If the Israelites thought they had been through the worst already in their 800 years of history as God’s Chosen People, they were in for a gigantic surprise. You see, they were about to hit rock bottom, a place toward which they had been dangerously cascading for some time now. Not that they should not have been prepared for the inevitable!
After all, Jeremiah, the prophet of Yahweh, had been warning them about their upcoming destruction for years now. Everyone knew Jeremiah as the prophet of doom and gloom, and he had been preaching words of judgment and despair for most of his career as a mouthpiece of God.
In fact, the first half of the Biblical Book of Jeremiah is full of the prophet’s warnings and dramatic symbolic actions to get the attention of the Jewish people. The shattering of a clay pot is perhaps the best known one.
And now Babylon, the imperial power of choice at the moment in the ancient world, was threatening the complete destruction of Judah – just as Jeremiah had said. It finally seemed obvious that the handwriting was on the wall.
The historical prologue that we just read in the opening verses of this passage – the first of these verses with some of those strange and hard to pronounce names – places this particular prophetic declaration in 588 BCE. The date is significant and corresponds to the second siege of Jerusalem shortly before the eventual fall of the Holy City, the epicenter of Jewish culture and thought.
Baptist pastor Calvin Miller describes the situation like this: “The city was encompassed with soldiers. It would soon fall. The siege had gone on for a couple of years by this time, and the people were starving in the streets of Jerusalem. There was not enough water! There was not enough food! Typhus and death were reigning in the streets.”
Perhaps not surprisingly, the Jewish King, Zedekiah, did not at all warm to Jeremiah’s despondent and disheartening announcements. When the king desired light, Jeremiah preached darkness. When he wanted happy thoughts, Jeremiah spoke words of despair. When he insisted on emphasizing a rosy future, Jeremiah shattered clay pots and declared the worst. And that is why the old prophet found himself in prison for treason, insurrection, and prophesying that Zedekiah himself would fall victim to the Babylonian onslaught. Jeremiah was a loser among losers, imprisoned by a loser king.
Of course, the prophet’s prediction was not farfetched, what with the Babylonian army having camped outside the city gates for a couple of years now. And then, in 587 B.C., Jerusalem finally fell and became (as Miller described) “the habitation of wolves and jackals — a city of tumbleweeds and stark, empty streets.”
That is the setting for this extraordinary story that we read this morning. It is a story of such great high hope in the midst of such overwhelming darkness, and it is difficult to find its equal in all the pages of the Bible.
We find Jeremiah sitting in his dank prison cell when his cousin, Hanamel, approaches him, giving him the absurd option of purchasing a plot of land, acreage that is currently occupied and ravaged by the Babylonian army outside of Jerusalem – at full price, no less.
Now, we all know about land deals – Florida swamps and Brooklyn Bridges. I remember when Joe and I were looking for land here in the Lakes Region, so that we could build a house and be closer to this church and my ministry here. We eventually found our Little Farm in Naples, as you know, but prior to that, we looked at dozens of parcels of land.
Each one sounded terrific – forested, gently rolling, excellent drainage, butterflies and acres of wildflowers every summer. What, of course, we found out as we looked at these parcels was that they were not all they were cracked up to be.
One was situated next to a working quarry. Another had dicey sounding neighbors. Yet another was advertised as 50 acres with all the natural world amenities. However, it turned out to have a tiny amount of road frontage, and the 50 acres stretched backward from there, forming a very long and very narrow rectangle that encompassed a fair amount of swampland.
Land purchases are risky ventures. And we all know about the number one maxim in assessing real estate value – location, location, location. Anyone with half a brain would understand that the deal offered to Jeremiah was completely ridiculous! Who would ever purchase land trampled and laid waste by an army? Land that was currently occupied by a foreign power and would be so occupied for – how long? Possibly forever?
And yet, in spite of all that common sense was screaming at him, Jeremiah buys the land at Anathoth - despite what every real estate investor worth his or her salt would have advised him. He signs and seals the agreement and weighs out the purchase price, which ends up being seventeen pieces of silver – not an insignificant amount.
Then he orders the deed and its copy to be placed in a clay jar – rather like the Dead Sea scrolls – in order to be preserved for generations to come. Finally, he issues a reminder: that the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, Yahweh, has said that houses, fields, and vineyards will once again flourish on this very plot of decimated land – and, of course, with God, all things are possible. In prophetic literature like this, symbolic action was a common way to convey the Word of God. And this act of Jeremiah, this land purchase that logic and rationality would say was sheer folly, is no exception.
I find it fascinating that Jeremiah specifically mentions a vineyard in his final reminder. As Franciscan Brother Garret Galvin remarks, “Few things speak more hopefully about the future than a vineyard. Vineyards take a number of years before they are able to reward their investment. This is not a short-term investment or a quick fix financially. Jeremiah definitely looks to the future here.” Jeremiah’s great act of courageous faith was not for himself, but for future generations.
