The Rev. Neale L. Miller

Sermon: August 10, 2007

Texts: Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15/Luke 16:19-31

Title:  “The Leading Indicators”

Read from Jeremiah 32:42.

                That promise was pronounced centuries ago, but it is renewed in our hearing today.  Now there were some specifics attached to the promise, let us listen as Jeremiah enumerates them: [verses 43-44 are read].

              What the Hebrews heard as Jeremiah made his bold declaration we are in no position to know.  We may speculate, however, that the words that reached their ears, though certainly welcome, provided very little reassurance and cheer.  It was a ration of hope the equivalent of a small crust of bread, and these folks were hungry.  Man, were they hungry.

              Let me set the scene.  It is the sixth century BC.  Jerusalem the great capital city, the city of fashion, commerce, and government, New York and Washington DC rolled into one was, as our lesson reports, under siege to the forces commanded by the Babylonian strong man, Nebuchadrezzer.  The weakened Jewish defenses were crumbling, and the people, once proud and defiant, anxiously awaited the inevitable, not knowing what suffering lie in store for them.

              The year 588 BC is inscribed in the memory of every Jew, for the loss of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple by the Babylonian marauders, marked a turning point in their history.  If Jerusalem could be lost, what ambition or dream was not vulnerable?  Given the opportunity to choose the period of time in which to live, no Jew would have chosen the sixth century BC.  The pious of that era wept, while those in whom the faith of Israel was less fully formed waged a daily battle with despair.  Like a big black cape, disillusionment and fear were strung across the land as sober reminders that hope was about to draw its last breath.

              The travails of those sixth century Jews are not remote from our present experience in America.  Though we in the United States do not face a threat on the scale of sixth century Jews, we must live with the specter of terror hanging over us.

              The specter of violence and death was an “in your face” reality for the Israelites.  The whole rhythm of the city was disrupted as persons were forced to re-adapt to life without benefit of the comforting familiarity of routines.  No aspect of life was unimpaired.  Work, family activities, leisure, worship, you name it, nothing remained as it had been.  You could no longer count on the baker to bake bread, the artisan to weave cloth, the cobbler to make sandals, or the city administrators to maintain civic order.  A once thriving economy ground to a halt as people were laid off and money became scarce.

              The well being of society was threatened, its future imperiled.  All of the so-called leading indicators by which the health of an economy is measured, things like unemployment figures, housing statistics, bankruptcies, debt levels, inflation index all exposed the bitter truth the citizens of the land intrinsically already knew, they were in for a long siege.

              The conditions I have been describing quite closely resemble those we face in America today.  Our leading indicators of economic health look none-too-good.  Employment is unstable, family debt levels are high, the stock market has lost considerable value, and the housing sector is a mess.  All of these leading indicators economists and other professionals consult to predict economic trends yield a bleak picture for the foreseeable future.

              The prudent take the leading indicators seriously.  They want to keep abreast of the trends, to anticipate changes that will impact their bottom line.  Jeremiah was an informed citizen of Jerusalem. As God’s prophet posted in Jerusalem Jeremiah consorted with all the higher ups who knew the score.  He was a familiar, if not welcome, presence in the royal court and other places where the gears of commerce and government turned.

              The prudent take the leading indicators seriously.  The economy was on the skids, the times as bad as anyone living could remember.  So what was Jeremiah up to?  There he was in the midst of an economic downturn placing a deposit on a piece of land whose value was shrinking faster than the distance now separating Jerusalem and her Babylonian invaders.  It was the worst possible time to buy land, for the Babylonians were sure to confiscate all lands belonging to the Hebrews.

              Against the grain.  Once again a prophet of God is portrayed cutting across the grain of expectations. Was there a person in all of Israel who knew better the mind of God?  Yet Jeremiah, the one who vented the wrath of God in blistering harangues against disobedient Israel, did the inconceivable.  He exercised an option on land that neither he nor his family was ever likely to occupy.

