Have you read some of the safety warnings on items you have bought recently?
• On Children’s Cough Medicine: ‘Do not drive a car or operate machinery after taking this medication’ (We could do a lot to reduce the rate of construction accidents if we could just get those 5 year olds with head colds off those bulldozers.)
• On packaging for a clothes iron: ‘Do not iron clothes on body.’ (But wouldn't this save me more time?)
• On a cardboard windshield sun-shade: ‘Warning: Do Not Drive With Sun Shield in Place.’ (But the sun is in my eyes.)
• On alphabet blocks: ‘Not for children. Letters may be used to construct words, phrases and sentences that may be deemed offensive.’ (Doh!)
The irony is that for all of us for whom these warnings are unnecessary, there is somebody who needs these warnings. Sad to say.
Several years ago, a book came out entitled Fifty Dangerous Things (You Should Let Your Children Do). The basic premise was that today’s parents tend to be over-protective of their children. Yes, there are dangerous things that should be stayed away from. On the other hand, flirting with danger is how we humans learn about the world and about ourselves.
Confession time. How many of you have used a magnifying glass to ignite paper on fire? How many of you every put a penny on a railroad track? (I know that my mother did that when the President Harding funeral train went through her home town.) How many of you ever used an eraser to remove an ink mark off your skin? (I did that once. It took a long time to heal.) Have any of you ever stuck your tongue to a cold flag pole like Flick did in the movie, “The Christmas Story”?
None of these thing are particularly constructive, but they are fun, especially if you are a kid. Yes, there are a lot of things that shouldn’t be tried at home, And as the automobile ads often note, professional drivers on a closed course. So why not lick a battery and learn about electrical currents? It’s safer than biting an extension cord.
We seem to live in a world with a lot more “don’ts” than “dos.” While some dangers are very real, others are not tainted with the same degree of fear. And it is true that some people are way more klutzy than others. Nevertheless, we are a society raising a generation of timid beings who will ultimately be afraid of their shadows and not willing to venture anything without the ministrations of tort attorney lest the least something not go as expected.
Think about all the things that might never have happened if the don’t-do-it tribe had had their way. Columbus would never have sailed the ocean blue. The Montgolfiers would never have gotten manned hot-air balloons to fly. The Wright brothers would still be pedaling bicycles. Dr. Christian Barnard would never have tried heart transplantation. And Jeremiah would still be sitting in prison wishing he had bought his cousin Hanamel’s property in Anathoth.
A local business person in Waverly once told me that he never turned down an opportunity to buy a piece property that was strategic to the future of his business. The potential might not be for years down the road, but it still couldn’t be ruled out. Opportunities like that, he said, don’t come around a second time. I’m sure that he had to stretch sometimes to seize the opportunity, yet he dared to succeed where others would have said, “I can’t do it.” And he has succeeded.
The prophet Jeremiah, however, isn’t just taking a little risk and exposing himself to a little danger: He’s taking a huge risk when he buys a field during the Chaldean army’s siege of Jerusalem. The prophet is in prison in the middle of all this upset and he takes the unexpected action of purchasing a piece of land in his hometown.
How come Jeremiah says “do” when all the conventional wisdom said “don’t”? The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah through a cousin named Hanamel, saying, “Buy my field in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, for you are next in line and have a family obligation to purchase it.” (Jeremiah 32:8). Hanamel is offering Jeremiah a piece of land that seems to be worthless because the Chaldeans are about to crush King Zedekiah and the Israelites. Then the Israelite A-Listers will be taken into exile in Babylon, leaving only the wretched poor to fend for themselves in a land of destroyed infrastructure. But Jeremiah jumps at the opportunity — the Lord speaks to him and says, “Houses, fields, and vineyards will again be bought in this land.”
Jeremiah takes a chance and makes a risky investment. Why? Because the Lord has spoken to him. He does a dangerous thing because God has promised that the land of Anathoth has a future, despite all evidence to the contrary.
And sure enough, the people of Anathoth do eventually return, after the exile (Ezra 2:23). God’s Word is revealed to be reliable, trustworthy and true. What looked risky turns out to be right.
Jeremiah is not risk averse. He revels in risk. He takes on Zedekiah, who is like so many other politicians. He’s been in office long enough that he has forgotten what it is to be on the outside of the system. He’s a seat keeper looking after his own interests rather than a seat holder who understands the community responsibility of the position he is in. Zedekiah is risk averse because he can’t change the way he is doing things, no matter how many people tell him that he is heading for disaster. “Read my lips: Stay the course.” Jerusalem is under siege; the Chaldeans are banging at the city gates. They are starving the citizenry. The future looks pretty bleak.
