RoboPreacher

as i abide in peace... A sermon on Jeremiah's letter to the exiles : When you hear today’s scripture it’s hard not to wonder, “how could he say something like that.”   How could Jeremiah say that , to those suffering refugees. Because that’s what exiles are; refugees. Exiles were the victims of Babylon’s conquest program. Babylon’s official policy was to deport the citizenry of any country they conquered, back to Babylon .   Jeremiah is writing to people who watched a foreign army come in, defeat their militia, and then lead them away to live in a foreign land! People who were wondering: How . How could God let this happen? How long will this last. Questions we’ve wondered, too. Haven’t we? And what does Jeremiah say? Not to keep up hope, but to settle in! That their exile is going to last longer than their lives. And then, Jeremiah tells them, to seek the welfare of the very country that conquered them! How could he say that???   Now, of co...

from exodus for exile   As we noted during earlier, we're moving through a lot of time, quickly.... Last week we had Exodus , or liberation. What happened between that story last week and the story of exile this week is that those people of God, after some years wandering in the wilderness did, finally, come into the promised land! Before the people came into the land, though, Moses stops them and gives a sermon . A sermon reminding the people who they are, and reminding them of the laws God gave them at that mountain. It is almost as if Moses is saying, it is important to pause before we get to the promise because should we ever forget God's commands, if we should forget who we are and where we came, from it will be all to easy for us to turn into the Egyptians ourselves... There's the tragedy of the story of exile; Something happened once God's people finally reached the promise... Have you ever heard that rhetorical question: What...