Field of Dreams
Text: Jeremiah 32:1-3a; 6-13
Last week I made a remark that Jeremiah was kind of an odd duck. In times that were good, he proclaimed doom and gloom, and in times that were bad he was Mr. Happy Sunshine. Sounds like he might have been pretty annoying to be around because you could never really predict what he was going to say. Last week we had the gloomy and depressed Jeremiah, raining on everybody’s parade. This week we have the opposite... a much more optimistic Jeremiah. While I think we would prefer an optimistic Jeremiah, he really does seem to carry it a bit far.
As I said, Jeremiah is a man of opposites. When the nation around him is happy and optimistic, Jeremiah is lamenting their eventual doom, and yet when it all falls apart, when things are genuinely at their worst, Jeremiah transforms into that happy cheerful person who is extremely annoying to be around. You know the type.
Not only is Jeremiah annoyingly optimistic, he does things which are patently stupid. As this passage opens up, the story tells us that Jerusalem is currently under siege by the armies of Babylon, led by Nebuchadnezzar. Jeremiah knows the outcome of the siege… he has long since proclaimed that Jerusalem will fall… so on a personal level he’s past that and now looking to the future. He tells the King Zedekiah while the siege is going on that just prior to the siege, he went out and bought a piece of property… a field for which he paid good money for.
Now think about this for a moment. How many of you, when having good solid information that the real-estate market is going to tank would then go out and buy property? If anything, Jeremiah has a line on insider trading, but chooses to buy a piece of land at the top of the market anyway… knowing full well that the value of that land is going to be virtually worthless within a few short months.
It seems silly… but that is exactly what Jeremiah does. He goes out and buys land knowing that the market is going to crash. So maybe the lesson is don’t take investment advice from Jeremiah?
If it were the short term, it would be absolutely true. But Jeremiah doesn’t do this for his own personal financial gain. This real-estate deal is a symbolic act, a sign of hope, and looking ahead to a future when all people can see is darkness and destruction. The land is a symbol that God has not forgotten about the people of Israel, and that one day it will all be restored. Just not in Jeremiah’s lifetime.
We know that ultimately Jeremiah was right. Israel would be restored and rebuilt some eighty years after Jerusalem’s fall to Babylon. Two full generations later.
So here’s a question for you. It may seem somewhat silly. Where will you be in 80 years?
Most of us aren’t looking that far ahead. I know that barring some miracle of future medicine, I am personally likely to be present only in memory and spirit. My daughter will be pushing 85, and will likely have grandchildren of her own. Naturally we don’t take that kind of a long-range look. For us, most of our long-range planning tends to top out at five years.
But God is eternal… timeless… and in that sense is able to look beyond that. God takes the long view, and Jeremiah’s act of faith is a symbol of that. By purchasing land that will not turn a profit or even be worked in his lifetime, he is saying that while things look bleak right now, there is a future and a hope worth investing in.
I think the real rub on this is Jeremiah doesn’t even know when this time of exile will end. Historically, we know this will end in eighty years... but for Jeremiah he doesn’t know. How many of us would make such an investment when we don’t even know when things are going to turn around? Yet Jeremiah does. He trusts that God is going to be there for the truly long haul. By the act of buying this field he is not only trusting that God is there over the long haul, but he is calling the people of Israel to put the same kind of trust in God, even in the midst of the darkest time in their history.
So where does that put us? It is no secret that as a church in North America, we are very much at a crossroads. The culture that once brought people to our doorstep is no longer there. Some have described that the North American church is entering a time of exile. It’s perhaps better to say that we’ve actually been in it for the past 40 years, but have been in denial for much of that time. As such, the church of Christ has been at the same time trying to re-define and re-energize itself in a culture that is no longer Christian. We are asking ourselves how we can be the faithful church of Christ, when the ways that we expect the world to work isn’t the reality that is out there. Not only that, every scandal that rocks the church, no matter which denomination it emerges from tars us all with the same brush... Be it news from Florida, South Carolina, or Rome...
So in the midst of all this? What do we do? Jeremiah tells us that we should invest in a field of dreams. That as dark as it may seem, in these days God is at the same time greater and has a far longer vision and hope for us than we are able to see ourselves. This field of dreams is worthwhile investing in, because some day it will bear fruit beyond our wildest imagination.
But what is our field of dreams? To be honest, I think we need to look at it both as a personal question, and one for us as a congregation. What is your field of dreams? What is the investment that God is calling you to make, that will bear fruit only long after you’re gone? That’s not something I can answer for you, and to be honest, it’s not even something that we fully have control over. Jeremiah invested in this land, trusting that Israel would one day be restored. Yet he would have no control over exactly what people would plant and grow on his field. Only that he made it possible in partnership with God.
I would like for you to dream... for all of us to dream about the possibilities of what God is going to be doing eighty years from now... because while we ourselves may not be around, our children, grand children, or great grandchildren will be. What is that field of dreams that God is calling you to invest in? By making that investment, we might find ourselves looking at our own future in a very different light. We might begin to understand and even live out that sense of optimism and hope that Jeremiah proclaimed.
