Hope for the Exiled

2020 Was a Rough Year

Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

My Aunt Karen had a post on Facebook about an old Irish tradition that on New Year’s Eve, at the stroke of midnight, you open your front door to let the Old Year out and the New Year in.

A snarky response suggested that perhaps this year not only should we open the front door but the windows, the garage.... maybe we should even take out a wall but let’s get 2020 out of here!

But it was a rough year. It was a year that disrupted life as we knew it. Scheduled events would be marked through with a red line.

I remember toward the end of March I had an event come up on my calendar that I had evidently created pre-covid which simply read “Online Meeting on Thursday.”

But I had gone from one or two online meetings a month to multiple every day, especially in those early days of Covid as everyone was scrambling to figure out how to work and live in a very different kind of world than what we had even a week before that as the Virus invaded our lives.

Background of Jeremiah

In our reading from Jeremiah, we hear of a people who have also experienced disruption and invasion. Not from disease but from a Babylonian Army. The Kingdom of Judah has been destroyed and scattered to the wind.

The city was sacked.

The temple, destroyed.

The king and his court all deported or dead.

The Kingdom that had once been a voice of proud independence in the wilderness and who had said God would always protect them… was no more.

Those who once proudly waved the banner of Judah found themselves in refugee camps or with a plow in hand, gone from court and now expected to farm the land and pay tribute to Babylon.

The people were in exile. And realize that this means exiled not only out of their houses but exiled out of their way of life… out of the way of doing things the way that they had always done them.

Tradition was a thing of the past. They couldn’t go to temple to make their sacrifices to God… the temple was gone. They couldn’t gather at the market with their friends from school… the school was gone and their friends deported to other places.

In short order, life had been turned completely upside down.

Exiles of Yesterday

And, in truth, scripture is full of stories of people’s lives being turned upside down.

Book of Ruth

In the Book of Ruth we hear of Noami and her husband, Elimelek, who leave behind their home, their friends and their family, the only place they had known not because of war but because of famine.

When there was no longer enough food to go around and prosperity in the land of Judah seemed like an impossibility, the couple took their young family and left it all to go to Moab… a place of their enemies… in the hopes of finding new life. But instead of new life, their family was met with tragedy after tragedy as Elimelek (the father) died, followed by both of Noami’s sons leaving the widow nearly alone with only her newly begotten Moabite daughter-in-laws as company.

Theirs is a story of life being turned upside down. Of being exiled, not by war, but by famine.

Book of Second Samuel

Or in Second Samuel chapter 24 we hear a painful story of King David’s sins and the people of Israel being punished for their leader’s failures.

The Great King of Israel wanted to know how large a fighting force he had. He wanted to know how much power he controlled rather than relying on God to take care of it.

In some ways it’s not too far off from us wanting to know how much is in the bank account rather than trusting that however much is in there God will still get us through to the next day. But David had been instructed not to check the account… not to take the census to see how many fighting men he had… but instead to trust in God.

But he doesn’t trust. He takes the census any way. And immediately he regrets it. For punishment, God gives King David the painful duty of deciding what Israel’s punishment shall be for their King’s sin of mistrust:

A) Seven years of famine, such as what we hear of in the book of Ruth

B) Three months of invasions from Israel’s enemies, like we hear in Jeremiah...

C) Or three days of pestilence and disease in the land.

David chose option C. Three days of pestilence in the land. Three days of disease.

And the disease brings King David and Israel to its knees.

When I was mentioning this to Ashley she said, “Three days of sickness and King David couldn’t handle it? Now that’s a man-cold.”

But that’s what scripture says.... in three days time, the book of Second Samuel records 70,000 people died. 70,000 fathers, mothers, daughters, sons… gone.

In verse 17 David says to God, “I have done wrong and I have done wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Let your hand be against me and my father’s house.”

The invasion of disease had pushed David to where he was no longer concerned about how much power he had… that place of comfort that he had in his authority was gone. Instead, the disease caused him to realize just how very vulnerable he was even in the height of his power.

David was not exiled from his palace. He was not exiled from Jerusalem. But he was exiled out of his comfort.

Exiled, not by war… nor by famine… but by disease.

Sound familiar?

In the Time that was too late

For the Jews of Jeremiah’s time, some 600 years before Christ came in a manger, they had gone so far into the darkness of exiled despair that they likely wondered if there was still hope for a future.

As the besieging armies had fallen upon the people, Jeremiah’s response was not one of hope… but despair. Channeling his inner borg, Jeremiah told King Zedekiah that resistance to Babylon was futile.

Had God abandoned them? Had God said, “Enough is enough, I’m going to find a different chosen people.”? The chance to save them… to save Judah seemed to have disappeared. It was already too late.

But then, Jeremiah hears a new word from God. After nearly 30 chapters filled with death, doom and destruction foretold… we hear a shift in the prophet’s words.

After the city walls have been breached.

After the temple has been burned.

After the people have been cast from their homes and separated from their family members to toil in near slave-like conditions.

