Finding Hope in Exile- Kristin Ream- Nov, 24, 2024
Kristin Ream
Nov 24,2024
When Wendy first asked me about preaching this Sunday, she said “I know you’re super grumpy so don’t answer this now…but would you think about preaching on November 24th.”
She knew I was super grumpy because as a full time mom and full time seminary student and full time brewery owner and full time church staffer, I have started to just declare my moods outright. Whenever someone asks me “how are you?” you’d better be prepared for the real answer.
Anyway… she let me think about it for a few days in which neither of us brought it up. But then she did the thing where she just texted me… ALSO, how are you feeling about preaching on the 24th? Of course, I said yes. Because a. What are you going to say to your boss? But also b. It’s an honor and a joy to be able to be here with you this morning.
I will warn you, this sermon comes at the very end of finals week in my first semester of seminary. If you’ve seen me lately I’ve probably been holding my head in my hands because my brain is bruised from thinking about Old Testament. When I talked about preaching this week, my good friend Jim Light offered me his sermon notebook from his old church but said I’d have to make a 3 point sermon with a war story.
This seemed like good advice, but it turns out I haven’t been to war, so I went back to the drawing board.
I took a look at the lectionary texts for today…all of them were way too difficult for this first-year seminarian to tackle.
And so, I decided to go in a totally different direction.
I’m in one of those positions where occasionally people ask you if you have a favorite bible verse. I think this used to be a more common practice, and almost everyone had a favorite verse, but it’s definitely not a thing anymore.
I do, however, have a favorite bible verse, and it’s been my favorite verse for long long time. In fact, it’s been my favorite verse since someone gave my mom a picture frame with it inscribed in the frame, around a picture of my family all dressed up for a Christmas dinner at Princeton Theological Seminary our last year in New Jersey.
My all-time favorite verse is Jeremiah chapter 29 verse 11. I know I just read it before,but indulge me again. In fact, you can read along with me, because Doris put it on the front of your order of worship. Verse 11 says, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you, and not to harm you, plans to give you Hope and a future.”
I’ve loved that verse for a long time. It’s uplifting. It's encouraging. It makes you feel good when you hear it.
Plans to give you hope, and a future.
When I first think about hope right now… I think about my good, kind, and patient friend…Tuke, my golden retriever. Before you start thinking that my brain really has turned into spaghetti post-finals week, I want to assure you that Tuke has strong credentials. He works here in the church with me. He has listened to all my Old Testament lectures, and I’m pretty sure his theology is sound. In case you haven’t met him yet, Brandon is going to give you a picture up on the screen.
Tuke Ream, FPC Granville Back Door Greeter, Aug 2021-Present. Dog Theologian, Duke Divinity School ‘28
Tuke begins every workday the same way. We walk into the church's back door, where he waits patiently for me to unclip his leash. As soon as that happens, he runs down the hallway to see Doris, where he promptly sits and waits for a treat. They then have a brief conversation about the morning.
He’s now started to race back down the hallway, so that he can then re-enter the office with me like he’s not been in here just seconds before. The hope on his face is unmistakable.
He does the same thing to John and I at night. Once we get the kids to bed, it’s Tuke time. He waits until the second I sit down on the couch, and then he reminds me it’s time for his dessert.
About 15 seconds after he finishes, he does a little spin move and pops his face back in front of mine, like maybe I’ll have forgotten I just gave him a treat.
And I think that that’s what most of us think of when we think about hope. It’s this vague future-oriented word that tends to hold a promise of something good to come. I want to be really clear that I don’t think that that is wrong. In fact, the dictionary agrees with this definition. Merriam-Webster says hope is “The longing or desire for something accompanied by the belief in the possibility of its occurrence.”
But, I don’t think that that is all there is behind the theology of Hope.
I had a project this semester for my arts and theology class, that was called the Scriptural Imagination project. We were to pick ANY passage from the bible, and then connect works of art to it.
Any passage from the bible was pretty daunting. And so, I began with my favorite. And for the first time, I read the whole passage that it comes from.
For those of you, like me, who didn’t have any context of this verse, let me tell you a little bit about what is going on.
This verse is near the middle of the book of Jeremiah, which happens to be the longest book in the bible. Jeremiah was a prophet. I have always pictured him as one of those rough around the edges looking guys with long wild hair and a whole lot of unfortunate scars. Centuries have not been super kind to Jeremiah, and he now has the nickname the “weeping” prophet.
Having just spent a semester studying the books of the deuteronmical history including first and second kings— which were written during the time period of Jeremiah, I feel for the guy. I’d be a weeping prophet too. There’s all kinds of terrible wars going on, and the Israelites have been under the rule of several REALLY BAD kings. Eventually, the kingdom of Israel fell into Babylonian rule.
