“Business as Usual” (Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7)

It is with perfect 20/20 hindsight that we see the story that is unfolding.  We know of the prophets who warn the people of Israel and Judah to shape up or else.  These are warnings that the people ignore.  Thus, comes the consequence of their stubbornness . . . their arrogance . . . and, their ignorance—they are invaded by their enemy, Babylon.  The Babylonian invaders lay waste to the people’s land, destroy the temple, and make captives of the survivors.  These captives are hauled off to Babylon . . . a strange land to them all.  There they are told that they are to live . . . told that they were never going back to the place they called home. 

It would be safe to say that for these people their world went to “hell in a hand basket.”  The people were shocked because it all went against their beliefs . . . beliefs that were grounded in the privileges that come as being “God’s chosen people”.  How could God abandon them?  How could God allow such suffering to happen?  Where were the blessings and favors of God in this hellhole they were now living in?  They missed their homeland.  They missed their way of life.  They were angry . . . they were depressed . . . and, they were hopeless.

They were sitting ducks . . . sitting ducks for anyone who came along and made them promises of better days to come.  Sitting ducks for prophets spewing out false promises . . . giving false hope.

It is to this that the prophet Jeremiah writes to the people who are in exile in our reading this morning.  First, he lets the people know that he is the prophet of God . . . the one whom God is speaking through.  The words he shares to them in his letter are the words of God.  He proclaims: “This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I have carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon . . .”   These are not words of wishful thinking . . . of false hope, but the words of God.  They are the blunt, painful words of God.  Words that let the people know that they had better listen up and heed the words of God.

First, God lets them know that God was behind the exile.  God allowed King Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian army to take the people into exile.  The people did not listen . . . they turned away from God . . . ignored the warnings.  Sure, they thought that they were fine and that as God’s chosen people, they could do anything, and God would cover for them and be on their side.  Yet, God did not intervene in their stubbornness and ignorance.  No, God allowed them to feel the consequences of their choice.  The consequence for their actions was that they were now exiles . . . exiles in a strange land.  It would be an exile that would last 70 years . . . and, God did nothing to stop it from happening.  God’s message to the people was simple: you made the bed, now sleep in it.

That had to hurt . . . truth hurts when it confronts the ugliness of one’s choices and actions.  The people had no one to blame except themselves.  There were consequences.  This was no mere slap upon the wrist.  No, this was a big lesson to be learned.

And, what was the lesson to be learned?

Well, we will get to that eventually.  In the meantime, we have the next point of Jeremiah’s letter to the people . . . it is business as usual.    Here the prophet and God is telling the people to make the best of the situation they were in . . . “Build houses . . . settle down.  Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your children so that they too have sons and daughters.  Work hard . . . prosper.  Do what you would have done before, but now do it in a foreign and strange land.”  The message is that they are to hunker down and make the best of it because they are going to be there for a long time.

Now this is not quite the words of encouragement one would expect from a messenger from God.  This was not the Promised Land they had been given . . . not even close; yet, it is where they are.  Deal with it, proclaims the prophet.  The prophet tells them to keep on living because there is much life where they are . . . much to live for right where they are. 

Again, this is not quite the message the people are expecting or wanting to hear.  They are wanting God to come along and wreak havoc upon their captors to free them and allow them to return to their homeland.  Since this is not coming the people assume that there is not much to live for . . . not much to be done, thus there comes an attitude of depression and giving up. 

At the same time, God’s message through Jeremiah is that they are to stay right where they are and make the best of the situation . . . hunker down . . . and to keep on living as faithfully as they can right where they are.  They are to serve God where they are.

Jeremiah realizes that the situation for the exiles is not as bad as they think it is.  In fact, it is actually pretty good.  The captors allow the exiles enough freedom to own property . . . to build houses . . . to produce food . . . own businesses.  Oh, how quickly they forget that other time when they were exiles in a foreign land . . . Egypt.  Compared to their ancestors these exiles were in paradise.  Thus, it is that the prophet exhorts the people to have hope . . . this exile is bearable and that they can handle it with God’s help.  Jeremiah tells the people to see the hope in the everyday, ordinary activities of living life.  They are not abandoned . . . they are not alone.  God is with them even in exile if they have the eyes of faith to see that presence.  Here the message is of hope.  Don’t give up, there is hope in the future if trust is put in God.

