A Future With Hope

Jeremiah 29:11-13

January 10, 2016 • Mount Pleasant UMC

Every time we have moved, there has been an underlying question: how long are you going to stay? In my first appointment as a solo pastor, we were in a meeting just a couple of months after we had arrived, and someone said, “Well, when Pastor Ticen is gone…” Two months in and they were already planning for my departure! Maybe that should have told me something? Actually, that had little to do with me, though, and more to do with their experience in the United Methodist appointment system. They had rarely had a pastor for very long. Nor had my last appointment before coming here, and yet we stayed eight years in one place and ten years in the other. It takes some work, but I always try to reassure folks that I’m not looking to or planning to move. And, in the case of moving to Terre Haute, I keep saying this: we’ve bought a house. We’ve settled in. We’re not planning to go anywhere. Besides, Rachel has given me strict instructions to tell the Bishop that she is not moving again!

Any time there is a move, for any of us, a choice has to be made: will we settle in or will we be anticipating the next move? We have some friends who have moved several times and have never really settled in. Each time they moved in to a new home, they were always planning the next move, to get back to where they wanted to be. Or where they thought they wanted to be. The dream was always out there, somewhere else, in the future sometime. I guess I understand that to a certain extent, but I prefer the attitude of Jeremiah, the Old Testament prophet who spoke to those who had been forcibly removed from their home and taken eight hundred miles away to a new city. Jeremiah tells them, quite bluntly, that their future hope is tied up with the place they were living. So settle down, he says, and work for the prosperity of the place where you are.

We’re spending these first couple of weeks in this new year thinking and praying and dreaming about God’s vision for Mount Pleasant Church, seeking to be in the midst of his vision for us. And so last week, we began by renewing our covenant, our relationship with God, so that this week we can look at what, I believe, God is calling us to in these next few years. But to get a sense of that, I want to go back to the book of Jeremiah, to the letter he wrote to the exiles of the nation of Judah, because even though these words were written centuries ago, Jeremiah has an important word for us today, here in this place, a word to guide us in days to come. That word is this: hope.

Jeremiah, as we talked about last week, was preaching in a time of great upheaval, great turbulence. The people had been disobedient to God for a long time, and even though God had sent prophets to warn them, the people had not believed that anything bad would really happen to them. So, finally, God was going to send them into exile, Jeremiah said. He had the unenviable and sad task of being a prophet who not only promised that exile, but had to live through it as well. In 587 BC, Judah’s status as a nation ended. They were conquered by Babylon and the people were taken captive, exiled eight hundred miles across the Middle Eastern desert, forced to live in a strange land with strange customs and a strange language. The landmarks were different. The food was different. The weather was different. They didn’t know anyone anymore (Peterson, Run With the Horses, pg. 147). And while other people are living in their houses back in Judah, they are forced to live as strangers in a strange land.

Exile might best be defined as being separated from home, living where we don’t want to live. And while we may have a sense of how awful that might be, we can’t really get a good sense of how the Jews viewed it until we turn over to Psalm 137, a psalm of exile. Psalm 137 is one most people only have a passing acquaintance with, and it’s not one that many people have memorized. It starts out beautifully enough: “By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion” (137:1). It tells of people asking them for songs, and the people ask, “How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land?” (137:4). You get a sense that they are longing for home, but you don’t understand how much exile is hated until you get to the end of the psalm. This is the part that most people don’t read. This “song of praise” ends this way: “Daughter Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy is the one who repays you according to what you have done to us. Happy is the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks” (137:8-9). Remember, the psalms were the worship book of the people of Israel. Can you imagine John leading us in a song that ends like that? But that psalm does two things for us. First of all, it reminds us that there is no feeling, no emotion, no gut-level reaction that we can’t bring to God. And second, it reminds us that all of life is lived in God’s presence. The Jews, when they wanted to preserve a record of their life with God, even included this psalm so that they would never forget what it meant to be in exile.

Now, picture yourself in that setting and along come prophets who tell you, “Hey, don’t get comfortable. We’re going to be going back to the promised land, probably before harvest time! We don’t deserve such a life, and remember God said he would never forget his people. So don’t bother finding a home, making a garden, getting married or getting involved in politics. It won’t be long before we’re headed back home!” That’s what the people were hearing. That’s what they were choosing to listen to—because that’s what they wanted to hear! No one wants to be in exile, and we’ll grab onto anyone who can promise that it will be short. A few months? We can endure that. Besides, these prophets were giving the people what Eugene Peterson calls a “religious reason to be lazy,” and who doesn’t love that? If these preachers say it’s okay to not do anything, then it must be okay (cf. Peterson 150).

