God's Investment Plan

September 25, 2022 Jeremiah 32:1-3, 6-15 God’s Investment Plan 16th Sunday After Pentecost Year C Opening Song Welcome Call to Worship Come to this place and time of promise. We are becoming the house of hope, the field of sunflowers, the vineyard of great caring. Come to a shared commitment to abundance possible for all people. We are an earthenware jar, to keep safe the tomorrow of children. Our security question is – the word of God, and our password is love. Invocation God, we give you thanks that you make us redeemers, not just receivers of redemption. You bring us among friends and then ask for each one of our signatures to change your world. We hold the earthenware jar you call the church and fill it with all your promises. amen. (Rev. Maren Tirabassi, United Church of Christ Worship Ways) Song God will take Care of You UMH 130 Children’s Sermon Leah Pittsinger – Ministry to Children It’s hard to be the bearer of bad news, but sometimes God asks us to do challenging things as a part of his plan. In “The Story of Jeremiah for Kids,” children will learn that Jeremiah obeyed God and shared a message of impending judgment (even though the message was not welcome and Jeremiah himself didn’t escape the consequences of the message). Life can be tough, but God promises that we can trust his methods and his will. So, will we obey the Lord even when it’s difficult? Reiterate to the class that even though Jeremiah was obedient to God, he experienced some hard things (such as being taken to Egypt and having to share bad news with God’s people). Comment, “We’ve all experienced some hard, heart-breaking, and frustrating things because we are God’s children. So, we’re going to make a craft to remind us that the Lord is greater than anything bad we could ever experience.” Give each child at least three stones and ask them to carefully write the name of something that has challenged their faith on each stone (e.g. sadness, loss, death, insecurity). Then give each child a plastic favor bag and help them write, “GOD IS GREATER!” on the bag. Help the class understand that placing the stones inside the bags (and sealing the bags with a tie or knot) symbolize our trust in God to take care of even the deepest hurts. Say, “The Lord knows we have these ‘heavy’ stones in our hearts! But he asks us to trust him anyway and make the choice to serve him, like Jeremiah did, even when things are hard.” Conclusion (5 minutes) RECAP: Jeremiah obeyed God even when it was hard and God protected him. We can trust that God will help us when we experience a challenge, especially when we are seeking to obey him! CLOSING PRAYER: “Lord, give us the desire to obey you know matter what. And please help us trust your plan for our lives. Amen.” Prayer of Illumination God, your holy word invites us to place our trust in you. May the words we hear here today, take root in our lives. May the words we receive in our hearts, strengthen us to live more boldly in faith, that we may trust you in disaster and boon, in good times and bad, in death and in life. “The word of the LORD came to me.” I know this is the word of the Lord. (Amy Hunter, United Methodist Ministry Matters) Scripture Jeremiah 32:1-3,6-15 Sermon God’s Investment Plan I was listening to a lecture on leadership by Dr Ron Heifetz, where he says that people can only take so much bad news. We can only handle so much. If we are in darkness and can see no light at the end of the tunnel – then we lose hope and no longer thrive. If we are asked to change and to do something different – the only way we can move forward, is if there is something that remains the same that we can relate to. Our world has gone through a very stressful time within the last few years. The pandemic has changed so much of our everyday lives. It has even changed the way that we do church. Every year, there are more and more churches that are closing, because of the changes of the pandemic. In our lives, in many ways we are looking for that light at the end of the tunnel. I and many people thought that it was interesting that the president declared that the pandemic has ended. I did not get a chance to listen to his speech, I just heard about the headlines. I hope that we are entering into a time of healing and moving forward from all of this. But we all know that the virus is still out there. And not only does it affect the lives of people, it’s still defines our life. Where do we look for the light at the end of the tunnel? What role does our faith play? The book of Jeremiah is actually a genius in giving us advice at how to find hope in the midst of despair. The book of Jeremiah is kinda like a book of sayings from an old uncle. It has no rhyme or reason, the stories are not really in order of time, and it is a story of how the nation that he was trying to help rejected him. And yet the book remains in the bible generations after it was written, because it tells us how our faith can help us to see the light at the end of the tunnel. God is our light. Cynthia stood before a church group in a neighboring town. She had been invited to share the story of her faith in her successful struggle against death. She stood before the group with a candle in one hand and a pocket lighter in the other. She began, "Three years ago I went to the hospital for a series of tests and I was told that I had malignant cancer. I was also told that, although it was possible for me to take chemotherapy treatments, the chance of them offering any help at all was very slim. My doctors said treatments would most likely