St Theodore's Sermon

	St Theodore's Wattle Park

Sermon of the Week

Making the Best of It

16/7/00 Jer 29:1-14

   Once upon a time there was a mother duck who gave birth to a whole clutch of baby ducklings. But as they climbed out of their shells it was obvious that one of them was different. All the other ducklings were golden balls of softest down, but this duckling was a dirty brown colour. Very soon, as happens in such circumstances, the other ducks began to call it the ugly duckling.

   Well of course we all know how that story ends. One day when the duckling is a lot older he suddenly discovers why he's always felt like he doesn't fit in. It's because he actually doesn't. He doesn't belong in this family of ducks, because in reality he's a swan. Now leaving aside the feel-good aspect of that story, it's actually a picture of what it's like sometimes for us as Christians. There are times when we feel like we don't belong; like we're foreigners, visitors from somewhere else altogether.

   When we lived in Canberra, Di & I used to have a friend named Jim and one of his favourite verses was that verse in 1 Peter 2 where Peter says "Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires." He was always reminding us that this earth was only a temporary home. That our real home was waiting for us in heaven with Jesus Christ. Now a couple of years before we met him he'd been diagnosed with a brain tumour. He'd been treated and was in remission, but the physicians had told him the tumour was quite likely to reappear within five or so years. So his appreciation of the temporary nature of our sojourn here on earth was more real than most.

   But let's face it, you don't need to be under a death sentence to realise that you don't belong. As we saw last week, we're in a minority in almost every area of life. Not a day will go by when you won't come across some area of conflict between the Christian walk and the way of the world. Whether it's in business or leisure, whether it's in the newspaper or on the TV, it might be in conversation with friends or family. You can't help but notice if you're trying to live faithfully for Christ that you're at odds with the world.

   So what are we to do about it? There are some who try to pretend that it's not happening; that we still live in Christendom; that this is still a Christian country with Christian values. They may even suggest that the breakdown in religious and moral values is only temporary, that people will soon come back to God, back to the church. There are others who'll suggest we need to get out of the world altogether; to form Christian communes, start Christian schools for our kids, set up Christian universities, Christian businesses, open Christian retirement homes, etc. Those sort of people have been around a long time of course, right back to the days of the first hermits in the early years of the Christian church. There are others though, who give up hope; who say that the church is doomed, so let's just do what we can on our own, but if we can't beat them we might as well join them.

   Well, the situation we sometimes find ourselves in isn't too far from the situation that the first exiles from Jerusalem found themselves in. Here they were, living in a strange land, away from everything that was familiar to them, among people whose customs and worship were totally different, aware that their city, Jerusalem, not to mention their beloved Temple, was about to be destroyed, and they were feeling alone and without hope, abandoned by God. Just as happens now, there were some who were saying, this is only temporary. We'll be home by Christmas! This is only a momentary setback. And there were others who had withdrawn from life, who were sitting back waiting for things to change, dreaming of life back in Jerusalem. And there were others who'd given up on God altogether.

   And so to all these people Jeremiah writes a letter. "Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: ⁵Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 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." It's a message of hope and encouragement on the basis of a number of factors.

   First of all, they're in Babylon because God has sent them there. God hasn't abandoned them, even if he has sent them there to teach them an important lesson. Secondly they should build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. This has echoes of the instruction to Adam, to tend the garden, or of the promise to the Israelites during the Exodus that God would bring them to a place flowing with milk and honey. The prosperity of God's people wasn't tied to the land of Israel. God doesn't only give fertility to the soil of Israel. Wherever God's people are he's there providing for their well-being, even when they're being punished in exile.

   Next, they're to take wives and have children. It may be that they'd given up the idea of marriage because it seemed like there was no good reason to bring a child into the world. There are people today who choose not to have children because they don't think this is a good enough place to raise children. But here God repeats his command to his people to be fruitful and multiply. God has a future for these people. They mustn't withdraw from life just because they live in a foreign land.