The book of Jeremiah has all kinds of genres within it- narrative and poetic material, oracles of judgment, laments, prophecies, reports, and letters.
The verses we’re reading this morning are part of a letter to the Israelites, who find themselves in exile in the land of Babylon.
I’ve been thinking about exile this week. It’s unlikely that any of us in this room have had or will have the experience of being literally exiled.
But, still, I think there are ways that we can relate.
I think that exile mostly equates to a feeling of helplessness and loss. And most of us, maybe even all of us have had that feeling. There are little exiles happening all over this congregation. There’s a real sense of hopelessness and loss for many of us because of the results of the election. There are little exiles in jobs lost, relationship struggles, deaths of our loved ones, strained family relationships, broken friendships… I suspect that all of us have felt a kind of metaphorical exile before. It’s not a fun feeling. We feel lost, and helpless. We may feel hopeless and angry. And even though it may not be the exact same as being literally exiled from your country to live in another home, we can begin to understand.
Now that we can empathize with the ancients… listen to these words again:
4 The Lord of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, proclaims to all the exiles I have carried off from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 Build houses and settle down; cultivate gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Get married and have children; then help your sons find wives and your daughters find husbands in order that they too may have children. Promote the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile.
God first makes sure that there’s no mistake he’s talking to them. He calls them out proclaiming to ALL the exiles, not just the ones that want to hear from him. Then he goes on to give them a bunch of future-building verbs and actions. Build houses, Marry and have children, in fact go ahead and help your kids get married and have kids too.
It’s clear that God doesn’t want these people to feel helpless and lost and hopeless, instead, he calls them into activity in their exile. Not just any activity though, he calls them into building a life. Homes and families. And while their building… they are supposed to promote the welfare of the new place they find themselves in. Maybe this is where the saying bloom where you’re planted comes from.
God doesn’t say… just sit tight and wait for better things to come. He doesn’t say wallow in your exile. Instead, the God of Israel calls these people to work to BUILD their hope.
This kind of hope is more than a wish for the future. It’s a demanding practice that calls us into action.
Malana read to us from Romans this morning. Paul says in Romans 8:25, if we hope, we wait with endurance. The implication is clear… the theology of hope generates endurance. Because we hope, we can endure the present suffering.
I struggled with which Romans verse to have Malana read, because in Romans 5:3-5, he inverts the relation between hope and endurance. There Paul writes, “suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.”
In an article for Yale Divinity School, Miroslav Volf writes-
“Hope and endurance – neither can be truly itself without the other. And for the Apostle Paul, both our hope and our ability to endure – our enduring hope – are rooted in the character of God. Toward the end of Romans, he highlights both “the God of endurance” (or steadfastness) and “the God of hope” (Romans 15:5, 13). Those who believe in that God – the God who is the hope of Israel, the God who is the hope of Gentiles and the hope of the whole earth – are able to be steadfast and endure fear-inducing situations they cannot change and in which no good future seems to be in sight.”
Back to that picture frame, and my favorite verse. The truth is, I honestly can't remember whether we received the frame before my dad was sick, or in the midst of cancer treatments, or after he passed away.
If it existed before he passed away, I’m not sure I even registered it. But, i came into loving that verse, “for I know the plans I have for you, plans to give you hope and a future” in the midst of my metaphorical exile.
The words comforted me, even though very clearly ALL of the things that I thought I knew were no longer true.
The ending of the passage this morning says that when we call on God with our whole hearts, he will be there, and he will bring us out of our exile.
I think there’s something to the being in that state of exile, of loss and hopelessness in which your whole soul cries out. And God is there. More than that, God promises that he will always be there, even when we’re lost and hopeless and we cannot see him… God is there.
don’t want to get into the business of comparing exiles this morning. A whole lot of people I know are hurting and feel lost or hopeless. To a whole lot of us, the future is real uncertain.This month, heck, this year, has been a whole lot of hurts.
I find immense comfort that the God that brought the Israelites out of exile, is the same God that will bring us out of our own hurts too.
So, when you find yourself in exile, take a deep breath, and plant gardens. The theology of hope requires action and endurance. God doesn’t promise that he’s going to solve these exiles immediately… in fact, he says have children, and have them have children. In other words…You may find yourself in exile for a long time.
But, God declares, I know the plans I have for you. He promises that HIS plans are Plans to prosper you, and not to harm you. Plans for hope, and future.
May it be so for you, may it be so for me. Amen.