Then, one day, this letter arrives from Jeremiah. They remember Jeremiah. He was the “doom and gloom” prophet back in Jerusalem. He’s still back in Jerusalem because he wasn’t considered worth enough to exile; the conquerors left him behind. And Jeremiah says exactly the opposite of what these “health and wealth” preachers were saying. Jeremiah tells the people, “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper” (29:5-7). Don’t listen to these false prophets, Jeremiah says. You’re going to be there a long time. In fact, he says it directly: this exile will last seventy years (29:10). Seventy years! Can you imagine the people doing the math? I’m 48 years old…in seventy years, I’ll be 118. Most likely, I’ll be pushing up grass. So what Jeremiah’s message really means is that I’ll never see the end of exile. My children and grandchildren will, but not me (cf. Guest, Communicator’s Commentary: Jeremiah, pg. 209). How would that make the average person feel?

So reconcile that with the word we heard in the verses we read this morning, verses that are often yanked out of this context. “I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (29:11). That phrase at the end really would be betters translated as “a hopeful end.” In other words: the worst thing (exile) is not the last thing. God is not done with the people, and even though I may not see the end of exile myself, God is still working, moving, and he will, as verse 14 says, bring them home from exile. This calls the people to have a long view (cf. Goldingay, Jeremiah for Everyone, pg. 145). It’s not just about them, or even just about their generation. It’s about a hopeful end, a future with hope. It’s about God, who is larger than all of them. They may not see it, but the worst thing is never the last thing and God will bring them home.

So the long view involves settling down, getting acquainted with Babylon, the place of exile. Settle down and build houses: you are not camping. Make a home for yourself. Plant gardens and eat their produce: enter into the rhythm of the seasons and stop mooching off your neighbors. Be productive. Take wives and have sons and daughters: these people you are living among are not somehow lesser than you. They are loved by God as well. Seek the welfare of the city and pray for it. “Welfare” here is the Hebrew word shalom, which is often translated as peace, but in reality means “wholeness,” a community that vibrates with divine purpose. Shalom is the prayer for the world and the people in it to be the way God intended them to be (cf. Peterson 151-152). Pray for the shalom of the city in which you live, for this is your home and when it prospers, you prosper. This is Jeremiah’s instruction and direction for the people to find a future with hope, a hopeful end. This is the point of the exile after all: to shape a people who are ready for what God has in mind next.

And isn’t that what God has been doing here at Mount Pleasant as well? Because we have been in exile, you know. Some of us, including myself, have only known worship in this place, this gym. But there are a lot of the rest of you who remember what it was like to worship in the sanctuary, and you have been in an exile of sorts. I’ve heard the stories. I’ve heard the longings, the hopes and dreams. The stories have gotten louder as we get closer to moving back to the sanctuary for worship—77 days from now. But I’ve heard others among us say that the church has been in a sort of spiritual exile as well, perhaps having gotten comfortable and set in our ways. The move down here shook all that up. And the question that has been asked, in several settings, is this: the new building will be ready on Easter. But are we ready? As much as we are anticipating being back in the sanctuary, the end of our “exile” (which may have seemed like seventy years but has been much shorter), are we ready, prepared as a people to embrace what God has for us in the days ahead? Has exile done its work in us?

God has in mind for us a “hopeful end,” a future with hope. I believe that with everything in me. Mount Pleasant Church has been here for over 180 years, and I don’t believe God is done with us yet. But I do believe God is expecting more from us. If all we do is move back in the sanctuary, settle back and get comfortable, will we have learned anything or been shaped in any way from this exile? I’ve said from the time I came here six months ago that it’s important for us to remember one thing about the building: it’s only a tool. The mission of Mount Pleasant Church is not to build a building. The mission is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. The building is a tool God has blessed us with to be able to do that. So how, then, is God calling us to move ahead in this new year?

