Location, Location, Location
Christ the King – Narrative Lectionary 4
November 24, 2013
Grace Lutheran Church, Mankato, MN
Jeremiah 29.1, 4-14
In December 1977, I was an assistant manager with Minnesota Fabrics in the Twin Cities, nearing the end of my training. Though I didn’t know it then, that next spring I’d be on my way to Chicago and part of a new program with the company. One day, I received a call from my group manager, my boss’ boss, telling me to pack my bags. I was being sent to Duluth for two weeks to run the store there while they were closing it.
The store manager had already transferred to another store and someone needed to run it until its closing. It was not a great position to be in: the employee morale was low and some were leaving for new jobs. If that wasn’t enough, the motel I was staying in had a massive gap in the door, making my room like a walk-in freezer. I didn’t know anybody in Duluth, the weather was miserable, and the work disheartening. Though it may be an exaggeration, for me it was the Minnesota Fabrics equivalent of Siberia.
The prophet Jeremiah is writing to some Jews who were feeling similarly dislocated, only in Babylon. It’s around 626 BCE, and the Northern Kingdom of Israel has been destroyed by the Assyrians, who have made the Southern Kingdom of Judah a vassal state, that is, until the Babylonians come along. That’s the way it is when you are a bully; a bigger bully usually comes along to take your place. In a moment of false bravado, the king of Judah rebels by not paying the taxes and pays the price. Governments don’t like it when you don’t pay your taxes. In what will be known as the first deportation, many of the elite of Judah have been relocated to Babylon. They are cut off from their homeland, their families, and worst of all, they think, from their God.
With the elite in Babylon, there are prophets telling the dislocated exiles to continue to rebel. They promise that their time there will be short and they must resist every effort to keep them subjugated. In response, Jeremiah sends a letter countering that message, and giving a startling message from God: they are to not only go about their business, but they are to work for the welfare of their country. Furthermore, they are going to be there a lot longer than they think, several generations, in fact. However, Jeremiah says, all evidence to the contrary, God is with them and has a hopeful future for them.
All of us experience dislocations in our lives, from mild to life-changing; some often devastating. The death of a loved one, the loss of a job, the diagnosis of an illness, leaving a long-time home, are all dislocations. What makes it worse is that we live in an uncertain economic and political time, with high unemployment or underemployment, a dysfunctional political system, and youngsters sent to fight in illogical wars. The false prophets among us are rampant: we can spend our way to prosperity; all we need are massive cuts (or massive taxes) to get out of this hole; the next shiny, new thing will make life better; and the most insidious of all, God wants us wealthy.
Jeremiah’s message is as important for us who are dislocated today as it was to those in Babylon. God is present and actively working in our midst in spite of our inability to see God’s presence. In other words, though we may feel dislocated in our lives, we are never dislocated from God. Furthermore, Jeremiah’s words are an invitation to trust God in our times of dislocation when doing so seems crazy. In so doing, our actions, our very lives, become signs of hope and trust to those around us.
The Bishop of Geneva, Saint Francis de Sales (1567-1622) is credited with saying, “bloom where you are planted.” More recently, Mary Engelbreit has made the phrase popular. When I think of this phrase, I think of seeing a flower sprouting up in the midst of a patch of broken concrete. It wasn’t the lush garden or rich soil the flower dreamed of, but what an incredible sign of God’s in-breaking presence it is!
Somewhere along the line, I decided to do the best I could in Duluth, to work for its welfare and the welfare of Minnesota Fabrics. Eventually, I returned to my former post and then the promotion to the Chicago area. However, it wouldn’t be until much later that I realized how God was present in, with, and through my experiences in Duluth. This would be a lesson that I would relearn countless times throughout my life.
Wherever you are feeling dislocated or cut off from God, know that God is with you. Know that God is actively working in your life and in the life of this congregation. God invites us to join along in that work, being signs and instruments of his desire to bring our world back into a living and loving relationship with him and each other. That’s our location: to bloom where we are planted, knowing that God provides all we need. Amen.
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