              The leading indicators could not have been less favorable, but God chose that bleakest of all moments to make a statement transcending time and circumstances.  “Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.”    The Hebrews were experiencing difficulty of unprecedented scale, but God promised to stand with them.

              Still struggling to get back on our feet two years after the storm this city and region live with great uncertainty.  The outlook many in our region maintained toward life has changed, in many cases dramatically. Faith puts hard questions to God, even as we deal with the practical necessities of getting back on our feet.  Has God at last given us more than we can handle?

              The leading economic indicators have sagged.  The great uncertainty in the land makes all of us wary of risk.  Lenders are reluctant to lend.  Domestic automakers struggle to move inventory.  The airlines can’t seem to get anything right.  The threat of attack here at home, and ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, have made even the most optimistic among us apprehensive.

              “Fragile” is the term many psychologists use to describe the national psyche, even as a bridge collapses to call attention to the fragility of the nation’s infrastructure.

              There are striking similarities between the emotional burdens that Israel of the sixth century faced and we are facing right now. What counsel might Scripture offer to help us navigate these difficult times?   

What leaps off the page for me is that marvelous gift we have been given called hope.  Hope allows us to say, “I will buy that!” even as the world shakes at its very foundations.

              The leading indicators and all the wise men counsel us to hunker down and make do with things as they are, but hope says, “No, I will buy that!”  Jeremiah lived in the shadow of the Babylonian oppressor just as the rest of the Hebrews did; however, he had a different take on the situation than they did.  God said to Jeremiah, “Jeremiah, don’t miss a buying opportunity.  You buy that land.”

              Hope reorients our perspective.  It is the foothold in the side of the mountain we discovered just when we needed to brace ourselves for the ascent.  Hope is the radiologist’s report revealing that the tumor has shrunk a centimeter.  Hope is that inner fire that keeps burning when the odds of our success are fifty-to-one against us.  Hope is a wonderful thing.  Hope is what Jeremiah taught, not in so many words, but through an action that defied all of the leading economic indicators.  He purchased land.

              Hope is what the church teaches.  Indeed, hope is our birthright as Christians for we believe that the lives we are living provide but partial access to what will ultimately be.  The Apostle Paul, writing in his magnificent letter to the Romans, has given a capsule summary of the church’s view of hope.  “Therefore, [he writes] since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.”  Hope, for persons of faith, is that prize out there yet to be obtained.  It is the object of our strivings.  It is that foothold we so desperately need when evil makes its move.

              Midweek as I preparing for this morning I stumbled on to a colleague’s newsletter that yielded an insight into this subject that I would like to share with you.  The insight had to do with the difference that exists between hope and optimism.  I want to work with that distinction a bit because I think it can help us gain a better understanding of hope as the church defines it.

              Think of optimism as “a kind of general feeling that everything is going to turn out well because we want it to turn out well.”  Hope, by contrast, “is based on reality, on what has happened in the past and what, then, we can reasonably imagine and expect for the future.”  Did you catch that?  Hope is based on the informed expectation that events in the future will be consistent with events in the past.

              There is nothing at all wrong with optimism.  It is very positive orientation to have toward life.  But one’s optimism may be baseless, a mere flight of fancy divorced from reality, a flight of fancy which may well end in a crash landing, a landing from which the former optimist walks away a hardened pessimist.

              Standing amid the rubble where Jerusalem’s proud ambitions once stood, many labeled frivolous Jeremiah’s decision to buy land during those tempestuous times.

              Yet God stepped in to prove that all the leading indicators were wrong.  The times were as bad as they had ever been alright, on that point no one would disagree, but the point that Jeremiah, speaking for God, wanted to drive home was that God was trustworthy.  The God who was directing their destiny was the God of the patriarchs, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  He was the God who by Moses led the people out of bondage in Egypt through the Red Sea and into the Promised Land, a land flowing with mile and honey.  The God in whose name Jeremiah acted was no “Johnnie come lately,” but was the God Israel had known throughout her history.

