Pastor's Corner

	2010 Leadership Roster Library Pastor's Corner Sermon Archives Stewardship The Chimes Weddings Weekly Word		Pastor's Corner Dr. George A. Purnell August 29, 2010 “Making the Best of a Bad Situation” Jeremiah 29:1, 4-14 When scripture is read in worship, many worshippers look puzzled, if not disinterested. One problem many of us have in listening to scripture is that it was written so long ago and so far away that we can’t relate to the time or the culture it describes. (The language is also a barrier, and no translation into English can completely bridge the gap.) Another problem is that the passage we hear read from scripture does not stand alone. It is connected to a larger story. So, to more fully understand the day’s lesson requires some knowledge of the context. Take today’s scripture from Jeremiah. It is found in chapter 29, and is addressed to those who have been exiled from Jerusalem. It continues the narrative that began in chapter 27:1: “In the beginning of the reign of King Zedekiah…this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord.”Zedekiah was a puppet ruler placed on the throne of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar (who ruled Babylonia from 605 to 562 BC), after his first conquest of Jerusalem in 597 BC. So, chapter 27 began with the events of 597… Today’s passage dates from the period between Babylon’s plundering of Jerusalem and the first deportation of the ruling elite in 597, and the leveling of the city and destruction of the Temple in 587-86. Culturally and religiously this experience was devastating for Jerusalem. The military defeat, occupation of their homeland by foreign (and pagan) captors, and the sending of many into exile was traumatic politically, for sure. But because many of these exiles had lived their whole lives with the worldview that they were the people of God…that the Temple in Jerusalem was God’s habitat…and that pagan nations would suffer at God’s hand…this was a huge crisis of faith too. Try to imagine being taken from your homes and nation, and being forced to live in a foreign culture; where the customs and language and religion and way of life was unfamiliar, even repugnant to you… I am not sure we can imagine a separation from everything we have known, because such a situation is far removed from our life experience. In the history of the United States, the only ones uprooted from their homeland were slaves brought across the ocean from Africa and sold here, and the Native Americans, whom we displaced from their land and colonized on reservations. The dislocation for us would be social, political and economic. Our friends, our political freedoms, our system of government, our jobs and lifestyles would be different, and the adjustment would be hard. But we are a secular culture, so our removal from the USA would not represent the religious crisis for us that it did for Jeremiah’s readers. Many of Jeremiah’s countrymen wondered if God had abandoned God’s own people. And part of Jeremiah’s purpose in writing was to help his contemporaries interpret what they were experiencing theologically. Jeremiah begins by telling the exiles that God has sent them into exile, almost as if they are on a mission: “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.” He goes on then to tell them to settle in for the long haul in Babylon. “Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce.” Take wives, have children…and grandchildren…make this your home. His added counsel to them to “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” was hard for the exiles to hear, especially given the intense nationalism the people had for the land of Israel and for Jerusalem. The exiles wanted to go home. They longed to hear a voice telling them that God would make this happen. And there were such prophets. In chapter 28 we read: “In that same year, at the beginning of the reign of Kind Zedekiah of Judah…the prophet Hananiah…spoke in the presence of all the people, saying, ‘thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. Within two years I will bring back to this place all the vessels of the Lord’s house, which King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon took away from this place and carried to Babylon’…” (28:1-3) Jeremiah warned the people not to listen to these voices. “For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Do not let the prophets and the diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them,’ says the Lord.” You will be in Babylon for seventy years… Next comes one of the most profound promises found in all of Holy Scripture: “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. Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart, I will let you find me, says the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.” The Babylonian Exile had brought a crisis of faith and life for the Hebrew people. They were forced to find new ways to practice and live out their faith. The people had to develop new insights into God as they lived in exile. They had to come to believe that when they honestly searched for God, God would be found where they were; in Babylon, not in Jerusalem. They had to believe that when they called upon God, and prayed to God, God would hear them where they were. Their new reality was that they were no longer in Jerusalem. Their new way of seeing God was that God was with them in exile. Earlier I said that unless we were African slaves uprooted from our homeland and brought to the shores of North America to be sold…or unless we were Native Americans who had their homeland taken from them, and were then forced to live in colonies on reservations…we could not imagine the full meaning of the exile experienced by the people to whom Jeremiah wrote today. But while this is true, it is also true that most of us have at one time or another in life felt we were in a place not of our own choosing. We have wondered how we could continue to live in the place we were – emotionally or physically – and find blessing. We have imagined that if we could just be in a new place, things would be better… The problem with looking back at how good things were in some former place – or looking ahead to that glorious time when we will have our fortunes restored and our exile will be over – is that we are living between times. And it is hard to be productive or satisfied when living with a temporary mindset… When I was preparing to be ordained a United Methodist elder, and move to take my first appointment, I received some really good advice. George, my mentor told me, unpack when you get to your new church. Put down roots and work every day you are there as though you will be there your whole career. Invest yourself deeply there. Make it your home. Don’t look down the road to your next church. The day will likely come when you will be moved, but until that day work for the welfare of this place. Since that day in 1987, I have talked with many United Methodist elders who are convinced that they could have a successful ministry if they could just be sent to a different church. They often have a city or a church in mind, and see that as the ideal place for them if they could just get placed there. They have not been happy in the many places they have served as pastor, largely because they have never unpacked emotionally and spiritually, and decided: God has plans for this community of faith, and for my work here. God’s plans are for us to have “a future with hope.” What is true in ministry is true in many areas of life, of course. Maybe we imagine that life would be better if we were at a different school, or if we had a different job, or if we lived in a different place… The actual truth is that we take ourselves with us wherever we go, and our dissatisfactions come along too. The pastor who is sure it will be better in the next place in ministry finds that he or she encounters frustrations in the new setting too. The person who changes jobs discovers that work life in the new place has its own problems. And the person who transfers to a new school is surprised at how similar the problems in the new school are to the school he or she just left. But if we will decide to stay put we will come to a place very likely where we realize that an attitude adjustment on our part will make a huge difference. Even if we cannot change people/places/things we can change how we perceive them and react to them. Seen in that light, the sermon title is misleading. Today people often use the phrase –“it is what it is” – in response to questions about how things are. Maybe instead of bad or good, situations are what they are. It is how we live in them that make them good or bad. I feel compelled to say that there are intolerable situations. There are work settings where employees are exploited...there are domestic settings where spouses are beaten and emotionally abused…there are professionals who sexually molest children…. We must provide safe places for people who are in abusive situations, and we must bring the perpetrators of these crimes to justice. But in most situations that you and I find ourselves, the advice Jeremiah has for the exiles living in Babylon is really good advice for us too. Even though we find ourselves in less than ideal places sometimes, we will flourish if we will pray for the welfare of the place and the people, and if we will trust that God has plans for our welfare in God’s heart; that God wants to give us a future with hope. In simple terms, God calls us to Bloom Where We Are Planted. Amen.