The Bible Binge: Peace, Bro! (Jeremiah 29:1-14)

A world without peace

In 1958, a graphic artist for a protest group created a bunch of posters for an anti-nuclear protest in England. Among the designs, that Gerald Holtom drew on the posters, was one symbol that soon became known around the world as the peace symbol. That symbol became the focal point, not just of anti-nuclear protests in the 60s, but the anti-Vietnam war protests. By the mid-1960s, that symbol was iconic… and universal. It was everywhere.. t-shirts, road signs, graffiti. The symbol was a rally-cry for peace in a world that didn’t know and still doesn’t know peace. But there’s more to the story. Years later, Holtom said in an interview that his idea for the symbol came from his own lack of peace, his own despair… the icon of a man facing death with his arms spread downward. The symbol for peace because he didn’t know peace.

We live in a world that doesn’t know peace. I’m always sobered when I ask someone what they would like me to pray for… the answer is world peace. And the reality is, when the world isn’t at peace, somehow our own lives are not at peace. Because the world is not at peace, I’m not at peace. But if you understand what the Bible is saying about peace, the world’s lack of peace is precisely because we ourselves do not have peace in our personal lives.

Today we are continuing our Bible Binge.. our walk through the entire Bible in 14 months.. and we are in the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah was a prophet who lived through the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. at the hands of the world’s big baddie at the time, Babylon. There’s anything but peace in the book of Jeremiah. This book is a collection of prophetic clippings.. the sermons, poems, and autobiographical notes Jeremiah compiled in the 4 decades of being God’s spokesperson. This scrapbook that Jeremiah and his friend Baruch put together is answering the number one question people are asking Jeremiah: why is Jerusalem in ruins? We noted last week that Jeremiah’s answer is that Jerusalem is in ruins because they hadn’t been paying attention. Jeremiah had the very word from God about their lack of belief and obedience. They had been ignoring his plea to respond to God in repentance and faith.

As you read Jeremiah, it becomes quite apparent that a big reason why the people ignored Jeremiah for so long and continued in their unbelief is because they were listening to all the wrong guys. Time and again, throughout Jeremiah’s ministry, there had been those opposing Jeremiah’s message. It’s not all that bad. Nothing bad is going to happen. Jeremiah just got up off the wrong side of the bed. Pay no mind to Jeremiah… we are the real God’s spokesmen. Except what Jeremiah says comes to pass: Babylon levels the city and the temple and forces the relocation of most of the inhabitants to hundreds of miles to the east.

The false prophets are not deterred. If you were forcefully relocated from your home, what is it that you want more than anything in the world? Yeah, you want to go home. So even though God said it would be 70 years before they’d be allowed to go back to their homeland, these slick preachers were telling people… don’t bother unpacking your Uhauls, stay at the Holiday Inn, see some of the tourist sites, because we’re all going back shortly. That brings us to our chapter today.

The Letter: You’ve been listening to fake news

God’s hearing all of this and he tells Jeremiah, who still happens to be in Jerusalem.… time to write a letter. There’s a lot of fake news out there. Jeremiah writes the letter and here’s what he says:

Jeremiah 29:4–5 This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says to all the exiles I deported from Jerusalem to Babylon: “Build houses and live in them.”

This is what the Lord of Armies says… not what the fake preachers are saying. This isn’t even what Jeremiah is saying. This isn’t his message. This is the One True King of Israel saying this. The One whose message is true and right and not fake. And his message isn’t what the fake preachers are saying. In fact, stop listening to the fake news. You’re going to be in Babylon a while. Get to know your general contractors… you’ll need them to build your houses. You’re not going back to Jerusalem for a long, long time. In fact, build houses, have kids, raise your kids, get your kids in a good school, sign them up for the sports teams, get them graduated and off to Babylon University and then throw weddings for them and oh, by the way… you’ll have time to take the grandkids to Babylon Disney… and then throw weddings for your grandkids.

The total opposite of what they’re being told. This is bad news to their ears. This isn’t what they want to hear. They are in a foreign country with foreign customs and they are supposed to make a life of it. And not just make a life, flourish.

God’s game plan for their exile: The Garden

If you look at God’s instructions for the exiles all by themselves, you recognize the echoes of the garden. These are all words that echo the original garden

Build, live, plant, eat, find, have, find, multiply, pursue, pray

Our original parents, Adam and Eve, were told to build out their garden… to plant, to eat of all the trees (except one), to multiply. Hundreds of miles from home, the Jewish exiles are to be about the business of re-creating the garden of Eden in Babylon.. home of the ancient wonder of the world, the Hanging Garden of Babylon. They are to be making a new land flowing with milk and honey. Build, live, plant, eat, find wives, have sons and daughters, multiply, pursue peace, and pray. Deported to a land that wasn’t theirs, God says build yourself a life in the foreign land. Make the most of your time there, even to the point of planting roots. It’s going to be a while.

Pursue shalom

The ten commands or imperatives are given an exclamation point with the last two commands: Pursue and pray. Pursue the well-being or the peace of the city, whatever city you end up in. And pray for that city. This is unheard of in the Ancient Near East… pursuing the well-being of the ones who are your captors or conquerors. Actively making sure that the ones who have deported you succeed in their cities. This word for well-being is the Hebrew word “shalom”. “Shalom” means wholeness or completeness. Freedom from conflict. And it’s mentioned three times here.

Literally, pursue the shalom of the foreign city. When there is shalom for the foreign city, you will have shalom.

This garden that you are building… this life that you are making in Babylon, as you build and as you plant, you’re not doing this for me.. you’re doing this for your neighbor, the good of your neighbor. Pursuing shalom or peace means pursuing the spiritual wholeness, the emotional health, the physical well-being of the city. And why?

