In Medias Res” Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7

Garrett Vickrey 10:45 AM Worship Woodland Baptist Church 10.13.13 San Antonio, Texas “In Medias Res” Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7

In Medias Res... is a Latin phrase be. What you are doing is not that means “In the midst of what you thought you would be things”. It’s a literary technique of doing... you deserve better. storytelling where you begin the Someday soon things are going to story ‘in the midst of things’ and get better THEN my real life will ﬁll in the background as you go start. That was the feeling of the forward through the story. Judeans in exile in Babylon.

Homer’s Epic poem, The Odyssey, is an example of a story that starts Their lives had been taken from “In Medias Res”. The story begins them. Their dreams had been ten years after the Trojan War taken from them. Uprooted from where Odyssius is desperately their homeland, they were trying to get home. Throughout dragged across the desert. They the story we hear more about his were stuck in a land that was not past and we see how he their own. Surrounded by people encounters obstacle after who thought they were peculiar obstacle on his journey home. In for their beliefs and for the way the midst of all that happens we they lived. Psalm 137 captures the see how he is driven by a dream mood by saying, “How could we of arriving home to his wife sing the Lord’s song in a foreign Penelope. And it is this love that land?” keeps him going when everything is going wrong. They received a letter from the prophet Jeremiah. They were Life is lived in the midst of things. hoping for a good word from back It’s a journey, and we are always home in Jerusalem. All the other between destinations. Between prophets were saying this Exile jobs, between houses, between was a short term thing-- only 2 where we are and where we want years and the Babylonian’s reign to be. We may sometimes even of terror would be over. They were feel like we’re in exile in our own hoping for quick relief and a return private Babylon. to the way things were in the good ole days. They were disappointed. A lot of times you don’t want to invest in where you are cuz where Jeremiah said, “Don’t listen to you are is not where you should those false prophets who ﬁll you

1 with easy answers and tell you cross. And there is no easy path what you want to hear.” You’re not for us. This life is an adventure, going home... you have to make but it’s an adventure God has your home here. The good news promised to go on with us. is that God will be with you out there in the middle of nowhere, And this is the fundamental truth and will return your grandkids to we learn from Jeremiah. It is rebuild. groundbreaking truth for the Judeans in exile. If you were in their shoes wouldn’t you have liked the false prophets Ancient cultures held a completely better? different view of their gods and goddesses than we do... no doubt. They saw a special False prophets in those days and relationship between the gods of these days offer easy answers to nations and the land the gods difficult questions. False prophets inhabited. Gods were supposed always seem to think of life with to be tied to geography. For God as life with an easy button. instance, even in earlier places in It’s like those Staples the bible there are examples commercials. False prophets say where God seems to be very tied if you want God to do something to certain holy places-- the for you pray about it or be good Temple in Jerusalem and Mount and God will do good to you... just Sinai. And we know this to some push the easy button and it will all extent as well, there are places we be fine in no time. This isn’t how go where we expect to meet God works. We don’t pump prayer God-- whether it is here in church into God like quarters into one of or elsewhere. those prize machines with the hook that grabs you a new teddy The Judeans in exile were a long bear. This is about a relationship. way from the Temple. And It’s about a lifestyle; it’s about remember that they believed that going through life with God, not God was most present in the Holy around it. God has promised to be of Holies... a place one priest was with us, even when we are in allowed to go once a year to offer exile. a sacrifice on behalf of the community. And they would tie a There was no easy button for string to his foot just in case he Jesus when he walked the earth, was killed by seeing the face of when he walked the road to the God... if the presence of God was

2 too much for him they could at And couldn’t we use some least pull him out. That is an prayers for shalom for our adventure. governmental leaders right now. Pray for the shalom of D.C. Jeremiah is calling for a huge Democrats pray for Republicans; paradigm shift. This prophet is Republicans pray for Democrats. asking the people to understand And Libertarians... well, keep God in a completely diﬀerent way. doing whatever it is you do I God is no longer to be understood guess. as a tribal diety localized in one place or tied to a certain land. The Pray for the shalom of your God they worshiped in the Temple enemy. That’s no easy button. is the God who brought them out that’s not skipping ahead to some of Egypt. That God is the God of perfect ending-- that is going right the whole world and all the to the heart of life with God. God universe. That is the God of all is the God of all the earth and people. Their God is faithful even those who are our enemies whether they are in Jerusalem or are not enemies to God. Old Babylon, Bagdad or Bandera. Testament scholar Terence Fretheim says, “Their work and prayer on behalf of their captors So imagine the surprise of the will reverberate back into their Israelites when they open this own lives and positively aﬀect letter and see that they are their own well-being.”1 supposed to pray for the peace... pray for the shalom, it says, of Therefore, if we are to pray to God Babylon. Pray for our enemy? The and be transformed through our command to seek the welfare of prayer life then our prayers need the city and to pray to the Lord on to include people who-- when we its behalf anticipates the prayer think of them we immedietely try for the government that appears to think of something else so that as part of the Torah service for we don’t think of them. Or people Shabbat and the festivals in who raise our blood pressure just Jewish rituals. The rhetoric is with a mention of their name. intended to shock-- most people Sometimes that’s a person... would expect “And seek the sometimes it’s a people. welfare of the city” to mean Jerusalem, not Babylon. Shalom These words from Jeremiah is used three times in verse 7. foreshadow the message of That’s a pretty clear message. Jesus. After all, Jesus came so

3 that the whole world would know of our lives... we can begin to the love of God. And through the bring some meaning to our days. New Covenant in his blood all of creation was invited back into the fold of God. God’s work of Years ago a man was traveling by redemption doesn’t happen in a ship with his young daughter lab or just in a nice church. God across the ocean. Earlier that doesn’t show up on schedule. particular Sunday he had God comes to us in the midst of preached a sermon about God's things. When life is crashing down love. It had been a very diﬃcult around us. God comes to us to service to preach, because his make a way through trouble and wife had died just a few weeks guide us with his sustaining love. ago.

Too often we leave God in church. He was standing against the rail of Or we leave him on a mountain the ship, looking out at the vast somewhere thinking we know all ocean (no land in sight in any about that. I’ve been to Sunday direction). Just then his daughter School. I’ve read the bible. But, asked him if God loved them as too often we get stuck reading the much as they had loved her late bible at a 3rd grade level instead mother. of pushing ourselves in the faith. And we shy away from messages "Of course He does," answered like that of Jeremiah that try to her father. "There is absolutely help us to see that God is not just nothing bigger or more powerful a small God trapped in our hearts and all-consuming than God's or trapped in a sanctuary love for us. It's the biggest thing somewhere. there is!" The little girl pressed on for more information, wanting to We are all caught up in the story know exactly how big God's love of God and humanity. We always was. Finally her father with great ﬁnd ourselves in the midst of that tenderness said, "Well, look story. Our lives are somewhere across the sea as far as you can. after Genesis but before Look up and down and all around. Revelation. Once we can begin to God's love stretches around to see our lives as part of God’s cover all of that; above the blue story of creating and redeeming sky and deeper than the deepest the world then we can begin to part of the ocean underneath us." make sense of the disparate parts

4 The little girl thought for a minute and replied, "And to think, we're right in the middle of it."2 And we are. We're right in the middle of God's love. Whever you are, whatever road you are going down-- God is with you. That is the message of Jeremiah to the exiles and it is the reason Jesus came among us. We are right in the middle of God’s love.

1Terence Freitheim, Feasting on the Word, Year C Vol. 4 (Westminster: 2010), p. 149.

2 King Duncan, story from “We are Right in the Middle of It”, from Dynamic Preaching: www.sermons.com