Plant Gardens and Eat the Produce - A Reflection (Jeremiah 29)
4 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. 7 But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. 8 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let the prophets and the diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream,[a]9 for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, says the Lord.
10 For thus says the Lord: Only when Babylon’s seventy years are completed will I visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. 11 For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. 12 Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. 13 When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart, 14 I will let you find me, says the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.
The Exodus and the Exile figure
prominently in scripture. The former, the Exodus, provides an important
foundation for our Table Fellowship. The Last Supper remembers Passover, and
the theme of manna is also prominent in our Eucharistic theology. The Exile might
not figure as prominently in our understanding of Table Fellowship, but it was
a defining event in the life of Israel, and our story, as followers of Jesus,
is rooted in that story as well. We live in the world as exiles and nomads. As Jesus
told prospective disciples, he didn’t have a place to lay his head, and he told
Pilate that his was a kingdom not of this world. We live in the world, but not
of the world. Despite this sense of impermanence, we find a sense of hope and
purpose as we gather together at the Table.
I find this word from Jeremiah
intriguing. He writes to the exiles who live in the hope that a time will come
so they can return to their ancestral homes. You get the feeling that they
would rather not unpack their suitcases, hoping that the time of their
departure for home is close at hand. We can feel this way ourselves. We may
feel spiritually restless and unable to embrace the present moment. We either
pine for what was or what we hope will be.
The reading from Jeremiah isn’t
Eucharistic in nature, but it does speak of eating, more specifically it speaks
of eating the produce of the garden that the people are directed to plant. Jeremiah
speaks on behalf of God and tells the people to “build houses and live in them;
plant gardens and eat what they produce.” In other words, your time in the land
might be temporary, put you need to put down some roots so you can make a
difference in the world where God has placed you.
There is a missional dimension to
this word from Jeremiah. Even as they gather at the Table as exiles, sharing
the produce from their gardens, the word of the Lord is “to seek the welfare of
the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf,
for in its welfare you will find your welfare.” There is a future for the
people. They will return home. But, in the meantime, they need to make the most
of their situation, so keep on with life. Build houses, plant gardens, get
married, have children, knowing that God is with you for the long haul, even in
exile.
As we gather at the Table of the
Lord, we experience God’s empowering presence, which enables us to catch a
vision of what God is doing in the land. There is a missional connection to
this Table, that suggests the opportunities we have to seek the welfare of the
city. We can seek that welfare in the communities in which we live. This church
is planted in Troy, and it has opportunities to touch the lives of the people
of Troy. Because we began life in another place, which gives rise to a sense of
exile in the hearts of some, we have opportunity to seek the welfare of the
city of Detroit. There is no better expression of this than our partnership
with Rippling Hope in the Gospel in Action Detroit project.
As we gather at the Table, and pray
for the city (in all its forms and locales), what is God saying to us about our
responsibilities for the welfare of the inhabitants? May we hear Jeremiah’s word and pray with
Walter Brueggemann:
This City . . . of God
You are the God who has set us
In families and clans
and tribes,
In communities and
finally in cities.
We give you thanks this day that you are
Lord of this city
and all cities.
We pray for this city today,
and for Jerusalem
and
Baghdad
and
Belfast
and
a
thousand other cities.
In all our cities this day
there will be crime
and sharp moneymaking
and compassion and
forgiveness, and generosity,
and regulations
about justice and injustice.
Be our God this day and prosper our city.
We pray in the name
of the one who wept over the city.
(Walter
Brueggemann, Prayers for a PrivilegedPeople, Abingdon Press, p. 157)
Pastor
Bob Cornwall
Originally written for the Central Woodward Christian Church Lenten Devotional Guide, which was produced in 2017 to coincide with the theme of Open Table and Mission -- an emphasis being funded by a Vital Worship Grant from Calvin Institute of Christian Worship and the Lilly Endowment.
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