I shared some of this with those who came to the leadership training on Thursday evening, so I apologize for those for whom it’s a repeat, but actually we’re all going to continue to hear a lot about mission and vision, especially as we get closer to the building opening. I figure that if you get to the point where you’re tired of hearing about mission, then I’m actually doing my job! For a good part of last year, I was involved in an annual conference program known as “Called to Fruitfulness,” a series of retreats that were meant to equip for the future those of us who have been ordained for a number of years. And, as a part of that process, we were asked to develop a ministry plan that looks down the road to 2020. I’ve called mine, not all that cleverly, 20/20 Vision, and it includes several things that, as I’ve prayed and thought through it, I believe God is calling us to accomplish at Mount Pleasant. As we think about a future with hope, as we prepare to end our worship exile, we must stay focused on the ministry we’re called to do in Terre Haute and Vigo County. So, here are a few of the hopes, dreams and goals I believe God has laid before us in this year and the years to come.

If our mission is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world (and it is—in fact, I’m going to keep saying that until everyone here can repeat it with me), then our first priority is to reach people for Jesus. Over the next 5 years, I believe we can reach at least 100 new people for Jesus, helping them take the first step on the journey of faith. That’s only twenty a year; it’s really a low goal, but it’s a start. (There’s nothing that says we can’t exceed these goals. We don’t just stop when we have reached 100 people.) We have a tremendous resource in the Revive Wabash Valley experience—training and experiences sharing our faith that can be beneficial not only to the church and the community, but to our own faith journey as well. There will be several opportunities throughout this year to participate in faith-sharing exercises.

But making disciples is not just about making converts to Jesus. Once a person decides to follow Jesus, they need to be connected to a body, a family, that will help them grow. Just as you wouldn’t leave a baby out in the world all by himself and say, “Okay, grow up on your own,” those who are new in Christ shouldn’t be left alone. So two other goals have to do with helping people grow in Jesus. For one, we want to grow our worship attendance by at least 20% over the next five years. Again, that’s a low goal but I’m trying to make these goals easy to remember. 20/20, 20%…get it? As we connect people with Jesus, we also need to connect them with a place to worship, to be filled up with God’s Spirit and to learn from the Scriptures. There are a lot of places here in Terre Haute to do that, of course—I just happen to believe we have the best place to connect! So we seek to help people become part of a worshipping community and see our family grow. I don’t believe any church is called to stagnation; something that is alive is growing and if it’s not growing, it’s dying. And while numbers don’t tell the whole story, they do tell part of it. Our numbers say we’ve been holding at a plateau for a number of years now. Turning that around will take us inviting people to come with us, to experience worship in this place.

In addition to that, we are working on a more effective method of connecting people to small groups so that they can become a part of a church family rather than just someone who comes on Sunday mornings. In a church our size—and we are one of the largest churches in the Annual Conference—the key is when people get involved in small groups, whether that is a LifeGroup or another Bible study, a Sunday School class, a mission team, the choir and praise team, or some other form of small group. People connecting with people who then together do life together and help each other be connected to God. Our calling is summed up in four words that I also hope you’ll get sick of hearing me say: embrace, worship, grow and serve. And different folks will jump in a different places, which is why I prefer to depict the journey as a circle. The important part is not where people jump in but that they get connected and begin to grow as a disciple of Jesus Christ. That, then, will result in the transformation of the world—beginning in Terre Haute and continuing outward.

Because that’s the word Jeremiah had for the people there and it’s still the word God has for us: bless the place where you live. Start there. Seek the peace and prosperity of the place where God has planted you. God has placed us all here in Terre Haute, and this is the place where we live and want to be a blessing. Because when this place prospers, when this place experiences peace, we all do. And so, toward that end, we have a few other goals to pursue in the next few years.

We want to develop new leaders for our church and for the United Methodist Church, and specifically we need to target those who are under 50 years old. Though there is not a lot of talk about it, the United Methodist Church has done a poor job of this. The average age of people in our pews and seats is 57, and so the traditional method of church growth in our denomination—having babies—isn’t working so well. Most people at 57 are not having any more babies. I’m 48, and we’re not having any more babies! Some have described us as a graying denomination, and even our clergy are older. The average age for clergy is 53, but more than 50% of our clergy are between 55 and 72. When retirement hits for that age group, we’re going to be in an even larger leadership crisis than we are now. Young clergy, under age 35, make up only 5% of all of our pastors. Leadership in the local churches tends to reflect that trend, and so over the next few years, we’re going to try to turn that around at least here at Mount Pleasant. If we don’t train new leadership, we’ll end up with a gap at some point in the near future. If we don’t invite young people to consider ministry as a career, we’ll find ourselves without pastors for churches.