Amen.
Last week I made a remark that Jeremiah was kind of an odd duck. In times that were good, he proclaimed doom and gloom, and in times that were bad he was Mr. Happy Sunshine. Sounds like he might have been pretty annoying to be around because you could never really predict what he was going to say. Last week we had the gloomy and depressed Jeremiah, raining on everybody’s parade. This week we have the opposite... a much more optimistic Jeremiah. While I think we would prefer an optimistic Jeremiah, he really does seem to carry it a bit far.
As I said, Jeremiah is a man of opposites. When the nation around him is happy and optimistic, Jeremiah is lamenting their eventual doom, and yet when it all falls apart, when things are genuinely at their worst, Jeremiah transforms into that happy cheerful person who is extremely annoying to be around. You know the type.
Not only is Jeremiah annoyingly optimistic, he does things which are patently stupid. As this passage opens up, the story tells us that Jerusalem is currently under siege by the armies of Babylon, led by Nebuchadnezzar. Jeremiah knows the outcome of the siege… he has long since proclaimed that Jerusalem will fall… so on a personal level he’s past that and now looking to the future. He tells the King Zedekiah while the siege is going on that just prior to the siege, he went out and bought a piece of property… a field for which he paid good money for.
Now think about this for a moment. How many of you, when having good solid information that the real-estate market is going to tank would then go out and buy property? If anything, Jeremiah has a line on insider trading, but chooses to buy a piece of land at the top of the market anyway… knowing full well that the value of that land is going to be virtually worthless within a few short months.
It seems silly… but that is exactly what Jeremiah does. He goes out and buys land knowing that the market is going to crash. So maybe the lesson is don’t take investment advice from Jeremiah?
If it were the short term, it would be absolutely true. But Jeremiah doesn’t do this for his own personal financial gain. This real-estate deal is a symbolic act, a sign of hope, and looking ahead to a future when all people can see is darkness and destruction. The land is a symbol that God has not forgotten about the people of Israel, and that one day it will all be restored. Just not in Jeremiah’s lifetime.
We know that ultimately Jeremiah was right. Israel would be restored and rebuilt some eighty years after Jerusalem’s fall to Babylon. Two full generations later.
So here’s a question for you. It may seem somewhat silly. Where will you be in 80 years?
Most of us aren’t looking that far ahead. I know that barring some miracle of future medicine, I am personally likely to be present only in memory and spirit. My daughter will be pushing 85, and will likely have grandchildren of her own. Naturally we don’t take that kind of a long-range look. For us, most of our long-range planning tends to top out at five years.
But God is eternal… timeless… and in that sense is able to look beyond that. God takes the long view, and Jeremiah’s act of faith is a symbol of that. By purchasing land that will not turn a profit or even be worked in his lifetime, he is saying that while things look bleak right now, there is a future and a hope worth investing in.
I think the real rub on this is Jeremiah doesn’t even know when this time of exile will end. Historically, we know this will end in eighty years... but for Jeremiah he doesn’t know. How many of us would make such an investment when we don’t even know when things are going to turn around? Yet Jeremiah does. He trusts that God is going to be there for the truly long haul. By the act of buying this field he is not only trusting that God is there over the long haul, but he is calling the people of Israel to put the same kind of trust in God, even in the midst of the darkest time in their history.
So where does that put us? It is no secret that as a church in North America, we are very much at a crossroads. The culture that once brought people to our doorstep is no longer there. Some have described that the North American church is entering a time of exile. It’s perhaps better to say that we’ve actually been in it for the past 40 years, but have been in denial for much of that time. As such, the church of Christ has been at the same time trying to re-define and re-energize itself in a culture that is no longer Christian. We are asking ourselves how we can be the faithful church of Christ, when the ways that we expect the world to work isn’t the reality that is out there. Not only that, every scandal that rocks the church, no matter which denomination it emerges from tars us all with the same brush... Be it news from Florida, South Carolina, or Rome...
So in the midst of all this? What do we do? Jeremiah tells us that we should invest in a field of dreams. That as dark as it may seem, in these days God is at the same time greater and has a far longer vision and hope for us than we are able to see ourselves. This field of dreams is worthwhile investing in, because some day it will bear fruit beyond our wildest imagination.
But what is our field of dreams? To be honest, I think we need to look at it both as a personal question, and one for us as a congregation. What is your field of dreams? What is the investment that God is calling you to make, that will bear fruit only long after you’re gone? That’s not something I can answer for you, and to be honest, it’s not even something that we fully have control over. Jeremiah invested in this land, trusting that Israel would one day be restored. Yet he would have no control over exactly what people would plant and grow on his field. Only that he made it possible in partnership with God.
I would like for you to dream... for all of us to dream about the possibilities of what God is going to be doing eighty years from now... because while we ourselves may not be around, our children, grand children, or great grandchildren will be. What is that field of dreams that God is calling you to invest in? By making that investment, we might find ourselves looking at our own future in a very different light. We might begin to understand and even live out that sense of optimism and hope that Jeremiah proclaimed.
Amen.
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