sometimes forwards is the only way back

to reach the hill in time

A sermon on Jeremiah's prophecy to the exiles:

Plans play a big part of our lives—especially this time of the year. And it’s no great secret why. A well-made and executed plan can go a long way—especially this time of the year. But, as we all know, even the best-laid plans aren’t foolproof. Not that that stops us from losing sleep when some scheme of our’s doesn’t pan out.

That is, at heart, what exile is. Exile isn’t so foreign a concept. Exile is the painful experience of living with some circumstance you can’t change. No matter how much you might want to or how hard you have tried to. And the truth is, life is full of these kinds of experiences—especially this time of the year.

…Today’s passage is a prophecy to folks in literal exile. To be an exile was to be forcibly deported. Part of Babylon’s campaign of control, you see, was to send away the prominent citizenry of the countries they conquered. The idea was that the people left behind would be easier to rule without any of their own leaders back home. 

The folks Jeremiah was addressing then were people who had been uprooted against their will. Psalm 137 comes from this experience. “By the rivers of Babylon— there we sat down, and there we wept, when we remembered Zion.” Nevertheless, these exiles were also people who were used to directing their own lives. They were the movers and shakers back in Jerusalem. As such, they were already making plans to leave Babylon before they even got there! 

Jeremiah, though, sends word that the exiles need to make other plans. Instead of planning to leave Babylon, Jeremiah tells the exiles that they should plan to settle in. Settle in for the long haul. Seventy years long. In effect, Jeremiah tells those poor souls who had been sent away against their wishes to give up all the plans of the life they had envisioned for themselves.

But then, Jeremiah tells these exiles something else. Something they could never have planned! Jeremiah tells these exiles that God has some plans for them. Plans of God’s own! Jeremiah tells the exiles that while they may be far from home, they’re not far from God! In fact, Jeremiah tells the exiles that God has hidden God’s best blessing within their worst-case scenario!

Our Bibles translate this rather blandly as “welfare.” But the Hebrew word here is shalom. Shalom often gets translated as peace. And that’s closer. But shalom isn’t any ol’ peace. No, shalom is total peace. Shalom is when everything fits together just right. And I do mean everything.

Shalom is internal peace, yes. But shalom is more than that! Shalom is also peace between you and your neighbors. All of them. And that’s not all shalom is, either! Shalom is also peace between all people, everywhere. Societal peace! And shalom is still more, too! Shalom also includes creation! Shalom is peace between the human world and the natural one! Shalom is walking out your front door, not fearing calamity or enmity, but rather looking ahead to possibilities and peacefulness. Shalom is what we’re all longing for—especially this time of the year.

What’s most striking about this shalom, though, is where Jeremiah says it's found! This shalom isn’t going to turn up once the exiles return home and put their lives back in order. No, this shalom is going to happen right in the middle of their exile! The people will experience shalom in the midst of all their grief, strife, and distress! And that’s something no one could have planned on. No one but God! 

God’s plan for your life starts when all your plans come to nothing! Because nothing is what God works with best! Your dashed plans are the perfect drawing board for God to draft the surprising blueprint of salvation out of your life!

God does indeed have plans for shalom. But it’s a true shalom God has planned. A shalom that can stand up to the worst life can throw your way. A shalom that can ring out in the last place you expected! In the last way you expected!

And life, such as it is, is full of these unwelcome times and places—especially this time of the year. My family didn’t sit around Grandma Mardene’s table this year. And that sorrow is tainted with a bit of bitterness that we couldn’t celebrate Thanksgiving with her last year, either. And I’m not the only one to come here with such griefs. Am I? 

Every one of us is coming from an incomplete Thanksgiving table. The chair may have long sat empty. Or maybe this was the first year no one sat there. Or perhaps, your table was only subtly incomplete. It seemed as though all the trimmings and fixings were served up. And yet, something was still missing.

Well, the truth is, this is just the displacement we all feel. It’s what it means to be made in the image of God, living in a fallen world. It’s why those words of the hymn we began our service with ring so true. “O come, O come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel, that mourns in lonely exile here…” 

To simply attend to that reality, though, would be to neglect the promise hidden within it. As the hymn continues, “until the Son of God appear.” And Christ, the Son of God, has appeared! And he appeared in the last place anyone expected! Not a throne, but a trough! 

This is where Christ shows up every time! In the middle of all that makes for exile. But, by his presence, he transforms our exile into an outcropping of his Eden! That’s why all of that old hymn rings true. Even the chorus, “Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to you, O Israel.” 

Emmanuel, God with us, has come to you! He’s made your exile his home! He’s fulfilled Jeremiah’s prophecy for you! He’s delivered his welfare, peace, and shalom in the middle of your exile. In fact, he’s gone so far as to make this gathering a homecoming! And more! A foretaste of his great feast to come! His feast of shalom! His feast where all are gathered, every tear is wiped away, and the hymn of praise never ends! 

And so, even amid the grief of our present exile, let us, too, rejoice! Hard-won though this joy may come—especially this time of the year, let us lift our voice and join the song that heralds our Savior’s advent among us! Even within our exile!