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HOPEFUL INVESTMENTS
Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15; I Timothy 6:6-19; Luke 16:19-31
Each of our passages this morning says something about where
we invest ourselves. They ask the question, what are worthwhile
investments, investments that last, that are meaningful. In one
way or another each passage has something to say about our
possessions, our money, our wealth. In each case they tell us
what really matters when it comes to those things.
Take the first case concerning the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah is
told by the Lord to buy a field at Anathoth from his cousin
Hanamel. This was in order to keep the land in the family, since
if a man needed to sell property, a relative had the right, and
perhaps obligation to buy it. So Jeremiah weighs out seventeen
shekels of silver, signs the deed, seals it, gets witnesses, and
weighs the money on the scales.
He takes the sealed deed of purchase, containing the terms and
conditions, and the open copy, and gives that deed to Baruch, his
secretary, in the presence of the witnesses who sign the deed of
purchase, and in the presence of all of the Judean countrymen
sitting in the court of the guard. He then charges Baruch to take
the sealed deed of purchase and the open deed and put them in
an earthenware jar, so that they may last, he says, for a long time.
It would be nothing more than a land deal, following the
legalities of the day, except for one thing--Anathoth is now in
enemy hands. The Babylonians had come to take the people of
Judea away into captivity, the land lay in ruins. The people had
embraced the warring ways of their neighbors rather than
depend upon the ways of their God and were suffering the
consequences. Jeremiah was investing in a place whose worst
days were ahead of them, whose land was seemingly worthless.
But the prophet is investing in something besides land. Says the
Lord, “Buy the land, for houses and fields and vineyards shall
again be bought in this land.” To put it another way, Jeremiah is
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investing in hope. There’s no reason this is a good investment
except for the fact that it is an investment in the promises of God,
that one day, war and destruction will not be the order of the day.
One day, people will gather in peace, and build, and hope.
The story reminds me of German theologian Dietrich
Bonhoeffer, sitting in a jail cell, as Jeremiah had been, facing
death because of his opposition to Hitler. He wrote his fiancée,
and even in the darkness of the world situation of 1943, he saw
their loving union as a sign of God’s grace and kindness, a yes to
God’s earth, as he put it, exhibiting courage to act and to
accomplish something on earth.
It reminds me of Mariane Pearl, wife of Daniel Pearl who was a
Wall Street Journal bureau chief kidnapped and murdered in
Pakistan months after 9/11 because, said his murderers, he was
Jewish. His wife gave birth to their son three months after his
death. She named the baby Adam, because, as she put it, "For
us, Adam's birth rekindles the joy, love, and humanity that
Danny radiated wherever he went. The name Adam symbolizes
the birth of humankind and the connectedness of civilizations."
When Jeremiah buys that land, he invests in the hope that God
has forgiven his sinful and failing people and has given them yet
another chance, a chance to avoid the ways of hatred and
destruction that had destroyed their land.
When you and I hope, it’s more than just a vague wish for things
to be better. Hope is an investment of everything we are into
something we do not see, and which the world refuses to believe
can ever be, a peaceful world in which none of God’s children
suffer anymore. Do we see it? Surely not. But, we can hope for
it. And if we hope for it, then, against all that we see in our
present world, we can invest in it, pour our energy into it, even
give of our means to bring it about.
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One way we invest in hope of God’s promises is as we invest in
what we call “the soul.” We don’t hear much talk about the soul
anymore. Modern psychology tends not to speak of it. The soul
is the deepest self, it is what Jesus calls our life, our truest being.
It was in our second passage today that we heard the familiar
saying, “The love of money is the root of all evil.” Many quickly
want to point out that the words do not say, “Money is the root of
all evil,” rather, “the love of money is the root of all evil.”
What we fail to point out is that money is so easy to love. It can
consume our entire beings, whether we are rich or poor. It can
destroy our families, it can become an excuse to ignore the needs
around us, become the means to step on other people.