   In fact he goes even further than that. He says "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." Here's a very strange thing, these people are living among their enemies who have probably killed most of their relatives and God says they're to work for the welfare of the city. More than that, they're to pray to the Lord on its behalf. Here's a radical new view of their situation. They're to stop thinking of their new neighbours as enemies and realise that it's God who's put them here, not the Babylonians. The Babylonians were merely acting as God's agents. Now that they're here, where God has put them, they're to live as though this were their permanent home, which for some it will be. 70 years may not sound like a long time when we look back 2 or 3000 years, but it's a life time if you're a forty year-old who's just gone into exile. So they're to settle down and live in Babylon as though it were God's place for them. They're to do all they can to bring prosperity to the city, because in its prosperity they'll find their own. By the way the word for welfare or prosperity there is the word shalom, which is the word that's always associated with God's blessing. It's the word that implies everything good that comes from being at peace with God, under his protection, at harmony with God and others. So it's a powerful word to use in this context. They think they're living under a curse in this Godforsaken world but in fact they're in a place of shalom, of blessing and peace, if they'll only do as God says.

   You see, God never abandons those he has chosen. Even in the act of disciplining them, of punishing them for their disobedience and stubbornness, he's still carrying out his plans for them. He's still showing his love for them.

   Look at what he says in v11. This is one of those verses that people love to quote, because it gives us such assurance of God's goodness towards us, even when things look bad: "Surely I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope."

   He hasn't sent them to Babylon to hurt them. He's sent them their for their own good. No decent parent ever punishes their child in order to hurt them. They do it for the child's benefit. To help them grow up as good citizens, as productive people, as people of integrity. To teach them the difference between right and wrong. To deter them from dangerous behaviour. So too, God is punishing them for their own good; to bring them back to him in repentance: "Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. ¹³When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart. " In the meantime God will look after them. He won't let them be hurt. This is the key, by the way, to understanding the story of Esther, if you remember it. Esther is a Jewish girl who is chosen to be Queen of Persia. When some of the court officials plot to kill all the Jews, she's in a position where she can use her influence with King Xerxes to save her people. In the end they're not only saved by her actions, but they're given the freedom to worship the LORD according to their Jewish customs. God has put her there to bring about the welfare of his people in exile just as he promised through Jeremiah.

   And does that for seventy years, until in the end they turn back to him and find him waiting for them: "¹⁴I will let you find me, says the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, says the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile." God's plan and desire is that his people will turn away from their idolatry and turn back to him. That they'll remember their dependence on him and again ask him to come and be their God, and they to be his people. And when that happens he'll rescue them; he'll bring them back from exile to again enjoy his blessing in the promised land.

   But of course that isn't just a promise to them. Notice how close it is to one of the promises Jesus gave: (Luke 11:9-10 NRSV) "I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. ¹⁰For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened." Or this one: (Rev 3:20 NRSV) "Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me."

   That brings us back to where we started. The Jews in exile aren't that different from us. We too are like strangers and exiles living in a foreign land. There's a sense in which, just like the ugly duckling, we don't belong here. Our real home is somewhere else: in heaven with Jesus Christ and God the Father and all the saints. Yet just like the Jews in exile, God has put us here for a purpose. Jesus prayed for his disciples, not that God would take them out of the world, but that he'd strengthen them so they could take his message to others in the world. He prayed that they'd be like a beacon pointing to Christ, so that people would see them and believe that God had sent him. God tells us in 2 Cor 5 that we're his ambassadors. Ambassadors are, by definition, foreigners, sent to a foreign land to represent their king. We're ambassadors of God to those who live in this world. God makes his appeal to people to be reconciled with him, through us. To withdraw from the world into our Christian ghettos would be to fail in our calling.

