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Written by Marcia Hauer
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Saturday, 20 October 2007 |
It's About Faith
Jeremiah 29:1, 4-14, Psalm 66
October 14, 2007
"Make a joyful noise," the Psalmist says. Something bad has happened in his/her life and God has delivered him/her. So "make a joyful noise to God, All the earth! How awesome are God's deeds! Your (God's) enemies cringe before you!"
Imagine that exultation and joy; then imagine that you have been taken into exile in Babylon. All that is precious to you is gone--home, possessions, perhaps family members, the center of worship, the Temple where God literally sat enthroned upon the cherubim atop the Ark of the Covenant. Everything is gone. You're in a foreign land. You don't understand the language. There are different customs. For all intents and purposes, you're a prisoner and even if you could leave, there's nothing to back to. The only glimmer of hope is prophecy. There are prophets, the ones who are part of the temple hierarchy, who are saying that the sojourn in Babylon will be short. God won't be angry forever. God will deliver you and your people and soon you'll be able to go home, to rebuild and resume your life. Somehow the exultation of the Psalmist and that scenario don't fit.
In my imagination there are a whole mix of emotions that come from the idea of exile: Sadness and anger at the loss of home and stability
Curiosity about the new place and the people there
Distrust of the new place and the people there
Fear, excitement, worries also come to mind
Into this mix comes Jeremiah's letter--my imagination says there was a public reading. The elders who received the letter got groups of people together and let Jeremiah's words be known. Of course, there are other ways that the word could have gotten out, but the fact is that now, you and everyone you know has gotten the word that you should settle in, build houses, plant gardens and eat the produce. You should marry, have children and they, in turn should marry and have children. Moreover, you should pray for the welfare, the shalom of Babylon and not for the shalom of Jerusalem as you have been taught. Then Jeremiah says that in Babylon's shalom you would find your own. Jeremiah's are amazing words especially when you consider that these are the same people who are angry enough that they wanted to dash Babylonian children's heads against the rocks.
What Jeremiah is saying is that in the midst of the anger, humiliation and loss, the people of Judah should build community because God had plans for them. God had a future for them. God had not abandoned them. God's plans were not in the immediate future, but they could not take place unless the people cooperated.
As I think about this message from God via Jeremiah I see a mixed blessing--some areas where making a joyful noise and extolling God's goodness would be expected and other places where it would not. On the one hand, the exiles would not be going home in the near future, but that meant an opportunity to begin again and maybe do it better this time. On the other, the children born in Babylon would think of that place as home. They wouldn't long for the Temple and their own place of worship as their parents and grandparents would, but those children could be taught their history as a people and their parents and grandparents could know for themselves. These children could learn the ways of their ancestors and perhaps be more faithful than they were. Perhaps the lack of the temple would make the coming generations more attentive to the precepts of their faith rather than just the rituals.
There was great possibility and great risk in Jeremiah's announcement, but the thing that God asked of the people that held the most promise for them was that of community. By settling in and resuming ordinary life, the exiles had the possibility of living in community and being God's hands and feet for one another, to be God’s hands and feet for the Babylonians, that is, they could live in the Kingdom of God.
One of the sayings attributed to Jesus is that "the Kingdom of God is among you," or, alternatively, that "the Kingdom of God has come near." That is, it's here and now--not in the future or out "there" someplace. It's real and tangible and it comes in community. The Kingdom of God, then as now, takes all of us pulling together to make something different in our world. It takes sharing our gifts of time, talent and material possessions, as we are able and being honest about what those gifts are. It means loving one another, laughing and crying together, leaving space for people where there is need and drawing close where there is need for that.
The future that God has planned for us is found in community, in the honest sharing of ourselves, not in giving until it hurts or in doing more and more in the vague and vain hope of getting some approbation. God's plan is that we love ourselves so that we can love our neighbors, that is, learning to say "no" when there is pressure to say "yes." Learning to let go so another can exercise her/his gifts. Using the logic we have been given so we're not taken advantage of. Being there for one another without enabling people to continue living in unhealthy ways or rescuing them when they persist in their addictions It means saying “No” when someone asks to borrow money when you hardly have enough for your own needs or you know that the money will be used for the addiction, whatever that addiction is. It means speaking the truth when the truth is difficult to both hear and to say. It means, for instance, saying, “I can no longer live with the situation as it is. If you want me to stay, you must do these things.” Then you have to follow through.
Community is not a collection of houses where people live, although it can be. Community can be found any time 2 people meet. It can happen in those random conversations we all have with strangers that turn out to be meaningful. It can happen between co-workers. A woman I worked with in Anchorage had some sweaters that she was trying to sell and I went to her home to look at them. What might have been a fifteen or twenty minute process to see what she had, what I thought my daughters might like and what sizes she had, turned into a several hour conversation as she spoke about her youngest daughter and how her decisions had impacted Miriam's life. Community comes when groups meet. It can be in a 12 step programs, or in another sort of support group. It can be here in this church. Community is a gift that comes when we need it and, sometimes, when we least expect it. Above all, community comes in both the giving and receiving. A gift without a receiver isn't a gift at all. Community is to be found when we show our authentic selves, without pretense and without giving with some expectation of receiving someone's gratitude. Community is not about a place but about attitude. Community is anytime we become God's hands and feet and ears and voice.
The Kingdom of God is to be found in community. It is the place where we live out our faith. It’s the place where we see people who are not like us and, instead of seeing a category—Latino, African-American, fat, skinny, disabled, gay, lesbian, transgender, liberal, conservative--seeing a sister or brother. Community is God’s will for us. So, make a joyful noise, praise God for all God's wonderful deeds. Praise God because God does have plans for us. God's plan is about living in the Kingdom of God, in community, right here and right now.
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