Jeremiah 29:1,4-7
October 13, 2019
For the past few years I’ve had a regular routine on Friday mornings of spending time with my Dad. First, I take him for a walk and after our walk we typically sit outside and listen to some Doo Wop music, or maybe some Elvis Presley. As most of you know, my Dad was a drummer and he liked all kinds of music, but for some reason on those Friday mornings classic Doo Wop, classic Elvis Presley hits are the only type of songs that come to my mind. I try my best to have conversation with him, but for the most part it is difficult to hear and understand what he is trying to say. I try hard to laugh a lot and sometimes he joins me in laughing.
Before I get to my Dad, though, I stop and eat breakfast at a place called Parker’s restaurant. I almost always order the same thing, two eggs over medium, link sausage, grits and toast. Amy, the waitress not my wife, always brings me a sweet tea when she sees me arrive. Parker’s is what I would call a meat and three diner like almost all small southern towns have and I say almost all because there is one small southern town that I was shocked to discover doesn’t have one. Anyone care to guess which town that is? [JAMESTOWN]
Anyway, as I sit, eat and read, I tend to listen to the conversations going on around me. I believe you can learn a lot about people and a lot about the community by eating at local places like Parker’s. I get the sense that Parker’s is one of those places everyone in the Oak Ridge, Summerfield, Stokesdale area seems to know, and as a result listening to the conversations helps me take the pulse of that community. The funny thing is, the conversations I overhear are almost always the same. Not only that, they almost always include the same people. They talk about the community and the nation and how everything seems to be changing, especially the people. They talk about how much better it would be if things were like they were way back when, even though way back when never really has a definite time frame. They only have good memories of those certain times and how they lived their lives in their community back then. They lament how things have changed. One could say they grieve over the changes to their community and to the nation. They also always try to fit into the conversation how religious they are, or how “Christian” they are.
This past Friday morning a new element was added to this chorus of laments from these self-described religious Christians. That new element was the next generation. I heard a father of a school aged daughter join in the discussion by sharing what he said were decisions he shouldn’t have to make. Decisions about what school she should attend because you know, when I was in school, we didn’t have to deal with all of “those people” and didn’t have to listen to all of those crazy ideas about how the world should work. Everyone else involved in that conversation sat by nodding their heads in approval of what this young father was saying. There wasn’t a single person in this group who offered a different opinion, or different way of looking at the community they now found themselves living in. No one and that made me sad.
While I believe it is certainly true that their community looks different than it once did, it is also true that all communities look different than they once did because that is simply what happens everywhere all the time. As much as some like to talk about their desire to “go back” to a time in their past when, in their mind, their life was better, no one is capable of going back. Not today. Not ever. That is not how time works. Time only knows how to do one thing – move forward. To the next minute, the next hour, the next day and on and on and on. Time only moves forward. And because of that, all communities, everywhere are always changing. Ironically, even though time can only and has only done one thing, move forward, not all communities move forward. Some get so stuck in their laments that suffering becomes the end result. This suffering though, isn’t limited to individual suffering. This suffering extends to their community too.
Listening to that conversation this past Friday morning caused me to think a lot about the ways we are inclined to seek the welfare of only certain things and certain people in our community, our nation and our world, instead of seeking the welfare of the entire community, nation and world. Most of us, if we are honest, pray for, or seek peace for only certain segments of our community. We rarely seek peace for EVERYONE within our community, unless of course, desiring wholesale changes in who someone is so that they better fit into the community, is what we conclude seeking peace really is.
**************************************
Maybe today’s scripture is the reason I’ve thought a lot about that Friday morning conversation. And if it wasn’t the entire scripture, I feel certain it was one line, one verse that did. [V. 7] “But 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.” It is important, I believe, to keep in mind who Jeremiah’s audience is. To whom is Jeremiah speaking – The Exiles. He is speaking to an entire group of people who have been forced out of their own cities, their own communities, and are now in a foreign land, surrounded by people foreign to them and their culture, and he is telling them that God instructs them to seek the welfare, seek the peace of the entire city. And why is God instructing them in this way? The answer to that is quite simple really, the only way they will find their own welfare, or their own peace, is when the whole thing finds peace. The only way the individual finds peace is when their whole community finds peace. So, instead of praying for, or seeking peace for yourself and those who are part of your tribe, try first to seek peace for everyone around you, but not part of your tribe. How hard must that have been for exiled foreigners to hear that their way to peace, their way to shalom, must include others?