Jeremiah has been the chief internal thorn in Zedekiah’s side. All of Jeremiah’s words have tried to alert the king to the impending doom and to get him to change his ways so that God would save the people. Jeremiah might as well have been talking to himself. The king didn’t listen. Jeremiah bought a pot and shattered it in front of the people saying, “You are broken beyond repair.” That was the last straw for the king. He had Jeremiah arrested, thrown in prison, and condemned to death. If the end of Judah was bleak, Jeremiah’s end was bleaker.
That’s when he agrees to buy the property in Anathoth. Buying the property has nothing to do with the present. It has everything to do with the future. Buying the property has nothing to do with Jeremiah. It has everything to do with God.
The destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of the people may mean the end of the nation of Israel as it was then understood. That destruction did not mean that God had abandoned God’s people nor did it mean that God had lessened God’s intimate connection with them. They will still be God’s people just as much as they were under the old covenant. What’s more is that they will thrive—they will till the soil, marry and bear children, worship God and celebrate together.
Buying the property has everything to do with the future and has everything to do with God. Jeremiah knows God is present and working in the world. This is in spite of and because of all he and the people have been through. He knows that each of them, limited and flawed as they are, participate as integral parts of something that transcends them utterly. We call this faith. This is not faith in the sense of declaring to be true something that cannot be proved through the physical senses. Rather, it is the recognition that meaninglessness, while not to be ignored, totally lacks the power to engage a situation in a creative way. It cannot obliterate the power of being, which is the gift of God.
By purchasing the land in the midst of Jerusalem's destruction by Babylon and while he was imprisoned, Jeremiah defines what it means to have faith in God’s future. He attests to his belief that God is present even in catastrophe. He declares that meaninglessness or non-being will not triumph.
That’s Jeremiah’s message to us when we suffer from hopelessness and despair of unexpected setbacks, when we look at a health choice in front of us, when we look at the people who would be our leaders, when we despair about how small, how aging, how vulnerable we are as a congregation, as a denomination, as a world faith community. Out of the depths of Jeremiah’s prison cell he declares that out of the chaos of change, God’s eternal promises will be fulfilled. Jeremiah bet his bottom dollar on it—he went ahead and purchased a field right in the middle of the turmoil!
What field is God offering you to buy today? Is it your future witness for a vital congregation in 2030? Is your field one of seeing the gospel taken to the last outposts of the earth? Is it a field that says the message of Christ has things to say alongside all the other religious messages for people to have the right to choose among?
Friends, whatever the field is, buy it!
General resources:
“Living Dangerously,” Homiletics, September 26, 2010.
Sharon Peebles Burch, “Pastoral Perspective - Jeremiah 32:1-3, 6-15,” Feasting on the Word (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010) Year C, vol. 4, 98-102.
Unless noted otherwise, all scripture references are from The Common English Bible, © 2011 www.commonenglishbible.com.
Copyright © 2016 First Presbyterian Church of Waverly, Ohio. Reprinted by permission.
Several years ago, a book came out entitled Fifty Dangerous Things (You Should Let Your Children Do). The basic premise was that today’s parents tend to be over-protective of their children. Yes, there are dangerous things that should be stayed away from. On the other hand, flirting with danger is how we humans learn about the world and about ourselves.
Confession time. How many of you have used a magnifying glass to ignite paper on fire? How many of you every put a penny on a railroad track? (I know that my mother did that when the President Harding funeral train went through her home town.) How many of you ever used an eraser to remove an ink mark off your skin? (I did that once. It took a long time to heal.) Have any of you ever stuck your tongue to a cold flag pole like Flick did in the movie, “The Christmas Story”?
None of these thing are particularly constructive, but they are fun, especially if you are a kid. Yes, there are a lot of things that shouldn’t be tried at home, And as the automobile ads often note, professional drivers on a closed course. So why not lick a battery and learn about electrical currents? It’s safer than biting an extension cord.
We seem to live in a world with a lot more “don’ts” than “dos.” While some dangers are very real, others are not tainted with the same degree of fear. And it is true that some people are way more klutzy than others. Nevertheless, we are a society raising a generation of timid beings who will ultimately be afraid of their shadows and not willing to venture anything without the ministrations of tort attorney lest the least something not go as expected.
Think about all the things that might never have happened if the don’t-do-it tribe had had their way. Columbus would never have sailed the ocean blue. The Montgolfiers would never have gotten manned hot-air balloons to fly. The Wright brothers would still be pedaling bicycles. Dr. Christian Barnard would never have tried heart transplantation. And Jeremiah would still be sitting in prison wishing he had bought his cousin Hanamel’s property in Anathoth.
A local business person in Waverly once told me that he never turned down an opportunity to buy a piece property that was strategic to the future of his business. The potential might not be for years down the road, but it still couldn’t be ruled out. Opportunities like that, he said, don’t come around a second time. I’m sure that he had to stretch sometimes to seize the opportunity, yet he dared to succeed where others would have said, “I can’t do it.” And he has succeeded.
