Shared Shalom

World Communion Sunday

Jeremiah 29:1, 4-11

These are the words of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the remaining elders among the exiles, and to the priests, the prophets and all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. 

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:  Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce; Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage; multiply there, do not decrease. 

But seek the shalom of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its shalom you will find your shalom.  For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let the prophets and the diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, thus says the Lord. 

For thus says the Lord: Only when Babylon’s seventy years are completed will I visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.  For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your shalom and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.

“Shared Shalom”

Jeremiah 29:11 is the Mister Rogers of Bible verses (just go with me here).  It is gentle and warm as a well-loved cardigan and never fails to just make us feel so good.  No one can be angry reading it (like no one can be angry watching Mister Rogers, who was a Presby pastor, by the way.) 

Jeremiah 29:11 is so loved you can find it on painted pieces of wood to stick on your wall, stamped into jewelry, and even on cell phone cases.  “For I know the plans I have for you, plans for your welfare/shalom and not for harm, plans to give you a future with hope.” 

It’s right up there with John 3:16.  We Christian folk love it, because it sounds like God’s own personal promise to each of us.  God has great plans for ME!  Plans with a future and hope for ME! 

Though Jeremiah was from a hillside village called Ananoth, to the north-east of Jerusalem, I have news for you.  I think Jeremiah was a Southern boy, y’all.  We know this because he was not speaking of God’s plans for you (or me).  He was speaking in plural: 

“For I know the plans I have for y’all, says the Lord. Plans for all y’all’s welfare and not for y’all’s harm, plans to give y’all a future with hope.”

Now, if Jeremiah had just meant the scattered and battered people of Israel in Babylonian exile as “y’all,” his message might have been well received.  He told those exiles to get married, have kids, plant gardens and eat, in other words, to settle down. 

But then he took it one step further, saying, “Listen up, y’all, pray for those you hate – even these Babylonians – for in their shalom is your own shalom.”  Shalom means peace, and also wholeness and completeness, and appears anywhere it says “welfare” in this passage. 

This country prophet was saying that the people of Israel wouldn’t know peace and wholeness until they brought peace and wholeness to those they hated.  No wonder he got thrown in a cistern and left there.  He was not very popular.

And then he stirred things up even more.  All of the well-known prophets of their day, like Hananiah and Shemaiah, were saying things like “live your best life now” – God is going to bring you salvation from the Babylonians really, really soon, just you keep separate from unholy people and wait.  All of that self-focused happy-clappy stuff was exactly what the people of Israel wanted to hear (and it’s still quite popular today).  But instead of paying homage to the celebrity prophets of his day, Jeremiah said they were false prophets, and that no one should listen to them, because God did not send them.  

Jeremiah’s message from God was very different, and much more demanding.  Don’t wait for peace to descend like magic, make it right here in the midst of exile.  God will come and bring us back home again, but God doesn’t want us to just sit twiddling our thumbs until then.  God wants us to bless those who curse us.  To pray for those who persecute us (sounds like something a Jesus fellow said later on).   Don’t wait until your life feels perfect and complete to seek the peace of others.  Share shalom with those it is so easy to hate right now, right here, in the midst of tension and bitterness. 

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why the slick-talking false prophets were so popular and why this country boy Jeremiah was not.  It’s the same reason we forget that great Southern staple “y’all” when quoting this passage. 

It’s why we hear a lot of talk about a ‘personal’ relationship with God, and very little about it having to do with our relationship with a stranger in Syria, much less the family member we always seem to argue with.

A personal relationship with God is easy.  It’s much harder to see God as the God of all people: our families and community, yes, but also someone who hurt us very badly in the past, also our government leaders of both parties, also the friend we’ve fallen out with, even extremists in Iran.  It seems impossible to expect us to pray for everyone as if God cares about them as much as us.

And the truth is, on our own, it is impossible, y’all.  Just as impossible as it was for those people of Israel to plant gardens and have grandchildren in a strange land.  We’ve seen this week that there are times when it is impossible for human beings—even from the same homeland—to get along and seek the shalom of everyone. 

It is impossible, if all we ever see is “us” and “them.”  It is impossible, if we think our shalom is more important than anyone else’s.  It is impossible, if we only listen to prophets who speak comfort to us and condemnation to those we disagree with, until we deeply believe that, not only is God with us, but also that God is most certainly against those we despise.  In this line of thinking, shalom is impossible.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.  We can, like Jeremiah, refuse to play the hate game and instead say that we will, even as we are angry and betrayed, pray for those we consider enemies.  We can trust that God is bigger than the ways we divide ourselves in this country and world.  We can reject the easy path to superficial calm for the more difficult one of reconciliation. 

Only when we have taken this risky road of reconciliation can we then truly hear those words of Jeremiah as they were meant to be heard:  that God has plans for us, all of us, plans for “all y’all” that will usher in a hopeful future in place of the harm we cause one another. 

False prophets still say that this future will descend at some point on those worthy enough to share in it.  God doesn’t work that way.  God builds our shared future of hope even now, using us, in the simplest acts of sowing shalom.

Planting a garden.  Teaching our children and grandchildren how to love those they could so easily learn to hate.  Saying a prayer for those we never learned how to love, in the hopes that maybe we will.  Looking a stranger in the eyes.  Listening to someone with whom we disagree without forming our counter-argument.  Rising above retaliation and showing the grace to others that God has already shown us.

This world desperately wants us to play along in the game of hating those who hate us.  It was the same in Jeremiah’s time.  But how about we don’t?  Instead, let’s sow seeds of shalom. 

Let’s gather at a Table and say that, as a worldwide church, we are one in Christ.  Let’s break bread, and then break the patterns of us-versus-them.  Let’s pour juice into a cup, and then pour out our prayers for all whom God has made.     

Thanks be to the God who makes shalom possible, to the Savior who walked the path of peace no matter what it cost and to the Spirit who is bringing a hopeful future even now, amen.