Sermon preached at the ordination of Jonathan and Kristy LaBarge as Teaching Elders in the Presbyterian Church (USA). Ojai, California, October 15, 2011.

Jeremiah 32 (ESV)

1The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. 2At that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the guard that was in the palace of the king of Judah. 3For Zedekiah king of Judah had imprisoned him, saying, “Why do you prophesy and say, ‘Thus says the LORD: Behold, I am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall capture it; 4 Zedekiah king of Judah shall not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but shall surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him face to face and see him eye to eye. 5And he shall take Zedekiah to Babylon, and there he shall remain until I visit him, declares the LORD. Though you fight against the Chaldeans, you shall not succeed’?”

6Jeremiah said, “The word of the LORD came to me: 7Behold, Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle will come to you and say, ‘Buy my field that is at Anathoth, for the right of redemption by purchase is yours.’ 8Then Hanamel my cousin came to me in the court of the guard, in accordance with the word of the LORD, and said to me, ‘Buy my field that is at Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, for the right of possession and redemption is yours; buy it for yourself.’ Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD.

9“And I bought the field at Anathoth from Hanamel my cousin, and weighed out the money to him, seventeen shekels of silver. 10 I signed the deed, sealed it, got witnesses, and weighed the money on scales. 11Then I took the sealed deed of purchase, containing the terms and conditions and the open copy. 12And I gave the deed of purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah son of Mahseiah, in the presence of Hanamel my cousin, in the presence of the witnesses who signed the deed of purchase, and in the presence of all the Judeans who were sitting in the court of the guard. 13I charged Baruch in their presence, saying, 14‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, both this sealed deed of purchase and this open deed, and put them in an earthenware vessel, that they may last for a long time. 15For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.’

At that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the guard that was in the palace of the king of Judah.

It was late in time. The horizon was a dusty brown, and not just from the dry winds blowing across the eastern desert. The Babylonians were on the march, Jerusalem under siege. Even so, many thought the City of God would never fall, could never fall. The king, however, had put his trust in a shaky alliance with the Egyptians, hoping to break the back of the invading horde.

The prophet Jeremiah thought that neither the assumption of divine protection nor the force of Pharaoh’s arm would be enough to withstand the unrelenting onslaught. In fact, he took the sure destruction of the city to be a sign of divine wrath. The God who could save the city would not save the city. He further predicted that the king would be taken captive by the Babylonians.

So Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the guard. He was in jail and his crime was telling the truth, God’s truth. Zedekiah, the vassal king of Judah, did not want to hear Jeremiah’s truth. He had bet everything, his life and his country, on Pharaoh’s promise of help. It would prove to be a fateful bet.

But life limped on as life tends to do, and while he was in jail,  Jeremiah’s cousin Hanamel came to visit him with some ordinary business that seemed somehow wildly out of place in such extraordinary times.  Hanamel needed to sell some land, the field that was at Anathoth.  Anathoth was only three or four miles outside the city walls.  Maybe Hanamel’s finances were a mess, or perhaps the Babylonians, orc-like, were camped on the field at Anathoth. The text doesn’t say.  Jeremiah was the nearest relative and as such had the right of first refusal on the possible purchase.  In fact, Hanamel was obligated to make the offer to Jeremiah, as absurd as buying a piece of land might seem for someone locked up in jail for prophesying the fall of the holy city and the capture of the king.

But Jeremiah knew that as surely as the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, was a God of justice and wrath, he was also a God of mercy and grace. The God who with a strong arm and an outstretched hand had delivered the people out of Egypt and the house of slavery is a God who is ever doing a new thing.

So Jeremiah bought the field at Anathoth.

14‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, both this sealed deed of purchase and this open deed, and put them in an earthenware vessel, that they may last for a long time. 15For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.’

Not only would houses and fields and vineyards again be bought in the land, but life would return, not with a limp but in joyous dance,  10“Thus says the LORD: In this place of which you say, ‘It is a waste without man or beast,’ in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate, without man or inhabitant or beast, there shall be heard again 11 the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voices of those who sing, as they bring thank offerings to the house of the LORD:  ‘Give thanks to the LORD of hosts, for the LORD is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!’”

Jeremiah was counting on something you cannot see.

The case might be made, and persuasively so, that at best the North American church limps along. Wounded by self-inflicted scandal, dismissed by rampant materialism, scoffed by secularism and ignored by most in a post-Christian culture, our future appears dim. Our numbers are down, our average age is up, our resources are thin. We are taken captive by the politics of the right and the left or we imprison ourselves behind thick sanctuary walls hoping that they will hold against the siege of enemies real or imagined. We wonder if there is some Egyptian somewhere with whom we might make an alliance.  Such alliances prove disastrous.

