What it means to my audience (Proper C23)

Here's what I finally settled on:

Subject: How should the Jews act in exile?

Complement: In exile the Jews should make a
home and wait on the Lord.

Exegetical Idea: The jews were not to revolt, but
rather settle in, pray for the wellfare of their oppressors, and seek God.

Homiletic Idea: In our lives, we cannot let those things
that represent God become gods, instead we should seek him and his kingdom.

Purpose: Hearers will examine their relationship to God
and take communion.

I'm going to work this into a narrative sermon. That is what I've been doing for this series. I'm going to try to do justice to the "Last best hope" plot and unpack a trunk for an object lesson. Any one else working with this text? What are you doing?

Anna Grant-Henderson--the last great hope

"Jeremiah has always seen the future of Israel was through those who went into exile (Brueggemann: 256). "

Hmm... The exiles are the last best hope for a people doomed to destruction at home. Stakes are high. Sounds like a good plot for a space adventure.

What church is like for us

We have been using the Jeremiah text for weeks now as we explore the life of Jeremiah. See a picture.

Where's the gospel? (Proper C23)

My Lutheran friend, Ray Orth, is fond of asking, “Where is the gospel in this text.” Often he will look to the other readings to bring grace to the table. In talking today we decided that Paul must have been a Lutheran too, because a lot of the time he is good for it.

There is a thread through the Jeremiah 29:1-7 and 2 Timothy 2:8-15 about blooming where you are planted. Both speak of an exile and hardship; both speak of faithfulness and glorifying God through the situation.

Paul offers:
“If we endure we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he will also deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful-- for he cannot deny himself.” (wow)

Jeremiah says, “Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you," declares the LORD

I wonder why that isn’t in the reading—plenty of grace there! The reading does give us the sense that God is here, in this foreign ground away from the temple and Promised Land, and he asks them to pray for their new home.

If this thread intersects the gospel text, it barely does so in the cry for mercy where none should be expected.

Still—what does all this mean to my audience?!

Jeremiah and politics (Proper C23)

"Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper."

In exile the Jews have no national identity, no temple, no land and yet God says in vs. 13 that if they seek him he will let them find him. This strikes me as being the cure for Judah's callousness throughout Jeremiah.



With elections at hand, I begin to wonder if Jeremiah's words apply to us... Do we hold on to nationalism and politics as part of our spiritual lives? Are patriotism, democracy, capitalism and the like confused in our practice with Biblical truth? Do we reduce God to a republican or a democrat? To the extent that we do we are calloused and unaffected by the call of God to seek him with all of our hearts.


King Josiah's reforms were all about nationalism. He desired to return Israel to her glory days, which meant returning to the practices and rituals prescribed by the God of their fathers. It is clear from Jeremiah that those reforms never affected the hearts of the people. Instead, they continued their idolatry and prostitution with false confidence that the temple was their magic carpet ride.

Stripped of all these things-all that made them great, all that symbolized their chosen status-all of this out of the way, God again calls them to a true worship. He even calls them to pray for the well being of their captors, for the prosperity of the enemy kingdom, "because if it prospers, you too will prosper."