Lastly, Jeremiah gives to the people a radical thought . . . pray for your oppressors.  Pray for your oppressors’ success . . . their prosperity . . . their well-being.  “Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile.  Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”  Again, this does not quite fit into the theology of the exiles, after all, they were God’s chosen people.  But now Jeremiah is telling them that they are not the only people that God cares for and blesses, God also cares for the rest of God’s creation . . . even those who seem to be enemies—they are also God’s people.  God is the God of all people—Gentile or Jew.  You see, God is the God of all people . . . no single racial or ethnic group . . . no one nation can have a monopoly on the God of all creation.  God loves all people and cares for their well being.

Once again, not quite the message the people were expecting.  In fact, nothing in this letter is what the people are expecting.  Expecting words of encouragement . . . words of hope . . . well, they get some ideas that are quite foreign to them.  They are told to quit making excuses and waiting for something that isn’t going to happen . . . it was their choice and now they are paying the price.  God warned them, they didn’t listen because they thought God would never come through with the threat . . . after all, they were God’s chosen people.

Second, they are told to hunker down and get on with life . . . this is where they were and were going to be for quite a while.  Instead of moaning and groaning about it, they were told to make the best of it.  Get on with their business.  Things weren’t as bad as they thought . . . it could have been a whole lot worse—did they not remember their own story, the story of where they had come from in the first place?

And, lastly, they were told to do the unthinkable—to pray for their captors . . . not for bad things to happen to them, but for the best.  To pray for the welfare of their captors.  Does this sound familiar?  Isn’t that the New Testament teaching of the Golden Rule—”to do unto others as you would have them do to you” and “love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you, bless those who curse you.”  Here Jeremiah lets the people know that they are not the “only children of God”, but that they are only children of God with everyone else.

So, here is the Good News from our reading this morning:

·        God does not abandon us.  God is with us wherever we might be . . . in the good times, in the bad times, and in all the time between.

·        Because of this we are to make the best of whatever situation we are in . . . we are to go about the business of being faithful no matter what cards we have been dealt.  We are to hunker down and live lives of faith no matter where we are—good or bad.

·        And, we are to pray . . . pray for not only ourselves, but for those who we may see as our enemies, our oppressors, and our biggest pains in the rear.

Life may really suck and be going to hell in a hand basket, but God is still with us.  Because God is with us, we must not quit doing what we have been called to do and be . . . to live life faithfully. And, we are not to forget that we are not the only ones . . . God’s children are everywhere, even in our enemies.  Thus, we are to pray . . . to pray for God’s will to be done through all of God’s creation.  But mostly we are to remember, no matter what . . . we are not alone.  Wherever we are, whatever the situation . . . God is with us.  Amen.

“The Gift of Simplicity” (Luke 17:5-10)

Have you ever gotten tired of feeling like you just did not have enough faith?  Tired of feeling overwhelmed that you just did not have enough faith to go around with all the expectations of being a faithful person or “good Christian”?  Ever wondered why in the world you ever signed up to be a follower of Jesus after looking at all the demands and examples of his life that are sitting before you?  Have you even wanted to cry out, just as the disciples did in our reading this morning: “Increase our faith!”

As I read our scripture reading this morning, I could not help but to identify with the disciples in their request for an increase in faith.  Here are these followers who have been asked to do all of these things that Jesus does . . . things like not making people stumble and sin, forgiving others who have wronged them—not just once, but over and over again.  Throw on top of that his preaching and teaching about peace and justice . . . loving one’s enemies . . . being inclusive, inviting all to the table.  That is a lot to heap on one plate . . . overwhelming!  How is one to have enough faith to do everything?

So, the disciples did what any of us would do . . . they asked Jesus to increase their faith!

How many times have we caught ourselves in this same predicament?

Often “faith” is described as believing in something for which there is no proof.  Which is great when we are looking down the road at an uncertain future, but it has little to do with what Jesus is talking about in our reading this morning.  The faith that Jesus is referring to is based upon . . . not the future, but what can be done right here and now . . . based on our everyday lives.  In this regard, faith becomes more of an allegiance towards something that must be done or done for someone.  In regard to those who are faithful that means an allegiance to God and God’s will.  With this Jesus is saying to his disciples that faith is nothing heroic . . . nothing dramatic, it is doing what must be done that is right in front of you.

