Apologies if you see me squinting at my notes this morning – I went to the optometrist this week who was shocked at the state of my right eye, and promptly sent me on to the eye doctor to sort me out – so for now, as the good book says, we see in part… but I’ll do my level best.
Tell me, a question to start with - are you happy where you live? Where you are right now?
Sounds a bit like an estate agent, who, after selling you your dream home, phones you up 6 months later asking if you’re interested in seeing some more properties for your next move. Hey you just sold me my ‘forever home?’
They know human nature, we’re always on the move.
Not me though, I hang up the phone quickly. I love where I am. Even now recently on Holiday couldn’t wait to get home. There's just something about being at home.
We were fortunate to get away for a couple of days as a family a few weeks ago – lovely mountain spot, camping by the river, family bonding, adventure, making memories, under the stars, you get the picture. Had been looking forward to it for months – booked a year in advance – but sure as eggs, as is normal with these things – I was happy to get home after.
Sleep in my own bed. There’s no place like it. I don’t think I’ve ever had a holiday where at the end I’ve thought to myself, I don’t wanna go home.
What makes a home a home. Is it comfort? Familiarity? Shelter? Security? You might say home is defined be the people, not the place? Takes warm people to make a warm home?
I’ve often commented up here about people in my early Christian years, who showed their care and love for me by opening their home to me. And modelled a Christian lifestyle within that home – not to stuff this Jesus things down my throat, but to softly, in gentleness and hospitality, share a Godly home. A godly home is a powerful testimony indeed.
In terms of worldly homes, I had the best you could dream of. Loving parents, siblings that were, OK'ish I guess – lived my whole life in the same spot – primary school down the road, high school up the road, afternoons hacking up Gill Rowans pristine grass. Ah man, great memories – but that’s not my home anymore. My mom’s still there, but the old girl probably needs to start thinking about downsizing. I now have a new home, with the next generation of the family. Making new memories and new adventures – that’s perfectly ok, sounds like a sad sort of nostalgia thing creeping in, but it’s not - it’s a perfectly normal part of life isn’t it.
Where does this Church fit into this question of home. We just had a good few months laying out what we believe as a church – we really hope that has resonated with you – that the people who have been coming along each week, who maybe view themselves more as temporary visitors, might really want to start regarding this as their home church - a place of spiritual belonging, of shelter, comfort, familiarity, where you understand what we believe, and you know all the people and they all know you.
But this building? This current address - isn’t really that special – this used to be some guys house before if got converted into a youth hall and then made into our main building. Nothing really unique about this current location – hey, there’s another church one block down the road – meets every Sunday, drive past it, and they’re not actually that different to us.
We’ve been here 70 years, but that’s not that long in biblical terms – against a church life of 2000 odd years. Will this building still be here in another 70 years? There’s a good chance that it won’t…
Because we know from scripture that the church’s position here is earth is temporary. Not just this church – St Faiths as well, the millions / billions of believers throughout history.
Heaven is their Home
In faith the church has accepted the calling to an eternity —elsewhere – and they lived out their days in anticipation of that future.
Listen in a bit to how it gets put in Hebrews
The gospel calls us into a new home
One of the things in these times that we live in that most clicks with people today – is that the Gospel offers a home to the lost – rest to the weary, shelter to the vulnerable, an anchor in a stormy life. At least, that what it’s supposed to be doing.
Years ago you could talk to people about their sin – or their fear of hell, or nowadays we have a unchurched people who don’t know or care about such things…. But people who are lost – need to be found – people who are wandering off – still need to be called home.
And here’s where I want us to home in on, if you’ll excuse the lame pun this morning
Those, who have responded to that call – waiting for our heavenly home
How do we live life in exile – WHILE WE WAIT. There’s some great teaching in the New Testament - about living lives of Holiness – about living as Ambassadors for Christ as we live in this foreign land. We hear a lot about storing up treasures for heaven, don’t we – where gold and silver will perish, we should be looking towards eternal things – or rather things that have eternal – lasting, value.
Hebrews 11
13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. 14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
The mighty heroes of faith – from Abel, Abraham , Jacob, Isaac, all the way to Moses, the prophets, they held onto the same truth by faith – that this world was not their home.
