People with Roots (MTKA)

Jeremiah 32:6-15

Jeremiah said, “The word of the Lord came to me: Hanamel son of your uncle Shallum is going to come to you and say, ‘Buy my field that is at Anathoth, for the right of redemption by purchase is yours.’ Then my cousin Hanamel came to me in the court of the guard, in accordance with the word of the Lord, and said to me, ‘Buy my field that is at Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, for the right of possession and redemption is yours; buy it for yourself.’ Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord.

“And I bought the field at Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel, and weighed out the money to him, seventeen shekels of silver. I signed the deed, sealed it, got witnesses, and weighed the money on scales. Then I took the sealed deed of purchase, containing the terms and conditions, and the open copy; and I gave the deed of purchase to Baruch son of Neriah son of Mahseiah, in the presence of my cousin Hanamel, in the presence of the witnesses who signed the deed of purchase, and in the presence of all the Judeans who were sitting in the court of the guard. In their presence I charged Baruch, saying, Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, both this sealed deed of purchase and this open deed, and put them in an earthenware jar, in order that they may last for a long time. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.

Luke 21:1-4

He looked up and saw rich people putting their gifts into the treasury; he also saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. He said, ‘Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them; for all of them have contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on.’

Growing up in a household of eight children, our idea of a fun and affordable family vacation was packing-up the station wagon and heading off to visit Grandpa and Grandma. It just so happened that both sets of grandparents lived on farms in Iowa, one in the Clear Lake area and the other near Webster City. We normally stayed about a week on each farm, or until the eight of us rambunctious grandchildren had pretty much depleted every ounce of energy our grandparents possessed.

They both lived on working farms. Those farms had roots extending back a generation. Who would farm the land next was always the question, particularly since my mom was an only child. My dad was a pastor, but he had a couple of brothers who were farmers, so we assumed that someday each would receive a portion of the land to farm. And maybe my dad would receive something too.

Every year my dad would talk about growing up on that farm during the Dust Bowl days, in the middle of the Great Depression. It took incredible courage to plant seeds year after year, not knowing if the rains would come. It took foresight to feed livestock and pay taxes and believe that any of this land would remain in the family. The regular refrain from my dad was this: “We somehow managed to hang on to our farm. So many of our neighbors lost their farms…and their roots. We were nobody special, but we were grateful to God for the blessings that came our way.”

The prophet Jeremiah was in the middle of a crisis that was every bit as severe as the Great Depression, if not much more so. Israel was in danger of not only losing its farms, but also its cities. This devastation was the nefarious work of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, the Vladimir Putin of his day.  

Just a reminder: as the story is told in the Book of Jeremiah, it’s not put together in linear fashion. The chapters are more thematic in content. Last week, in Chapter 29, Jeremiah was writing a letter to exiles already in Babylon. He was encouraging them to build homes, plant gardens, celebrate weddings, and settle in for the long haul. This week— three chapters later—Jeremiah was under house arrest in Jerusalem at the hands of King Zedekiah, the last king of Judah. The king was sick and tired of listening to the prophet drone on and on, so he locked him up. Jerusalem had not yet fallen and the people were not yet in exile, but if Jeremiah had anything to say about it, it was coming soon.

If you get a bit confused jumping back and forth, you’re not alone. Many students of Jeremiah do too, including the pastor who’s preaching to you today. Again, the chapters are not linear, they’re thematic. They’re painting a picture of what happens to God’s people when they lose their roots, and feel their identity as God’s people slipping away.  

Of course, we might know something of the turmoil they were experiencing. We’ve had our lives turned upside down by a world-wide pandemic, and a political crisis, and a financial meltdown, and any number of turbulent events. So, what do we do when that happens? Who do we trust? Will things ever feel the same again?  

In her West Word article this past week, Pastor Meta mentioned one additional piece of the Jeremiah puzzle: a remnant of those who were left behind in Judah. This included the sick and infirm and poorest of the poor. Jeremiah chose to stay with them. In the meantime, priests, prophets and court officials were being shipped off to Babylon. While some were predicting a speedy return, Jeremiah wrote in a letter that the return would take upwards of 70 years. Pastor Meta added a telling comment: “It felt like a lifetime apart—because it was. Seventy years spent trying to compromise and survive and get back to the way it used to be.”

In the early days of the remnant, Jeremiah did something utterly remarkable. He invested in land. If that doesn’t sound crazy to you, imagine buying property in Ukraine these days. It’s beyond comprehension! But keep in mind, Jeremiah wasn’t making this investment for financial gain. It was a symbolic gesture, much like shattering a clay pot. It was a way God spoke through his actions. The shattered pot was a word of judgment—God’s people had abandoned the Covenant, a rupture had developed, and they would be scattered far and wide. And now, on the hopeful side of things, purchasing property was a sign that the land would remain God’s gift to Israel. Jeremiah refused to give up hope that someday, far down the road, God’s people would be back home again.

As a way to display confidence in God’s future, Jeremiah went to his hometown of Anathoth. This was the town where people once threatened to kill him if he kept telling his bad news in the name of the Lord. While many were being deported to Babylon, and others were fleeing to Egypt, Jeremiah was returning to his roots. Among those roots was Mosaic law which provided a way for land to stay in the family.

Cousin Hanamel offered to sell his share of the land to Jeremiah. We’re not sure why. That might not seem like a big deal to us, but I’m guessing it would to farm families struggling over an inheritance, or perhaps to those who’ve had a family cabin for a generation or two and now are wondering who’s supposed to get it next. 

What do you think—should Jeremiah buy this property in the midst of a devastated land? And if so, why? Jeremiah seems determined: “I will buy this land. We will sign this deed. And we will seal it in a clay pot, for whomever comes after us. Mark my word,” says the prophet: “Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.”

It takes a tremendous amount of trust to believe that the land Jeremiah is buying—and the vineyard that’s a part of it—will amount to anything more than a hill of beans in the years to come. I wonder how many of the townsfolk were snicking, calling the prophet’s action reckless, if not downright foolhardy. But that’s a big part of who Jeremiah was—someone who believed deeply in God’s gift of the land and in the promise that God would someday give them a future with hope. 

Seventy years is a long time. It’s worth reminding ourselves that Jeremiah would have long since died before that clay pot was dug up and the deed brought out into the light of day. Like a lot of inheritance matters—whether about farms or cabins or even a slip of paper attached to someone’s fine china, what matters at that point is not so much who gets what, but was it passed on in a way that was life-giving and hopeful for generations to come. Jeremiah believed in those generations to come. I don’t know how, but he did. And it was more than wishful thinking. It was rooted in the faithfulness of a God he had witnessed from one generation to the next. 

Pastor Meta had another point in her article that bears repeating. It comes after a comment about the ground that so often feels like it’s shifting beneath our feet. She writes: “We are in a relationship with a God who is stubborn and steadfast love, who is always finding ways to give us back to one another and to our location within the order of things. Being the church together is the ancient antidote to despair, discord and division. Being the church together is how we practice what’s actually true in a noisy world, staying connected to the generations before us and still to come.”

Well said, Meta. And well done, Jeremiah. No doubt about it: we need help and hope during turbulent times. We need roots that go deep, and are trustworthy and true. We find those roots in the God of Israel, and ultimately, in the God who comes to us in Jesus the Christ. Amen.