And, long before McCain and Obama hit the scene, Jeremiah was THE original person who campaigned for CHANGE. “If you don’t change your ways…life as you now know it will soon come to an end,” Jeremiah would frequently rant. “Change, one way or another, IS coming. It’s up to you, people of God, to decide if it will happen on your terms…or God’s terms!”

 

Don’t you know this Jeremiah –  Mr. Glass-is-Half-Empty, Mr. Chicken-Little, Mr. No-Silver-Lining-in-Sight – must have been voted Most Annoying by his senior class!  Who wants to be around someone who is always looking for the worst in every circumstance? It is no wonder that he was treated like an idiot, like a religious zealot by all who knew him.  A little bit of religion is good, right?  But Jeremiah was way out of control, way over the top.

 

But one day, everything changed. In the midst of the greatest devastation and despair that his people had ever known, the old, doom-and-gloom Jeremiah began to fade away. And a new Jeremiah, one full of joy and hope, began to emerge. He started saying things that weren’t inflammatory…but hopeful, healing and positive. Things like this:

 

Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce.

Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. 

The Lord promises that very soon he will come to you and fulfill his gracious promise to bring you back to this place. For he knows the plans he has for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon the Lord and come and pray to him, and he will listen to you.

 

And then a little later, probably the most famous words that Jeremiah ever shared with the people of God:

 

"The time is coming," declares the LORD,
       "when I will make a new covenant
       with the house of Israel
       and with the house of Judah.

       "I will put my law in their minds
       and write it on their hearts.
       I will be their God,
       and they will be my people.

No longer will a man teach his neighbor,
       or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,'
       because they will all know me,
       from the least of them to the greatest,"
       declares the LORD.
       "For I will forgive their wickedness
       and will remember their sins no more."

 

And then, out of nowhere it seemed, this now hope-filled man backs up his new rhetoric with one of the most memorable acts of faith ever recorded in history: he buys a parcel of land at ground zero. Why? Because he knew that in desperate times, the people of God never respond in fear…but always with hope.

 

Yes, the story found in Jeremiah 32 is one of the most bizarre yet inspiring stories in all of the Bible. The King, Zedekiah, has him holed up in the palace because Jeremiah continues to run his mouth about how it is just a matter of time before King Nebuchadnezzar overruns all of Judah, and just a matter of time before Zedekiah will be speaking face to face with the King of Babylon. To compound the problem for Zedekiah, Jeremiah keeps saying, “There’s no need to fight them…we have no chance of succeeding.”

 

And then, the now hope-filled prophet has a new vision. In the middle of a siege by enemy troops and with pending doom on the horizon, Jeremiah hears God telling him to buy land. On the verge of economic chaos, Jeremiah makes an investment for the future. Foolish. Impetuous. Unrealistic. Jeremiah’s move would have been like someone buying a huge parcel of land in the Lower Ninth Ward on the eve of Katrina, with full knowledge that the levees were going to break!

 

“The prophet has surely lost his mind!” the people of Judah must have thought. While every one else is converting his illiquid assets into shekels, Jeremiah is putting his shekels where his mouth is: he is buying a field in the hope that God will one day restore the people of Israel and Judah.

 

Now some of you know that the best time to buy is when the market dips, when others are selling. Peter Lynch, founder of the Fidelity Magellan Fund, describes the two worst days of his life as the day his father died and the day after the crash of 1987. Rather than being able to buy some great stocks at great prices, he was forced to sell because so many of the fund’s shareholders had requested redemptions. Lynch wanted to buy because he knew that a bounce was inevitable, whether it took a few days, months or years. In the case of Jeremiah, no one knew when, or if, any bounce would ever happen. Judah had survived the northern kingdom by 150 years. There was a strong likelihood that a Babylonian exile could last centuries.

 

Even so, on the verge of destruction and desolation that would make our own 9-11 look like a blip on the timeline of history, Jeremiah makes this hope-filled purchase. While some surely called it a visible sign of Jeremiah’s insanity, to Jeremiah it was a visible, concrete sign of faith and trust in God.

 

More than any other story in the Bible, this is the story that has been on my mind in recent weeks. In fact, I discovered earlier this morning that I last preached on this passage on September 28, 2004 – almost four years ago to the day. I tried to research the events of that day that may have led me to choose this text – was it because the Dow had dropped below 10,000? Was it because crude oil prices had reached an all time high of nearly $50 a barrel? Was it because of the uncertainty tied to the first Presidential debate – between George W. Bush and John Kerry? I’m not really sure. But I do know this: maybe more than any other week since 9/11, this past week has been a test of our wills, our patience and, I would say most importantly, our faith. And just what will be our response – fear and despair?...or hope?

 

Four years ago, I asked those gathered at Clemson UMC to contemplate two questions related to this story, “What does a hope-filled life look like?” and “What does a hope-filled church look like?” 

 

Well, as a good preacher should do, I offered you a couple of examples, a couple of illustrations. I talked about how my grandfather continued to live with great hope and a positive attitude, even while battling terminal cancer. His witness continues to live in and through all who knew him. And I talked about my experiences as a layperson serving on a Church Council that always seemed more intent on saying “We can’t do that, we’ve tried it before” than “We can do that, if that’s what God is calling us to do.” I went on to say that a hope-filled church would have the following four qualities:

 

1.      It would be a place where the most hopeless could come and be lifted up, loved and restored, in both a spiritual and physical sense. 

 

2.      It would be a church that through its ministries and programs reflected a belief in the power of God to change lives, to resurrect the dead if you will. 

 

3.      It would be a church focused not so much on the past or even the news of the day, but on the hope of the future. 

 

4.      It would be a church that celebrated the reign of God in concrete ways, even when it appears that the powers and principalities of this world had the upper hand.

 

Four years later and in the midst of these desperate times, I think I would say the same thing. And as an addendum, I’d add the following exhortation that I ran across this week:

 

If we claim to be God’s people, let us live our lives in such a way that it makes no sense apart from the existence of God.

 

Today, I’m tempted to offer you a few more illustrations of what it means to be hope-filled. And if I were some fancy TV preacher, I’d probably have a book to sell you today that would offer 10 easy steps to move from fear and despair to hope in your life. But, even though I know that some of you would love for me or someone else to tell you exactly what to do in these troubled times, I am going to leave the specifics to you…and God.

 

What small act might I do today or later this week that is a sign of hope, for me and for others around me? While being prudent and frugal, how might I also be generous and fruitful? How might we, the people of Clemson UMC, conduct ourselves in such a way that through our witness and ministry, others might be lifted up?

 

I leave you with these questions today…and with two reminders. Remember, the story of Jeremiah does not end in destruction and exile. Before long, the people of God were able to return home to once again inhabit the promised land.

 

And second, remember that the story of God does not end with Jeremiah. Before long, God made good on the promised new covenant, through the birth of a baby boy in Bethlehem. And when all hell broke loose several decades later, we must never forget that the story didn’t end in defeat on Friday…but with resurrection and new life on Sunday.

Remaining hopeful,

lane

Rev. C. Lane Glaze
Director - Clemson Wesley Foundation
Campus Minister - Clemson UMC
PO Box 1703 Clemson SC 29633
864-207-9135 (c) or 864-654-5547 (o)
www.clemsonwesley.com

Feel free to forward this email to a friend. The Clemson Wesley Weekly Devotional is a ministry of the Clemson Wesley Foundation, the United Methodist Church’s ministry to students on the campus of Clemson University. The purpose of this email is to look at issues relevant to the life of Clemson students through the lens of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If you would like your name added to this list, email Rev. Lane Glaze at glaze@clemson.edu.