the land is useless, worthless, and a horrible reminder of everything that has been lost? This is like buying stocks when the market is crashing, or purchasing a home even as you watch it disappear down a sinkhole (Scott Hoezee).
“Yes,” God says to Jeremiah. “Buy.” And being the good prophet and servant of Yahweh/God, Jeremiah does just that. The old prophet buys the land from his cousin – and even makes quite a public display of his outrageous and seemingly foolish decision by making sure that the purchase is witnessed and registered. Then he buries the deed in an earthen jar to preserve it.
What a marvelous Biblical scene this is – and such an insight into Jeremiah’s relationship with the Almighty. Jeremiah’s trivial action of purchasing this worthless piece of real estate is a mighty and highly visible symbol of faith in God and hope for better times ahead.
When Jeremiah seals the deed in an earthenware jar, he provides the nation of Judah with a potent reminder that, all rationalism aside, the future is in God’s hands, not the hands of the Babylonians.
Through this real estate deal, through this seemingly bad investment on Jeremiah’s part, God is telling the people that the horrific circumstances in which they now find themselves is not the end.
There is a future – a good future for them – so good that God’s prophet himself is investing in it. There will come a time when the Promised Land will have value once more – when it will be economically worthwhile for everyone to buy and sell. Though it may be impossible to fathom now, one day the people of the covenant will again have the land because that is what God has always promised. God has not sold Israel. One day, the Jewish people will return.
In a way, Jeremiah’s very act helps to create that future for the Jewish people and challenges them to once again dream God’s dreams, invest in God’s future. Jeremiah puts his shekels where his faith is – and that is in the power and promises of Yahweh/God.
Like the ancient Israelites, you and I do not live in easy times. The economy hardly seems to be recovering. You may be worried about getting a job, keeping your job, selling your home, or making ends meet. You may feel overwhelmed by the poverty statistics nationwide – 1 in 7 people in our country living below the poverty line. As the talk of election and re-election heats up, you may wonder if real change is ever possible – or if it will always be the same old political bluster.
But remember Jeremiah’s real estate deal. Remember that in the midst of whatever our circumstances are, just as for the people of ancient Judah, there is good news for us too – and that is that this God of Jeremiah – this God of hope, this faithful God – is our God as well. It does not mean that all our problems will be solved. It does not mean that you will sell your house tomorrow or finally find a job. It does mean, however, that there is something to be said for trusting as Jeremiah did that a better future lies ahead.
Hold fast to that hope, tenuous as it may seem at times. Carve your future out of the sure and steadying knowledge that just as God had something better in mind for the Israelites after they were exiled to Babylon, so it will be for us.
Though it may be different than we expect, life will persist and somehow flourish. The future is worth investing in. As Walter Brueggemann once wrote: “The threats do not wane. The dangers are not imagined, the power to undo is on the loose…." God's word, however, "cuts the threat…siphons off the danger…tames the powers," and tells us, "do not fear."
United Church of Christ pastor Thomas Warren notes that “in January of 1943, three months before he was arrested and subsequently killed by the Nazis, Lutheran Pastor and Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote these words about Christian hope and faith when times are dark: "There remains for us only the very narrow way, often extremely difficult to find, of living every day as if it were our last, and yet living in faith and responsibility as though there were to be a great future. It is not easy to be brave and keep that spirit alive, but it is imperative."
And so Jeremiah buys the land – when investing in land is illogical – because he trusts in the promises and goodness of God. And so we struggle in our own dark times to live in the great hope of tomorrow – as individuals and as a community of faith – because we too trust in the promises and goodness of God.
Perhaps that is one of the most important things we can do as a faith community – be a source of that hope for Raymond and beyond. As Thomas Warren explains, we “build up the church, build up God's kingdom, build up God's reign of justice and righteousness and peace. (We) invest in and prepare the ground for the future. (We) show the world that God's spirit is alive and well here on earth - no matter the cost, no matter the risk, no matter the bad news of the day. Indeed the future of our lives, the future of our churches, the future of our world is not pre-determined; the future hangs in the balance.”
This is the kind of radical hope – and the outlandish investment style - that is required of us, we who are the Jeremiahs of our day.
by Rev. Nancy A. Foran
Pastor, Raymond Village Community Church, Raymond, Maine
www.rvccme.org
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