They were longing for a better country. A heavenly one. A country, it says that God has prepared for them – no wonder it’s better.
They lived as foreigners and strangers on earth – that old word sojourners. If you were to look at Maurices Identity document, it would say Rhodesia. Should we tell home to go home? No, he would say Rhodesia isn’t my home . he would even say Cape Town Plumstead isn’t really my capital H home.
Heaven is my home.
You heard even last week Neville reference John 14 – Jesus tells his disciples in my fathers house there are many rooms and I am going to prepare a place for you.
A home – remember our definition a place of comfort, shelter, security, surrounded by loved ones and people who love us.
Streets of Gold, sure sure, but more importantly in the presence of our family, of our brothers and sisters, and most importantly in the presence of our Heavenly Father.
Ooh I can’t wait – come Lord Jesus Come, let it happen now. Well, you will have to wait. You don’t know the time or the hour. This is the Christian situation – this is the position – you are…. Waiting. Expecting…longing…and it’s by design. It’s intentional that the bride of Christ, the universal church – is placed here on earth. There is work to do. There is a life to be lived. There is a God to be served and a relationship to bear out.
Are we living…or just waiting, longing for the next stage, kind of wanting this stage to be over? Young people are usually guilty – can’t wait to get out of school – to graduate… to get out of home, to get married. Great to have goals and ambitions – but don’t wish away where you are right now. So desperately longing for something new and fresh and different, that you overlook where you have been placed, and the job that is awaiting you right now.
You know I’ve been up here before with thoughts on my heart that have seemed far more forward motivating – Burn the Ships! And we hired full time worker… Get Up and Go! And people bought houses and quit their jobs.
This is maybe not that kind of message.
For our thinking this morning – lets take a quick glance back to the book of Jeremiah please – 29.
If Jeremiah 29 rings bell, it might be that famous verse 11 For 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.
And we love to pluck that verse out of context and apply to everything we face – claim it for our selves
Is it’s God plan for us to prosper and to be unharmed – with a hope and future – of course it is – the problem is we don’t know what true prosperity looks like – we think its money – we think that thing we want right in front of us.
So lets dive into the story and scratch a little deeper, and you’ll see it’s relevance to this idea of living in exile, longing for home.
Jeremiah 29
A Letter to the Exiles
29 This is the text of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders among the exiles and to the priests, the prophets and all the other people Nebuchadnezzar had carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. 2 (This was after King Jehoiachin[a] and the queen mother, the court officials and the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the skilled workers and the artisans had gone into exile from Jerusalem.) 3 He entrusted the letter to Elasah son of Shaphan and to Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon. It said:
4 This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. 7 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.
OK, so it’s the prophet carrying the words of God himself to the exiles in Babylon. Who are the exiles – well it’s God people – and they’ve been sent out of their homeland (Jerusalem) into a foreign land (Babylon).
And seemingly, they were a people longing for home. The preceding verses suggest they had been there for 70 years. False prophets had been popping up saying – any moment now – your will return to the homeland very soon.
By the way, this picture of exile and longing for return repeats itself over scripture – not unique here. Think of Abraham in Ur – think of Israel from Egypt, the exodus for example. God is known for telling his people to up and leave –and they have been staying there a while? And these guys having been saying all these exciting things … so then, its been a long time, is it time to leave or is it time to stay?
And to them the Lord speaks:
Build your houses…. Settle down…. Plant your Gardens – marry, have families,
In other words – everybody chill – calm down, it’s time to unpack your boxes, yes, you are still my children and that home is waiting for you – but now is not the time for you to move. Put down your roots, I will bless the houses you build, the families you start – you will eat and be provided for by the gardens that you grow.
So nobody do anything – no, that’s not what it says AT ALL.
