"Exile"

Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7

Israel plants gardens in Babylon 

29:1These are the words of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the remaining elders among the exiles and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.

29:4Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:

29:5Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce.

29:6Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease.

29:7But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

We’re continuing our discussion of Jeremiah- the prophet called by God to announce truth in a world of illusion. We’ve talked about creation as a gift, and the distortion of that gift. And we have learned of the importance of lament, especially the kind that recognizes the plight of those forgotten by the world.

Today, we shift. The conversation is no longer about what is going to happen, but what has happened. Israel is in Exile. The worst has come to pass. And the questions must come up: now what?

There are moments in life that are big. Moments that come to define us. I spent this weekend at retreat with several of our youth, along with others from across the region. And, people would ask who I am and where I'm from. It's still exciting to say "Jacksonville," as though this is my city.

But we're also still settling. Still making it our own. Hanging pictures on the wall. Putting up bookshelves. All that.

It's on odd feeling, to be someone from somewhere you haven't been from before. You've got to figure out all of the grocery stores, learn the names of all of the roads, remember that now that you live in a place where it's sunny all of the time you have to put on sunscreen a lot more often.

And, over time, it'll get normal. In fact, it's getting there now. There's still work to be done. I keep thinking about planting a garden; and about learning the best streets for riding my bike to work.

But the point is: moving brings these demarcations in life. And today, as we think about our passage from Jeremiah, we are in one such demarcation in the life of Israel.

The Exile is a major moment in the history of Israel. It’s not simply another event in the life of the people, but an event that shapes how the people see themselves and their relation to God. They've moved. But it's more than that. They are having to ask serious questions about who they are, and more seriously, about who God is for them.

What’s the best way to describe this shift? Well, the religion of the Hebrew people up until this point revolved around the Temple in Jerusalem. Everything happened there: the rituals, the teachings, the administration- everything was about the temple. Now, separate from the temple system, the people have to figure out who they are, who they are going to be, now that they can’t rely on the temple system. And so, what do they do? The temple had been the site for the transmission of oral tradition. Priests inherited the stories and passed them on to new generations. Now, without the temple, there had to be new methods. And, many scholars believe this was the time when those oral traditions were officially written down. As in, the people of the temple became a people of the book, and what we know as the Hebrew Scriptures came into existence.

That’s a big change. From relying on the authority of the temple, to having to get everyone who knows the stories to come together and write them down, and then rely on the authority of those stories…that’s not a small thing.

With this shift away from the temple came another, very serious, very pressing question.

In the ancient world it was believed that there were many gods. Even in the Old Testament, you get passages where YHWH is the greatest of gods, but also, is facing off against other lesser gods- Baal is the most common. It’s kind of weird for a monotheistic religion- a religion that professes there being only one god… to recognize the existence of others gods…

There was this belief in the ancient world that gods were local- that they existed in particular places. In the time after the Exodus, the ark of the covenant followers the people around, and it was believed that God was present in that place- wherever the ark happened to be that’s where God was. This carried forth into the building of the temple: God literally lived in the temple, and in particular, in the inner room, known as the Holy of Holies. God lived here…in this place.

When Babylon comes and sacks Jerusalem, they destroy the temple, and the Holy of Holies. They remove the people from their homeland with the goal of erasing Israel. Today, we’d call this genocide. The goal was to make Israel not exist anymore by erasing their identity. Rather than outright destroy the people, they instead sought cultural assimilation: move the people to Babylon, and wait until they simply blend in with the culture, leaving behind their prior identities. Leaving behind their call from God to be a different kind of people.

So there is worry about the disappearance of the people. But this is rooted in a much deeper fear: what if God isn’t with them anymore? What if God is not for us anymore? What if God is back in Jerusalem, in the rubble of the temple? What’s the point of going on as a people if your sustainer, the God who rescued you and delivered you, and called you to your specific vocation is…well, no longer present?

The prophet, who has issued God’s complaints against the people, who has lamented the calamity, who has identified the places the people have fallen short of their covenant with God…that prophet now has a new role: Jeremiah becomes the one who communicates God’s comfort. God is not done with the people.

And indeed, in their new life, in Babylon, they are encouraged to continue on in their unique calling. And to be assured that God has not abandoned them. This God, YHWH, travels with them.

Really, this moment in the History of the Hebrew people comes to define who YHWH is. The exodus began this process of coming to know God: God is the one who heard the cries of the slaves in Egypt, and rescued them. Now, it's as though God is doubling down. God is the one who shows up in your darkest moment. When you are in this new place, where you're not sure what's going to happen: God is there as well.

When we get to the New Testament, this gets even more emphasis. God is made known in Jesus Christ, and the story itself is a sign of who God is. God is the one who becomes human, one like us, to share in our world with us. And the place in which Jesus is born, to a Jewish couple in the midst of Empire, a couple who cannot find a room. Jesus is born not in a palace or throne room, but in a manger. He is visited by lowly shepherds, and by travelers coming from a different land. His family flees violent persecution, and his life is defined by vagrancy- he doesn't have a place to lay his head.

God is the one who is with those born in lowly circumstances…who knows what it’s like to flee persecution…the ones who face injustice and oppression.

It is a reiteration of that same message: God goes with us. But, in particular, God goes with us in those places where we are most in need. God is with the people in their slavery; God is with them in the exile, in Babylon. God is with us in Jesus, in the presence of the outcasts, the poor, the dispossessed.

There's this old question: where is God when people suffer? And the answer, if we take scripture seriously, is that God is right there with those who suffer.

One of my favorite theologians was a guy name Jurgen Moltmann. He wrote his theology as a German following the events of world war 2. He was drafted into the army of the third reich, and spent time as a POW in the UK. Following the end of the war, he entered seminary with plans to be a pastor and a theologian. But he, and many others of his time, had to reckon with the events of not only the war, but of the Holocaust. 6 millions Jews, and an estimated 10 million people overall systematically murdered by the Nazi's.

The question for Moltmann became: where was God in all of this? Where was God in the forced removal and persecution of the Jewish people? Where was God in the work camps and in the Gas chambers? Where was God? And, looking at the story of scripture, Moltmann realizes: God was in the gas chambers. God was in solidarity with God's creation.

Motlmanns seminal work is titled 'The Crucified God.' In it he argues for God's desire to be with us, and how it is Jesus Christ who shows us what this looks like.

Of course, for Moltmann, and for those of us who know the story, the crucifixion isn't the end. It is through this solidarity with those who suffer that Jesus also gives us the promise also of resurrection.

And for Israel during the exile, this is exactly the message. God wants them to live where they are, to set up a new home in this strange place. But the promise is that God wont abandon them, that God will be with them even in their exile. And they will, one day again see their home.

The prophet, Jeremiah, is the one who delivers this message. What has been a voice of condemnation becomes one of comfort and hope.

It's a reminder to the church today: we are to follow Jesus into the world, offering comfort to those in need, while never forgetting the hope of a future in which all will be made right.

IT may take us to strange new places. It may threaten our comfort. It may require us to learn new languages, to journey with those whose lives feel precarious…it might even mean that we learn new ways to understand who God is in our world.

But the promise is there: God will be present.

And so, let us go without fear into those place where we know God resides. Let us join Jesus in solidarity with a world that suffers.

Amen