"Buying the Farm" given 9/25

For years Jeremiah has been ranting and raving, delivering dire warnings, desperate weeping, and discouraging words to the people of Jerusalem.  Now

all his worse predictions have come to pass. The Babylonian army is besieging

the city. But now the reluctant prophet is suddenly ready to offer hope.  Jeremiah is in jail, probably because the last thing King Zedekiah wants is to have this crazy

doomsday prophet running around telling the defenders of the city, “I told you so,” and demoralizing everyone.   But Jeremiah, being the contrary cuss that he is, is through with all that.  Now he is ready to buy the farm. 

Jeremiah now seems to be getting his investment advice from God (wouldn’t that be great!)  True to a vision from God, his cousin Hanamel comes to Jeremiah (still in jail) and offers to sell a legacy field in Anathoth to Jeremiah. 

“Doncha want to keep the old family farm in the family, cuz?”

His cousin probably figured it was worth a shot since everybody knows how dumb preachers are about money.

Granted, the price of the field is pretty low at this time, since the Babylonians are about to make the whole land theirs, but exactly how does Jeremiah think he is ever going to get his money back? "His" land will very soon not be his. Surprisingly enough, Jeremiah agrees, going through all the appropriate legal deeds and buying the family farm for 17 shekels of silver.  Then he continues the strict legality of the deal by charging his cousin’s realtor Baruch:

"Thus says the God of Hosts, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, both the sealed deed of purchase and the open copy, and put them in an earthenware jar, in order that they may last for a long time" (Jer 32:13-14).

If you know anything about the history of manuscripts of the Bible, this scene is amazingly reminiscent of that great discovery in the last century of the Dead Sea Scrolls, manuscripts preserved in earthenware jars for over 2000 years. Jeremiah knew that this legal action of sealing his deed in jars would indeed last a long time!

Why would Jeremiah do such a crazy thing? Preachers aren’t THAT dumb!   Who buys real estate that is about to become worthless?  On one level what Jeremiah was doing was giving his cousin enough money to escape and go to Egypt and start over.  The passage notes he carefully weighed the pure silver he was paying which would hold value in any foreign land. But even if that was part of his intention, Jeremiah was doing something much more than that. In both a real and a symbolic sense, Jeremiah was “buying the farm”.

You may have heard the phrase “buy the farm” before, in the context that someone has died.  The phrase originated during WWI. If a soldier was killed the death benefit was sufficient for the surviving family members to purchase a farm. Hence, it was said that a soldier who was killed, "bought the farm."   So from one person’s sacrifice (Jeremiah's) comes another person’s (Hanamel's) hope. 

   Clearly Jeremiah did not expect to benefit himself from the farm he bought.  Jeremiah had a larger theological purpose in mind.  His seemingly crazy act was meant to be a hopeful message, though I’m not sure everyone took it that way at first.  Jeremiah’s contemporaries probably wept at the thought for it meant their doom was sealed.  Few would escape the impending disaster of the Babylonian armies.  The options were death or exile.  Their only hope was that God would miraculously stop the disaster. 

While it is too late for that, Jeremiah is trying to reassure people that God is with them even in disaster. And God will bring a hopeful future, although it well not be in our human timing.  There are times when we reap the wonderful promises of God, and times when we (like good Cubs fans) must endure and keep hope alive, even if it is holding firm for another generation. 

Why does Jeremiah decide at this unpropitious time to buy land that will soon be taken from him by the conquering Babylonians? It is a prophetic act—pure and simple.

"For thus says the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land"

King Zedekiah's accusation of treason against the prophet is shown to be the miscarriage of justice that it is; Jeremiah is not a traitor against Judah. Quite the contrary, because he knows the wonder of God, Jeremiah knows that Judah's history is not over forever. (Though many in 587 B.C.E. were convinced that it was.)

With his purchase of the old family farm, the home of his youth, Jeremiah has announced more clearly than any other act could have announced that their God is not through with Judah nor with God’s people just yet. There is a future for God's people, though at the moment that future seems dark indeed.

Here is something that the prophet can teach those of us in the 21st century. Pollsters tell us that more and more Christians are coming believe that you and I are living in end times. I first encountered that belief while I was in college. It was a man I kind of liked—a guy named Nick, who was a couple of years older than me—he was a Lutheran seminary student in point of fact!

“O Yeah” He told me. “We got wars and rumors of war, everything in the Book of Revelation except for the moon to turning to blood. As soon as that happens, that’ll be the end.” Frankly, I was flabbergasted that any educated Christian could think such a thing. But there it was.

A couple of months ago I read on a mutual friend’s Facebook page that Nick had passed away. I don’t know if he died disappointed that the world hadn’t ended in his lifetime, or relieved.

