Hope that Frees Us to Step Boldly into the Future
Bethel UMC, Greenville, SC
Scripture Lesson: Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15
Why are you buying this land? What are you thinking? God told you to do what? I wonder if those weren't the questions the witnesses asked Jeremiah when he purchased the land from his cousin. They certainly seem like reasonable questions.
Buying the family property probably seemed out of character for Jeremiah. Jeremiah wasn't a prophet with comforting words that gave the people hope. He had begun his ministry proclaiming that Judah, the southern kingdom – the piece of David's kingdom that remained had not been faithful to God. He implored the people to repent, to change their ways. Jeremiah calls to repent failed.
When the people didn't heed his call to return to faithfully being God's people, he began proclaiming that they would suffer for following their own desires and ways. He told them that God would punish them for their lack of faith. He proclaimed that they would be overrun by the Babylonians and be sent into exile. He told them that God would use King Nebuchadrezzar as his servant to punish Judah. He had even advised King Zedekiah to go ahead and accept God's punishment and surrender to King Nebuchadrezzar.
This message provoked King Zedekiah to hold Jeremiah as a prisoner while the city of Jerusalem was under siege by the Babylonians. Some scholars speculate Hanamel, Jeremiah's cousin must have entered Jerusalem during a break in the siege. It doesn't make sense for Hanamel to enter a city under siege to seek out an imprisoned prophet who is considered a traitor, especially not to offer him the opportunity to purchase land that is in imminent danger of falling into the hands of the Babylonians. Yes, it was proper to offer the land to a family member first in hopes that the property would remain in the family, but under the circumstances it must have seemed strange to those who relied on common sense. It wasn't strange to Jeremiah. For Jeremiah this was the confirmation that God had instructed him to buy the land as a statement of hope.
I wonder if some didn't see buying the land as the desperate act of clinging to the past. To the witnesses buying the land might have seemed an act of desperation. It may have raised questions about why Hanamel would risk his life to keep the land in the family. This was an extreme way to keep the traditions when Jeremiah was recommending surrendering to the Babylonians. These witnesses might have thought it was a waste of money to purchase land that was being captured by the enemy as they spoke or that Jeremiah was no longer a prophet who spoke for God but one who only thought they heard God.
Jeremiah's circumstances made purchasing the land probably seemed out of touch with reality or raised questions about his loyalty to Judah. Why would you buy land that would soon be in the hands of the Babylonians? Why would keeping the land in the family be so important? Why buy this land unless he really was a traitor and was assured that he could keep the land? It isn't hard to see how the witnesses could have questioned how Jeremiah could cling to his radical hope and trust in a God who was letting the Babylonians take their land.
However, it is precisely Jeremiah's circumstances that make his purchase of the land a bold statement of faith that God will not forget his people even when they suffer in exile in Babylon. Jeremiah placed his hope and trust in God to act to bring good out of the worst imaginable circumstance. Jeremiah trusted God to act according to God's promises.
No, it didn't make sense in worldly ways, but Jeremiah boldly took a step of faith and purchased the land proclaiming that God would bring the people back later and that once again the people would build homes and tend vineyards in this land. From his imprisoned, seemingly hopeless situation, Jeremiah stepped into the future confident and assured that God would bring new life to Judah and to this land he called home.
Jeremiah's present reality was filled with reasons to be afraid, to question what good the future could possibly hold, and to doubt the faithfulness of his God. Although Jeremiah was imprisoned in his present time, he did not see the future in terms of that reality. He saw the future in God's hands and acted based on a future when God would restore Judah. He was not bound by fear, but was free to act because his vision of the future was shaped by his radical hope and trust in God.
Just as Jeremiah proclaimed a radical message of hope in a future that didn't seem based on logic, we are called as Christians to be witnesses of a radical hope in God's present and future. I'm sure many who hear our message think that we are just as crazy as Jeremiah because we believe in God's desire to bring new life from death based on the life, death, and resurrection of God with us, Emmanuel. What did not seem possible or logical then is what we proclaim. Jesus was imprisoned by the authorities and sentenced to die. He accepted the reality of his present moment but trusted God with the future. He prayed for to avoid this future, but left the future up to God. God's will was for us to know radical, resurrection hope that is based on God's ultimate action of bringing forth new life – the resurrection of Jesus, Christ our Lord.
The disciples locked themselves in an upper room following Jesus death bound by fear of the future, but Christ came to proclaim that God brings forth new life that conquers death. Following the risen Christ, the disciples were able to step out of the reality of fear and death with confidence to act based on their vision of the future that was shaped by radical hope – hope that came from experiencing the risen Christ. They now saw the future in the light of the resurrection hope and faith offered to them by Christ. It didn't' mean that they would hide away in safety and keep this message to themselves, but that they could face the future and even death confident that God was with them in the present and would continue to be active in the future – whether they would be there or not.