After the few remaining loyalists to Israel, their one last hope, had attempted revolt against Babylonian rule under Nebuchadnezzar and their revolt had been soundly squashed.

After all of this has ALREADY happened, Jeremiah speaks words of comfort and hope to those who live in exile.

What were they returning to

What does he say?

Sing! Sing aloud with gladness!

God is about to do something marvelous, extraordinary, beyond belief. God is going to do what the people could not do on their own.

God is going to save them. God is going to restore them. God is going to make something new in them.

I can imagine those who were listening in to Jeremiah’s words wondering just how God was going to make this happen. The revolt against Babylon had already failed. What few fighters they had before were largely gone now. What great army was God going to produce to go and retake the lands that had been taken from them?

Verse 8, “See, I am going to bring them from the land of the north and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth.”

Ah… it sounds like we have our answer. The armies are simply scattered, yes? Let’s read on:

“Among them, the blind and the lame, those with child and those in labor, together, a great company, they shall return here.”

Now that doesn’t seem like much of a fighting force. The blind and the lame? Those with children and women who are actively in labor? Certainly these are not ones fit for warfare? Even the journey itself would be questionable… Those who are blind and lame especially would need to rely on the strength and the sight of others should they even attempt such a long walk.

Verse 9, “With weeping they shall come,” This is important… I’m going to use a double negative here… God is NOT saying the pains of what has occurred will NOT still haunt them. They have lost loved ones. They have lost their way of life. There are reasons there are blind and lame among them. For some, perhaps, disease or an issue at birth. For many, punishment for a failed revolt. These are those who have tried and fallen short. There is much to mourn.

But listen to the rest of the verse..

“With weeping they shall come, and with consolations I will lead them back, I will let them walk by brooks of water, in a straight path (No 40 years wandering in the wilderness)

in which they shall not stumble (Again, think of who is going on this journey… the only way they would not stumble is if God Godself were leading them)

for I have become a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.” (And we have our answer… just as Joseph gave his blessing to Ephraim, the second born son… so now God gives the blessings to those of Israel who also are undeserving of them.)

For those who are undeserving. For those who have failed to live in the covenant that God had called them to. For those who had tried by their own strength and fallen short. For those who had fallen from grace. For those who had been exiled from all that they knew. For those who had ALREADY lost everything. For those who had NO reason to hope… God says, “Rejoice”

And later on in verse 13 we hear,

13Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance,

and the young men and the old shall be merry.

I will turn their mourning into joy,

I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow.

14 I will give the priests their fill of fatness,

and my people shall be satisfied with my bounty,

says the LORD.

Hear the key words.

Rejoice

Dance

Be merry

I will Turn mourning into joy

I will Comfort them

I will give them Gladness from sorrow

My people shall be satisfied

For the people who had no reason left to hope… for the people who had lost everything and failed totally… I can only imagine how they felt upon hearing these uplifting words from Jeremiah… from Jeremiah the prophet of gloom, doom, and destruction foretold and fulfilled.

But that is who God is. That is who Christ is. When the darkness seems to have won, the light flares to life.

When Mary and Martha were upset that Christ had come too late to save their brother Lazarus, Jesus declares COME OUT! And there is new life when all hope was lost.

When the Savior of the World was tortured and killed upon a cross and even Christ’s closest disciples had given up hope… death was not allowed to have the final say.

And when the people of Israel had been conquered and cast to the wind, God said you are still my people and I am still your God. It’s time to sing.

Hope for the Exiles

Jeremiah’s words here are good for us to consider as we leave 2020 and enter into 2021. As we think on the past and look to the future we can be reminded that God brought hope to the exiles of Israel when there was no hope to be had.

And as we go through a whole range of emotions brought on by whatever situation we find ourselves in today, we can remember that God works in such moments.

In times of broken relationships that seem beyond repair, God works.

In times of hunger and times of disease, God works.

In times when a nation hurts, divided against itself, God works.

In times of doubt and despair, God works.

In times of anxiety and frustration, in times of anger, in times of mourning… God works.

In times when it seems too late, even in times of death, God works.

And so as we go to the door to fling it open, shoving 2020 out and welcoming 2021 in… we hear that God already at the door... already making the change happen that we ourselves are powerless over.

God is already there, reminding us that we are not alone. Telling us that now is a time to sing… for it is God, the creator of the Heavens and the Earth… the one who came as a babe in a manger and went on to take our sins to the cross… it is God, that God, our God, who has the final word in all things… even and especially the things that seem too late to change.

For me, at least, that knowledge creates hope.

May you enter 2021 with the knowledge that God is with you in whatever pathways you are travelling this day.

May you enter 2021 with the comfort that the God of the ages knows your pains… and weeps with you.

May you enter 2021 with the hope that the God who came as a babe in a manger, ignites the Light in the darkest of nights… for it is God, not the ourselves, not our bank accounts, not our news sources, not our political parties, not the world, not the forces of evil or darkness, not even death itself… but it is God whom has the final word. And that Word is Life. Amen.