When the city thrives, you will thrive

When there is shalom in the city, you will have shalom.. or peace. The city thrives, you thrive. And the inverse is quite apparent.. if the city doesn’t thrive, you won’t either. I mean, this is the last thing they want to hear. They want to go home. God is saying, no, not only are you not going home, you’re going to be there awhile AND you need to be about the business of making wherever you end up cities of peace and prosperity. Foreign cities where they don’t know the culture, don’t know the language, don’t like the culture, don’t like the language… no… be about the business of creating gardens of Eden wherever you go.

History tells us this is what they did. The synagogue has its origins in the Babylonian captivity as Jewish people carved out worship spaces in cities where they were building their new lives… lives that embodied the planting and building of the garden of Eden.

A future and a hope: The “I wills”

But Israel will not be in Babylon forever. After 70 years, they will be returned to Jerusalem. The city thrives. You will thrive. And eventually, Jerusalem is going to thrive again. There will be peace in Jerusalem again. There are a series of promises in rapid fashion. 12 promises, all interlocking to make one big promise: restoration. And here they are:

I will attend to you

I will confirm my promise

I will listen to you

You will call

You will come

You will pray

You will seek me

You will find me

I will be found by you

I will restore your fortunes

I will gather you

I will restore you

This also is a picture of a new garden, one even better than the one they are building in Babylon. This is bigger and better. The picture of restoration. This is their future, this is their hope. They are exiles. It’s hard to put those two things together… build your homes and build your life in Babylon. Multiply your families in Babylon. But that’s still not your future. Your future is Jerusalem. Your hope and your future is a restored kingdom.

Mythbusting “I know my plans for you”

One thing about this restoration. There’s a verse sitting in the middle of these promises for Israel in exile in Babylon that ends up on the walls of our home as a pithy statement. In fact, Every year at graduation time when graduates of high school and college are planning big and having big dreams, this verse gets another 15 minutes of fame and it’s almost always out of context:

Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“plans for your well-being, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”

This verse is used to provide comfort and confidence that God’s plans are a bunch of success and a bright future for the graduate. But the problem is… what’s the context? This is given to exiles in Babylon that the news they don’t want to hear is in their best interest. My plans for your well-being are here in Babylon.. your well-being is pursuing the peace of a foreign city, and praying for the prosperity of that foreign city. That’s my plan for you. That’s your well-being. And someday, a day you might not get to see, you have a future and a hope in a restored Jerusalem. This is not a blanket statement of God’s intentions to provide us a great life. In fact, this well-being that is grounded in a future and a hope has everything to do with Jesus. Because that future and that hope are tied to the coming of Jesus.

Jesus, Our Peace

The great missionary Paul tells the congregation in Ephesus that Jesus himself is our peace. Because ultimately, shalom isn’t simply about make sure there’s wholeness and completeness… but an utter and complete freedom from conflict between God and the sinner. The cross is our peace. And because Jesus is peace, he creates peace where formerly there was conflict. Here’s what the angels say when Jesus, our peace, is born in a manger:

Luke 2:14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to people he favors!”

Jesus came as peace to a world without peace. And in doing so, made good on all the promises of Jeremiah 29. He gathered his people and restored their fortunes by providing them and us life, forgiveness, and salvation. Jesus himself is the future and hope of Jeremiah 29. When Jesus thrives, we thrive. All of our hopes and dreams and good fortunes are completely bound up in the good fortunes and destiny of Jesus… a destiny that took him to the cross, where He forever made good on His promise to give us peace.

Jesus gives us peace…for the peace of the city

Jesus gives us peace, His peace. When he gives us his favor, he gives us His peace. And that peace becomes peace for the city. The church, as it lives in Babylon, as it lives in exile, is to be about the business of pursuing the peace of the city. It all begins with Word and Sacrament, where Jesus is our peace for us. But it moves from Word and Sacrament into our lives and into the spaces we occupy, where we continue the work of building and planting the garden of God.. in his restoration of all all things. Jeremiah 29 is telling us that we need to be about the business of making the cities we live in a better place to live. This happens through the gospel. But it also happens through our lives. We bring Jesus into more spaces in incarnational living.. being the hands and feet of Jesus for the shalom of our community.

Is our city better than when we found it? This is where the idea of no reciprocity comes from. We hand out water, not because we want people to notice us, but because people are thirsty. That’s pursuing the peace of the city. We gave away hundreds of bags of potatoes on Thursday. Because people can use some help with their food budget. Making the city a better place than when we found it. We’re giving away pumpkins in four weeks. We’re putting smiles on people’s faces. That’s pursuing the peace of the city. So many hurting people and angry people… need a smile, need a kind word, need a soft word of calmness, need a word of encouragement. That’s pursuing the peace of the city.

This world is fractured. This world lacks peace. This world is full of people screaming at each other. Our own lives lack peace. But we know the One Who is Peace, Who gives us peace. And that peace, we then channel to others, even in the midst of our own lack of peace. How are we being the Peace people or Peace, Bros that the world needs? How are we agents of Christ’s peace? How are we dialing down the rhetoric? The people around us need to know about Jesus, who is peace. When Jesus thrives, we thrive.

Let’s Pray.

The Table

This is where Jesus makes good on his Promise in Jeremiah 29. This is where he attends to us. Where he confirms His people. This is where he will be found by us. This is where He listens to us. This is where He restores us. In his body and in his blood.

Benediction

Numbers 6:24–26 May the Lord bless you and protect you;

may the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;

may the Lord look with favor on you and give you peace.