And so, in the middle of the catastrophic events that swirled about the prophet and the people of Judah, when the world seemed so dark, despair so close, and the end of everything they knew so near, once again, God/Yahweh injected hope through the prophet’s symbolic action of buying the land. Jeremiah put his money where his mouth was – quite literally. In doing so, he outlined the beginnings of a new reality that could hardly have been envisioned previously.
Presbyterian pastor Frank Yamada sums up Jeremiah’s action this way: “Today's passage reminds us God is invested in the future destiny of humankind. Even when catastrophe was imminent, Jeremiah made an audacious and specific financial act, symbolizing God's declaration that judgment and destruction would not have the final word.
Judah would certainly suffer the judgment that God had announced. Babylon would destroy Jerusalem and Judah and carry off its inhabitants into exile. The prophet, however, activates the future in the present through a symbolic act of purchasing a field. God's people would be restored and would again thrive in the land.” Yamada goes on to say that “perilous times require the faithful to put into embodied action the hope that God has announced, which is already here, but not yet.”
I think we in our church would do well to embrace this story of Jeremiah’s land purchase as a symbol of courageous faith in the promises of God – and make it our own. After all, our future is not clearly defined, rosy, and bright.
We are existing on a deficit budget, one where we have cut expenses year after year, because we have lost some generous contributors to changing family circumstances and because not everyone sees the need to pledge his or her financial support. Our Sunday morning attendance numbers are down. We have no Sunday School. Many of our most ardent volunteers feel burned out and just plain tired. Some wonder if there even is a future for this church.
And then, this passage from Jeremiah pops up in the lectionary to remind us that God is still speaking. God is still acting in mysterious ways, God’s wonders to behold.
How relevant to our situation! The words in these verses announce to us that this is the time to, like Jeremiah, have faith in God’s promises even when the outlook may seem bleak.
Faith is an investment in the future. What that future looks like for this church, I do not know. That being said, I do know that this is not the time to back down or hide or become uninvolved. This is not the time to let fate take its course, but rather it is the time for faith to lead us. Instead of focusing on doubt and fear and relying on excuses, Jeremiah knew this was a moment for faith – faith in God but also faith in the Jewish people – and so it is for us.
Faith is real only when we exercise that faith. Hudson Taylor is accredited with saying it a bit differently, “Unless there is an element of risk in our exploits for God, there is no need for faith.” Faith is a bold embracing of the future – even in the midst of darkness and the unknown.
There is a story of a man who fell off a cliff. As he tumbled downward, he managed to grab a tree limb. He hung there and shouted to the heavens, “God, are you up there?”
“I am God. I am here to help,” came the reply.
“Save me, then!” shouted the man.
“Do you really think that I can save you?” queried God.
“Of course, you are God, you can do anything,” the man responded with a note of desperation in his voice.
“Then let go of the limb…” said God.
“WHAT?!” replied the man incredulously.
“I said, if you have faith that I can do anything, let go…I will save you,” God continued.
The man thought for a moment, pondering his dilemma, and then asked, “Is there anyone else up there?”
United Church of Canada pastor Stephanie Vermette commented on the man’s situation and, perhaps for some of you, on our situation as a congregation. She writes, “When there seems to be no hope for the future, when everything seems to go down the drain, when everybody is ready to give up, we receive the promise that God will remain with us. No matter how bad and crazy things appear to be at any given moment, we receive from God the assurance that the future has something to offer us when we accept the challenge to act courageously.”
God is not done with this church yet. I truly believe that. And to that end, Caryl Gilman and I are leading worship for the next two weeks on the theme of “brave change.” We want to engage all of you in defining those core values of this congregation that we cannot lose, but also reflecting on what may be ripe for letting go of or changing in order to fulfill our Christian mission in the 21st century.
We have also invited someone the second week to tell us about her church’s recent journey though brave change. I hope you will be part of this worship series, and I hope you will invite others who do not often come to worship. This is not the time to hide in the known past. It is the time to embrace the unknown future.
Where we as a congregation will end up, I cannot say. However, I can say that I am pretty sure it will be different from where we are now. I do not know what action our faith will prompt us to take. However, I do know that, as one blogger I read this week wrote: “to place our ideas and our dreams before a crowd is to risk their loss, to live is to risk dying, to hope is to risk despair, and to try is to risk failure.”
I also know that faith involves risk, but that faith increases when we become willing to exercise it. Likewise, I know that light and life and a path forward emerge when we make a radical investment in the future – just as Jeremiah did by purchasing that plot of land.
And finally, I know that Patrick Overton’s wonderful quote might well be our mantra as we move forward to envision our future as a church:
“When you walk to the edge of all the light you have and take that first step into the darkness of the unknown, you must believe that one of two things will happen. There will be something solid for you to stand upon, or you will be taught to fly.”
.
No comments:
Post a Comment