But, our passage is equally clear that money can be given, it can
be used for good purposes, it can make for positive legacies for
the next generation. What it can’t be is loved--people are loved,
the earth is loved, God is loved—not money.
So many believe if we have more that that is what will make us
into something, or somebody. Who are we, really? Are we what
we make? Are we what we possess? “We brought nothing into
the world,” says the passage, “and we’ll take nothing out of it.
Those who are eager to be rich pierce themselves with many
pains.” To love possessions more than anything, to have to have
more, it’s not just sinful, it’s destructive. We lose our souls.
Says the writer, “Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love,
endurance, gentleness.” Gentleness—nothing is more opposed to
our present climate than gentleness. But, these are investments
that never disappoint, that always reward, that are eternal. To
gain the whole world, and to lose one’s eternal soul, says Jesus,
what is the profit in that. But to save one’s soul, that is the most
worthwhile investment.
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To invest in hope for our world; we invest in our souls; and
finally, as our gospel reading points out in a most obvious
manner, a hopeful investment is found in how we invest in
others. I say obvious. Apparently, to the rich man of the story
Jesus tells, dressed in purple and fine linen who feasted
sumptuously every day, that other poor person outside the gate
was anything but obvious. Lazarus lay right there at the rich
man’s gate every day, hungry and unclothed and destitute, but
the man seems never to have seen him.
Both men die: the rich man finds himself in eternal torment and
Lazarus is resting next to father Abraham in comfort. And the
man looks, this time not across a gate, but across a much greater
divide which cannot be crossed, and for the first time sees the
man that was on the other side of the gate and cries to Abraham,
“Send Lazarus to bring me just a drop of water” much as Lazarus
had hope for just a drop of food from the man’s table. Send
Lazarus—to me, though I never went to him.
He knew his name--he knew Lazarus’ name, just as we know the
name of the neighbor at our gate. Do we see that person’s value,
not just to us, but as a child of God? Do we see that person as a
worthwhile investment, who maybe by reason of circumstance,
maybe by choice, has been set aside by a society that treats the
poor as an inconvenience, the difficult as criminals, whose
approach to what doesn’t work is to imprison them, isolate them,
blame them, or just ignore them, not help them, not heal them.
Who knows, maybe they are part of that hopeful investment that
we are called to make. Maybe the one nearest to us is the one in
whom we are to invest our lives. Maybe, the wisest and best
investment we can make lies just on the other side of the gate.
------------------When we looked at these passages once Sally reminded me of a
couple in seminary who were deeply involved in what was then
called the peacemaking movement (maybe it still is). The
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superpowers seemed bent on destroying each other and
themselves just to prove who was stronger, who was better.
Steve and Diane believed it was wrong to bring a child into a
world so committed to senseless violence.
So, it came as quite a surprise when we heard that Steve and
Diane were going to have a child. Now, every birth is significant,
to be sure, but this is one that invited our attention. We were
told that they had approached this thoughtfully, and ultimately
hopefully, that they had come to believe that despite the ways of
war and violence we see in the present, it is God’s future, God’s
promises, that ultimately would be what would last, what would
prevail—not the military might of any nation. And so they
named their child Hope. They invested in hope.
What do we seek in life? Where do we invest? Where do we
devote our deepest selves? Where do we find our identity? Is life
about making a life and not just a living? Does the neighbor near
at hand draw our compassionate attention? Does a manner of life
lived gently, seeking peace, call forth our truest selves?
It’s interesting that our writer suggests that what we do here in
this place goes a long way toward answering that question—
offering the good confession, as did Jesus, confessing that there
is that which is eternal, offering worship to the King of kings and
Lord of lords, to whom alone is to be given honor and worship.
It is this offering of praise to something greater than wealth,
greater than any nation, greater than any cause, greater than any
hard held opinion, that defines us, that tells the world who we
are in our deepest selves. It is the word of Jeremiah, the word of
Jesus, the word of the Apostle, the word of all who find faith in
this place--We belong to God, and in God we place our hope.
William H. Berger
Historic Franklin Presbyterian Church
September 29, 2013
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