Welfare State
This sermon is probably not what you would have expected by looking at the title. I’m
just going to tell you that right off the bat here. Oh, I did plenty of research on the Welfare State,
which for those of you that don’t know is the idea that the government would play a key role in
taking care of people...looking out for people’s social well-being and economic needs. It’s based
on concepts like equality of opportunity, equitable distribution of wealth, and public
responsibility for those who cannot care for themselves.1 Anyways, that’s where I thought this
sermon was going. And I got there because I got caught up on one word in this text that I just
couldn’t shake from my mind: Welfare.
The last sentence in our passage for today reads, “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.” Our welfare is intimately connected to the welfare of the city, to the welfare of each
other. What a beautiful articulation of us all being connected. I loved it. But, that’s not where
this sermon went.
Let me give you some background on this passage. Jeremiah was not a very popular
guy at this point. Before this letter, there had been a lot of drama. Other “prophets” were
telling people that this community that was in exile probably wouldn’t be there long, they would
be back to their normal lives soon, the exile wouldn’t stick. But, Jeremiah had a different idea.
He was saying, “Yeah. I’m sorry, but this exile thing is gonna stick...maybe even for like 70
years. You’re gonna be there for quite a while. You may as well build some houses.” This,
of course, was not a popular opinion. It’s not what people wanted to hear. It wasn’t a quick fix.
It wasn’t bringing things back to the way they were.
1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welfare_state
1
So, here is this community in exile in Babylon. Away from their homes. Away from
their land, the land that they believed God gave them. They don’t know how to worship in this
place. They don’t know who to trust in this place. They don’t know how to live in this place.
And then, unpopular Jeremiah sends this letter. This letter, which is actually filled with
really “practical advice and these visionary assurances of redemption” for their community.2
But, they weren’t having it. It was not the advice that they wanted to hear. You know, like,
when you go to a friend and just want to complain about something really frustrating and friend
points out that actually you’re kind of being a jerk, or maybe you should think about it a different
way, and should probably just chill out. Yeah, that kind of slap in the face advice that you
don’t really want, but you know you need. That’s what this letter was. Jeremiah was saying,
“Friends, I know you probably don’t want to hear it. I know other people are telling you it’s
going to be a short stay and that’s what you want to believe, who wouldn’t? But, I’m here to tell
you, it’s gonna be a long stay in Babylon.”
And here’s where Jeremiah’s letter becomes so beautiful. The letter isn’t just, “Sorry
everyone, you’re going to be in exile for a while.” No, Jeremiah, apparently quoting God, says,
“Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Take partners
and have children; take partners for your children, that they may have children; multiply,
and do not decrease.”
Yeah, it’s a message they don’t want to hear, but he is trying to inspire them. “You will
be there for a while, so you need to live while you are there. Build houses, plant gardens, get
married and have kids. Thrive even while you are in a place that you don’t want to be in.
Friends, we can’t look back to the way things were...we can only look forward from here.”
Harris, Stephen and Platzner, Robert. The Old Testament: An Introduction to the Hebrew Bible. McGraw-Hill:
California, 2003; pages 243-245.
2
2
And so, here’s the other thing. You know, I told you I was stuck on that last sentence,
that welfare bit, and I didn’t quite know why. Well, I think this is the real reason why. Again,
that last sentence reads, “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.” So, there was a
word that I had skipped over. I skipped over this word and went right toward that word, welfare.
That welfare word jumped out at me because, I don’t know, it seemed timely or something. But,
like Jeremiah’s message to this community was one they didn’t quite expect, this last sentence
had a deeper meaning that I didn’t quite expect. And the word that really makes this sentence
stand out is the word, “Pray.”
The community hearing this message was uprooted, they had no power, they had no
“place” of their own, they had no temple and here is Jeremiah telling them to pray. “You don’t
need a temple. You don’t need sacrifices. You don’t need an offering. You can pray, right here,
in exile.” This is revolutionary for this time, by the way...really. “Listen, everyone,” he says,
“God is with you even in this distant land, among the broken, among the lost, among the
powerless. God is with you. God is here, so pray.” The people in exile HAD to know that God
was with them, and that there would be a future for them and Jeremiah knew it.
Now, this would have been an especially difficult idea for this community to grasp. And
here’s why, “In the ancient Near East, there was generally a belief in many gods. But,
Jeremiah’s audience only worshiped one God. A lot of people in the ancient world believed that
different gods had different domains. For example, the Holy Land was where Yahweh was
supreme. But, in Babylon, where they were in exile, a different god was supreme. So, when the
Israelites traveled to another land, they went to another god’s domain.”3 So, they are thinking,
“How could our God be with us when we are in another land and have no place to
3
http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1773
3
worship? How would that work? Well, then here comes Jeremiah’s letter telling them, “Oh no,
God is here. God is with you. You don’t need a temple. You don’t need sacrifices. You should
just try to pray.”
Now...I can’t imagine what it would feel like to be in exile...but, I do imagine that when
this community finally took Jeremiah seriously their prayers probably sounded something like
this, “Why, God? Why are we here?” Not even just “Why are we here in this place,” but also,
“Why are we here at all, why do we exist, what is this life all about?” When suffering is
present in our lives this often seems to be the question that jumps to the forefront of our
minds, doesn’t it? This is an ageless question, an ageless prayer. It’s a prayer that just cuts to
the core of who we are as humans.
I think we ask this question because we are a people that seek meaning. If this
community in exile asked Jeremiah that question, “Why? Why do you think we are here? And
how do you know that God is here with us?” I’m not quite sure what he would say, but it
probably would have been something like this, “I don’t know. I just don’t know.” But, of course
with Jeremiah, his answer wouldn’t have stopped there, we can tell that from this letter. He
probably would have continued, “I don’t know, but...what if this is a place where we can be
inspired and re-imagine how the world looks. What if it’s a place where we can create and
grow and come together as a people? What if this is the place where we leave the past
behind and begin to let the future take root? What if this is the place?”
Now, I want to be careful here and let me tell you why. I think this idea of exile can
create a really powerful metaphor for our lives, when we think about the difficult things we have
gone through, but it’s also a dangerous one. I think this kind of metaphor works when we are
talking about communities, about groups of people, but I want to make a really important
4
distinction here between communal exile and individual exile. This story is about a
community struggling together in a place where God called them to be. I’m going to say
that again, this story is about a community struggling together in a place where God called
to be.
This passage is NOT about those dark places, those exiles, in our own lives that we
struggle to make meaning out of. God does NOT send us to those places. God does NOT send
people into abusive relationships. God does NOT send people into addiction. God does NOT
send people into depression. God does NOT send people into eating disorders. God did NOT
send you to those places ... God is with you in those places, but God did not send you there.
This passage is about a community of people struggling together to make meaning in
a place where God called them to be. And Jeremiah is trying to inspire them to live into that
meaning that they are longing to create.
There’s a quote by Robert Louis Stevenson that says, “Don’t judge each day by the harvest
you reap, but by the seeds that you plant.” That sounds like something that could have come
right out of this letter from Jeremiah. Plant some seeds. See what grows. This is a timeless idea
and also a great question to ask ourselves. What seeds are we planting? Are you planting
seeds for compassion...for happiness... for meaning in your life? What do those seeds look
like?
This letter from Jeremiah is a message of hard to hear hope to a community that is
struggling. The kind of hope you’re not quite ready for, but over time it takes root and grows,
and all of the sudden you look around ... and you see that the seeds that were planted are
thriving...and you are living in the house that you built, and eating food from your garden that
5
you planted, enjoying your family that you love...and still struggling together to find meaning in
the place that God calls us to be.
Amen.
6