The prophet Jeremiah, however, isn’t just taking a little risk and exposing himself to a little danger: He’s taking a huge risk when he buys a field during the Chaldean army’s siege of Jerusalem. The prophet is in prison in the middle of all this upset and he takes the unexpected action of purchasing a piece of land in his hometown.
How come Jeremiah says “do” when all the conventional wisdom said “don’t”? The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah through a cousin named Hanamel, saying, “Buy my field in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, for you are next in line and have a family obligation to purchase it.” (Jeremiah 32:8). Hanamel is offering Jeremiah a piece of land that seems to be worthless because the Chaldeans are about to crush King Zedekiah and the Israelites. Then the Israelite A-Listers will be taken into exile in Babylon, leaving only the wretched poor to fend for themselves in a land of destroyed infrastructure. But Jeremiah jumps at the opportunity — the Lord speaks to him and says, “Houses, fields, and vineyards will again be bought in this land.”
Jeremiah takes a chance and makes a risky investment. Why? Because the Lord has spoken to him. He does a dangerous thing because God has promised that the land of Anathoth has a future, despite all evidence to the contrary.
And sure enough, the people of Anathoth do eventually return, after the exile (Ezra 2:23). God’s Word is revealed to be reliable, trustworthy and true. What looked risky turns out to be right.
Jeremiah is not risk averse. He revels in risk. He takes on Zedekiah, who is like so many other politicians. He’s been in office long enough that he has forgotten what it is to be on the outside of the system. He’s a seat keeper looking after his own interests rather than a seat holder who understands the community responsibility of the position he is in. Zedekiah is risk averse because he can’t change the way he is doing things, no matter how many people tell him that he is heading for disaster. “Read my lips: Stay the course.” Jerusalem is under siege; the Chaldeans are banging at the city gates. They are starving the citizenry. The future looks pretty bleak.
Jeremiah has been the chief internal thorn in Zedekiah’s side. All of Jeremiah’s words have tried to alert the king to the impending doom and to get him to change his ways so that God would save the people. Jeremiah might as well have been talking to himself. The king didn’t listen. Jeremiah bought a pot and shattered it in front of the people saying, “You are broken beyond repair.” That was the last straw for the king. He had Jeremiah arrested, thrown in prison, and condemned to death. If the end of Judah was bleak, Jeremiah’s end was bleaker.
That’s when he agrees to buy the property in Anathoth. Buying the property has nothing to do with the present. It has everything to do with the future. Buying the property has nothing to do with Jeremiah. It has everything to do with God.
The destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of the people may mean the end of the nation of Israel as it was then understood. That destruction did not mean that God had abandoned God’s people nor did it mean that God had lessened God’s intimate connection with them. They will still be God’s people just as much as they were under the old covenant. What’s more is that they will thrive—they will till the soil, marry and bear children, worship God and celebrate together.
Buying the property has everything to do with the future and has everything to do with God. Jeremiah knows God is present and working in the world. This is in spite of and because of all he and the people have been through. He knows that each of them, limited and flawed as they are, participate as integral parts of something that transcends them utterly. We call this faith. This is not faith in the sense of declaring to be true something that cannot be proved through the physical senses. Rather, it is the recognition that meaninglessness, while not to be ignored, totally lacks the power to engage a situation in a creative way. It cannot obliterate the power of being, which is the gift of God.
By purchasing the land in the midst of Jerusalem's destruction by Babylon and while he was imprisoned, Jeremiah defines what it means to have faith in God’s future. He attests to his belief that God is present even in catastrophe. He declares that meaninglessness or non-being will not triumph.
That’s Jeremiah’s message to us when we suffer from hopelessness and despair of unexpected setbacks, when we look at a health choice in front of us, when we look at the people who would be our leaders, when we despair about how small, how aging, how vulnerable we are as a congregation, as a denomination, as a world faith community. Out of the depths of Jeremiah’s prison cell he declares that out of the chaos of change, God’s eternal promises will be fulfilled. Jeremiah bet his bottom dollar on it—he went ahead and purchased a field right in the middle of the turmoil!
What field is God offering you to buy today? Is it your future witness for a vital congregation in 2030? Is your field one of seeing the gospel taken to the last outposts of the earth? Is it a field that says the message of Christ has things to say alongside all the other religious messages for people to have the right to choose among?
Friends, whatever the field is, buy it!
General resources:
“Living Dangerously,” Homiletics, September 26, 2010.
Sharon Peebles Burch, “Pastoral Perspective - Jeremiah 32:1-3, 6-15,” Feasting on the Word (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010) Year C, vol. 4, 98-102.
Unless noted otherwise, all scripture references are from The Common English Bible, © 2011 www.commonenglishbible.com.
Copyright © 2016 First Presbyterian Church of Waverly, Ohio. Reprinted by permission.
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