Rev. Blair Pogue
Signs of Hope/Outrageous Hope
Ascension Episcopal Church, September 25, 2022
Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15
Wherever and whenever there is military conflict in the world, I think about all the men, women, and children who were going about their daily lives before violence broke out. They were just going to the store or school, and then everything changed. In Ukraine millions of people have fled their homes and country. Women and children have been forced to leave husbands and fathers behind who must fight for the freedom of their country.
Amazingly, amidst stories of extreme suffering and devastation there are also stories of perseverance and hope. Students, professors, and administrators at the Ukranian Baptist Theological Seminary in Liviv have helped everyone who has come to them, at least 200 to 400 people each day. Some Ukranians fleeing Russian troops were praying as they walked out of the local train station, asking God to show them where to go next; they told seminary volunteers God brought them there. In the first few weeks all three floors of the seminary were occupied, and volunteers didn’t know where to put people. Volunteers found mattresses, mats and bedsheets, and others provided a listening ear to those who had experienced disruption, loss, trauma, and outright horror.
Fresh flowers are visible throughout the building; they’ve become a permanent fixture since a group of refugee women arrived at the seminary, saw some flowers, and began to cry. It was powerful to see something beautiful after witnessing so much ugliness and destruction. Since then volunteers make sure there are flowers on the tables and decorative lights on the ceiling.
When war broke out in Ukraine and residents began to flee, Oleksiya Kayokhtin, a 33-year-old history teacher in the southeastern city of Mariupol decided to stay. He refused to leave helpless children behind. He told ABC news, “I stay in town no matter what. I said I won’t leave my children even if I’m killed.” He helped evacuate an entire orphanage to Zaporizhia shortly after Putin declared war on Ukraine and took children, seniors, and disabled people to a bomb shelter where he brought food and warm clothing. I wonder what’s happened to him.
Flowers, decorative lights, remaining in a dangerous place in order not to leave children behind. These are tangible signs of hope in difficult and uncertain times.
Today’s lesson from Jeremiah is another story about hope in challenging times. It’s a story of outrageous hope in God’s promises in the face of every sign to the contrary.
Jeremiah was a prophet in Israel before, during, and after the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem. His ministry took place over a period of forty years, including the period in the 6th century when Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylonian army was besieging Jerusalem.
At that time Jeremiah was being kept in captivity by Israel’s King Zedekiah. Zedekiah didn’t like what Jeremiah was saying publicly about Israel’s pending destruction at the hands of Babylon for her unfaithfulness to God.
While imprisoned by his own king, as the people of Jerusalem were imprisoned by the Babylonian siege, Jeremiah received a word from the Lord that his cousin Hanamel was going to visit and ask him to buy his father’s field at Anathoth. When Hanamel came in person and made this request, Jeremiah took it as confirmation of God’s message.
Jeremiah was from Anathoth, a town not far from Jerusalem. The people of Anathoth didn’t like Jeremiah’s prophecies about their coming judgment and doom and persecuted him. So Jeremiah not only purchased a piece of land in an area under siege, but also a piece of land in a place where he was detested. There were witnesses to the signing of the deed of purchase, and the deed of purchase was put in an earthenware jar so it would last for a long time.
Jeremiah’s purchase was and is a sign and symbol of an outrageous hope. God promised to restore Israel, but that restoration was far in the future. Purchasing land as Nebuchadnezzar’s troops are killing residents and razing buildings in and around Jerusalem seemed like pure foolishness.
I wonder if you’ve ever been led by God to do something that everyone around you though was pure foolishness, or an unwise move?
I wonder if you’ve ever witnessed a sign of hope in the midst of what seemed like hopeless circumstances?
While Jeremiah spoke on God’s behalf to the people of Israel before and during the siege of Jerusalem, the passage you heard today was written for the exiles in Babylon after the fall of Jerusalem. Jeremiah is speaking a word of hope to a devastated community. They are understandably questioning their faith in God. Where was God when our city and our house of worship was destroyed? Doesn’t God care about us? If God resided in the Jerusalem Temple, where is God now? If Jerusalem was devastated by people who don’t worship Yahweh, are their Gods stronger than our God?
This passage is also written for future generations who are to hear Jeremiah’s words not so much as a past event, but as the word of God to them today. What word of outrageous hope does Jeremiah have for us today?
Our Episcopal faith communities – like faith communities of every other denomination and stripe are experiencing severe challenges. They were aging and declining before Covid, and sadly many church members and especially children and young adults have not come back. There are financial challenges, and the challenge of interpreting our spiritual treasures for those who’ve never gone to church, those who left the church because it really wasn’t speaking to their longings and losses, and new generations. And the competition the church faces is fierce: long work hours, consumerism, the amount of time and energy taken up by social media, and peoples’ busy and complex lives.
And yet, I believe God is speaking a word of hope to us right now, just as God spoke a word of hope to the Israelites in Jeremiah’s day. Love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Love your neighbors as yourselves. Live a life of practice in community, study scripture, pray, care for the poor and vulnerable, learn how to give and receive hospitality, and live generous lives of thanksgiving. God is faithful. God is with us. And if you follow the way of the Lord, you will be conduits of God’s love, life, and hope in a isolated, depressed, anxious, segregated, and polarized world.
After this service/Before this service I spoke to a group from Ascension about something called the Faithful Innovation process. It’s a process that has brought new energy and life to over 400 congregations. Faithful Innovation helps participants engage in simple spiritual practices that involve listening more deeply to God, one another, and our neighbors, and then designing small, low-cost experiments based on what is heard during those listening practices to learn more about what the Holy Spirit might be up to in the lives of your neighbors. (I will be at coffee hour if you weren’t able to come to the presentation and want to learn more about this process).
May the story of Jeremiah purchasing a piece of land during a siege sustain each of you in uncertain times and give you hope that others may find outrageous.
In the silence that follows I invite you to listen to the Holy Spirit. What might God want you to do or be as a sign of hope to others in uncertain times?