The scriptural basis for this sermon is Jeremiah 32:1-15.
Have you ever noticed that God has a habit of saying things that make
us stop and say, “Oh, come on; you must be kidding!” God says that kind of
thing over and over again in the scriptures. It started with Abraham and Sarah.
God promised them a son whose descendants would be as numerous as the stars in
the sky! That son didn’t come along for quite a while. When Abraham and Sarah
were way past the age of having children, God showed up and told them that next
year, that son would come along. Sarah didn’t exactly say, “Oh, come on, you
must be kidding!” but she did laugh so hard that she nearly wet herself! But,
sure enough, the next year, their son Isaac came along. And you remember Jonah.
When God told him to go to Nineveh and preach repentance to them, he, too, said,
“Oh, come on; you must be kidding!” But just in case God wasn’t kidding, Jonah ran the other direction as fast as he could.
You all know how that turned out!
Jonah had to spend three days of timeout in the belly of a big fish before he
learned to take God at God’s word. Of course, the most famous person who said,
“You must be kidding!” was Jesus’ disciple Peter. When Jesus told him that he
would be killed in Jerusalem, Peter came right out and said as much! “God
forbid, Lord,” Peter said, “this will never happen to you!” Jesus wasn’t a fan
of Peter’s response. He called Peter “Satan,” and told him that he needed to
change his attitude, because Peter was just getting in God’s way! Telling God,
“Oh, come on; you must be kidding!” may not be a very wise thing to do, but
it’s what people frequently say when God gives them instructions.
So it makes me wonder why Jeremiah didn’t say the very same thing. When
God told him to buy a field from his cousin Hanamel, though, Jeremiah didn’t blink
an eye. He bought that field, and made it absolutely legal so that no one could
question the legality of his purchase. Now, the situation in Jerusalem was very
serious at that time. When Jeremiah’s cousin came around selling that field,
the Babylonian army was surrounding the city of Jerusalem. The Babylonians had
the most powerful military in the world at that time. Jeremiah himself had told
the king that Jerusalem wasn’t going to last much longer. “This is what the Lord says,” he had said to the king. “I am about to give this city into the hands
of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it. If you fight against the Babylonians,
you will not succeed.” So why in the world would Jeremiah buy a field?
Pretty soon, that field was going to belong to the Babylonians! If anyone had
cause to say, “Oh, come on; you must be kidding!” it was Jeremiah.
But Jeremiah didn’t say that, because God gave Jeremiah a reason for
that purchase. God gave him hope, saying, “Houses, fields and vineyards will
again be bought in this land.” Now, God didn’t give Jeremiah any details as to
when or how things would get back to normal. With the hindsight that we have
today, we know that the Babylonians did indeed conquer Jerusalem, and that all
of the educated people were dragged off into exile in Babylon. It was nearly 60
years until they were allowed to return to their homeland. But we also know
that they did return, and houses, fields,
and vineyards were indeed bought once again in their land. When God gives us
hope, we can count on it.
I can’t help but see the similarity between Jeremiah’s situation and
ours. In Jeremiah’s time, the city was surrounded by a powerful enemy. Today,
we have an invisible virus in our midst that is even more powerful that the
Babylonian army. In Jeremiah’s time, the people were under siege, confined to
their city with dwindling supplies of food. Today, we are confined to our
homes, and grocery store shelves are frequently empty. In Jeremiah’s time,
people were afraid that their way of life was coming to an end. Today… well, we
are afraid of the very same thing. I’m pretty sure that some people feel not
only helpless but hopeless. It’s a terrible thing to be threatened by a
powerful enemy, especially when we are incapable of fighting it.
Let me switch gears for just a minute. Many of you are familiar with
Winnie the Pooh and his friends. One of those friends is Eeyore, the downcast
donkey. Even his name sounds dejected, doesn’t it? Ee-yore. One day, Eeyore was worrying, as he frequently does in the
stories about Winnie the Pooh and his friends. “‘Supposing a tree fell down,
Pooh,’ he asked, ‘when we were underneath it?’” Ah, yes… the worst case
scenario. That’s what Eeyore was afraid of. And what was Pooh’s wise response?
“‘But supposing it didn’t,’ said Pooh after careful thought.” What a wonderful
example of living your life in hope! Sometimes I find wonderful theology in
books that are supposed to be for children!
So, here’s the connection between Jeremiah and Winnie the Pooh. You can
find all kinds of Eeyores in our society right now; and they give us all kinds
of reasons why we should lose hope. We read daily about the lives that have
been claimed by a virus that has the potential to kill us, too. We are warned
that there aren’t enough test kits to go around so we can’t track where that
virus has been or predict where it’s going. Predictions of disaster are
everywhere: the stock market will crash, none of us will have any money, and our
food supply will disappear. Some people even claim that the government is
trying to take away all our civil liberties; and we will all end up as
prisoners of the state! Can’t you just hear Eeyore: “Suppose a tree fell down
while we were underneath it?” Our God, though, invites us to reject Eeyore’s
pessimism and to live, instead, in hope like Winnie the Pooh. We won’t all die;
the stock market will recover; and our food suppliers won’t leave us to starve.
When someone predicts that our society will crumble beneath us, maybe we should
remember Pooh’s wise response: “But suppose it doesn’t?”
So, here is God’s message to us in the middle of our own siege. It is
the same message that God gave to Jeremiah: “Houses, fields, and vineyards will
again be bought in this land.” Let’s update that message to fit our own times.
Today, God might tell us, “You will be able to hold your grandchildren in your
arms once again. You will be able to gather with friends once again. Although
your life might change, it will not end in disaster! Your fear will disappear
like the morning mist; because I am the Lord your God, and I am more powerful
than any virus.” God’s message to us is an invitation to live our lives in joy
instead of in despair. It is an invitation to live our lives with courage
instead of being controlled by our fear. It is an invitation to look beyond the
difficulties of the present to see the possibilities of the future. It is an
invitation to live in the hope that God offers us – today, tomorrow, and
forever.
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