God's Plans for Us (Jeremiah 29:11-14)

 This scripture is one that a lot of people like. The first verse, especially. For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. 

It is a verse many find comforting. Inspiring. It is often written in calligraphy and framed and hung on walls.

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Originally, this was written from Jeremiah to the people of Israel. People who were not where they wanted to be. People who were forced into exile, far from their homeland. People who felt that they had been abandoned by God. 

People who were so distraught that they couldn’t even bring themselves to sing the songs of Zion, the songs that once brought them comfort.

Have you ever felt yourself in a place where you did not expect to be? A place where you did not want to be?

This can be a literal, physical place, or a more metaphorical or mental place. In whatever way, have you ever found yourself far away from where you wanted to be?

Have you ever felt lost? Alone? Stranded?

I think many of us have felt that way, at least at some point in our lives. Maybe that’s why this verse from Jeremiah is so popular.

Because this verse and this passage assure the people of Israel that, despite everything, God still had plans for their future and for their welfare.

God even says to them: “I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you… and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.”

In other words, God is going to bring them back home, to the place where they belong, and restore to them all that had been taken from them.

It’s what we want to hear, right?

But here’s the thing: in these verses, we don’t hear exactly when their fortunes will be restored. We don’t hear when they will be brought back home. We don’t hear when their time in exile will come to an end.

I think this is an important thing to know. Should the people start packing their bags? Should they start filling out their change of address forms? Should they start selling off their livestock, and anything else they don’t want to move?

We started our scripture in verse eleven. 

Often, all we ever hear is verse eleven. 

But right before it, in verse ten, God says: “Only when Babylon’s seventy years are completed will I bring you back home.”

Seventy years is a long time. I guess we don’t need to start packing quite yet. Dang.

God’s timeline is often not the timeline we want. Seventy years! Entire generations will pass away before these promises of God will come to pass! 

And God seems pretty set on this. If we back up a little more in this chapter, to verses six and seven, God instructs the people to get married, have children, then have their children get married, so that they may have their own children, all in the land where they now find themselves.

Meanwhile, God says: seek the welfare of the city where you are in exile, and pray on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. 

In other words: get comfortable. Make a life for yourself and for your children here, because even though God will bring you back to your homeland, it’s not going to happen anytime soon.

So why was God not in a hurry to bring the people out of exile? Why did God tell them there was a plan, that their fortunes would be restored, and they would be brought home, if that wasn’t going to happen for a very long time?

Why couldn’t it happen now?!?

Do you ever get impatient with God? 

I know I do. It’s frustrating… and disheartening. 

But in this case, there was a reason. 

The people needed that time, to learn something. 

See, back home, they had not followed God’s ways. They had not done what was needed to maintain a society that benefitted everyone. 

They had neglected to show justice to the needy. They had allowed economic injustice to flourish. Their rulers had set up an economy which allowed the rich to get richer, and which took what little the poor had away from them.

People were hungry. Without work. They were losing their homes and their land. 

And let me tell you: nothing upsets God and God’s prophets more than seeing the poor suffer like this because their labor and their lives are being exploited in an effort to satisfy the endless greed of the wealthy.

That is what upsets God the most.

If you want proof of this, consider that God only called prophets to pronounce their words of condemnation during periods of great economic inequality.

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Let’s go through this real quickly…

The years 786-701 BCE were times of great economic inequality. In those years, the rich grew richer, and the poor grew poorer. And those are the years when God called Isaiah, Hosea, Jonah, Micah, and Amos to do their prophesying.

The years that followed—700-640 BCE—were years in which the poor were taken care of; years when the nation’s wealth was more evenly distributed. And in those years, God didn’t see the need to call any prophets. There are no prophetic writings from those years.

But then, from 640 to 560 BCE, economic inequality again took over, and the poor suffered. And these were the years when Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Obadiah, Nahum, Zephaniah, and Habakkuk did their prophesying.

Then there was another time of relative equality, when economic justice returned… and again, the prophets were silent.

And then, after that, another time of economic inequality, and this time, it was Haggai, Zechariah, Joel, and Malachi, who God called to speak out against injustice.

You can see the pattern: when the nation treats its poor well, and takes care of them, God is pleased, and doesn’t send any prophets to pronounce doom and judgment.