Quite hard if you believe Psalm 137
By the rivers of Babylon--
there we sat down and there we wept
when we remembered Zion.
On the willows there
we hung up our harps.
For there our captors
asked us for songs,
and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying,
“Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
How could we sing the LORD’s song
in a foreign land?
(Ps. 137:1–4)
Jeremiah’s original audience consisted of homesick exiles. Homesick for the past and for their place like before. This new place they found themselves in wasn’t theirs. These people weren’t theirs and the truth is their laments were heard, just like I believe our laments are heard today. The response to their cries though, was most likely not what they wanted to hear. Jeremiah was bold enough to tell them that God has heard their cry and says, “Your old life is dead. Your new life is to be found in this foreign land. Deal with it. Settle down. Adjust!”[1]
Is this a harsh response, or is it really a loving response?
“In reality, Jeremiah’s message was radically practical and innovative. He told the Jews that rather than resisting, resenting, or rejecting their circumstances, they should put down roots and become productive. It is a message for all who live in what they believe has become an alien culture, made so by technology, immigration, and new accommodations to politically correct inclusivity. Seemingly gone are the Norman Rockwell scenes of barber-pole streets and postmasters who know our names. Communication has moved from front porches to telephones, from letters to e-mail, from cell phones to text messaging and from text messaging to Facebook postings. Neighbors down the street are no longer Lutheran or Baptist or Catholic. They are Hindu or Muslim or New Age.”
Jeremiah’s message is really a message of hope, but it is a hope that is found only when everyone seeks shalom for everyone else. Hope is never found, no matter how much we wish it was, when we only seek shalom for ourselves and others like us. When that is our goal, Jeremiah would say our goal needs some changing. He would say your goal should be the welfare of the whole community because when the community is at peace, you will be at peace.
********************************
So today, I am going to pray for those men whose conversation I overheard last Friday morning. I am going to pray for their welfare and for their peace. I am going to pray for them to embrace the place where God has them. I’m going to pray for them to find ways to be faithful in their living. And I’m going to hope that in doing so their community finds peace that transforms all understanding. Peace for the community and peace for them so that all will be drawn more closely into relationship with God.
[PRAYER]
Amen!
[1] Boak, Bruce G., Feasting on the Word Commentary-Year C, Jeremiah 29:1,4-7-Pastoral Perspective
October 13, 2019
For the past few years I’ve had a regular routine on Friday mornings of spending time with my Dad. First, I take him for a walk and after our walk we typically sit outside and listen to some Doo Wop music, or maybe some Elvis Presley. As most of you know, my Dad was a drummer and he liked all kinds of music, but for some reason on those Friday mornings classic Doo Wop, classic Elvis Presley hits are the only type of songs that come to my mind. I try my best to have conversation with him, but for the most part it is difficult to hear and understand what he is trying to say. I try hard to laugh a lot and sometimes he joins me in laughing.
Before I get to my Dad, though, I stop and eat breakfast at a place called Parker’s restaurant. I almost always order the same thing, two eggs over medium, link sausage, grits and toast. Amy, the waitress not my wife, always brings me a sweet tea when she sees me arrive. Parker’s is what I would call a meat and three diner like almost all small southern towns have and I say almost all because there is one small southern town that I was shocked to discover doesn’t have one. Anyone care to guess which town that is? [JAMESTOWN]
Anyway, as I sit, eat and read, I tend to listen to the conversations going on around me. I believe you can learn a lot about people and a lot about the community by eating at local places like Parker’s. I get the sense that Parker’s is one of those places everyone in the Oak Ridge, Summerfield, Stokesdale area seems to know, and as a result listening to the conversations helps me take the pulse of that community. The funny thing is, the conversations I overhear are almost always the same. Not only that, they almost always include the same people. They talk about the community and the nation and how everything seems to be changing, especially the people. They talk about how much better it would be if things were like they were way back when, even though way back when never really has a definite time frame. They only have good memories of those certain times and how they lived their lives in their community back then. They lament how things have changed. One could say they grieve over the changes to their community and to the nation. They also always try to fit into the conversation how religious they are, or how “Christian” they are.
This past Friday morning a new element was added to this chorus of laments from these self-described religious Christians. That new element was the next generation. I heard a father of a school aged daughter join in the discussion by sharing what he said were decisions he shouldn’t have to make. Decisions about what school she should attend because you know, when I was in school, we didn’t have to deal with all of “those people” and didn’t have to listen to all of those crazy ideas about how the world should work. Everyone else involved in that conversation sat by nodding their heads in approval of what this young father was saying. There wasn’t a single person in this group who offered a different opinion, or different way of looking at the community they now found themselves living in. No one and that made me sad.
