Armies and empires have been chipping away at Judah for years, taking a little piece here and a little piece there. The Northern Kingdom (Israel) had been taken and destroyed around the year 722 BCE and now 135 years later we have today’s scripture in the year 597 BCE. After all this, what is left of it all is a little piece of land called Jerusalem.

A little community of Israelites have survived the long march from Jerusalem to the city of Babylon which is like going from Emerson or Dominion City to New York city.

It was in Babylon that they composed Psalm 137: “By the rivers of Babylon—there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion…How could we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?  If I forget you, O Jerusalem,  let my right hand wither ...  O daughter Babylon, you devastator!  Happy shall they be who pay you back what you have done to us!  Happy shall they be who take your little ones  and dash them against the rock.” These are not happy people. Anger, rage, vengeance were what the people were feeling.  How would you feel if you were forced out of your home and you are taken to a totally new culture, new language, new everything. You hope that every day that, that day would be the day when you heard the words, “Go home exiles!” Imagine hearing that a letter from home was going to be read out at city hall and how hoping you would be for the words to be said to go home. And instead you hear, “You’re not going anywhere. You have to stay here where you don’t like it. As a matter of fact you have work to do. You have to look on the bright side of things. Live your life –build houses, plant gardens in this place because that is where God is at work.” Can you blame them for being easy targets for fast-talking charismatic preachers who promised a quick fix to their problems. 

This is kind of like some of us wishing things were different, like they were back in the 50s when life was just less complicated. When churches were full and its members were younger, a time when our world was more predictable and stable. We pine away for the good old days and just hope and pray that days like them will come soon.

Imagine then the shock that stuns the exiles in Babylon when the royal messenger read Jeremiah’s letter aloud: Thus says the Lord of hosts,  the God of Israel,  to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:  “Stay where you are. Build houses in Babylon and live in them;  plant gardens in Babylon and eat what they produce.  Take wives in Babylon and have sons and daughters.”  It’s just not what they were expecting. They were waiting to hear words like, “Pack up your bags folks. We’re going home soon.” Instead they hear, “Settle in for the long haul folks. Your generation will not see Jerusalem again. Get used to it. Go hold a prayer breakfast. Babylon is going to be your home now. Get building, start planting. Raise children. And the biggest shock comes when they hear Jeremiah say, “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 (peace, shalom)  you will find your welfare (peace, shalom)." 

I want to tell you about an elderly friend of mine. Her name is Mary and she is an artist. She writes poetry (eyebrows and daisies) and she draws beautiful sketches (the cross). Mary is in her late seventies or early eighties and lived in a house with her husband John. Two years ago Mary fell at home not once but 4 or 5 times over a period of a few months. Her children and her husband were very concerned for her health and so they made the decision to put her in a care home so that she would be close to help. For the first 6 months Mary wondered why in blazes she was in that care home. Living like that felt unnatural to Mary and she wondered why she was even there. Why couldn’t she go home to the way life was before? Living into a new stage of life felt like a kind of exile. For at least 8 months Mary focused on her grief over what she had lost and was unable to live where she was. But one day, perhaps it was a day when she heard the call of Jeremiah and she decided to make the best of it and so she pulled out her book of poetry and began to write again and she got out her pencil and began to draw (this is one of her drawings). Mary has made a friend in the care home and the two of them laugh like crazy at all the happenings and shenanigans that go on around them.  Mary has even worked for the welfare of the place and has taught writing to some of the residents. The care home’s welfare was Mary’s welfare as she built a house for herself in this new place.

Look around you. This congregations is aging. We can’t change that. Has it occurred to anyone just how much life wisdom is held in our congregations. We need to honor it and even provide the space so that we can see it. It is a gift given to this congregation.

There are many in our congregations that live daily with illness, disability, pain, and health concerns. None of these are easy to live with but what an opportunity for the ministry of pastoral care. The prayer shawl ministry is rising up to embrace those in our communities who need our prayers as we are Jesus’ hands and feet to each other.

Our congregations are getting smaller. We may not live to see them get any bigger than they are now. Who knows? But look around you. Do you know the person sitting in the next pew? I bet you do. And the people of this congregation know the people in the congregations in Valley Pastoral Charge. Do you realize how much energy and effort city congregations go to provide the opportunities for people to get to know each other. And they still come on Sunday morning not knowing the person beside them. Maybe we are supposed to be small. Some city churches would give their eye teeth to have the pot luck dinners you folks have. They are amazing opportunities for fellowship and community building.

Making the best of difficult situations you may find yourselves in. I’ve been increasingly impressed with your knowledge of who you are as a pastoral charge. You know that your minister cannot visit every person. You know that you have to take responsibility for part of the ministry that occurs. I can see that you folks have been on a journey with new ministers. The best scenario for you is probably three churches, three ministers. But you know that is not possible. So I think you have heard the call of Jeremiah to live well in this place where the accountable minister is mostly absent from this congregation during the week. Where the accountable minister is a new minister learning right along with all of you folks. There have been Jeremiahs who have spoken already in this place.