Text: Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and
fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.
To say that Jeremiah was socially maladjusted is a bit like saying
Peyton Manning is a quarterback. Jeremiah just could not act like everyone
else, believe like everyone else, pretend like everyone else. Jeremiah was
socially maladjusted, in a creative way—speaking judgment when people
wanted comfort and consequences when people would rather fantasy.
Take, for example, today's lesson and Jeremiah's act of lunacy. First
the context: The Babylonian army has arrived and is besieging Jerusalem.
Jeremiah, ever the diplomat, proclaims that the city will be taken, its
population put to the sword or exiled, and then the city burned. King
Zedekiah declares this treason and throws Jeremiah in jail. Be reminded
here, Jeremiah is as unhappy as everyone else about what he is saying; he
expresses real anger at God for calling him to be a prophet at all. Shortly
before today's passage, Jeremiah cries, "O Lord, you deceived me, and I
was deceived; you overpowered me and prevailed. I am ridiculed all day
long; everyone mocks me. Whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming
violence and destruction. So the word of the Lord has brought me insult
and reproach all day long. But if I say, 'I will not mention God or speak any
more in God's name,' God's word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in
my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot” (20:7-8). So with
that as the context, we come to today's lesson, and Jeremiah's act of
lunacy. It is clear that Jerusalem will fall within days and the nation
destroyed; the nation literally wiped off the face of the map. So Jeremiah
buys property for full price for future use. Huh? As I said, an act of lunacy.
Land is now worthless. The barbarians are at the gate. And Jeremiah calls
witnesses to watch the transaction as he invests in a future that is clearly
not possible in the present. He speaks of hope in the face of despair and
life in the face of death.
Jeremiah’s creative maladjustment has been an inspiration for some
of the most celebrated figures in history. These are people who had to
speak justice to legal systems steeped in unjust laws, equality to those took
the phrase “all men are created equal” a little too literally, thereby creating
inequality for half of its nation’s citizens. Suffragist Alice Paul, it could be
argued, was one of the more creatively maladjusted citizens in the history
of our nation. Leading a protest parade at Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration
she and 5,000 other women were vilified, and then attacked, by mobs of
angry men. Modeling her methods after Jeremiah’s incessant criticism of
the king, she continued her incessant criticism of President Wilson. Our
legal system’s response? She was thrown in the psychiatric unit of a
federal prison, convicted of lunacy. There she suffered brutal conditions
until a glaring newspaper expose turned public opinion in her favor. After
women won the right to vote it is she, in 1923, in 1923, who wrote the
Equal Rights Amendment. And it was not just the government that was
fighting against her, it was churches who fought hard to protect the status
quo.
So what do Jeremiah and Alice Paul have to do with us? Well, if we
lived in Utopia then it would have nothing to do with us, and prophetic
witness would never be practiced because there would be nothing to
witness to. Yet when poverty is on the rise in our own city and nation—the
richest nation in the history of the world; when ministers condemn
homosexuals and call it holy; when our elderly must choose between not
taking their medication or not eating because they do not have enough
money for both; when the poor are vilified for being poor; when God's
creation is assaulted daily with pollution; when "ethnic cleansing" is a
common tactic in war; when there is war at all; when violence against
women is so common in our own nation that even the smallest towns must
have a battered women's shelter; when, including suicides, there have
been approximately 25,179 handgun deaths in our nation this year alone as
of last Monday, then we are reminded that the church is not given to us for
our personal fulfillment, it is offered to us that we might work with God and
Jesus and the Holy Spirit to stand for the Way of love in the midst of
injustice and cruelty and violence. It reminds us that in intractable situations
the church must become like Jeremiah—a prisoner of hope. And this is
precisely what today's lesson is all about: the unrelenting call to be
prophetic, to invest in a future not possible in the present, to work at
becoming creatively maladjusted. ("Do not be conformed to this world"
Rom. 12:2a).
Over 50 years ago Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., noting the need for
radical transformation of American society said, "This hour in history needs
a dedicated circle of transformed non-conformists." Because, as Dr. King
noted, what is required of people of faith in the face of injustice is not a
complacent adjustment to the conforming majority, but rather the creative
maladjustment of a non-conforming minority. This is hard to do; it is so
much easier to be well adjusted to society at large. And as agonizing as it
is to recognize this, the Church all to often encourages us to be the
opposite of Jesus: well adjusted conformists. Too often churches read
Jesus' words of prophetic justice inside church and keep silence on the
lack of justice outside church. And if the people of Jesus do not stand for
the Way of Jesus, who will?
Increasingly we are all hearing/reading of young people who are
thirsting for ways to stand for justice and mercy, who want to speak out and
stand up to the institutionalized and normalized societal patterns that
sustain poverty, racism, pollution, ethno-centrism and violence. And, due to
churches' participation in feeding hatred toward homosexuals, inciting
violence against Muslims, proclaiming the American way of life as Manifest
Destiny—a God-given mandate to subdue and exploit this land/world for its
own ends, young people see the church as the immoral "moral voice" of
destructive behaviors—well adjusted conformists living hypocritical lives.
I do not want to be part of a church that is an accurate reflection of
these young adults' criticism. I do not want to be part of a church of well
adjusted conformists. I would much rather be part of a church that follows
the Way of Jesus. I would much rather be part of a church of transformed
non-conformists. I would much rather be creatively maladjusted to the
world and faithfully well adjusted to the Way of Jesus.
This leads us to a very curious place, at least as an institution known
as “church.” On the one hand, it is abundantly clear that people in general
and young people in particular do not know the difference between various
churches. We are seen by the vast majority of our neighbors as the
immoral “moral voice” of destructive behaviors. Why? Because due to all
the publicity that is given to extremist religious voices, people not
associated with churches think all churches are like that. The word
‘Christian’ has become linked with hypocrisy, hatred, and homophobia. We
are a Christian church, ergo we must be like that.
We are not like that. For at least two decades now First Plymouth
Congregational Church, and myriad churches like us, have faithfully been
putting in place ministries and witness that directly seek to build the realm
of God on earth. Even as mainline churches’ numbers have dwindled these
faithful ministries have growth. Progressive churches such as First
Plymouth have been assertively feeding the hungry, clothing the naked and
empowering the powerless. Progressive churches like First Plymouth have
been developing ministries of protecting the environment from pollution,
standing for justice with our gay, lesbian and transgender neighbors,
friends and family members, and we have been working to reduce the
senseless violence wrought by lack of legislative restraint on weapons
designed not for hunting, but for the sole purpose of killing other people.
Churches such as First Plymouth, as witnessed in our deep and abiding
relationship with Temple Sinai, are reaching out to other faith traditions and
developing sustaining friendships that break down old barriers and
establish networks of peace. In other words, churches such as First
Plymouth are the very model of spiritual community that young people are
searching for . . . and we have been building such a community in the
societal environment that declares that God is dead and that established
religion is dead or dying.
We are not dead. We are not dying. We are investing in a future that
is clearly not possible in the present—a future of peace on earth, of swords
beaten into plowshares and weapons factories into gardens; a future of a
green earth where there is no pollution; a future where every child is fed
and receives an education; a future where blacks, whites, gays and
straights all enjoy the same dignity and rights; a future there is no violence
against women, and where there is healthcare for all. . . . A future not
possible in the present, but worth sweating for day in and century out.
Transformed non-conformists. Creatively mal-adjusted citizens.
Faithful followers of the Way of Love. Buying land and planting gardens,
tilling a future not possible in the present. Thanks be to God. Amen.