But when the nation treats its poor with contempt, the prophets arise…

And in this case, the case of Jeremiah, the prophet speaks of the exile as a way that God is forcing the people to think about all these things. 

It’s kind of like a “time-out” given by a parent to their child. A “time-out” to think about one’s actions. A “time-out” that, in this case, lasted seventy years.

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So there was a purpose. The people needed time to learn. They needed time to grow. They needed time to figure out who they were, and who God was calling them to be, as a nation. They needed time to learn how to practice the justice that God demanded.

Maybe that’s why their time of exile lasted so long. And maybe that’s why they were told to build houses, and raise families, and live in those foreign cities long enough that they would learn to care for and pray for the cities they now lived in; to pray for the welfare of people besides themselves. 

In other words, they needed to learn to love their neighbor, even when that neighbor included people not like them.

The exile was necessary. But God didn’t want the people to lose hope. So to give the people hope, God assured them that God still had a plan for their restoration; and that, when their time of exile was over, that God would then bring them back home.

And maybe God also wanted them to stop sitting around, doing nothing, while they waited for God to act. A lot of people, when life throws them a curve, or when things don’t go the way they planned, they throw their hands up and quit trying. They quit trying to live. They quit trying to be happy. They quit caring, about themselves, or those around them.

God’s saying: “You’re not going to do that. You’re going to become a part of the community where you’re at. You’re going to get involved. You’re going to have a life…

…”Because simply going back home isn’t going to make you happy. Going back home isn’t going to solve all your problems. 

A lot of the problems and challenges you face aren’t out there; a lot of the challenges you face are in here. In your heart. 

I brought you here, into exile, in an attempt to fix your heart. Once you do that, then you’ll be ready to go back home.”

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Today, being part of a church that seeks to truly follow Jesus feels like being in exile.

It feels, in many ways, like we’ve been cut off.

We’ve been cut off from the society at large. So many see no value in religion or the church these days. We are among the dwindling few. A remnant.

And we’ve been cut off from many within the church. Many within the church say that religion is about power and influence. They try to control others and exert their dominance over society. And they use Christianity as a tool, a weapon, to beat their opponents into submission.

But that’s not what we see when we read the gospels. That’s not what we see when we look at Jesus.

We see humility. Compassion. And a love that is higher, deeper, and wider than we can imagine. A love that embraces all, affirms all; a love that is limitless.

And sometimes, it seems that the number of Christians who see this same love in Jesus is not many.

But I believe that though it may feel that we are in exile, God has plans for us. And these are plans of restoration. Plans for our welfare. Plans for a hope-filled future.

And signs of this hope-filled future are already present, in so many ways. 

I see hope in New Beginnings. I know that some of us are struggling to be patient with the process, just as the people Jeremiah spoke to were impatient with what they were going through. But God’s promises are sure, and God’s promises will not fail.

I see hope in the conversations I have with others in our community. Relationships with about a dozen other faith communities who see in Jesus what we see, and who are finding new ways to work together, as together we share with our community and our world the radical, limitless, unconditional love of Christ………………………..

And I do sense the Spirit stirring things up here at First Christian Church. God’s gentle, restless Spirit is putting ideas into people, and something big and new and good is in our future, I just know it. 

As we wait for that to happen— I don’t think we’re going to have to wait 70 years, I think that things are going to happen much sooner than that— but as we wait, we should be open to what God is trying to teach us now, right where we’re at. 

There is a reason for us to be in the place where we are, at this present moment. It may very well be that God has brought us to where we are for just such a time as this… just as God brought the people of Israel to Babylon… to learn all that God needed for them to learn, to grow in knowledge and wisdom, and to rediscover what it means to truly follow God.

Dead Man’s Curve (Luke 10:25-37)

 When Ginger, Ethan and I moved to Bloomington from southern California 2½ years ago, we more or less followed the historic route 66; and we stopped at a number of Route 66 tourist spots along the way. 

You’ve probably heard that, this year, Route 66 is celebrating its 100th year. There are celebrations planned in nearly every Route 66 town.

Route 66 was established in 1926. By 1938, the entire stretch was fully paved. 

Over the years, sections of Route 66 were realigned or rerouted. Often this was done in the interest of safety. 

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One such place is the section in nearby Towanda called “Dead Man’s Curve.” 

Right there where the curve was, there was a house, and the owners kept having to replace their porch because cars travelling too fast would approach that curve and run off the road, hitting their porch and destroying it. 