   Similarly we're to get involved with the welfare of our world, because our own welfare will be tied up with its welfare. This is a theme that's repeated several times in the New Testament. Paul in Romans 13 tells us to submit to the authorities and to pay our taxes because they've been put there by God to do good and to punish wrongdoers. In 1 Tim 2:1-2 he says: "I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, ²for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity." We should be interested and involved in the political processes of our world. Christians should be active in promoting environmental programs, welfare activities, rasing justice issues with our leaders, and especially praying that they'll make godly decisions; and giving thanks when they do.

   And we're not to lose hope, even when it seems that we're in the minority. Remember that the Church we belong to is the Church of Jesus Christ, the Church of God. Christ Jesus is its head. Peter reminds us that we've been born into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. So there's no excuse for either withdrawing in despair or for giving in to the pressures of the world.

   Our friend Jim moved to Canberra just before we met him to set up a new medical practice with his wife, Julie. Despite the dire predictions for his future they continued to plan their life together under God. They brought three children into the world. They worked hard as GPs. They quickly became leaders in our local Church. And I have to say that Jim had a lot to do with my leaving engineering to become an ordained minister, as they joined with us and 2 other couples every Sunday night for 2 years, to pray about what God would have us do with the rest of our lives.

   Jim's brain tumour began show signs of growing again one February about 3 years after we met him. But even then he didn't give up life in this foreign land. He and Julie had decided to apply to be missionaries with CMS and they continued to pursue that possibility as we prayed for healing right up until it became clear that there was no hope of a further remission.

   Although he understood more clearly than most that we don't belong in this world, Jim also knew that God has put us here for a purpose. He knew that whatever happened, God's plans for us are for our welfare not for our harm. Even the prospect of an early death didn't faze him because he had a certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life. For me and for others who knew him he was such a great example of someone who had learnt the lesson of Jeremiah 29 and 1 Peter and Hebrews 11: that being exiles doesn't mean that God has abandoned you. It doesn't mean that you can forget about living life to the full. Rather, even in a foreign land God is at work in us, enabling us both to will and to work for his good pleasure. So lets pray that we'd be people who seek to do the Lord's will, even though we live in a world in which we sometimes feel like foreigners, as we await his return to take us to be with him in our true home.

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	Sermon of the Week
	Making the Best of It
	16/7/00	Jer 29:1-14