While I believe it is certainly true that their community looks different than it once did, it is also true that all communities look different than they once did because that is simply what happens everywhere all the time. As much as some like to talk about their desire to “go back” to a time in their past when, in their mind, their life was better, no one is capable of going back. Not today. Not ever. That is not how time works. Time only knows how to do one thing – move forward. To the next minute, the next hour, the next day and on and on and on. Time only moves forward. And because of that, all communities, everywhere are always changing. Ironically, even though time can only and has only done one thing, move forward, not all communities move forward. Some get so stuck in their laments that suffering becomes the end result. This suffering though, isn’t limited to individual suffering. This suffering extends to their community too.
Listening to that conversation this past Friday morning caused me to think a lot about the ways we are inclined to seek the welfare of only certain things and certain people in our community, our nation and our world, instead of seeking the welfare of the entire community, nation and world. Most of us, if we are honest, pray for, or seek peace for only certain segments of our community. We rarely seek peace for EVERYONE within our community, unless of course, desiring wholesale changes in who someone is so that they better fit into the community, is what we conclude seeking peace really is.
**************************************
Maybe today’s scripture is the reason I’ve thought a lot about that Friday morning conversation. And if it wasn’t the entire scripture, I feel certain it was one line, one verse that did. [V. 7] “But 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.” It is important, I believe, to keep in mind who Jeremiah’s audience is. To whom is Jeremiah speaking – The Exiles. He is speaking to an entire group of people who have been forced out of their own cities, their own communities, and are now in a foreign land, surrounded by people foreign to them and their culture, and he is telling them that God instructs them to seek the welfare, seek the peace of the entire city. And why is God instructing them in this way? The answer to that is quite simple really, the only way they will find their own welfare, or their own peace, is when the whole thing finds peace. The only way the individual finds peace is when their whole community finds peace. So, instead of praying for, or seeking peace for yourself and those who are part of your tribe, try first to seek peace for everyone around you, but not part of your tribe. How hard must that have been for exiled foreigners to hear that their way to peace, their way to shalom, must include others?
Quite hard if you believe Psalm 137
By the rivers of Babylon--
there we sat down and there we wept
when we remembered Zion.
On the willows there
we hung up our harps.
For there our captors
asked us for songs,
and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying,
“Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
How could we sing the LORD’s song
in a foreign land?
(Ps. 137:1–4)
Jeremiah’s original audience consisted of homesick exiles. Homesick for the past and for their place like before. This new place they found themselves in wasn’t theirs. These people weren’t theirs and the truth is their laments were heard, just like I believe our laments are heard today. The response to their cries though, was most likely not what they wanted to hear. Jeremiah was bold enough to tell them that God has heard their cry and says, “Your old life is dead. Your new life is to be found in this foreign land. Deal with it. Settle down. Adjust!”[1]
Is this a harsh response, or is it really a loving response?
“In reality, Jeremiah’s message was radically practical and innovative. He told the Jews that rather than resisting, resenting, or rejecting their circumstances, they should put down roots and become productive. It is a message for all who live in what they believe has become an alien culture, made so by technology, immigration, and new accommodations to politically correct inclusivity. Seemingly gone are the Norman Rockwell scenes of barber-pole streets and postmasters who know our names. Communication has moved from front porches to telephones, from letters to e-mail, from cell phones to text messaging and from text messaging to Facebook postings. Neighbors down the street are no longer Lutheran or Baptist or Catholic. They are Hindu or Muslim or New Age.”
Jeremiah’s message is really a message of hope, but it is a hope that is found only when everyone seeks shalom for everyone else. Hope is never found, no matter how much we wish it was, when we only seek shalom for ourselves and others like us. When that is our goal, Jeremiah would say our goal needs some changing. He would say your goal should be the welfare of the whole community because when the community is at peace, you will be at peace.
********************************
So today, I am going to pray for those men whose conversation I overheard last Friday morning. I am going to pray for their welfare and for their peace. I am going to pray for them to embrace the place where God has them. I’m going to pray for them to find ways to be faithful in their living. And I’m going to hope that in doing so their community finds peace that transforms all understanding. Peace for the community and peace for them so that all will be drawn more closely into relationship with God.
[PRAYER]
Amen!
[1] Boak, Bruce G., Feasting on the Word Commentary-Year C, Jeremiah 29:1,4-7-Pastoral Perspective