By Kevin Parks
St. Andrew's United Church, Halifax

When faced with uncertainty, buy a field.

Jeremiah 32: 1-3, 6-15

Thank you, Martha for your invitation to speak here today. By your invitation, and my accepting this opportunity to offer a sermon on this Sunday preceding the return of our Lead Minister from his five month sabbatical, we may be stepping precariously close to an illustration of the maxim, —When the cat‘s away the mice will play.?

I was going to say at this point that my intention in this sermon was to offer you some investment advice. That, however, would have me standing right on the precipice, and, because I do want to hold your attention for the next few minutes, I‘ll move away from that idea, and get to our text from Jeremiah.

Jeremiah witnessed the final years of Jerusalem before it fell to Nebuchadrezzar and the Babylonians. When Jeremiah was called he protested to God that he was too young and not a very good speaker. God would have nothing of that argument. Jeremiah recounts that ?The Lord reached out his hand, then he touched my mouth and said, —I am giving you the words to say, and I am sending you with authority to speak to the nations for me. You will tell them of doom and destruction, and of rising and rebuilding again.‘ (Jer.1:9-10) Jeremiah‘s message is one of calling the people back to faithful worship of Yahweh. But he suffered deeply at the hands of the Judeans because he was prophesying the impending fall of Jerusalem and a 70 year exile. The people refused to believe his message because they thought that Jerusalem would always be safe, as Isaiah had told them previously. For a time the Judeans lived peacefully with their neighbouring superpowers – Babylon, Assyria and Egypt. But Zedekiah, the king at the time of today‘s reading, supported rebellion against the expansionist plans of the Babylonians, and Nebuchadnezzar came and destroyed Jerusalem after a terrible siege. The city was destroyed, including the temple and the people went into exile. The first 29 chapters of the book of Jeremiah recount his unpopular prediction of the invasion of Judah by Babylon and the need for the people to accept the idea of exile. The chapter we read today is part of the ?Consolation‘ section of Jeremiah which offers hope to the people before we hear of the last days of the kingdom. Jeremiah writes that God will restore the fortunes of the people with a new covenant with them - a covenant that is written on the hearts of the people (Jer 31:31-34). (1) God illustrates his commitment to this covenant with the following stunning words:. —Can you measure the heavens? Can you explore the depths of the earth? That’s how hard it would be for me to reject Isreal forever.? (Jer. 31:37) And it is at this point that we hear the story of Jeremiah buying a field. So, what‘s up with the field?

Martha‘s question for me was ?How have I seen God working in my life and in the world around me?‘ I spent three weeks of this summer in splendid isolation. It had been two years since my last visit to Paradise…that‘s actually the name of the inlet of water on which the community of Monkstown, Newfoundland rests. This small community of 20 permanent residents is where my wife Dana‘s father was born and where he now maintains a summer cabin on the family‘s land. Monkstown is indeed a naturist‘s paradise, and I don‘t intend to wait two

(1)http://oldtestamentlectionary.unitedchurch.org.au

more years until our next trip to what I consider ?heaven on earth‘ (with all due respect to the Cape Bretoners and PE Islanders in the congregation) Monkstown is on the East side of the Burin Peninsula, about an hours drive to both Clarenville and Marystown—once you ?make it‘ to the highway. Getting in and out of Monkstown is an expedition of endurance. When you leave the Burin highway it is 27 kilometers on a winding shale road across bog and barren land to this little coastal community. Wildlife is rampant; the rabbits and foxes are routinely dashing across the road. We didn‘t see any moose this year, but the timing of our previous visit in 2008 had us crossing the Monkstown road after dark. We came upon a young bull who wasn‘t about to give ground on ?his‘ road. We waited about 40 minutes in darkness before he decided our car was not challenging his territory and went off into the brush. Flat tires are a common occurrence traveling over the sharp rock. All this just adds to the adventure, as far as I am concerned.

As always, our trip provided for us many experiences for which I am grateful. We and our children enjoyed a technology fast—in more ways than one. There is no cell phone or cable internet service to Monkstown. Many local people in Monkstown have satellite TV, but Jim and Gertie, have wisely chosen not to put a TV in their cabin. They only installed a telephone a couple years ago, and, mercifully, it rings with considerably less regularity than my phone at home! There is running water supplied by a well, and a fully functioning bathroom (though the shower is presently a solar bag hung on a nail at the back of the cabin with a tarp installed for privacy). There is currently no power hook up, but the cabin is wired and there is a generator to power lights after dark. Plans are in the works to get connect to the power grid and to install a shower in the bathroom next year, so this may be the last time we ?rough it‘. I‘m glad that our children have had a chance to learn some lessons about self-sufficiency in the absence of readily available electricity and hot water which we have learned to take for granted in our comfortably modern western lifestyle. Although our children did bring their hand held DS video gaming systems, they had limited opportunity to re-charge them, and that, along with our insistence that they would not be spending much time inside (—Go let the wind blow on ye? is what Dana‘s would tell them) gave them a chance to get away from the ?virtual world‘ of television and video games they are becoming much to familiar with. What we all discovered on this trip is that we had time. Time to enjoy being in the boat on the water, fishing…for hours at a time. Time to watch eagles (we counted more than 20 on one out trip) and marvel at their splendorous grace and beauty. We had time to look at constellations in the night sky, unblemished by light pollution as in our more densely populated urban setting. There was time to talk at mealtimes and in the evening before bed. We took time to make music together as a family. We had time to think about concerns that had been set aside ?until we have time to deal with it‘. And there was time to be spiritual, to feel grounded in our surroundings, to be appreciative of God‘s creation and of one another. We had time to explore questions of faith, and of doubt.

