“I Know the Plans I
Have for You”
There’s a good chance you’ve read it on a piece of devotional paraphernalia, maybe a magnet or a bumper sticker or a card of encouragement. You may have heard it on television or the radio, spoken by someone promising good things just around the corner. If you grew up in the church, you may have memorized it at some point. “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’”—Jeremiah 29:11.
But did you know that those words were spoken to a people who were doomed to live the rest of their lives in the land of their enemy? Did you know those words were spoken to a people whose future was learning a new language, scraping out a subsistence among strangers, and living under the suspicious eyes of their Babylonian conquerors?
When the people of Judah first went into exile, many of them hoped for a speedy return to their homeland. In fact, in the chapter before our scripture today, Jeremiah gets into a fierce debate with another prophet, Hananiah. Hananiah tells the people not to worry. He prophesies that they will return to their homeland in just a couple of years. Jeremiah disagrees. He prophesies that they will only return to their homeland after seventy years. If you’re like me, and you choose whichever weather forecast suits your plans best, then you can imagine which of these prophets was more popular among the people.
“Make Your Homes
There”
Yet it is the unpopular prophet, Jeremiah, the one who announces that they are in Babylon for the long haul, who declares God’s famous promise to prosper the people and not to harm them, to give them hope and a future. All of which begs the question: how does a lifetime of exile fit in with God’s promise of prospering? Where is the hope in knowing that you and your children will spend most if not all of your lives living in the land of your enemy?
We read elsewhere in scripture that God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, God’s ways not our ways (Isa 55:8-9). This situation is a perfect example. The typical human response to a difficult or uncomfortable situation is fight, flight, or freeze and appease. First, the people of Judah had fought the Babylonians. Now that they are defeated, some of them are hoping for a speedy flight from their exile, a quick return to their homeland. Others of them are frozen in fear. They are playing dead, so to speak; they are considering putting their Israelite identity to death in order to become as Babylonian as possible, to appease their new lords and make their lives easier in the land.
But God has a different plan than fight, flight, or freeze and appease. We hear it in our scripture today, which is actually part of the same scripture from which we get that famous promise to prosper the people and to give them hope and a future. To all the exiles in Babylon, God says, “Make your homes there. Grow your families there. Seek the peace of the enemy among whom you live, and pray for them. Their peace is your peace” (29:5-7).
I’m going to go out on a limb and say, this is not what the people of Judah wanted to hear. No more than Jesus’ disciples would have wanted to hear him say, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you” (Luke 6:27-28). This way of living does not come naturally to us. It is counterintuitive. God is effectively saying, “The good life is right where you are. Live it there!” (Excuse me, God, have you seen where I’m living?)
Fight, flight, and freeze and appease, are all responses that look for life somewhere else: in the future or in a different place. They all presuppose that the present time and place is somehow lacking and needs to be changed. They either try to change it themselves by force, or they wait for the change to happen. By contrast, God invites the people to make their home in the present and to bless it. We see this in other Bible stories of exile, such as the stories of Daniel and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These young Hebrew men neither fought the Babylonian empire nor fled from it nor tried to appease it. Instead, they made their home there. They even served in its high court. They lived, however, not as citizens of Babylon, but as followers of God. In all their life—from what they ate to how they worshipped—they bore witness to God’s care.
From Daniel in
Babylon to Dan in America
Dan Nanamkin is a Native American of the Colville Reservation in Washington state. Like the people to whom Jeremiah prophesied, Dan and his people are living in a sort of exile themselves. They will never be able to return to the life that their ancestors once enjoyed. Many of them fought the changes to their land a long time ago. Now many of them flee from it; the rates of addiction among Native Americans are disproportionately high. Some of them have relinquished their cultural heritage in an attempt to assimilate. But Dan has chosen a different response. He has dedicated his life to sharing the sacred stories of his tradition and seeking the welfare of the land and the people who dwell on it.
Several years ago, Dan showed up at Standing Rock, where many Native Americans and others were pleading against the construction of an oil pipeline through reservation territory. The threat to the land had brought together a diverse company, as more and more people came to share a concern for the land. Dan’s appearance made for quite a scene. On the one side of the blockade was a massive armed force, which occasionally resorted to tear gas and rubber bullets. On the other side, was Dan, in full regalia, and always singing. His presence was magnetic and made a particular impression on one reporter, who identified him as “one of the most prayerful, peaceful people” there.[1]
Crushed Into the
Ground…As Seeds
Dan’s story inspires me. It is like the story of Judah in Babylon. It is like the story of Jesus in our world. All of these stories show us the way of God. It is the way of God to make a home right where you are and to bless those around you. To meet the sword with a song. There is a Oaxacan saying that captures this way of God beautifully, “You crushed us into the ground, but you didn’t know we were seeds.” That’s it. We are seeds. Right where we are.
These stories invite me to ask, “What is my hope?” Is it that God will make things the way that I want them to be? If that’s the case, I may well be disappointed. If, as Paul suggests, hope is about what I cannot possibly see or foresee (Rom 8;24; cf. Heb 11:1), then perhaps I need to relinquish what I wish for in my mind’s eye. I wonder: what would the people of Judah have hoped for, marooned among their enemies? What does Dan hope for, living amid an empire that threatens his people’s land? What did Jesus hope for, as he made his way toward Jerusalem and the cross? Perhaps their hope all has less to do with certain results, which are out of our hands anyway, and more to do with their witness and the way that they lived. Perhaps they are simply hoping for the strength to make their home right where they are and to bless the world around them.
What results from making our home right where we are and blessing the world around us, is not for us to say. But God does indicate in Jeremiah’s prophecy that it may take a surprising shape. “In their welfare (shalom) will be your welfare (shalom)” (29:7; my trans.). In other words, what first seemed like an irredeemably hostile situation may turn into a new community of friends.
When I pause to think about it…that looks and sounds a lot like the kingdom of God that Jesus proclaimed.
Prayer
Courageous Christ,Whose way leads
To the cross and beyond—
In your tender care,
Disarm us of our selfish hopes
…
Help us to make our home
Right where we are,
And to bear witness to your love,
By which we and others may together know peace.
[1]
Camille Seaman, “A Native American Faces Teargas, Baton Charges and Rubber Bullets,”
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/may/04/standing-rock-pipeline-protest-native-american-tear-gas-batons-rubber-bullets-camille-seamans-best-photograph,
accessed October 4, 2022.
No comments:
Post a Comment