only bring misery to my final days. This was, of course, very bad news for me. I fell into a deep despair. I was ready to give up. All I could see was darkness. "As I lay in this dark despair in my hospital bed, I started reading a Bible that was in my room. I happened to turn to the book of Jeremiah. What I read there changed my life. It also literally gave me life. "In the darkest moment of my life, I read about the dark times that Jeremiah and the nation of Judah experienced. Following directions that he had received from God, Jeremiah prophesied for 12 years that Jerusalem would be destroyed. Finally, having angered the king by saying such things, Jeremiah was sitting in prison watching his prediction of doom come true. The Judean nation was on the brink of destruction. Her enemies were making their final assault upon the city. The Judeans who had already been killed lay unburied and those who were still alive suffered from famine and pestilence. The end was very near. Soon the enemy would break through and drag the survivors from their homeland into a captivity in a foreign land. It was a very dark time for them. As I read, it was easy for me to relate to the despair of their situation. "In the midst of this hopeless and despairing situation, God led Jeremiah to do an incredibly hopeful thing. At the moment when things looked the worst, God led Jeremiah to purchase a field. He bought land in a country that was about to be taken over by the enemy. In this action Jeremiah was making an investment in the future. In the midst of a very bad time, he looked with hope to a better future of better times. Jeremiah knew that the hard times of exile were about to come upon the people of Judah, but God also led the prophet to symbolically proclaim that things would eventually get better and that God would return the people to their home. In faith Jeremiah saw that future. As a symbol of hope, he invested himself in that future by buying a piece of land." Cynthia said, "When I read about Jeremiah's purchase of the field, it was as if God had suddenly brought a light into my darkness." At this point in her story Cynthia lit the candle she was holding. She continued, "I had a candle brought into my hospital room and I lit it that day as a sign of my hope -- a sign that I was going to trust God like Jeremiah and invest in the future. Cynthia continued, "Against the recommendation of my doctors I took chemotherapy treatments. In the process I got very sick and I came quite close to death. But, as I stand before you today, my cancer is in total remission." She raised the lit candle in front of her. "God gave me hope during my darkest times, during my bad times. Like Jeremiah, I put my faith in God and invested in the future. Now I praise God and celebrate the good times of health that the future has brought me." At this point in her talk everyone in the group broke into spontaneous applause. Everyone, that is, except for a quiet man in the back row. After a moment he raised his hand and asked to speak. He said, "Your story sounds similar in many ways to a story that was a part of my life. It is very similar, but only up to a point. My wife also had cancer. She too had hope that God would move her through the dark times into better times. She invested in that future. She trusted God as the light to see her through her darkness. She took all kinds of treatments and she too got very sick. Together we hoped, together we prayed, and then she died." He said, "Please don't get me wrong. I am very glad that the future in which you invested turned out to have good times in it for you. But as you stand there holding that candle, I have to ask you -- what do you think Jeremiah's hopeful action of purchasing a field has to say for my wife?" All eyes were upon Cynthia. It was very quiet as they waited for her response. She also waited for her response, and then, discovering that she did not have one, told the man that she was sorry for his loss, blew out her candle, and sat down. How are we to make sense of the man's question? Cynthia did understand this story correctly, didn't she? The purchase is a symbol of hope, is it not? The small plot of land that Jeremiah bought is a symbol of the whole land and the prophet is a symbol of all who will own property in the new age when Yahweh will restore the fortunes of Israel. Cynthia heard the story saying that we can make it through even the very worst times by focusing on the future -- the time when God will finally set things right. Jeremiah's symbolic action seems to proclaim that there will be better times ahead. So, how do we respond to the man in the back row whose wife lit a candle in her darkness only to have it snuffed out by unsuccessful cancer treatments and finally by death? What can be said to the people who join Jeremiah in hoping for those better times, but then never experience any better times? Pamela's pastor went to see her in the hospital. The pastor took Pamela's hand and said, "I'm so sorry. Is there anything that you would like me to do for you?" Pamela said, "Yes, there is." The pastor said, "Just name it." Pamela said, "I would like a candle." The pastor was considerably surprised by the request, but said, "Fine, I'll be sure to bring one when I come next time." Pamela said, "No. I want one now." The pastor said, "Don't you even want to talk a little bit first?" Pamela shot back, "If you really want to do something for me ...." The pastor interrupted, "Okay. I see that it is important to you. I'll go get one right now." It was a 15-minute drive back to