Over the past few months, we’ve had a group of twelve people of all ages involved with the leadership training that the Annual Conference does through the Fruitful Congregation Journey. The training is already sparking a lot of creativity, and the hope is that their energy and enthusiasm will then result in their training new leaders here, which then results in that next generation training new leaders, and—well, you get the idea. This church has a proud history of sending pastors into congregations. Everywhere I go, I run into pastors who came out of Mount Pleasant. It’s a great feeling, to know how many are serving Jesus because of their experience here, and this is a tradition we need to continue. But we can and must also increase our efforts to develop leaders in the local church, for the transformation of the world.

And then, another part of reaching out is learning to better care for one another. We have a tremendous team of people who go out every week to visit with the shut-ins and those in the nursing homes. They take communion and sermon CDs and pray with folks—to be honest, I’ve never seen such a great group of folks caring for those who aren’t able to be a regular part of the worshipping community. It’s a strength we can build on. Do you know why many churches only grow to 50 or 100 people? Because, according to all the research, that’s about all one pastor can adequately care for by him- or herself. We are blessed to have Pastor Rick taking the bulk of pastoral care on himself, but he can only do so much as one person. He’s an amazing person, but he’s only one person. So some of our energy will be spent developing congregational care teams who can not replace but expand the ministry of your pastors. So often Pastor Rick or I are in the midst of the crisis and it’s hard to provide the ongoing care that is needed. Part of that “future with hope” will come, I think, as we better care for those God has entrusted to this church.

Of course, transformation of the world includes—well, the world. To that end, we will continue to engage in intentional, short-term missions to places like Costa Rica, Guatemala and other places of need. We will continue to support and keep close to our missionaries like Jessie Oliver in Costa Rica and, soon, the Wheatons in Chile. We will have an “812” Mission Experience this summer, right here in Terre Haute as youth and adults together engage in projects around neighborhoods of need; you can see Jess to sign up for that great opportunity. And we’ll continue to seek out new ways to engage in the transformation of neighborhoods, cities, towns, states and nations. Mount Pleasant has long had a worldwide vision, and anything less than that is too small a vision for us.

Of course, to continue to grow in our ministry and mission, we need to continue to be disciplined in our giving. A modest 20/20 goal for our giving would be to increase our overall giving by 20% over the next five years, meeting our budgets annually and being able to support mission projects around the world. It should always be the goal of God’s people to become a tithing community, and, more than that, to give joyfully, because “God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7). We remember the Scriptural principle: “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously” (2 Corinthians 9:6). We also believe, with the Apostle Paul, that “God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:8). Not having all that you want, but all that you need. God is faithful and he will not forsake us. We may have to adjust what we think our needs are, but he will never forsake us (cf. Psalm 37:25). He will, however, continue to call us all to greater faithfulness toward him.

So those are the goals, the dreams for this church. Some are easily attainable, and some will stretch us. All of these goals will move us down the road toward making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world, and they will also transform us as we pursue them. It’s an exciting time to be people of faith. A spiritual writer from another generation, Francois Fenelon, used to say there are two kinds of people: those who look at life and complain about what is not there, and those who look at life and rejoice in what is there (qtd. in Peterson 154). Which one will you be in this new year? Our faith will be stretched, no doubt about it, as it has been during these years of exile. But it does us no good to complain about what is not there. We must take what God has given us and move forward in faith. We cannot become complacent even as we see one big goal, the completion of the sanctuary, nearing completion. You see, I don’t think Jeremiah intended the people to settle down without making an impact. He didn’t intend them to settle down and just become Babylonians. He wanted them to embrace the city without becoming absorbed into it (Peterson 155). They were going to be there seventy years—what an opportunity to make a change in the Babylonian society! Jeremiah wanted the people to pray and get involved so that they could change the world they lived in. They were being shaped while in Babylon. As one author put it, they thought they were hanging on by the skin of their teeth when really they were being pushed to the center, the place where God was (Peterson 155). Perhaps the same thing has happened here as well.

Jeremiah says to them and to us, “Don’t get comfortable, but get connected and seek the transformation of the world.” It’s only as that transformation happens that we will see a real future with hope. Can we see that sort of change happen here? Can we be shaped into people who make a lasting difference in the places we live, work and worship? We are called to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world, and to that end, let’s pray this morning and all year long.