Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
First Sunday of Advent (Hope)
Jeremiah 29:5-14
5 Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Take 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. 7 But 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. 8 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let the prophets and the diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, 9 for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, says the Lord. 10 For thus says the Lord: Only when Babylon's seventy years are completed will I visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. 11 For 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. 12 Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. 13 When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart, 14 I 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.
The scene is just a two or three years after the beginning of the Babylonian exile. Around 3,000 Jews have been forcibly removed from Jerusalem, among them, priests, prophets, and, significantly here, false prophets.
These false prophets were predicting an early fall of Babylon, and a speedy return of the Jews to Jerusalem. What they were offering was false HOPE to the exiled community. Jeremiah is telling them to not be taken in by those who are telling them what they want to hear.
The exiles had not, apparently, even considered building their own houses in Babylon, but they DID enjoy freedoms that would not normally be associated with a group exiled into slavery. The deported included a specifically targeted group: craftsmen and artisans. Nebuchadnezzar had shipped them off to Babylon to help beautify it. These were the people that Jeremiah was writing to.
Jeremiah knew that there was a reason for the exile. God was disciplining God’s Children. The false prophets, in creating a sense of impending release from their …punishment, as it were, were nullifying the effect of that discipline.
In his letter, Jeremiah is saying that the Lord’s ultimate purpose for his people is blessing.
Let’s reread verse 11:
11 For 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.
Those last words are literally “an end and a hope”. Another way to say: A Hopeful Future.
Today we are celebrating the Sunday of Hope. We are looking forward to, eagerly awaiting, the coming of the Christ Child. In the Gospel of Luke, we have a beautiful scene where the young pregnant Mary visits her older cousin, Elizabeth. When she entered Elizabeth’s house and greeted her, the child in Elizabeth’s womb leaped, and Elizabeth was filled with God’s Spirit.
Do you remember the first time you felt your child move in your womb? Or the first time your hand on your wife’s belly felt your child move? A holy time.
This is such a time. We are not here because of a false hope, we are here because of the REAL hope we find in the coming of Christ, that miraculous, incredible, indescribable moment when God chose to take on Human form and join us – God with us – Emmanuel.
Jeremiah’s encouragement is to live life as unto God. Do not dwell on the dark side of our circumstances, do not build your hopes on unrealistic expectations of … winning the lottery, or waking up one morning and everything being ‘just the way you imagined it would be’, but on the fact that our hope is NOT based on our circumstances, but on the certainty of God’s love and care for us. And that love and care has nowhere been more clearly defined than through the person of Jesus Christ.
Let’s pray.
(hymn # 65) Joy to the World
Benediction:
“And now may God, Creator of light, and trees, and flowers, Grant us peace. As we have decorated this place of worship, may we also live lives of worship, decorated with God’s forever things: forever love, forever life, forever living, forever growing, forever green! In the name of God’s love and light. Amen!”
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