Then one day a semi ran off the road and knocked the whole house off its foundation. The house was removed after that.

In 1954, Route 66 through Towanda was re-routed, and drivers no longer had to travel through Dead Man’s Curve. The new road was safer, kept more people alive, kept them from destroying houses, and allowed more people to arrive at their destination.

Because what is the point of a road if it does not help people to arrive, safely, at their destination? What is the point if it doesn’t help them safely get to where they want to go?

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The road from Jerusalem to Jericho was about 18 miles long, which one could do, on foot, in a day. It was mostly downhill, since Jerusalem sits at 2,500 feet elevation, while Jericho sits below sea level.

Some of you have been there, so you know better than I.

As you descend into Jericho, the terrain gets hotter, drier, and more barren. The road meanders through canyons and ravines; in some places, it is quite narrow, wedged in between a cliff rising up on one side, and dropping off dangerously on the other.

A first-century Dead Man’s Curve.

Jews who lived in Jericho often travelled up the road to Jerusalem, especially for holy days and festivals. Then, after the holy days, they travelled back.

They had to be on the lookout for robbers, who took advantage of the terrain, and often hid in the ravines or behind rocks to attack unsuspecting travelers. 

Many of these robbers were Samaritans. A Samaritan wouldn’t think twice about robbing a Jew. The animosity between these two groups knew no bounds.

It was always safer to travel in a group, for this and other reasons. Remember at Easter, the story of the two disciples traveling to Emmaus? And how Jesus came up to them, (yet they did not know it was Jesus) and asked to join them? They were not surprised that an apparent stranger asked to journey with them, and in fact, they probably welcomed the extra company, since there is safety in numbers.

But the man in the parable that is our story for today… is traveling down to Jericho by himself. 

And, at Dead Man’s Curve, is attacked by robbers, who strip him, beat him, and take off.

And they leave him there, on that narrow road, exposed to the harsh desert sun, with no food, no water, no shelter; bleeding, bruised, naked, and not far from death.

The vultures are already circling.

I’m not sure what this man’s purpose was for traveling to Jericho. Perhaps he had been to Jerusalem on a pilgrimage, there for one of the holy days, and was returning home. As we’ll see shortly, there does seem to be other religious-types traveling the road that day… although why they didn’t all meet up, and travel together, I don’t know.

Whatever his purpose was for traveling that day, the road he traveled on did not bring him safely to his destination. He did not make it safely to Jericho. He did not reach his goal.

We are all on a journey. We are all traveling to some destination.

Some are on a journey toward prosperity. Some are on a journey toward healing. Some are on a journey toward security in their life.

Those who are graduating have successfully completed one stage of their journey… but the journey continues…

And we all want to reach our destination safely. We all want to achieve what it is we’ve set out to achieve. 

As a society, we build roads to help people reach their destination. I’m speaking metaphorically here.

Education is a road to the future, for example. 

We’re all looking for a road, a path, that will lead us to our future. And as a society, we try to make those roads safe and accessible. If there are any dangers or roadblocks, we try to remove them. Or, at least, we should.

Yet many dangers and roadblocks remain.

Racism places roadblocks in the paths of many. 

This past week, we’ve seen in a few states, congressional districts redrawn, in an attempt to disenfranchise people of color. It’s scary how fast some states have been to redraw those lines, and exclude Black people, especially, from having representation in government.

In the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) we recognize that racism is a sin, and we are committed to ridding both our church and our nation of racism.

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A letter to the church from our General Minister, Terri Hord Owens, and the members of our church’s Reconciliation Ministry Commission—dated May 8—reaffirms our denomination’s stand against racism.

The letter notes that free and fair access to voting, and fair representation, are currently under threat.

The letter points out that the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, were signed by President Lyndon B Johnson, a lifelong member of the Disciples of Christ.

The letter also points out that, in 1982, the Voting Rights Act was extended by President Ronald Reagan, who grew up a Disciple (and who attended Eureka College, which is affiliated with our denomination)

The letter then states that “We are the church of Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Reagan, Barton Stone and Alexander Campbell, leaders that were committed to creating religious and social systems that broke down barriers … even as they lived out their faith and political commitments in different ways.”

I think another way to say this is that we are committed to making the roads we travel safer… for everyone… so that everyone has a fair chance of making it to their destination safely.

This work is so important today. 