              Hope needs a big frame, for the hope to which Jeremiah pointed spanned generations.  Remember that hope by our definition is established on the foundation of past events.  But theologian Paul Zahn says it better, “hope [he writes] is remembrance projected onto the future.”  [Remembrance projected onto the future.]

              The wise fellows of Jerusalem chided Jeremiah for proclaiming hope in such desperate times.  If he bothered to look at the leading indicators, if he read what the economists were saying, if he checked in with the Office of Management and Budget, and the people over at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, he would have been more careful with his money.  “Buy land now?  You must be joking.”

              Friends, our leading indicators look pretty bleak now.  Though morale in the nation is high, the fear quotient is also high.  We live cautiously these days.

              So what is the word of the Lord today?  Friends, it is an ancient word.  It is the word hope, and the foundation of hope is history.  It was God who said to Israel, “Just as I have brought all this great disaster upon this people [for their disobedience], so I will bring upon them all the good fortune that I now promise them.”  God spoke to Israel.  It is that same God who speaks to us right now, “Don’t shrink back, there are buying opportunities out there.  Live your lives.  I’m in charge.  What you have lost will be restored.  That claim is validated in Jesus Christ.

              Hope, to quote Paul Zahn, is “remembrance projected onto the future.”  This church is a community of memory, and from those memories we are bold to envision a glorious future.  Why?  Because God is the God of glory and God is Lord, past, present and the future.  God is the Lord of history.  God is the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the risen Lord, who beckons us to the future his victory over death has won.  AMEN.

PRAYER

              Ever faithful God, whose faithfulness is disclosed in ways as subtle as the delicate breeze that greets us as we step out the door on a October morning, and as profound as the proclamation voiced through one of the great prophets of old, we greet you this day a people of faith engaged in a journey of faith. 

Lord, our companion, but also our guide, as you have spoken to the prophets of old, speak to us those words of assurance and hope we yearn to hear.  Into the deep recesses of our spirit send your restoring waters that we may be refreshed, restored for the miles we shall yet travel.  For the companions you have given us for our journey, for their support, prayers, and love we are especially grateful, praying that you will form us more perfectly into that community you intend us to be.  For the ancient word that speaks to contemporary need and the church around which it gathers we give you thanks and praise.

              Eternal Father, we thank you for undiminished “can do” spirit of friends and neighbors whose enthusiasm braces our spirits. Though the realization of our common humanity and our common need draw us together, we know that factionalism is rampant in the land.  We sing “God Bless America” in churches, in schools, in stadiums, and in the chambers where legislators meet, but even as we celebrate our common nationality in song partisan issues continue to divide us. Challenge us, O God, to reassess who we are and who we might be as a nation, and as a community of nations. 

              We petition you once again, Lord, on behalf of our president all those who make and carry out public policy.  The challenges they face are immense, the responsibility they bare tremendous.  Equip them with clarity of mind and emotional stamina as they face the rigors of the coming days.

              Lord, we pray for a spiritual awakening in America.  We have taken so much for granted about life.  We have even taken you for granted, O God, given little of our time, little of ourselves, to prayer, worship, service, and other activity that would bring honor to your name.  Be merciful, Lord, be merciful.  Do not condemn us, but by your grace work in us and through us to turn our lives around.  Strengthen us in all worthy pursuits that day by day our hearts and minds may be more perfectly conform to the life of your blessed son, Jesus.

              O God, counselor and guide, we pray your blessing on this congregation as restoration continues. Each week brings more visible evidence that the facilities are being restored.  We pray your blessing on the workmen who work in this space day to day that they may know the satisfaction of a job well done.      

Abide, O Christ, with each worshiper.  We have gathered as individuals, bearing individual needs, harboring individual ambitions, yet we were baptized into a single body, O Christ, your body.  Prosper us today in all that we do in your name, for it is in your name, O God, that we lift these prayers