This courageous way of living not out of fear of what is happening now but out of hope for what God will bring about in the future is what Dietrich Bonhoeffer described in an essay titled "After Ten Years". Bonhoeffer had reason to live in fear when he reflected on the circumstances of his present reality – he was a protestant pastor who had questioned and spoken out against Hitler and Nazi Germany. Although he knew that he was in danger he continued living his life. He acted not out of fear but hope when he engaged Maria von Wedemeyer in January 1943. He would never marry his love, because he was arrested and imprisoned by the Germans in April of 1943 and executed in the spring of 1945.
Bonhoeffer shared his essay that reflected on the previous ten years with friends and family on Christmas Eve, 1942. This is part of his passage subtitled "Present and Future":
"What remains for us is a narrow path, sometimes barely discernible, of taking each day as if it were the last and yet living it faithfully and responsibly as if there were yet to be a great future….To think and to act with an eye on the coming generation and to be ready to move on without fear and worry – that is the course that has, in practice, been forced upon us. To hold it courageously is not easy but necessary."
While Bonhoeffer recognized the seemingly hopeless situation that they faced, he believed firmly that they could live with confidence in God. He believed that they must not be paralyzed by or act based only on their fear in the midst of their circumstances, but that they act based on their faith in a God who can and will work for good in all circumstances.
As I've thought about Jeremiah's bold statement of faith in God's vision for the future of Judah, Jesus and the disciples faith that led them forward facing certain death, and Bonhoeffer's faith in the face of Nazi Germany, I've wondered what it means for us to live with that kind of radical hope and faith. Most of us do not face the same kind of circumstances, but that doesn't mean that we aren't called to live based on radical hope – resurrection hope – hope that is based on the belief that God brings new life.
It is this hope that sustained and encouraged Jeremiah, Jesus, the disciples and Bohoeffer. They all faced death because of their actions based because they surrendered to God and proclaimed this radical message of hope. We may not be imprisoned like they were, but we are bound in our present reality and called to proclaim a message of hope. It is a message that may cause others to think we are out of touch with reality, but living in that hope is the only way to be truly free.
To proclaim and live out this radical hope requires one to live not bound by fear or the reality of the current circumstances but to speak and act believing that God can in time bring new life out of even death, to believe that God can and will continue to act in ways that brings new life to God's children.
The freedom to live out this way of radical hope doesn't come from not having anything to fear, but in acting on a future that isn't limited by our current circumstances. It means that we have to act not out of fear but out of confidence that comes from believing that God has a vision of the future that isn't limited by our circumstances. What brings about this freedom isn't a change in circumstances but what motivates our actions.
Jeremiah's story of purchasing the family's land wouldn't have been the lectionary reading and might not have been included in our scripture if he hadn't proclaimed that he was acting because of his radical hope in God's future. His actions could have just been dismissed as someone without a real grasp of reality. His view of reality was not based solely on the circumstances of his present reality but was shaped by his radical hope in God's grace to bring about new life in the future.
How do we live this courageous way of radical hope?
How will we make a statement of radical hope, act as instruments of God's grace, and open their eyes to a future based on God's reality not our own?
These were questions that I was asking. I wasn't sure whether we acted out of such radical hope. Too often I wonder if we aren't being imprisoned by our fear or limited by the reality that if nothing changes we are a dying church – not just Bethel but mainline denominations. The question is whether we are going to be limited by our current circumstances. Will we give up and say that this is what is going to be or claim our radical hope and look for opportunities to be instruments for God to bring forth new life in us and in the world around us?
I've heard you and others refer to this church as a dying church in the middle of circumstances that don't offer hope for growth. Yet, you continue to come, you continue to care for this building, to pay for a minister. You haven't given up that radical hope that God can bring new life here in this place and in our lives.
I don't often here this hope expressed in words. I hear you make statements like, "when this church closes" or "I hope that the church lasts until after I die" or some of you even are willing to say that this church is "dying". I heard that we needed to repave the parking lot because it was crumbling and dangerous for many in our congregation to navigate. Yet at some level I wonder if paving the parking lot wasn't an act this radical hope that God will bring new life to this church and to those who come here in the future.
I hope and pray that we act not out of fear or desperation, but out of radical hope based on a vision of the future shaped by faith in God's grace. In order to live out this courageous way of Jeremiah and Bonhoeffer, our motivation must be a desire to be used by God not for our own benefit, but to help others discover the freedom of this radical hope. To live this life of radical hope we cannot live limited by our fears or the circumstances of being a small, aging congregation, but as Bonhoeffer wrote thinking and acting with an eye on the coming generation and ready to move on without fear and worry.