For many years I was to meet Christians and others who thought that the world would end in year 2000. I guess they believed God didn’t like round numbers. Then of course came the great Y2K world-wide computer failure and collapse of civilization on New Year’s Eve 1999—O right. That didn’t happen either—did it?

And we all recall the great Mayan calendar scare of 2012. I was always a bit leary of that one—if the Mayans were so good at predicting the future—how come they didn’t see the conquistadors coming? And of course there’s all those big-haired televangelist prophets of doom- practically salivating at the thought of the rapture. It occurs to me that genuine, reluctant OT prophets like Jeremiah tended to end up getting thrown in jail while in our era, eager self-appointed prophets tend to end up driving Jaguars.

What with the basically un-needed immediacy, sloppy journalism, and outright bias of so much of the media, I suppose it’s understandable that so many look so for the Apocalypse. The world’s in a mess. We can’t do anything about it. I guess God’s mad at us.

Why do the hard, heart-breaking work of trying to redeem the world through our witness and prayers and effort? If we’re really in end times we can

just sit back and ignore the suffering of God’s people, enjoying our piece of the pie, wearing our fashionable clothes, letting the world and suffering humanity go to hell in a bucket.

And since it’s God’s will we can just enjoy the show. And when the end does come, we’ll be sitting up in the bosom of Abraham, watching all those sinners and unbelievers and welfare cheats and heretics and undocumented immigrants and foreigners and beggars at our gates fry in hell.

Except… that’s not the way Jesus describes it in the parable of Lazarus and the rich man. In the parable it’s the other way around. In the parable the rich guy’s real sin is not his wealth—it’s his indifference to Lazarus’ plight.

Lazarus is out there outside our gates—yours and mine. He’s an abused or neglected child. He’s a juvenile in trouble. He’s an undocumented worker. He’s struggling with Alzheimer’s. He’s an ex-offender trying to go straight.

He dies of starvation or illness or violence or our indifference everyday—every minute—over in what we used to call the third world—and in our world—even our towns. I don’t know about you, but I read the parable and I think Jesus is calling us to notice Lazarus is out there and try to figure out how to help him.

I read the parable and I get discouraged because I know there are so many Lazarus’ out there. I read the parable and read the news and I wish I could believe we’re in end times—so I could at least see an end to all the suffering, dying Lazarus’s. And I guess all you and I can do is keep trying to change government policies, keep volunteering at pantries and hunger and homeless, and other ministries, keep lobbying, keep donating, keep praying and not lose hope—buy that farm. But sometimes it feels so discouraging!

When we see a world hell-bent on destruction, when we see the barbarians at the gate, when we think that the end has finally come to our hopes and dreams for justice and righteousness for all of God's people, then we can watch the land deal of Jeremiah, watch him sign the deed, weigh out the money, give the deed and its copy to Baruch, witness Baruch put them in a jar where they might be preserved for centuries, and we can know that the end has not yet come, because God has more for us yet to do.

 I think of one of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s favorite qoutes

“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” 

Dr. King knew he would not see his dream of equality realized in his lifetime.  He knew that the struggle of African-Americans had been going on for centuries since landing on these shores in slave ships.  There had been progress along the way, with the Civil War ending slavery, but it would take 99 years before the Civil Rights Act would be signed into law.  It has taken several decades of bitter struggle to enact this law with measurable progress, but there is always more work to do.

Forty years after Martin Luther King was assassinated, we elected an African-American President of the United States.  That was inconceivable in 1964, when Dr. King gave his “I have a dream” speech, or 1974 or 84, or 94, or even in 2004. Most of the people who struggled and sacrificed for the greater but imperfect equality we have today never lived to see the dream.

The real point of Jeremiah buying the farm is that we can have faith in God’s providence, even when disaster is upon us, for that will not be the final word in God’s story. Even when we feel overwhelmed with the call before us. God isn’t through with us yet! It is a reminder that all the treasurers of faith that we have are an inheritance of sacrifice from saints of previous generations.

 Who we are today has been passed from Jeremiah, to Jesus of Nazereth, to Martin Luther, to Martin Luther King, Jr, to you and me today.  We are the current generation entrusted with the great treasure once buried in a field outside Jerusalem.  We are the living community of the saints, seeking to love God and have compassion for our neighbors.   It is our responsibility to keep hope as a living reality, not merely a past legacy. 

 There are days when I get bogged down with my own problems and grief, and I wonder if my struggle is worth it.  On such days I find courage in remembering that my struggle is part of the wider human struggle, and the ongoing work of Christ to redeem humanity. I find courage in knowing that God isn’t done with humanity—or with me. I find courage in believing with Dr. King. , “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” 

The challenge I put before myself and you today is this: what is the concrete work you need to do this day to extend Christ’s work and pass it forward.  How will your life help “buy the farm?”