And then cousin Hanamel comes along with an offer that conventional wisdom says we’d be wise to refuse. There is a piece of land not far from the city that might make for a good vineyard, a fruitful olive grove or a fine almond orchard.  It is ours to buy should we choose to do so. Such foolishness. Doesn’t Hanamel see the brown haze on the horizon? Hasn’t he read the headlines, hasn’t he seen the bare shelves in the market and the panic on the faces of the people? It is late in time; no time to buy the field at Anathoth.

Jonathan and Kristy come before us today seeking ordination as teaching elders in the Presbyterian Church (USA). A prestigious seminary has conferred degrees upon them. They have been supervised in field education by wise and wonderful journeymen pastors. The proper committees of two presbyteries have approved their credentials and they have been examined on the floor of presbytery. They’ve decided they’d like to buy into the system, take the option on the field at Anathoth.

But the church is under siege, the vineyard likely to be trampled by invading armies. Jonathan and Kristy, do you know what you are doing? Do you realize how foolhardy your decision to be ordained seems to those of us with sound minds? There’s no money to be make in ministry, that’s for sure. We North American Christians have forged disastrous alliances with the culture and the banks are ready to foreclose on our future. Wise people are fleeing our denomination and only the poor of the land – or those too old or too foolish to run – remain. Are you sure you want to invest your bright futures, your incredible talents, your many gifts in this field at Anathoth?

Jonathan and Kristy are young and gullible. Shouldn’t their parents have said something? Ellen, why didn’t you warn them?  Okay, so should have I. Should not the presbytery of Santa Barbara for honesty’s sake and maybe moved by compassion have refused to go along with all this?  So we give you a deed for the land only to have grapevines and olive trees trampled orc-like by the invading swarm.

Why in the world did Jeremiah buy the field at Anathoth in 587 B.C.? 15For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.’

Not only would houses and fields and vineyards again be bought in the land, but life would return, not with a limp but in joyous dance,  10“Thus says the LORD: In this place of which you say, ‘It is a waste without man or beast,’ in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate, without man or inhabitant or beast, there shall be heard again 11 the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voices of those who sing, as they bring thank offerings to the house of the LORD:  ‘Give thanks to the LORD of hosts, for the LORD is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!’”

I have about as much faith in the long-term institutional survival of the Presbyterian Church (USA) as Jeremiah had in the long-term survival of the Judean monarchy. But ordination is not admission to institutional office or simply access to the pension plan.  It is not the right to add a “rev” to your name, and certainly not a reason to lord anything over anyone else.  You have nothing to lord over.

Our Form of Government, old and new FOGs both, call ordination a “setting apart” for service.  That works for me. But might our text from the prophet suggest that this ordination of Kristy and Jonathan at this time in this place is a gamble, a risk, a bet against all odds? We may play with the metaphor however we wish. Jonathan and Kristy are buying into this doomed system, against all odds; Jeremiah buys the field at Anathoth, a field upon which the siege army was likely to camp.

Or maybe we shout think of Jonathan and Kristy as seedling grape vines or a shoots from a olive tree or almond branches that the Presbytery of Santa Barbara is planting in what appears to be a field doomed to destruction; Jeremiah buys the field at Anathoth, a field where no vineyard, orchard or grove is likely to survive, let alone prosper.

So why does Jeremiah buy the field at Anathoth?  Because God told him to, and he told him to with a promise.  10“Thus says the LORD: In this place of which you say, ‘It is a waste without man or beast,’ in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate, without man or inhabitant or beast, there shall be heard again 11 the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voices of those who sing, as they bring thank offerings to the house of the LORD:  ‘Give thanks to the LORD of hosts, for the LORD is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!’”

And why do we dare ordain Jonathan and Kristy, why do they risk this call into ministry?  Because it is of God.  It is of the God who promised Jeremiah something new for the cities of Judah.  The God who promises and all of whose promises find their Yes in Jesus Christ. I, for one, am willing to wager that where Jonathan and Kristy faithfully serve there will be heard the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voices of those who sing, as they bring thank offerings to the house of the LORD:  ‘Give thanks to the LORD of hosts, for the LORD is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!’” Why do we ordain Kristy and Jonathan?  Because the Lord is good.

Oh, and Kristy and Jonathan, be prepared, too, to spend some time shut up in the court of the guard in the palace of the of some vassal king.  He won’t always be happy with what you are doing.  But even there you need not limp, but may dance with joy.

Jeremiah told Baruch to store the deeds to the field at Anathoth in an earthenware vessel that they may last a long time.  May what we do here today last for a long time.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.