Rev. Rebecca M Heilman-Campbell
Selected Verses: Jeremiah 32:1-17
I’m going to dive right into our passage today. Let me start out by giving you some context. This detailed story that I admit, if you have never read before, will raise major questions and maybe even cause you to zone out a bit from the unfamiliar words and names. This story is set right as the Babylonian Empire, led by King Nebuchadnezzar, is besieging, surrounding, invading the city of Jerusalem. War is at hand! Chaos is everywhere. Famine and lack of resources. Homes invaded; hope lost. Violence is on their doorstep and the Israelites, the Jews are living in fear as their city is being taken over by the Babylonians, the enemy. The unknown is before them. Fear is before them.
To bring our story in even more: While the residents of Jerusalem may not know the extent of it just yet, we readers know that they are about to head into a long, gruesome exile away from their home. Our prophet, the direct line to God, Jeremiah is charged and imprisoned for prophesying to the King of Judah, King Zedekiah, about this Babylonian invasion. Jeremiah makes it clear that the Babylonians will take King
Zedekiah and his city as their prisoners. And Jeremiah has worse news, God says to let it happen. So naturally, King Zedekiah does not want to hear this and takes Jeremiah as his prisoner.
Which brings us to the details of our story today. While in prison, the prophet Jeremiah receives divine word that his cousin will come to visit him in prison and ask Jeremiah to purchase his land in the town of Anathoth. Anathoth is about 3 miles northeast of Jerusalem. It’s safe to say that purchasing land in the midst of an invasion, amid war, is unwise, nor a practical choice to make, some might say, foolish. But Jeremiah goes through with it. What would make him buy this land amid war? Chaos? Unknown? What would make him buy this land when the Jewish people are about to go into exile? Well, as our sermon title tells us, while
there was not the absence of chaos, there was most certainly the presence of hope. Capital “H” Hope. Something led Jeremiah to close on that land, to purchase a vineyard when it’s on the brink of destruction. Of course, God’s direct line to Jeremiah is an obvious answer to why, we know what’s it’s like when we don’t listen to God, but I push us one step further towards hope. Towards trust. Towards belief. Towards faith.
Two weeks ago, I started my sermon with a Ted Lasso quote maybe because it’s fresh on my mind after rewatching the TV show while on family leave. I’m going to share another story from that clever series. Ted Lasso is an American Football coach who knows nothing, absolutely nothing about soccer and yet moves to England to coach a major soccer league. Regardless of his knowledge about the sport, one thing Ted Lasso does know about is belief. On the pilot episode, Ted tapes a large yellow sign with the word, “Believe” painted in blue on the wall above his office in the locker room. Throughout the seasons of this show, it’s a motto and over time the sign becomes a sort of superstition.
In one particular scene, the team comes off the pitch after a loss. Ted doesn’t give a speech at first, just says I’ll see you on Monday for practice. A player asks, but wait, what about our best player who just quit the team. What are we going to do about that? Ted says, “it’s a good thing. I’d rather do this with folks who want to be here. We don’t need him. All we need to win is the fellas in the room right now.” Ted points to the sign behind him, “and all you fellas need to do is believe.” And right at that moment, the celebrated sign that kept the team together splits in two and falls from the wall.
The locker erupts with fear, “we’re doomed! It’s an omen! It’s a sign!” Ted Lasso says, “knock it off, we’re not doomed, but I agree it’s a sign, only a sign.” He then goes over and rips the rest of the sign off the wall and continues to tear it into pieces, causing more chaos in the locker room. Superstition is in the air!
Thus begins Ted Lasso’s speech and definition of the word belief. He says, “Belief doesn’t just happen because you hang something up on a wall. It comes from in here (pointing to his heart). And up here
(pointing to his brain). Down here (pointing to his gut). Only problem is we all got so much junk floating through us, a lot of times we end up getting in our own way. You know, like envy, or fear, shame. I don’t want to mess around with that anymore. You know what I wanna mess around with? The belief that I matter… regardless of what I do or don’t achieve. Or the belief that we all deserve to be loved, whether we’ve been hurt or maybe we’ve hurt somebody else. Or what about the belief of hope? That’s what I want to mess with. Believing that things can get better. That I can get better. That we will get better. To believe in yourself? To believe in one another? Man, that’s fundamental to being alive. And look, if you CAN do that, if each of you can truly do that, can’t nobody rip that apart.”
