Sermon Tone Analysis

In the borough of Queens, New York, there is a neighborhood called Flushing.

In Flushing you will find Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, the location of the 1939-1940 World’s Fair.

A highlight of the World’s Fair was the “Immortal Well.”

Fifty feet underneath this well is buried the 1938 time capsule.

In this capsule, which is made of cupaloy—a metal created specifically for the capsule—are the items of everyday life in 1938.

A Sears and Roebuck catalog, a pack of Camel cigarettes, a dollar in change and dozens of books on microfilm were enclosed.

This idea was to tell the future (in the year 6939) how we lived, how we expressed ourselves, how we were human.

Q: Have any of you ever made a time capsule?

What did you put in it?

Many of us at one time or another were involved in making a time capsule—maybe in a coffee can back our school days, or a more formal time capsule.

In it we put little vestiges of life to tell generations ahead that we were here and what life was like.

You might say Jeremiah does the same thing in this odd story from his life.

He makes an act of hope to tell future generations that Israel was still around, but most of all to tell his current generation that they are people of hope.

The context

Let’s look at the context of where this story appears.

Jeremiah has become a fixture in the culture of Jerusalem, having been a prophet whose career has already spanned twenty years.

His message throughout is that God’s judgment will come on Israel, and that it will come through Babylon.

At the same time, and just as durable, is Jeremiah’s promise of a hope and future for Israel.

Jeremiah was often called the “weeping prophet” and his book is laden with difficult-to-hear stories of judgment and destruction, a result of Israel’s unfaithfulness to God.

Israel had taken up idol worship, even to the point of child sacrifice, and had abandoned the poor and vulnerable in their society.

Hence God is restoring them to their identity as his people through judgment.

Right in the middle of these dark stories is this somewhat odd story of Jeremiah doing a land deal.

The Babylonian army is essentially at the gates of Jerusalem when this occurs, and Jeremiah can probably see the smoke and fires of their encroaching camp through his window.

Because of Jeremiah’s unpleasant prophecies, the king put Jeremiah under house arrest.

What a fascinating insight into power structure and status quo.

How often have we locked up prophets?

Throughout history, those who spoke truth, especially those who spoke it to powerful people, have been put on “house arrest” in one sense or another.

There are the more dramatic of examples, like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was executed by Hitler.

But there are many—even today—who are placed where their voice cannot be heard.

And so Jeremiah is on house arrest.

The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of King Zedekiah of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar.

At that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and the prophet Jeremiah was confined in the court of the guard that was in the palace of the king of Judah, where King Zedekiah of Judah had confined him.

(Jeremiah 32:1-3a NRSV)

Of course, this didn’t slow him down when it came to being a prophet.

Typical of the Old Testament prophets who stared down death and persecution regularly, Jeremiah kept acting out his vocation as God’s prophet, and this time through action.

Here’s what he said:

The word of the LORD came to me: Hanamel son of your uncle Shallum is going to come to you and say, “Buy my field that is at Anathoth, for the right of redemption by purchase is yours.”

Then my cousin Hanamel came to me in the court of the guard, in accordance with the word of the LORD, and said to me, “Buy my field that is at Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, for the right of possession and redemption is yours; buy it for yourself.”

Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD.

And I bought the field at Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel, and weighed out the money to him, seventeen shekels of silver.

(Jeremiah 32:6-9 NRSV)

This is a fascinatingly strange move.

Jeremiah is buying a field in a doomed area.

This isn’t a “wise investment” from any angle.

The place he’s buying is about to become a smoking battlefield when Babylon gets through with it.

He’s been prophesying for two decades now that Babylon was going to level Jerusalem, and now when they’re right outside the gates, he buys real estate.

Then Jeremiah has his time capsule made.

Or at least the equivalent of it:

Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, both this sealed deed of purchase and this open deed, and put them in an earthenware jar, in order that they may last for a long time.

(Jeremiah 32:14 NRSV)