Future-fitted faith

We’re not big on using a common lectionary these days, but if I had to hazard a guess as to the biblical text most people in MB churches will hear at the beginning of the new year, I would opt for Jeremiah 29:11. I have strong suspicions that any text with the words “hope” and “future” will prove to be an irresistible temptation for preachers and congregants alike. As we stand on the cusp of all that is new and fresh, the optimistic overtones and quaint familiarity of this verse make it quite difficult not to preach a general message of hope and prosperity from the text.

But that would be a mistake. Not an intentional mistake, mind you, but a homiletical one because doing so fails to honour the full context of Jeremiah 29:11.

The prophet Jeremiah isn’t known for tones of encouragement. Most of his messages contain warning and judgment. In 29:4, for example, Jeremiah reminds the people that part of God’s purpose for them is a time of incredible suffering, loss, and difficulty.

In its broader context, Jeremiah 29 invites us to wrestle with the fact that part of God’s plan, as we move into 2007, might include some dark days. Not the kind of theology one wants to hear from the pulpit at the beginning of the new year, is it?

Perhaps this tension exists because, when we hear words like “prosper” tied to words like “hope” and “future,” we think in terms of the immediate. The first readers of the text must have had the same expectations. I can imagine the exiles, to whom Jeremiah was writing, gathering around and opening his letter, thinking to themselves, “How exciting! God is going to tell us that we get to go home to Jerusalem!” Then they read Jeremiah 29:10. “When seventy years are completed . . . I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place.”

“Say that again! Seventy years from now?” (Jeremiah is called the weeping prophet for a reason.) The Israelites’ disappointment must have been intense and palpable. Mine would have been. That’s because I have a hard time holding on to God’s promises for 70 minutes, let alone 70 days or 70 years. I want things to happen now. I have a dangerous tendency to want things to be positive and easy; for the future to be bright and full of clear possibilities.

Although the dawn of the new year is a good time to add fuel to this fire, it’s also a good time for me to ask some thoughtful questions about what I believe about God’s plans, his character, and what pictures he might have in his holy imagination when he thinks about my future.

This is the most probingly personal question that emerges from Jeremiah 29. It’s a question that bears addressing, not just from the pulpit, but in the recesses of my soul: when it comes to my future, to whom will I listen?

Like the exiles, will I listen to false prophets who tell people about peace and safety and returning to their easy lives in two years? Or will I listen to the Word of the Lord, which says gently but firmly, “Yes, I have plans to give you hope and a future. But the journey is just as important to me as the destination. Your character formation, and the depth of life and intimacy in community that I desire to develop in you, as a testimony to my name – these are the things that are vitally important.”

Perhaps Jeremiah 29:11 isn’t really about a destination called Hope or my personal version of the future. Jeremiah 29 might have more to say about what I’m learning along the journey. Perhaps it’s about verse 12, as well as verse 11.

Am I learning to call on God, to listen to him, to walk with him on this incredible and often difficult journey? That seems like a message worth preaching!

Jeremiah 29:10–14

¹⁰ This is what the LORD says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. ¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. ¹² Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. ¹³ You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. ¹⁴ I will be found by you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”

Brad Sumner is pastor at Jericho Ridge Community Church, Langley, B.C.