	Once upon a time there was a mother duck who gave birth to a whole clutch of baby ducklings. But as they climbed out of their shells it was obvious that one of them was different. All the other ducklings were golden balls of softest down, but this duckling was a dirty brown colour. Very soon, as happens in such circumstances, the other ducks began to call it the ugly duckling.
	Well of course we all know how that story ends. One day when the duckling is a lot older he suddenly discovers why he's always felt like he doesn't fit in. It's because he actually doesn't. He doesn't belong in this family of ducks, because in reality he's a swan. Now leaving aside the feel-good aspect of that story, it's actually a picture of what it's like sometimes for us as Christians. There are times when we feel like we don't belong; like we're foreigners, visitors from somewhere else altogether.
	When we lived in Canberra, Di & I used to have a friend named Jim and one of his favourite verses was that verse in 1 Peter 2 where Peter says "Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires." He was always reminding us that this earth was only a temporary home. That our real home was waiting for us in heaven with Jesus Christ. Now a couple of years before we met him he'd been diagnosed with a brain tumour. He'd been treated and was in remission, but the physicians had told him the tumour was quite likely to reappear within five or so years. So his appreciation of the temporary nature of our sojourn here on earth was more real than most.
	But let's face it, you don't need to be under a death sentence to realise that you don't belong. As we saw last week, we're in a minority in almost every area of life. Not a day will go by when you won't come across some area of conflict between the Christian walk and the way of the world. Whether it's in business or leisure, whether it's in the newspaper or on the TV, it might be in conversation with friends or family. You can't help but notice if you're trying to live faithfully for Christ that you're at odds with the world.
	So what are we to do about it? There are some who try to pretend that it's not happening; that we still live in Christendom; that this is still a Christian country with Christian values. They may even suggest that the breakdown in religious and moral values is only temporary, that people will soon come back to God, back to the church. There are others who'll suggest we need to get out of the world altogether; to form Christian communes, start Christian schools for our kids, set up Christian universities, Christian businesses, open Christian retirement homes, etc. Those sort of people have been around a long time of course, right back to the days of the first hermits in the early years of the Christian church. There are others though, who give up hope; who say that the church is doomed, so let's just do what we can on our own, but if we can't beat them we might as well join them.
	Well, the situation we sometimes find ourselves in isn't too far from the situation that the first exiles from Jerusalem found themselves in. Here they were, living in a strange land, away from everything that was familiar to them, among people whose customs and worship were totally different, aware that their city, Jerusalem, not to mention their beloved Temple, was about to be destroyed, and they were feeling alone and without hope, abandoned by God. Just as happens now, there were some who were saying, this is only temporary. We'll be home by Christmas! This is only a momentary setback. And there were others who had withdrawn from life, who were sitting back waiting for things to change, dreaming of life back in Jerusalem. And there were others who'd given up on God altogether.
	And so to all these people Jeremiah writes a letter. "Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: ⁵Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 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." It's a message of hope and encouragement on the basis of a number of factors.
	First of all, they're in Babylon because God has sent them there. God hasn't abandoned them, even if he has sent them there to teach them an important lesson. Secondly they should build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. This has echoes of the instruction to Adam, to tend the garden, or of the promise to the Israelites during the Exodus that God would bring them to a place flowing with milk and honey. The prosperity of God's people wasn't tied to the land of Israel. God doesn't only give fertility to the soil of Israel. Wherever God's people are he's there providing for their well-being, even when they're being punished in exile.
	Next, they're to take wives and have children. It may be that they'd given up the idea of marriage because it seemed like there was no good reason to bring a child into the world. There are people today who choose not to have children because they don't think this is a good enough place to raise children. But here God repeats his command to his people to be fruitful and multiply. God has a future for these people. They mustn't withdraw from life just because they live in a foreign land.
	In fact he goes even further than that. He says "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." Here's a very strange thing, these people are living among their enemies who have probably killed most of their relatives and God says they're to work for the welfare of the city. More than that, they're to pray to the Lord on its behalf. Here's a radical new view of their situation. They're to stop thinking of their new neighbours as enemies and realise that it's God who's put them here, not the Babylonians. The Babylonians were merely acting as God's agents. Now that they're here, where God has put them, they're to live as though this were their permanent home, which for some it will be. 70 years may not sound like a long time when we look back 2 or 3000 years, but it's a life time if you're a forty year-old who's just gone into exile. So they're to settle down and live in Babylon as though it were God's place for them. They're to do all they can to bring prosperity to the city, because in its prosperity they'll find their own. By the way the word for welfare or prosperity there is the word shalom, which is the word that's always associated with God's blessing. It's the word that implies everything good that comes from being at peace with God, under his protection, at harmony with God and others. So it's a powerful word to use in this context. They think they're living under a curse in this Godforsaken world but in fact they're in a place of shalom, of blessing and peace, if they'll only do as God says.
