Bloom Where You Are Planted

Transcription

1 Bloom Where You Are Planted Jeremiah 29:1 & 4-7 William F. Schnell October 9, 2016 It s interesting to think about where we have been planted. Here we are, planted in America the greatest superpower of the world. We are planted in the 21 st century as a great digital revolution is transforming our world before our eyes. I was planted as a male in a still somewhat male dominated culture. I was planted as an Anglo, or an American of European descent, with all the rights and privileges accorded to majority status. I have always taken access to health insurance and higher education for granted. I have always considered law enforcement personnel to be my friends. I might have been planted as a female in present day Afghanistan or sub-saharan Africa. I might have been planted at another time, say, the Arabian Peninsula during the Golden Ages between the 8 th and 13 th centuries when science, economics and culture flourished just as it deteriorated during the Dark Ages of Europe. Yes, I d choose to skip the dark ages with its superstitions, torture chambers and unbathed common folk who ate raw garlic for a snack. No, plant me in 21 st century America thank you. What s not to like about being planted in this time and place? Still, it does seem to be a time of great uncertainty. We have this increasingly crazy election cycle, this polarized population and this government gridlock where needful things are not getting done. This is all on top of all the bizarre things going on in our personal lives and the lives of those we love. I guess no place or time is perfect. No matter where we are planted there are challenges to face. Do we just give up when things aren t perfect, or do we roll up our sleeves and make the best of our bad situations? The title of our message is Bloom Where You Are Planted. It was coined by one Saint Francis de Sales, Bishop of Geneva in the early 1600 s. He became noted for his deep faith and his gentle approach to the religious divisions in his land resulting from the Protestant Reformation one of the early ecumenists. Sounds as if life was pretty polarized in his time too, but he chose to make the best of a less-than-perfect situation, and encouraged others to Bloom Where You Are Planted. We will find biblical support for this sentiment being expressed in our text for this morning from the Prophet Jeremiah. This is the text of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders among the exiles and to the

2 priests, the prophets and all the other people Nebuchadnezzar had carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon (Verse 1). You will recall from my last message the details of the Exile, how Jeremiah warned his people that turning away from God would lead to the withholding of his protective care. They didn t listen, God could no longer protect them, they were defeated by their Babylonian enemies and the survivors were, in an act of ethnic cleansing, exiled as a slave race to Babylon. This exile was a process that occurred incrementally over time, with several deportations taking place much like the deportation of European Jews to the death camps took time to accomplish. Jeremiah was among the last to go into exile and remained in the rubble of Jerusalem for a time. From there he received written reports from the exiles who were already in Babylon. Being a prophet, he continued to speak for God to his people in letters he sent back to them. Our text is from one of those letters. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon (Verse 4). That was a telling statement. It was God who carried his people into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. The Babylonians and their leader, Nebuchadnezzar, were only instruments of God s judgment upon his wayward people. God had a purpose in mind for the exile. God had a plan for his people. The purpose of the exile was to humble a people who had become excessively prideful and who, in their pride, had turned away from the Almighty. In other words, the purpose was to turn them back to God. The plan was then to restore his people to the Promised Land. But all this was going to take some time 70 years to be precise. In just a few verses beyond our text Jeremiah prophesies: This is what the Lord says: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future (29:10-11). As parents we don t discipline our children to diminish or destroy them. We discipline them to correct bad, dangerous or self-destructive behaviors. We discipline them to bring out the best in them. Discipline, though sometimes harsh, is an expression of love. And so it is with God s discipline of his people. It is not intended to harm them but to prosper them. Sometimes it takes time to accomplish. When a child is sent to sit in a corner, it is not for a few seconds. Sometimes wayward children need a little time to think about things. God s people needed time to think about things. God s people wanted the exile to end right away of course, and there were false prophets around telling them what their itchy ears wanted to hear. For a price they were fed false hopes about a quick return that was right around the corner. This desire to rush God for self-serving purposes was a clear sign that they had not yet been humbled enough; they had not returned to God s ways and timing; discipline had not yet done its work; and the exiles still needed time to think about things. Word of this reached 2