church from the hospital, but the pastor made the round trip and returned to Pamela's room with a candle in hand. Approaching her bed the pastor asked, "Do you want me to light it for you?" Pamela said, "Oh, no. Just hand it to me." She took the candle in her hands gripping it tightly. She then clutched the candle against her and said, "During these last months I have often thought of myself as a candle about to go out. I thought that everything I am is tied up in being able to see. I expected that when blackness came then there would be nothingness." She then said, "Now I'm blind. It's dark." She held the candle tightly. "But the candle is still here. I'm still here. I'm still me. God is still God. It's going to be okay somehow." Perhaps in her blindness Pamela was able to see something in her candle that eluded Cynthia when she held up her lit candle before the group. Cynthia saw the flame of her candle as a symbol of hope. The flame was the symbol of light in darkness -- God helping us out of bad situations. This can be a powerful symbol for people who have passed through darkness on the way to better times. But it did not speak to the man in the back row. And there may be times when this will not speak to us either. Pamela, however, experienced the candle in a different way. She discovered that a candle is more than a fragile light. Flames come and go on candles. But, as Pamela discovered, a flame doesn't make a candle. It's the candle itself that makes a candle a candle. For her, the candle proper was a symbol of hope, because, regardless of whether there is a flame or not, her hope came in the promise of candleness itself. She came to realize that hope is not grounded in what will happen to us, but in who we are. Each of us have our own terrible times. You know what yours have been. Perhaps you are in the middle of some pretty bad times right now. Yet, when things go badly for us that is not a time to despair, but a time to invest ourselves in the future. When Jeremiah bought the plot of land, he invested in the future. In the middle of terrible times he made a symbolic purchase -- a statement of hope grounded in God. Yet, ultimately, Judah's hope did not rest in whether or not good things would happen to them, but in who they were, a people grounded in a covenant with their God. Yes, the land was an important issue, but its importance lay in the fact that it was a part of the covenant promise. Their hope came not in what would happen to them, but in who God had made them to be -- a people of the covenant. We, like Jeremiah, are called to invest in the future. We do so not because we are certain that God has something better in store for us, but because we know who God has made us to be. Like Pamela, we can think of ourselves as a candle. We have good times and we have bad times. The flame may come and the flame may go. Ultimately it does not matter. Our hope is not grounded in the promise of good things happening to us. Our hope is grounded in the fact that we have become children of God. The hope we receive from God is not a promise of a constant and steady flame that will take away all the dark times. Our hope comes in the promise of candleness itself. Our hope comes at the core of who our God has created us to be. We are a people washed in the waters of divine forgiveness and acceptance. We are a people who live in and live through the church -- a community based in love and service and justice. That is the very essence of who we are. Our identity is in Jesus Christ and his church. That is the core of who we are. That is our candleness. That means that even in the worst of times we can invest in the future, for in the love of Jesus Christ, God has invested everything in us. CSS Publishing Company, Stepping Inside, by Thomas G. Rogers For me, Jeremiah in all of its imperfections, is the place that I go to find the light at the end of the tunnel. Jeremiah was put in jail, because he told people that things were not going to get better. He gave them bad news, when they were looking for good. But he reminded them that God was there on the journey with them. This story shows how he gave them hope in the midst of despair. Jeremiah was actually sent to Egypt and never returned. And yet the day came when Jerusalem was free and life went on. Jeremiah never had any children of his own, but the land that belonged to his family was still in the family name. And his family was able to reclaim the land that they had lost – because of Jeremiah’s act of redemption. Jeremiah’s message to us, that in the midst of despair, God is our redeemer. Christ came to be the light at the end of the tunnel. Sometimes if we don’t claim the future – it wont happen. Sometimes hope for the future is bigger than our pain. Where are the fields of faith that we need to reclaim and redeem. How do we pass that hope on to the next generation? Let us move forward in faith. Amen Song A Charge to Keep I Have UMH 413 Prayer Holy One, our world moves at a rapid pace of work, school, care of loved ones, paying bills, and all the other things that are important but can overwhelm us. Help us to find the holy in the midst of it all: the brief moments of quiet, the time to read a chapter of a book, the sunshine breaking through the clouds, the task of watering plants. Wherever we find a bit of Sabbath rest, O God, may we find it a holy moment. Whenever we find a bit of good, O God, nurture that goodness in us. May we seek the holy in our daily lives, for it escapes us in the world that pursues values away from You. May we find the holy moments already among us. Amen. (Rev-o-lution Resources by Rev. Mindi Welton-Mitchell) Lord’s Prayer Stewardship Moment We so often look to scripture for words of encouragement or comfort. It seems few of us look deeply into the words of the Bible for counsel about how to live our lives as daily followers of Jesus, especially if it would mean making big changes. But occasionally we find a particular text which speaks directly to us. I had that happen when reading I Timothy 6:17-18 (NRSV), and want to share that today as we prepare to receive our morning offering. “As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provide us with everything for our enjoyment. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share.” Friends, that’s US! How grateful I am to know we have a fine opportunity this very moment to step into alignment with this teaching. Setting our hopes on God, let us take this time to do good, to be generous, and to share a portion of what we identify as “ours”. Prayer of Thanksgiving Merciful God, It’s not easy to hear some parts of the teaching of Jesus, especially when we’re directed to let go and share our finances. Renew in us a sense of gratitude for Jesus, for the lives he impacted in the flesh and for our lives, which we (at least sometimes) want Jesus to impact on a daily basis. We pray you will bless these gifts, bless each one who has made a gift, and strengthen us to follow more clearly the Way of Jesus, AMEN (Disciples of Christ Center for Faith and Giving) Announcements Closing Prayer for Facebook May you be as blessed as Jeremiah – with a word-of-God whisper when you are waiting, a glimpse of freedom when you are confined, a friend to show you the way forward, an earthenware jar of God’s love in which your signature is precious. (Maren Tirabassi, United Church of Christ Worship Ways) Community Time Benediction Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness. Live boldly, trusting God with everything you are and everything you have. Take hold of the life to which God calls you. Go forth, rejoicing in God. Thanks be to God! (Amy Hunter, United Methodist Ministry Matters) Additional Illustrations 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. — Jeremiah 29:11-14 In the tiny town of Flushing, Ohio, amidst the coalfields of Belmont County, stands a brick building which used to house the Citizens' National Bank. Like a lot of community financial institutions of its day, this bank specialized in small loans made to local farmers, sheepherders, and working-class folks in the nearby area and harbored the hard-earned dollars of their working-class neighbors. Their capital was fortified with investments of some local coal tycoons and a congressman from the area; and for nearly two generations, it served the community well until it was swallowed up by a much larger financial institution from a much larger city. Instead of the local farmers and businessmen who originally constituted the board of directors, financiers who have likely never set foot in the town, and probably couldn't even find it on the map, now operate the bank. The story of this little bank is not much different from a lot of community banks in lots of small towns across the country that have similarly been bought by larger financial corporations. But what is most noticeable about this bank was its founding date — smack in the middle of the Great Depression! One has to ask — who would invest money in a financial institution at a time when banks were going belly up and in a place where cash money was so scarce? Yet, that is precisely what this group of farmers, shepherds, and small-business operators did. And, for nearly two generations they succeeded in providing the capital that built homes, purchased equipment, expanded businesses, and paid college tuition for folks in that tiny town. But you have to wonder — in 1931 was it optimism or insanity that inspired the investors? For the founders of that little bank in that little town, investing their hard-earned cash money in the future of their community proved to be a good deal despite the economic climate of the Great Depression. But God offers us so much more. In Christ, we are given the strength to stand on hope when others are bailing out. In faith, we sign the deed to our lives over to him in full view of a skeptical public just as Jeremiah did so long ago. In confidence, we lay his claim on us out for all to see, even as he takes us unto himself to preserve us safe and secure for all eternity. CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Sermons for Sundays after Pentecost (Middle Third): The Hard Task of Truth-telling, by Lee Ann Dunlap The weekend is shot (almost). Tomorrow it is back to the “real” world, back to the grind, at least for most of us. Where will God be in all that? Be honest with me: Do you feel God’s Presence on the job, as you go through the usual Monday routine? Is God directing you as you attend to your e-mail, run through your voice mail, review the reports, or check your assignment? Let us be frank with each other. The businesses which employ most of us are part of the “secular” realm, not of the “sacred” realm that concerns God. That is the way most Americans see it. Religion is one thing; business is another. Our commitment to the principle of separating church and state has led to a “culture of disbelief,” one in which it is all right to be religious in private, but not publicly when we are on the job.1 But that is not the way that the Bible views the world of business! This morning’s First Lesson makes that clear.