Jeremiah 32:36-44
“Now therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning this city of which you say, “It is being given into the hand of the king of Babylon by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence”: 37See, I am going to gather them from all the lands to which I drove them in my anger and my wrath and in great indignation; I will bring them back to this place, and I will settle them in safety. 38They shall be my people, and I will be their God. 39I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me for all time, for their own good and the good of their children after them.” (Jeremiah 32:36-39)
As may have been evident by my Pastor’s Report during Sunday’s Annual Meeting, this year of COVID has put me more deeply in touch with all the Exodus/exile/diaspora stories in the Bible. And, wow, there really are a lot of them! In both testaments! Apparently, to be the people of God is to expect and experience significant disruption in life.
I’m not sure we always think about being the people of God in this way. In fact, I think most folks go to church in order to help smooth out the wrinkles in their life, to fix broken things, to be a healthy, more holistic person. And, of course, a lot of that happens, but so too does ruptures in life and community. These, too, are common and unavoidable. I suppose, the upshot to this is that it keeps the community that the people of God share grounded and doesn’t allow the church to become a mere prop for one’s sense of self-esteem, family, or whatever. For, to be sure, there can be nothing grosser than the church become a prop or a backdrop to one’s independent life.
I think this is the sentiment at work in the prophet Jeremiah in today’s reading. The people of God are either about to experience Babylonian exile or they just have (or maybe they’re right smack dab in the middle of it all). The communal rupture has occurred. The ability to be together in worship as they were used to is gone. The fellowship exists, but primarily in memories that haunt each person’s nightmares. The outside world is ugly – “sword… famine… pestilence” – and that ugliness has penetrated the sacred, inner world of the people of God. You know, like a pervasive, ever-mutating, global virus. It is into this that Jeremiah must – and does – speak. And what does he speak?
“I will bring them back to this place… safety… be my people… I will be their God… give them one heart and one way… for their own good and the good of their children.”
Friends, as we move – carefully, thoughtfully, faithfully – back to “normal,” let’s set our sights even higher. Let’s make Jeremiah’s hopeful prophecy for Israel our prayer for First Presbyterian. Indeed, let’s settle for nothing less than place, safety, people, God, unity. Amen.
