Sit Down, Get Comfortable, plan on staying awhile

Wesley United Methodist Church September 27, 1998 Jeremiah 32:1-3,6-15 Sit down, get comfortable, plan on staying awhile Year C: 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Proper 21 You know, as I was writing this sermon, I realized that by now I have told you everything that I know. I have went through every single sermon that I have ever written, and I have told you all of the stories that I know, I have told you all of my personal theology, And I have nothing else to say. So I can just save you all of the trouble of listening to me today and tell you to go home right now. You don't need to hear a word from God, just know that there is always hope, because always loves yoly because you do not believe that God will, and secondly I believe God already has, so there is no need for you to pray about it. the man went on to say "I have known my Lord for fifty-seven years and there had never been a single say that I have failed to get an audience with the King. Get up and open the door and you will find that the fog is gone. And he was in Canada by Saturday for his engagement. Jeremiah acted with that same assurance, Christ has given us the power to do the same. Jesus promised us that he would always see us through, he promised that he would be with us always he promised us that we would have God's eternal love and guidance. Whatever our circumstance might be, however things might turn out for us, we are free to live out our faith in that love, assurance and guidance. As children of God, we are inheritors of all that she has. It is not only our privilege, but our right to not only redeem but to be open to redemption. We can put our deed in earthen vessels and get comfor þ'N ° T› Ð ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ Ÿ. B1 €0 Š0 š0 š0 š0 š0 à=Ð/ Ð 8 d š0 ÿÿÿÿ Ð ¬0 – . Harriette Cross Wesley United Methodist Church September 27, 1998 Jeremiah 32:1-3,6-15 Sit down, get comfortable, plan on staying awhile Year C: 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Proper 21 You know, as I was writing this sermon, I realized that by now I have told you everything that I know. I have went through every single sermon that I have ever written, and I have told you all of the stories that I know, I have told you all of my personal theology, And I have nothing else to say. So I can just save you all of the trouble of listening to me today and tell you to go home right now. You don't need to hear a word from God, just know that there is always hope, because always loves you no matter what, even when the preacher has nothing to say. I know preachers who have gotten away with that, but I guess I wont try it today. I will talk about a word of hope. A word of hope given by the prophet jerimiah. Strange things happen to people when they are in prison. They seem to get a whole new perspective on life, and they need to hold the rest of the world captive with their new realization. Boethius (whoever that was) was accused of treason and he wrote his consolation of philosophy, when he had to opportunity to sit with wisdom and discover himself. John bunyon has imprisoned for disobeying Charles II and he wrote a spiritual classic, Paul was imprisoned in Rome and he wrote his epistle to the Colossians, one of the most profound books in the new testament, Adolph Hitler wrote My Country in prison and went to steps which would effect all of history to bring his philosophy to life, Malcolm X found religion in prison and changed the thoughts of his whole country, and Jeremiah, one of the most cynical gloom and doom prophets of the bible ( as a matter of fact, that was why he was imprison in the first place for predicting doom upon the king) , had a profound change of heart, and wrote what is called the book of consolation, to bring hope to the nations. this story takes place in the year 588 BC, it was late summer of early fall, sometime around this time of year. In January of that year, the Babylonians had taken the city hostage. But they had been easy and not done any serious damage to the people of the city. It was in that siege the jeremiah gave his prophecy of doom. the king had been hoping for a miracle and jeremiah's prophecy was not very good for his morale. So he put him in prison. A year later, the city was taken over completely by the Babylonians, and they had not intention of giving ,mercy this time. but this was the time that jeremiah was given a vision of hope. He had a premonition that his cousin was going to stop by while he was there, and sure enough Hananel came. In the Thursday night bible study this week, the question was asked, what is redemption? and why is it important for us as Christians. Jerimiah 32: 6-15 is important because it is the one place in the bible where the ancient law of redemption is spelled out. Hanaeial had been struggling in the war to take care of the land, and he saw that it was going to be a losing battle. In ancient Israel, it was a disgrace to lose your property to a foreigner. So it was important for a family member to redeem the land for you in order to keep the property in the family. We don't know how close of a relative jerimiah was,or anything about the land. What we do know it that every one thought that he was crazy. In the midst of war, this land was useless and was only going to be seized by the enemy. Even though the land was worthless, jeremiah goes through the trouble of paying silver, weighing money, signing a deed, finding witnesses, sealing the deed and storing it for safe keeping. Here we have the most clear-cut example of the law of redemption. What does it mean to be redeemed and what does it have to do with us. We also have a family member, who saw value in each one of us that no one else ever saw. He went though the trouble of paying his life for us, being publicly crucified, and claiming us as his own. To be redeemed is to be saved from destruction and loss. For jeremiah, this was more than a mere investment in material property, it was a symbolic gesture of hope in the god of the future. He was claiming the land for the people of Israel. The hope of the king and all of the followers was a false hope, that was not