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Hebrew Scripture Reading—Jeremiah 32: 1-3, 6-15
This morning I suspect that somewhere in Vancouver there is someone who at this very moment feels as if they are in a spiritual exile. Somewhere in Vancouver there is someone who feels as if they have been pushed to the margins. They are without a spiritual home. They are without a community in which they feel connected to others and connected to God. Perhaps, they identify as gay or lesbian, transgender or transsexual. They may also identify as straight but are nonetheless turned off by the homophobia and heterosexism of churches. Or, perhaps, they are turned off by biblical literalism and fundamentalist theologies. They can no longer square their rational and scientific views of the world with what they hear on Sunday morning.
Or, perhaps, they feel like churches simply no longer represent something they would want to be a part of. They see churches as either bastions of backward thinking or gathering places that are simply irrelevant to their own interests and passions. I’ve meet a few such persons working on the Coal Free Washington campaign. They haven’t known churches to address environmental problems and a number of other issues in a positive way.
Somewhere in Vancouver there is someone who is in spiritual exile this morning. At one point, they may have belonged to a church. They may have fond memories of that church, or they may feel as if they were damaged and hurt by that church. They may experience both of these feelings simultaneously. Growing up, they loved their Sunday school teachers, they loved summer camp, they loved their confirmation mentor, they loved the youth lock-ins, they loved the potlucks and the people, but at some point they discovered that this community that they loved did not completely love them, or perhaps, they realized that this community that they loved expressed views and beliefs that they found harder and harder to stomach until finally they felt an internal compulsion to leave.
Somewhere in Vancouver there is someone who is in spiritual exile this morning. This feeling of exile perhaps becomes aggravated every time they see an unabashed Christian on TV propounding actions and ideas they find abhorrent. They may have seen the Reverend Terry Jones threatening to burn Korans on the nightly news. They may have seen in Terry Jones the same kind of tar brush religious fanaticism that leads the Taliban to hate all things American. They know that there are plenty of Muslims in our country and around the world who are peace-loving people and who do not deserve in any way, shape, or form to have their religion portrayed as a violent religion. They ask themselves, “What would people say if someone lifted verses of violence out of the Bible and concluded that Christians or Jews are a violent people?”
Somewhere in Vancouver there is someone who is in spiritual exile this morning. I suspect many people in exile feel a kind of ambivalence about religion. They feel repulsed by the forms of religion they see on the news, and yet they don’t want to condemn all religion with their own tar brush. They may therefore conclude that religion isn’t for them or that the problem is “organized religion.” I suspect, many people in spiritual exile have an admiration, if not veneration and devotion, for Jesus as well as Hebrew prophets liked Jeremiah. What is not to like about those who care for the outcast and the oppressed? However, they feel a deep contrast between their feelings about Jesus and what they see as Christianity.
Somewhere in Vancouver there is someone who is in spiritual exile this morning. I am guessing our scripture for today sounded as if it was a far cry from this issue of being in exile. The scripture has a lot of ancient legalese concerning the possession of land, so let me provide a little background: Jerusalem was under siege by the Babylonians, and despite Jeremiah’s short-term pessimism about the plight of the Israelites, he had a long-term optimism. In the short-term, they were going to be forced into exile. Their spiritual homeland was going to be occupied by a foreign power. In the long-term, however, God was going to see to it that the Israelites would one day return from their exile and reclaim their spiritual home. As a sign of hope and an act of faith, Jeremiah buys a piece of land in Judah with the conviction that they will one day be able to return. The deed for the land becomes a deed of commitment not only to a spiritual home but to a continued covenant with God. It’s Jeremiah’s way of saying that despite everything God is going to stick with Israel, and he—Jeremiah—is going to stick with God.
Somewhere in Vancouver someone needs a Jeremiah. They need to know that their spiritual exile won’t last forever. They need someone out there to act on faith and offer a sign of hope. They need a sign that isn’t just empty rhetoric but is an actual deed of commitment. There might be lots of people in Vancouver who privately hold the kind of beliefs that we do, but the rare thing is someone who is willing to publicly act on those beliefs, to show everyone else that people don’t need to resign themselves to a life lived in exile. This morning I want to invite our church to consider what it might mean for us to answer the call to be a Jeremiah today. What would that be like? What sign of hope, act of faith, deed of commitment could we make?
Somewhere in Vancouver someone needs a Jeremiah, and we could be that Jeremiah. This may mean that we might have to occasionally take a chance. Even though Jeremiah bought the land at a bargain rate, people would have known that he was taking a risk. He was buying land in a neighborhood that everyone was leaving, and they weren’t leaving because they wanted to, but because they had to. They didn’t know if they would be coming back. Nevertheless, Jeremiah found the wherewithal to make an investment. Now I know that many of us have literally made a significant investment in this church with the capital campaign, but right now I am not thinking so much about money. I am thinking about a spiritual investment. An investment that says we might be living in a time of economic distress, religious bigotry, global warming, anti-immigrant fervor, don’t ask, don’t tell, and so on, but we as a church have decided to make a commitment anyway. We have decided to commit ourselves to setting forth from a small island of sanity on 68th Street because we believe God hasn’t given up on this world and we don’t plan on giving up on God either. The short-term might not look so promising, but in the long-term we believe God’s intentions will win out.
Somewhere in Vancouver someone needs a Jeremiah, and we could be that Jeremiah. But how do we do it? I suspect that the answer to this question will be different for different people. A few of us have decided that one way we can do this is by taking to the streets of Vancouver this upcoming week during rush hour traffic as part of the Coal Free Washington campaign. For me, it will also mean transforming myself into a persona by the name of Green Energy Superhero. I am sure not everyone here wants to venture out into the public in a kelly green unitard, but I believe that our faith tradition at its best cares about what happens to our bodies and to all creation. It’s a tradition that would dare to speak out against pollution and speak up for clean air policies. This is a tradition in which I want to invest myself. In our state, we have already lost a battle in trying to reduce mercury emissions from the coal plant that is our state’s biggest polluter. For those of us in the campaign, we don’t want to lose again as our state sets its standards for the nitrogen oxide which produces haze. For this reason, our campaign has decided to up the anti of its investment, even if that means spandex.
I am aware that not everyone may agree with this action to call attention to our state’s pollution standards. I readily invite and encourage people to share with me their own views on the matter. This past week I was delighted to receive a phone call from a local citizen who disagreed with aspects of a letter to the editor I wrote in the Columbian regarding racism and the recent acid-attack hoax. For me, the more discussion, the better, so long as it is respectful and considerate, even if it is deeply felt and passionate. If members of our church weren’t stirring up discussions of some sort, we couldn’t carry forth the mantle of Jesus and the prophets.
However we decide to pick up that mantle, the opportunity is ours, if we are willing to take the chance. Somewhere in Vancouver someone needs a Jeremiah, and we could be that Jeremiah. We could offer that sign of hope. We could risk that act of faith. We could make that spiritual investment. We could be a Jeremiah. Amen.