Faith, when you get down to it, is pretty ordinary.  As Jesus describes it, faith is just doing your job, just doing your duty, not because of any sense of reward but simply because it needs doing.  Because of this faith is doing what needs to be done right in front of us.  According to Jesus, we all can already do this.   Faith can be pretty ordinary.  Thus, Jesus says, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.”  It doesn’t take a whole lot of faith to yank out a mulberry tree and move it . . . you just do it.

It is that simple.

Here is the bottom line: faith is not an idea, faith is a muscle.

I think that we sometimes gets ourselves caught up in a trap when we consider faith to be an idea . . . consider faith to be something out there beyond our reach that we hope for.  This creates a lot of stress and feelings of doubt . . . doubt that we can be who God created us to be.  Thus, the mantra of “increase our faith”.

Instead, Jesus says that it really is quite simple.  Jesus lets his disciples and us know that we already have what we need to be faithful.  Being faithful is comes down to recognizing all the God-given opportunities before us that show up each day and need to be done.  Think about it.  Faith is:

·        Doing our work . . . doing our work to the best of our abilities . . . doing it to keep food on the table . . . to keep the world running.

·        Caring for those who are in need . . . family, friends, and the strangers who enter our lives out of nowhere.

·        Protecting the vulnerable we encounter in our lives . . . the friend who is having a difficult day . . . a co-worker who has experienced a loss . . . a child who is crying.

·        Reaching out to the lonely . . . those who are unable to leave their homes . . . the kids sitting at the end of the lunch table by him or herself . . . those who are mentioned but are not seen.

·        Befriending the friendless.

·        Keeping the world going . . . doing what we can to make the world a better place . . . picking up garbage we walk by on the street . . . cheering on the local kids who are out there competing or playing in the band . . . supporting local businesses.

·        Contributing to the common good . . . supporting the local food pantry . . . after-school programs . . . youth groups . . . the library.

Jesus is telling us that it is all there each and every day.  It is all the ordinary stuff that we do all of the time.  When it is taken together and blessed by God it moves from the realm of the ordinary into the extraordinary.

It is our job to remember that even the simplest things that are done in faith can have a huge impact.  Think about it.  Think of all the good things that people have done this past week in their roles as employers and employees, students, parents, citizens, volunteers and more.  It adds up . . . it adds up to be a mountain of good works.  Now imagine what that week would have been like if those things had not gotten done . . . it would be a darker and grimmer world that we would be living in.  And, think about how it made you feel doing this supposedly simple, ordinary work . . . how it empowered you.  How it could make you want to do even more.  Too often we think that what we do does not matter much to God or others, but the reality is it makes a big difference when we step up and faithfully do what is set before us each day.  It makes ordinary faith extraordinary.  It is exercising that muscle.

Faith is also an adventure.  We do not always know what each day will bring . . . where God will lead us . . . who God will put into our lives.  Faith is putting one foot in front of the other and plugging onward towards a future that we trust in God in all things.  Faith is stepping out into the world and looking for opportunities to be God’s partner and co-worker in the world . . . of working towards fulfilling God’s will.  From solving a problem to forgiving someone who has wronged us, we have opportunities on a daily basis . . . simple, ordinary opportunities . . . that we are invited to experience and grow in our discipleship and witness to God’s presence and goodness in the world.  It is an adventure!

We do not need more faith.  We have plenty of faith.  We just need to use it . . . to use it in our daily lives.  To do that which we need to do each and every day . . . to live life!  There is nothing extraordinary about such faith . . . nothing heroic.  It is essential.  We just need to live it as each opportunity presents itself on a daily basis.

When I graduated high school and was heading off to college, my mother presented me with a present.  It was a framed piece of embroidery.  It had a simple acronym . . . “K.I.S.S.”  It was the “K.I.S.S. theory”.  The acronym stands for “keep it simple stupid”.  My mother did not think that I was stupid, but she did think that I needed to be reminded from time to time—when feeling overwhelmed with the world around me—that I needed to keep things simple.  That I needed to do the things that gets one through the day.  If I could do that, she believed, I would be fulfilled and successful.  It was the gift of simplicity.

Jesus reminds us that faith is quite simple.  It is doing the ordinary stuff of daily life knowing that it is a gift and blessing under our care.  With God it all becomes extraordinary.  So, thank you.  Thank you for all you do as the followers of Jesus week in and week out.  It takes courage to get up each morning and dedicate yourself and your life to making it another day.  God sees it . . . and, we are all blessed.  Amen.