grounded in the word of the lord. There hope was that the impending disaster that they saw, would be averted by some physical strength. Somehow things would change and they would not have to suffer. Jeremiah's hope was genuine, because it respected the will of God. It was a belief that the will of God would be done and that god's will was always for his people. His hope was a hope that no matter what might happen in history, god will always transcend and have the final word. It was a hope not that the impending doom would be diverted, but that thorough judgment and disaster, god's hope would always remain alive and meaningful. For most of the people, when they saw that the city was indeed going to be taken over by the enemy and they were going to loose. They were all the more disillusioned by Jeremiah's message. But take note that jerimah does a very interesting thing, when he redeems the land for his family, he tells his assistant to put the deeds in earthen jars that will last a long time and says that houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land. I read a story of a town called Bazaar, Kansas. It's a place that doesn't exist anymore. Blanche Schwilling had been the postmistress for this town for twenty years, when the postal service walked in one say and took her stamps, her transaction book and everything else away from. They told her that she didn't need them anymore because the city had been officially closed. There was nothing left but the church and twelve citizens. and eventually the church closed too. And just like Jeremiah, Blanche had to take dire measures to redeem the land and in this case the church, herself. Even though those on the outside had given up, she found a way for services to be held at the little white framed church. when she couldn't find a visiting preacher to hold services for Bazaar, she would ring the bell herself and say the devotional. "No one hears the bell but those of us already here, but I guess that's all that it is intended for." she says. Hope is not a realization of our present circumstances, it is a faith in God's promises to us in our lives. We redeem coupons everyday, and if you look at the coupon it will always state its value worth just a little more than nothing. the true value of redemption is in the action of turning it in. When I was in Israel, we stayed in the desert. One day there was a loud commotion, there was lot's of music playing, and lots of singing, and this large group of people got out of a van on the side of the road, they did something, clapped about it and got back in the van and drove away. Our host told us that they were a group of teachers, who had come to plant trees in the desert. It was a national belief, that if you planted trees in the desert that eventually the trees would grow and it wouldn't be a desert anymore. Well you know, I am discovering that I am becoming a cynic in my old age. And sometimes I have to go through these serious times of discernment, and decided whether it is appropriate to actually voice my opinions of certain things or is it best to just shut up and let people continue in their delusional thinking. Okay, so I am a preacher, I have to ere on the side of saying something. The desert has been there for thousands of years. Its got to be there sometime long ago, in the early old testament that speaks about the Jewish wish to make the desert into green grassland. the desert has been there for thousands of years, and it is still a desert. Nothing changed about that. But somewhere in the desert, there is a tree growing , whereas if the effort had not been made there would be nothing but dry sand. How many times have any of us wanted to see a change in a situation, yet we felt that it was not use trying because the situation was impossible and our efforts were not going to make a difference anyway. If we don't try, then there is nothing, but at least if we make the effort we have opened the door to hope. Well the good news is that is all that anyone of us was intended to be, a door to hope. Because we have a redeemer who is always ready to step in and make up the difference. No matter how hard we try, our efforts within themselves are always worth next to nothing , the value is in the redemption. Our effort is always symbolic, and sometimes we just have to go through the motions. It is not always our place to understand to response, or sometimes even the lack thereof. God called Jeremiah to reclaim his land for his people. At a time when they were in danger of losing all that they had, Jerimiah gave them hope by telling them that amidst the lost, the deed was legally binding, thus it was permanent. It was going to outlast the turmoil, thus it would be there when the war was over. Jeremiah has to reclaim the future for his family. God is Lord of the future. Christ had to reclaim his family once again, and give them hope for not only the future, but for eternity. God is Lord of eternity. Where are the fields of faith in our lives that we need to reclaim and redeem for the future? There was a ship that needed to make the voyage from Europe to America. It seems they encountered some very dense fog. the captain had been on the bridge continuously for 24 hours a day, when a passenger came to him explained that he had to be in Canada by Saturday. The captain laughed at him and told him that was impossible. "Very well, If the ship cannot take me, God will find some other way. I have never broken an engagement for fifty seven years, let us go down to the chartroom and pray. the captain went reluctantly, and thought that he was talking with a lunatic from a crazy asylum. "Do you know how dense this fod is, he asked the man. No, he replied, my eye is not on the density of the fog, but on the living God who controls every circumstance of my life. The man knelt down and prayed. The captain decided the follow suit after he finished. but the man told his it was no need. The man said, firsttable and plan on staying awhile because if we just make the effort in the midst of despair, God is a God of the future, and we have a redeemed part in it. ah. Strange things happen to people when they are in prison. They seem to get a whole new persp