When we returned home we tried to stay in ?Monkstown Mode‘ for a while longer. The kids played outside nearly all day, every day. The television and gaming systems stayed off. I deliberately refrained from zealously checking email and mindless web-surfing. We went to the beach nearly every day until Hurricane Earl. And then school started. Committees and projects have begun to regain their focus here at St. Andrew‘s. Hockey tryouts have now come to their completion with their accompanying trials and triumphs. And the routine of ensuring that everyone in our house gets to the activities of their day is now fully and earnestly underway; a routine we will follow rigorously for the next 8 months or so, striving every day to have our children arrive at school with their homework completed and a lunch (!)

So what‘s this about buying a field? Just as the Babylonians were crushing on the city‘s gates to capture Jerusalem, Jeremiah‘s cousin, Hanamel is compelled to sell his field. Hanamel is about to flee the invasion and his property is now worthless. But Jeremiah is his nearest relative and as such he has ?the right and the responsibility to buy it and keep it in the family.’ A key part of God‘s promise in the Hebrew scriptures to the people of Israel is that they will occupy the land. (Gen 12:1-3) Still, why would Jeremiah want to but into something that seems worthless and for which he has no guarantee of its future value? He does this to illustrate hope for the future, that he has faith in God‘s promise to restore the people to the land. It is a demonstration of faith in God‘s faithfulness to remain close through times of doubt and uncertainty, and to bring the people—to bring us—to restoration in the aftermath.

As I began to describe a moment ago, my family‘s life is altogether too frenetic when we are in the height of activity involving work, study and children‘s activities. We are not unique as busy families go, and I worry about families who don‘t or can‘t find enough time or a place to decompress and get some space from the stresses of hyper-commitment. It was very important for us to buy into a ?field of simplicity‘ for three weeks by going to Monkstown. The place is coming to represent a source of hope for restoration and growth for our relationships within our family, and of spiritual restoration and reconnection with the Holy in our lives.

I‘ve also been thinking about the fields of hope we have bought into here at St. Andrew‘s. I‘ve been a witness to so much change here in the last eight years. The changes have been grounded in a process of sound relationship building. The climate and culture of this church has changed—all for the better. This is a sign of hope for our future. Another sign of hope is our renewed missional emphasis and the work of our outreach committee. It is an exciting time to be part of the work here at St. Andrew‘s as we discover how we can connect to the community around us. One further sign of hope is modeled in this month‘s sermon series. We have heard several stories of faith lived in the world today. We‘ve heard stories of people‘s experience of adversity or uncertainty in their lives and of the hope and trust they have found in God‘s promise of restoration in the aftermath. I attended some of the council retreat last weekend and was impressed that the discussions emphasized relationship building through story telling. Let me encourage you to consider that you each have a story to tell that illustrates your faith. We all protest sometimes, like Jeremiah, that there is something holding us back from telling that story or sharing that word. But as in Jeremiah‘s case God gives us the words we need when we need them so we can speak authoritatively about what our faith means to us. More than that, we may find that we do have words to articulate what needs to be taken apart and to offer hope about what may be restored—to one another in our discussion about being in relationship as a church family, and in more civically minded ways about being in relationships with neighbours across the street and around the world. For me, this is essentially what sharing the Gospel is about. We all ?share the Gospel of Christ‘ in a myriad of quiet ways everyday, in our acts of compassion and thoughtfulness; by the choices we make in how we spend our time and our money. My encouragement to you is that such evangelism, if I can use this term without being

(2)http://oldtestamentlectionary.unitedchurch.org.au

misunderstood, is a field of hope for us as a community of Christians and a people of faith. By finding the courage to more explicitly express that what we are doing here, and what we do in our personal lives, is an effort to faithfully live out the Gospel, we set our focus squarely on what the Gospel truly means for us. It makes us think carefully about the choices we make, and it raises our expectancy to see the Holy at work in everything we do. I do strongly believe that each one of us has the gift of the Spirit to share in this way.

We‘re about to sing a Brien Wren hymn that I think makes the point for us very clearly:

Loose your shyness, find your tongue, Tell the world what God has done God in Christ has come to stay. Live tomorrow‘s life today!(3)

I have learned that God goes before me in all things. It‘s not always been an easy lesson, and I do not live it out very faithfully all the time. But many times I have invested in a field of some sort to illustrate my faith in God‘s faithfulness when such hope is what I needed to find my way. Probably many of you have had similar experiences. If not, try it out sometime. It‘s my witness that you won‘t be disappointed. Thanks be to God.

(3)VU 582. Words Copyright 1979 Hope Publishing Company