Here’s a thought – settle down, plant your roots, build your houses, gardens, is that the easier option – has the Lord just instructed them towards the ‘easier path’? I was mulling over this – as I was doing prep at home, listening to my neighbours who are renovating and the drills and grinders going on late into the evening. Not easy building a home you see. Is it easy raising a family, as I received the school fees bill, and covered the 40th book in paper, not just paper, paper and plastic, and not, not even that, preferably recycled plastic…
Planting a garden – that’s the easy fun one, surely…. But then I was out watering my garden, and noted how the grass is dying on my lawn, but thriving on my paving, like why do you grow there, but not there…
And then really to underline it all, Sylvia came bounding into the house on Friday evening with THIS – don’t know if you can see it… we had planted a veggie garden together…. Spent good money on seedlings and compost, and we’ve been watering and waiting for weeks – this, right here and I’m not even exaggerating – this is the sum total of our hard labour – we’ll be feasting for weeks!
This call to settle and ‘stay’, is still a call to hard, diligent, obedient work. Not the easy option at all. We’re not doing nothing while we wait.
I’m in construction, you know how we can often tell how well a construction project is going?
We have these long term civil engineering projects – a road out in the middle of nowhere, and it takes people to go and build that road, people who are going to live there for a good few years.
You want to know how its going – you go and look at the state of their gardens of the family of the temporary workers?
The people who are content - contractors working, living in a foreign area for a period – will settle, will embrace the local life – will plant gardens, will renovate their temporary construction prefabs into something comfortable and beautiful and pleasant and happy and vibrant. Small schools will be started for the families.
Ja, maybe they should spend more time building the darn road and less time gardening? No’ it’s not about that. It’s about accepting where you are, and putting down roots, even though where you are might be temporary…
And now look at verse 7 – which I found especially interesting.
Seek the peace and prosperity of the city I have carried you into exile.
You see how the active person in the sentence has changed – before you had Nebuchadnezzar carrying the people into exile – now, God speaking I have carried you into exile. It wasn’t by chance it - wasn’t outside the providence of God – it is still something He is in control of. The people of God are waiting as foreigners in a foreign land, longing for home, but God is still with them.
These people needed reminding that they had not been forsaken, overlooked. Just because they were in that difficult place, facing challenges, longing to move on, to go home, doesn’t mean they were outside of Gods will.
But then secondly – where you are – seek peace, seek prosperity – increase your numbers. Pray for it, care for it – love the place you seem so intent on leaving.
Even though it’s temporary – even though it’s not your home. Your success, children of Israel in Babylon, is linked to it’s success.
Is there a temptation in your life to be so forward focused, longing for something or somewhere else that you aren’t seeing what God has put right in front of your face?
70 years is a long time, these guys were ready to go, they had seemingly had enough. I read that Babylon was really a hard place for a Israelite to live. This command meant work, it meant discomfort. It meant dealing with the fact that although I would really like to be THERE, God has placed us HERE, for a purpose, for a reason, for a work.
And not only must I be patient. This isn’t a lesson about sitting still and doing nothing and just waiting patiently. You see how it’s way more active than that – get stuck in. Reach out. Contribute to your city, be a good citizen, even if it is just a temporary citizen.
And you can do that all while still being the sojourner and foreigner. You can still build your houses, plant your gardens, raise your families and at the SAME TIME…
Be Holy, be ambassadors of Christ, and investing in eternal treasures. They’re not mutually exclusive at all. But Andrew, we are Gods people, scripture commands as to be set apart – yes, fully agreed, SPIRITUALLY SET APART. But not physically cut off.
I mean, surely, if you are instructed to be this ambassador while you wait in exile, surely, surely the PERFECT WAY to do this, is in the WAY you metaphorically, build your house, plant your garden, certainly the way you raise your family.
It seems to suggest Godly living in community. Not isolation, exclusively removed and separated. Giving heed towards the place you live in now – not just saying, agh, this place stinks, I hate it here, its getting worse every year, there’s nothing I can do about it, I might as well not even bother since this isn’t my home. Let it burn!
No Pray to the Lord for it – pay attention to it. Temporary as it is .
Build your house – Plant your Garden. You might be here a while.
Yes, you are an exile, yes, your eternal home awaits, yes, we LONG for like the Heroes of old – a better country, a better city made by God where my eyes will be fixed and we will see things clearly and plainly. But UNTIL THEN? Where have we been placed – where you are right now – live for Him – do the work so God may bless and prosper (tricky buzzword that) your labour for him. See to it that this life is not empty, but full. Not a barren field, but a beautiful, a well built house. A God honouring garden.