3 Jeremiah who quickly wrote back to correct their false impression and to instruct them in what they needed to do for now. Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper (Verses 5-7). Once again God reminds his people that it was he who carried them into exile. And again, the work of discipline is going to take time. Therefore they should just settle down and go about the business of making a life plant gardens, marry, have children and so forth. It may not be as good as they had it back home, and it may be far from perfect, but there is a possibility of prospering despite the limitations if they quit obsessing about what they don t have and focus upon opportunities they do have, and if they quit letting what they cannot control distract them from what they can control. They can seek the peace and prosperity of Babylon during their stay, and they can even pray for it, because it is now their home. If it prospers they can prosper with it. Recently our church welcomed the Ohio Fellowship of Community Churches. The guest speaker for the event was Brandon Chrostowski, the founder of Edwin s Restaurant in Cleveland. It is a fine French restaurant that excels in everything from food preparation to presentation, from correct table settings on white tablecloths to impeccable service. The wine list is stellar and the atmosphere is polished. Every employee is intensively trained and must be a former convict that includes Brandon who did his time in a Detroit jail. The mission statement of Edwins (which stands for Education Wins) reads as follows: "To instill leadership skills in formerly incarcerated men and women through an education in culinary arts; providing our community with tomorrow's leaders." Indeed, many former Edwins' employees are now employed by many other high end eating establishments. But beyond cooking and serving skills the program s 55 students also learn coping skills and how to project themselves professionally. All of this occurs outside of the criminal justice system which is woefully inadequate in the land of the free, which incarcerates a greater percentage of its citizens than any other country on the face of the earth. Fiscal conservatives are now questioning the wisdom of warehousing the mentally ill in prisons when treatment is not only highly successful but pennies on the dollar compared with the costs of incarceration, while liberals decry such things as racial bias in sentencing and generally wasted lives for nonviolent offences. One would think there is potential here for some good old fashioned bipartisan common ground, but I digress. With all the systemic and institutional things working against convicted felons in this world it is a miracle that anyone goes on to rise above them, but they do thanks to the 3

4 efforts of people like Saint Brandon. And so it goes for young girls who find themselves delivering a child before they graduate from public school, thanks to the support they receive from family and friends. And so it goes for young men who go off to war and see traumatic things no one should see and come home with issues they learn to deal with because of programs like Warriors Journey Home founded by a seminary pal of mine, and fellow veteran, serving the Congregational Church of Talmadge. And so it goes for those with stigmatizing mental health diseases thanks to organizations like Coleman Professional Services (October is, by the way, National Mental Health Awareness Month, not to mention Clergy appreciation month connection???). Now if people with serious and persistent mental health disorders, and returning soldiers with PTSD, and single teenagers with children, and released felons (not to mention recovery alcoholics and addicts) can find a way to beat the odds and bloom where they are planted, don t you think that you and I can find a way in our imperfect circumstances to make the best of a bad situation by the grace of God? Who knows, we might even find some things about our bad situation that we actually like. I have gone through some traumatic job losses with people people who went into work and had no idea that it was their last day. Maybe a fellow from security watched while they loaded their belongings in a box and were escorted out not a little humiliating walking past now-former colleagues. There is a period of being shell-shocked. There is no small amount of anger. There is fear. But do you know what? More often than not, after the adjustment is made into a new normal, they report that it was the best thing that happened to them. Maybe they don t make as much as they did before (although sometimes they make more), but the pace is much more manageable and the family is happier having you around. Let us find a way to bloom where we are planted, even when we are exiled from the Promised Land. If we are, there s a reason for it. Maybe God wants us to think about some things. Maybe God wants us to draw closer to him. Maybe he wants us to plant a garden. That s one of the things he specifically mentions in our text. I have a garden full of green tomatoes right now. I got them into the ground late this year because of the wet spring. We canned 50 quarts of tomato sauce and 30 pints of salsa. But a lot of tomatoes are left on the vine that won t ripen before the frost. Such a waste. But you know what I m going to do? I m going to pick and wash those green tomatoes. Then I m going to slice them. Then I m going to put them in a dehydrator until they are brittle. Then I m going to put them into a grinder and make green tomato powder. I should be able to transform 16 pounds of green tomatoes into powder that will fit into a single quart jar. Later this winter I ll mix it with garlic powder and onion powder and cilantro and cumin and pepper seed things like that, then pour a little boiling water over it and whip it into some salsa verde to put in my burrito grande. Yum! That s what you call making the best of a bad situation. 4

5 Speaking of gardens, Mary of Magdala encountered the risen Christ in a garden. We will too if we bloom where we are planted. For now, let us rise as we sing about that garden encounter. 5