Hope Away from Home: Jeremiah 29:1, 4-14 - Christ the King Sunday

I always try to be careful about what I say. But sometimes, I put my foot in my mouth.

Age is a sensitive subject for the young and the old. When you’re young, it’s insulting for people to talk to you as if you’re younger than you really are. I remember being given a children’s menu and a package of crayons at a restaurant when I was in high school. 

Now, I have the opposite problem. A cashier saw my grey hair and awarded me the 10% senior citizens’ discount.

Fallen leaves by Dr. Matthias Ripp on flickr. CC BY 2.0

People say, “age is just a number” and “you’re only as old as you feel.” But old age is no picnic.

And I’ve been told by those much older than me that the worst thing about getting old is losing your independence, and you must move into a nursing home. It’s agonizing for you, and it’s agonizing for the people who love you.

But there was one church member, who’s long since gone home to Jesus, whose attitude towards this transition was unlike anything I’d ever seen.

She wanted to move into a personal care home. Even though she was living independently without any major problems, she was tired of living alone, and believed her life would be better if she were living closely with others. She also wanted to be able to make this transition on her own terms, instead of after something catastrophic happening. 

Once she made the move, she was happier. And since she had greater mobility and mental capacities than many of her fellow residents, she passed the time befriending and caring for them. She made a difference for everyone living there and working there. 

I hope that I can have such an attitude if I’m in that situation one day, because it’s nothing anyone would wish for. It’s devastating when you realize you will never be going home.

That is the very definition of exile, the likes of which God’s people suffered over 500 years before the birth of Jesus. The prophets made it abundantly clear that the exile was the direct consequence of their greed and idolatry.

Living in Babylon was no picnic, as they were living among their godless enemies who hated them. The exiles wrote to the prophet Jeremiah, who warned of the exile, asking, “what should we do here?”

Jeremiah’s answer was quite the surprise: “build houses. Plant gardens. Get married. Have children. Be good neighbors. Seek the peace of the city.”

That was astounding, because the exiles felt like they were living in Sodom and Gomorrah. 

But what was the alternative? What could they gain from cursing the people of Babylon? What could they gain living in isolation and fear?

Nebuchadnezzar brought them there as prisoners, but Jeremiah was teaching them how they could be free. 

Sure, Nebuchadnezzar had taken away their homes; sure, Nebuchadnezzar threw them into this strange, hostile land to destroy them as a people. But God had other plans: plans for their welfare and not for harm, plans to give them a future with hope.

That same promise holds true for everyone who finds themselves exiled from the life you once knew, whether it’s part of growing up or growing old, whether you’re seeking a better life or running for your life, when it’s not your choice, or a consequence of bad choices. 

You can despise where you are. You can despise the way things are. You can despair how the good old days are gone forever. You can be a prisoner to fear. You can keep hating “those people.” But you will gain nothing, and miss out on everything that God has in store for you. God has plans for your welfare and not for harm; plans to give you a future with hope.

Hope is more than just a feeling. Hope is an audacious act of faith. It is repentance from despair. It is the reorientation of your mind and your actions in accordance with God’s promises. It is a sacred trust that God is keeping promises today, and that the fullness of those promises will be revealed in the future. 

There is hope for the future because God is faithful. And we have seen how God can make life flourish in the most impossible situations, be it in Babylon, Jesus’s tomb, among the martyrs, and the lives of the saints we’ve known and loved. 

We are here at 358 and 271 Main Street for a purpose. We are here in 2025 for a purpose. You are where you are for a purpose, because God has plans for your welfare and not for harm, plans to give you a future with hope. You have not yet done all you are meant to do, you have not become all that you will be, you do not know all that will be known, but you will. Starting now.

The challenge is to stop setting your mind on how bad things are and how hard things are, and instead focus on how good God is. And God will not stop being good, no matter bad things may get.

In Christ, you are captive to nothing but God’s promises. Live as people of hope.

Jeremiah 29:1, 4-14 (NRSVue)

These are the words of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the remaining elders among the exiles and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. 

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 your dreams that you dream, 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.