	You see, God never abandons those he has chosen. Even in the act of disciplining them, of punishing them for their disobedience and stubbornness, he's still carrying out his plans for them. He's still showing his love for them.
	Look at what he says in v11. This is one of those verses that people love to quote, because it gives us such assurance of God's goodness towards us, even when things look bad: "Surely I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope."
	He hasn't sent them to Babylon to hurt them. He's sent them their for their own good. No decent parent ever punishes their child in order to hurt them. They do it for the child's benefit. To help them grow up as good citizens, as productive people, as people of integrity. To teach them the difference between right and wrong. To deter them from dangerous behaviour. So too, God is punishing them for their own good; to bring them back to him in repentance: "Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. ¹³When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart. " In the meantime God will look after them. He won't let them be hurt. This is the key, by the way, to understanding the story of Esther, if you remember it. Esther is a Jewish girl who is chosen to be Queen of Persia. When some of the court officials plot to kill all the Jews, she's in a position where she can use her influence with King Xerxes to save her people. In the end they're not only saved by her actions, but they're given the freedom to worship the LORD according to their Jewish customs. God has put her there to bring about the welfare of his people in exile just as he promised through Jeremiah.
	And does that for seventy years, until in the end they turn back to him and find him waiting for them: "¹⁴I will let you find me, says the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, says the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile." God's plan and desire is that his people will turn away from their idolatry and turn back to him. That they'll remember their dependence on him and again ask him to come and be their God, and they to be his people. And when that happens he'll rescue them; he'll bring them back from exile to again enjoy his blessing in the promised land.
	But of course that isn't just a promise to them. Notice how close it is to one of the promises Jesus gave: (Luke 11:9-10 NRSV) "I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. ¹⁰For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened." Or this one: (Rev 3:20 NRSV) "Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me."
	That brings us back to where we started. The Jews in exile aren't that different from us. We too are like strangers and exiles living in a foreign land. There's a sense in which, just like the ugly duckling, we don't belong here. Our real home is somewhere else: in heaven with Jesus Christ and God the Father and all the saints. Yet just like the Jews in exile, God has put us here for a purpose. Jesus prayed for his disciples, not that God would take them out of the world, but that he'd strengthen them so they could take his message to others in the world. He prayed that they'd be like a beacon pointing to Christ, so that people would see them and believe that God had sent him. God tells us in 2 Cor 5 that we're his ambassadors. Ambassadors are, by definition, foreigners, sent to a foreign land to represent their king. We're ambassadors of God to those who live in this world. God makes his appeal to people to be reconciled with him, through us. To withdraw from the world into our Christian ghettos would be to fail in our calling.
	Similarly we're to get involved with the welfare of our world, because our own welfare will be tied up with its welfare. This is a theme that's repeated several times in the New Testament. Paul in Romans 13 tells us to submit to the authorities and to pay our taxes because they've been put there by God to do good and to punish wrongdoers. In 1 Tim 2:1-2 he says: "I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, ²for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity." We should be interested and involved in the political processes of our world. Christians should be active in promoting environmental programs, welfare activities, rasing justice issues with our leaders, and especially praying that they'll make godly decisions; and giving thanks when they do.
	And we're not to lose hope, even when it seems that we're in the minority. Remember that the Church we belong to is the Church of Jesus Christ, the Church of God. Christ Jesus is its head. Peter reminds us that we've been born into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. So there's no excuse for either withdrawing in despair or for giving in to the pressures of the world.
	Our friend Jim moved to Canberra just before we met him to set up a new medical practice with his wife, Julie. Despite the dire predictions for his future they continued to plan their life together under God. They brought three children into the world. They worked hard as GPs. They quickly became leaders in our local Church. And I have to say that Jim had a lot to do with my leaving engineering to become an ordained minister, as they joined with us and 2 other couples every Sunday night for 2 years, to pray about what God would have us do with the rest of our lives.
	Jim's brain tumour began show signs of growing again one February about 3 years after we met him. But even then he didn't give up life in this foreign land. He and Julie had decided to apply to be missionaries with CMS and they continued to pursue that possibility as we prayed for healing right up until it became clear that there was no hope of a further remission.
	Although he understood more clearly than most that we don't belong in this world, Jim also knew that God has put us here for a purpose. He knew that whatever happened, God's plans for us are for our welfare not for our harm. Even the prospect of an early death didn't faze him because he had a certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life. For me and for others who knew him he was such a great example of someone who had learnt the lesson of Jeremiah 29 and 1 Peter and Hebrews 11: that being exiles doesn't mean that God has abandoned you. It doesn't mean that you can forget about living life to the full. Rather, even in a foreign land God is at work in us, enabling us both to will and to work for his good pleasure. So lets pray that we'd be people who seek to do the Lord's will, even though we live in a world in which we sometimes feel like foreigners, as we await his return to take us to be with him in our true home.


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