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Text: Jeremiah 29:1-14 Review… ►The purpose was not the exile itself, but the repentance and restoration that the exile was meant to produce. Remember, Jeremiah’s vision of hope was not a promise that after this is over, things will get back to normal; back to the way they were before. The hope, according to Jeremiah, is that a new life/future would emerge from the wreckage/chaos! The idea of repentance contains a willingness to abandon our own way of doing life and adopting a new way of thinking and living… according to God. ● Something interesting happens in exile: your vision is expanded; you notice things/people you never noticed before; you see the ‘periphery’. Exile has the capacity for re-directing us toward what matters [not focused on what is lost, but on finding/reaffirming all that’s worth keeping!] It also has a way of humbling us; of allowing us to welcome and be welcomed by all those we had previously attempted to isolate or ignore. The other exiles look a lot like us! ● Exile is where you stop long enough to take a look around! To notice that out of exile, God desires to create a “community”… a returned from exile people who, having themselves been restored, will live with and toward the world motivated by grace. ►God is most often more optimistic about the world than I am! God could say, authentically, “I know the plans I have for you…” while allowing for those plans to be realized conditioned upon our response. The transformation would not be inevitable; it would not be accomplished by exile itself, but their response to exile. ● Admittedly, it’s hard to live in the tension of exile: too close to the culture, we become absorbed by it; to isolated from it, we become unsympathetic [too cooperative and the culture defines us: too resistant and we become apathetic… ‘without passion’]. ►Exile provides the context for mission. Jeremiah writes a letter from Jerusalem to the people in exile. In it, he offers no false hope or promises of a speedy resolve (no, “Hold off on the change of address card”). Instead, he says, “You might as well unpack your bags”. By using words such as “build” and “plant”, he is suggesting some form of decisive action on our part which signals an acceptance of “place” and “time” and our commitment to God in it. ‘build homes and plan to say’- (we have mastered the art of building houses, not homes) see this place (although not ideal) as the context of mission; see your current circumstance as consequential; as the context of life-formation. Develop homes which are informed and formed by the story of God. Know that mission will require a commitment to longevity and community. ‘plant gardens and eat the food they produce’- become part of the rhythm of the culture; invest time and energy in your community; contribute to the welfare of the local economy. Be conscious of the many ways that your resources can be shared to inspire worship and meet needs. ‘marry and have children… don’t dwindle away’- know that the lives you live and the decisions you make now are impacting generations to come. Don’t lose your influence; don’t become ineffective as a result of failing to multiply [not just about biological reproduction, but reproducing the story]. To experience ‘shalom’ (wholeness; health) in your home and marriage you can’t be telling (2) different stories! I have discovered this to be the biggest challenge facing marriages and families today. ‘work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare’- let’s face it, the shalom of the city is of mutual interest; stop thinking only of yourself and desire what’s best for your neighbor. ● Exile had not “forfeited” their identity, but would actually be the place they might become the most “distinguishable”… “recognizable”. It’s where in our righteousness, we become ‘great oaks that the Lord has planted for his glory’ (Isaiah 61:3) and where ‘the nations will see our righteousness’ (Isaiah 62:2). ►The exiles were to find mission in the rhythms of life. The ordinariness of their day was to become ‘sacred’ because it was filled with God. It connected the ordinary to something deeper to ensure that our faith would become relevant and sustainable. ►God calls us to accept our role as “advocates”. The point being, that our exodus would not simply come at their expense--- that God allowed me to be here so that I might ‘gloat’ about his deliverance and apparent ‘disdain’ for the culture. God’s hope is that exile might actually awaken us to his concern for the Babylonians (prevailing culture). ● An advocate, by definition, is one who intervenes to restore peace; one who speaks or acts on behalf of another [1 Timothy 2:5 “There is only one God and one mediator who can reconcile God and humanity—the man Christ Jesus”.] Advocacy is one of the purest expressions of Godliness because it actually allows us to “join God” in his passions because you are not only speaking on behalf of others, but of God! ● In chapter 32 Jeremiah makes an unusual financial decision: with the real estate market around Jerusalem having “tanked” due to the Babylonian invasion, it was definitely a “buyer’s market”. So, Jeremiah purchases a piece of property from his cousin which is located right in the heart of the devastation [‘location, location, location’]. This symbolic act was Jeremiah’s way of investing in the culture. It’s a declaration of our belief in a God who is all about redemption and restoration. Jeremiah was declaring, “There’s value here!” ►Hope seems to always requires some practical response in our current life-situation; some way of acting now as if the future has already arrived. Such practices reveal a vision of hope; a means of seeing beyond the limitations of the current damage and dysfuntionality toward a ‘shalom’ that God longs to establish through his Kingdom as it is incarnated in and through us. Our lives actually provide a “foretaste” of the life that God has planned for us. ►The outcome of exile will be determined by how we choose to respond to and with the prevailing culture (engage or resist). Exile is about discovering what it means to live as God’s people in an often ‘not-so-accommodating’ environment; often hostile, but mostly indifferent, easily ignored.
If we engage, we
will likely get to experience the ‘messy’ side of our faith; if we resist, we
will grow increasingly indifferent and apathetic (without heart). |