Once upon a time, it was robbers hiding in the rocks on the way to Jericho that presented a danger.

Once upon a time, it was a sharp curve on route 66 that presented a danger.

Both of these things kept people from safely reaching their destination.

But today we are called to make the journey safer in other ways… and one way is by continuing the work to be a pro-reconciliation, anti-racism denomination.

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In my previous congregation, there was one lady who said once in a group conversation that she didn’t think racism wasn’t a problem anymore; and she didn’t understand why people kept bringing it up.

And maybe she saw that her congregation, as small as it was, was incredibly diverse, with members who were Black, white, Mexican, and Asian, including immigrants from Pakistan, Burma, Cambodia, and Samoa. 

That diversity was something we rightfully celebrated. And maybe she looked at that, and thought, racism must no longer exist.

But maybe she hadn’t ever really talked to those members about their experiences, and how their experiences might not be the same as hers, and the additional roadblocks and dangers they face as they journey through life.

In a different congregation, even earlier in my ministry, Ginger and I once took a group of youth from the church on a camping trip. We had a reservation at a privately owned campground near Santa Cruz, California, and we pulled in at dusk. Our reservation was for a specific campsite, so I drove around very slowly, looking through the almost-darkness to figure out which campsite was ours.

When I found it, I parked the car, and went to check in with the campground manager.

Before I got to his office, he storms out toward me and starts berating me. He said to me: “This is a family campground. We have families with children here. We don’t need you coming in here, driving around like crazy.” 

His anger made no sense to me. Confused and upset, I walked back to our campsite. The youth could see that I was upset, so I explained to them what happened.

The kids just shook their heads. I expected them to be as shocked as I was, but they just shrugged their shoulders, as if the manager’s behavior was to be expected.

I looked at the kids I had brought: they were a diverse group. one was Black. One was white. One was Asian… And, looking at the expressions on their faces, I finally got it. I finally understood.

I realized: it wasn’t my driving that upset the manager. It was who I brought with me.

And for those kids, this is how the world works for them. They’re used to it, and were not surprised by it. This is what they experience every day.

But for a white person like me, it was a whole new experience.

They are used to roadblocks, barriers, and dangers in their path. They are used to not being able to safely reach their destination, and having to find an alternate route, or turn back.

Our call, as followers of Jesus, is to be the good neighbor who helps make the journey safer, by removing the roadblocks and the dangers, not just for ourselves, but for everyone. 

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Something like racism is at play in our scripture today. Those listening to Jesus tell this story knew that robbers lurked along the Jericho trail. And they knew—or assumed—that most of those robbers were Samaritans. 

Because that’s just how Samaritans are.

But then, in the story, some good, righteous, religious folks come traveling down that road… and when they see the beaten, left-for-dead traveler, they pass by on the other side of the road… which took some effort on their part, since the road really wasn’t very wide. They would have had to hug the cliff, or scamper down below, to pass by without coming near the injured man.

But then a third traveler comes along… and he’s a Samaritan. 

Come back to finish the job, no doubt, or to see if there was anything of value left on the victim that the first group of robbers might have missed, that he could take for himself. 

But no; this Samaritan… this Samaritan… offers aid to the wounded traveler. This Samaritan is the only one who actually worked to make this road a little safer, a little less dangerous. The only one who actually helped the beaten man make it to his destination.

By making this character in the story a Samaritan, Jesus challenges all the racial and prejudicial assumptions of his day.

If we want to faithfully follow Jesus, that is work that we should be doing as well. We need to challenge all the racial and prejudicial assumptions of our day.

In a sermon he preached in 1967, Martin Luther King, Jr. asked what systems are in place today that leave people beaten and battered? He asked, How do we transform the road, making it safer?

On another occasion, King said to a friend of his: “I think the Good Samaritan is a great individual….but I don’t want to be a Good Samaritan… I am tired of picking up people along the Jericho Road. I am tired of seeing people battered and bruised and bloody, injured and jumped on, along the Jericho Roads of life. This road is dangerous. I don’t want to pick up anyone else, along this Jericho Road; I want to fix… the Jericho Road. I want to pave the Jericho Road, add street lights to the Jericho Road; make the Jericho Road safe [for] everybody….”

The prophet Isaiah once said: “make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” As people of God, we are called to do the same, by making those highways straight, safe, and accessible for all of God’s people.