Not the absence of chaos, but the presence of hope. The belief in hope. God promises hope in this story. For just as Jeremiah is sealing the deeds of his new purchase, the God of hope, the God who knows the future, the God of belief says, through Jeremiah “Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.” This a promise, a covenant, a word of hope. It won’t stop the Babylonian exile, but it sets the Israelites on a path to hold on to something when they are about to lose everything. Someday they will be back. Someday they will have their land again. Someday, they will be out of exile. Jeremiah’s act was a sign of hope.
As we are two days out from a tense and divisive election, there is much, much fear and anxiety in our own midst. Unknowns and chaos, broken relationships and loud voices on both sides of the aisle. We can’t stop Tuesday from coming and we shouldn’t stop Tuesday from coming. While God’s word won’t stop what is to come this week and beyond, Jeremiah’s story of hope, of something beyond the chaos and fear, gives us something to hold on to when everything else seems lost. Steve and I put this sermon series together to help guide us through this time of the unknown, the tension, the fears and invite us into faith. To lean into
God, not into whatever rhetoric is in our ears. When emotions are high and fear tickles our throats, we use our faith, and these stories long told to be leaders of peace and reconciliation first and foremost, especially right now. To be prophets of hope and witnesses to Christ’s love.
And what a perfect day to be in conversation about all of this. It’s All Saint’s Day. I think about the names listed in our bulletin, who we will remember today. I think about the names who have been listed throughout the years. The names inscribed on our hearts. Those names, those people, our loved ones, I imagine, in fact I know that they are why you are here this morning. They instilled a sense of faith in you, they embodied a deep love for you. Remember those people this morning as we continue in this conversation and wonder, what would they do during this time? How did they meet challenges and fear this world?
I can’t help but think about my grandmother who lived in Nazi Germany as a child, who escaped on the last ship out to America, who lost Jewish friends, and differently abled family relatives, who saw violence and lived in fear. And yet, my grandmother was the most faithful person I knew. She was the first theologian I knew. She would talk to me about faith and God, prayer and hope. She is who I remember, even though she died 10 years ago, she’s my saint today, during this time, because she lived through a similar time.
Our belief, our deep faith that God has a hold in our world is what keeps us steady, keeps us calm, invites us into pray when we’re overwhelmed and scared. It’s what we’ve been taught by those who came before us. Not the absence of chaos, but the presence of hope. Not the absence of chaos, for it will be chaotic this week and months, maybe years to come, but the presence of hope. Hope that peace came into this world as a tiny, vulnerable baby with echoes and songs of peace on earth. Hope who spoke to the loud winds and the storm, calming the chaotic sea with peace, be still. Hope who left a messy, broken, and political Roman state (you see, we’re no different from that time), only to return three days later with peace as his first words to the disciples. Not the absence of chaos, but the presence of hope.
Hope, belief that we can be better, that we will put peace first. That we must put peace first. Somebody has to. And as we remember our saints today, we also know we have little ones watching us. We have adults watching us too, looking for someone to hold the line on what it means to be faithful people. We’ve got to hold on to hope this week. We have no other choice. Tuesday will come and we will face it when it does, but just like Jeremiah reminds Judah, there will be a time after it when we will cross lines of tension, embrace long lost relationships, when we’ll feel a sense of ease again. Not the absence of chaos, but the presence of hope. May hope steady you this week, may it motivate to embody peace this week, may it invite you to love before you hate this week, to breathe before you speak, to trust before you panic to believe that God knows what is to come and God will be with us through it all.
Remember, little ones are watching us, friends and family are watching us, those who disagree are watching us. Those watching Jeremiah thought he was foolish to purchase the land in a perilous time, but Jeremiah put his belief ahead of his fears, hope ahead of the unknown. faith ahead of loss. What are you going to do? Who are you going to be? Remember those we watched who embodied faith and remember we have a responsibility to live out that same faith. Not the absence of chaos, but for the presence of Hope.
Pray with me. Loving God, we believe, help our unbelief. Amen.