Community Church Sermons

Year C

October 13, 2013

Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost

Living in Exile

Jeremiah 29:1, 4-11

Rev. Martin C. Singley, III

Senior Pastor

How do you say, “Saligugi?” Or is it “Sali-googy?” And what about “Kanoonoo,” or “Unutsi,” or “Coyatee” – or is is it “Coy-ah-tee” – or is it “Coyote?”

Living in or near Tellico Village requires you to gain at least a working knowledge of the language of the Cherokee people who first settled this area. Of course, their rather challenging language was built upon the Cherokee alphabet created by a fellow by the name of – ? – Sequoyah – who was also known as George Gist – or is it “Jist?” George was born just down the street from here in an area broadly known as Toqua which means “lots of fish” or simply, “the fish place.”

But for however badly we struggle to pronounce the Cherokee language, we all come to revere the story of the Cherokee people - a proud hard-working community of families who lived here in these parts long before any of us were born. Life was good for the Cherokee people – until the year 1830. That was when the government of these United States passed “The Indian Removal Act” bringing about the forced removal of what had been known as “the five civilized tribes” – the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, Seminole and Cherokee. These native peoples were forcibly taken from their lands and marched to relocation camps in Oklahoma. Many died along the way. Of the 16,542 Cherokee removed from Tennessee and North Carolina, it is estimated that as many as 6,000 perished. And so this dark and heartbreaking journey came to be known as “the Trail of Tears.”

I think it would be safe to say that none of us here today can possibly fathom what it is like to be forcibly taken from your native land and sent into exile in a strange and foreign place. And yet it happens in our world. It happened to our spiritual ancestors, the Jews.

In 597 B.C. the powerful Babylonians swept into Judah and laid siege to Jerusalem. Three months later the battle was over and many of the people were taken away – forcibly marched along their own version of the trail of tears - to Babylon where they lived in exile for the next half-century.

Now we may not be able to get our minds around tragic geo-political relocations like this, but we do experience times like these in our personal lives. Life is going along okay, but all of a sudden something happens and our little world is turned upside down.

It happened to one of our family members who came home one day to discover that his wife did not want to be married anymore. The divorce was messy and terribly painful. It resulted in the loss of so many good things and the creation of so many bad things. It was a trail of tears for all concerned.

It happened to one of our church members who went in for a routine medical check and came out with a diagnosis of cancer. Now there’s chemotherapy and radiation out ahead, and of course that lingering thought that cannot be put away – that the outcome might be death. A trail of tears no one wants to walk down.

All around us people take that journey along the trail of tears into a land of exile not of their choosing. A child has a problem you can’t fix, an investment goes bad and your nest egg is gone, the joy of retirement becomes tinged by the creaky joints and pains of advancing age, your life-partner of 50 or more years passes away and you are suddenly alone.

Now, I wish I could tell you that Christianity offers you a special insurance policy against these things happening – that if you pray this way, believe that way, or act another way you will find God’s special path that turns trails of tears into trails of joy – or better yet, keeps the tears away in the first place.

But I can’t tell you that. Our faith – and our Bible – don’t gloss over the harsh places of life. They reveal to us that life is not a bed of roses – that bad things DO happen in life – and that no matter how hard you try, you can’t immunize yourself against problems. And not only that, but there are some things in life that you can’t change.

I’ll always treasure the wisdom of my friend Linda who once told me something very profound about this fact – that there are some problems you can’t reverse. A car accident had left Linda paralyzed from the waist down. At first, she said, her problem was just accepting the fact that she was paralyzed, and she was determined to work through it to complete recovery. But it got harder for her when over time she realized the paralysis was not going to go away. “Knowing I was paralyzed was not the worst part of it,” she said. “The worst part was realizing that I would be paralyzed FOR LIFE!”

We should always pray that people who are going through times of exile will find their way out to a better place. That’s always my prayer for you and others. But we should never forget that for some, exile is the way it is, the reality we will have to live with for some period of time – or even forever.

And that’s where our text from Jeremiah comes in.

He is back in Jerusalem, standing in the rubble of the now-demolished Temple. All around him is destruction. And even worse, way off in a foreign land, are the people he loves – the exiles. And in that moment, God’s word comes to him – a word of hope for a people with no hope. It is a word about how to find life in exile. And if you happen to be one of those people today, I hope you’ll listen carefully to the message God sends to exiles everywhere through Jeremiah.

Now don’t laugh at what I’m about to tell you, because what God says through Jeremiah may sound silly and trite, but it is truly deep and powerful. Are you ready to hear about how you can find life in exile? Here are 5 simple ways:

Number one, build a house. Number two, plant a garden. Number three, make whoopie and make babies. And number four, be a good citizen.

I know what you’re thinking: that’s only four steps. Well, there IS a fifth step but I’m saving it for later.

Number one: build a house and settle down.

This is another way of saying, “Accept your reality as your new living space and live productively within it.”

I was thinking this week about my old friend Richard. He had a brain tumor. It was inoperable. And he was terminally ill. He had just 3 to 6 months to live.

One day Rich came to me and said, “I know why I have this brain tumor.” I said, “You do? Why?” He said, “Because they need me.”

The “they” he was referring to were the other patients Rich ran into when he went up to Boston for the radiation treatments. He learned their names and got to know them and their families. Rich encouraged them and prayed for them. On the days of his treatments he would arm himself with a bible verse or a poem or a funny cartoon and a batch of brownies and take the train up to the hospital and share those gifts with “them.” And when he had finished his round of treatments Rich kept going back week after week. Why? “Because that’s my home,” he said.

Imagine that! Rich had built himself a house and gotten himself a family with whom to share the journey. And ten years later, when Rich’s 3 to 6 months had expired, and he went home to God, Rich’s wife and children were overwhelmed by all the cards and letters that came in from all over the place expressing love for Rich and gratitude for all he had done for “them.”

When you live in exile and can’t get out, what you CAN do is build a home within it, and discover your new neighbors, and share the goodness of life. Rich lived into his illness. He built a house and settled in – and life was good even there in that far away land.

Build a house means to accept the reality of where you are and fill it up with life. Build a house.

Number two: plant a garden.

Some of you may remember Gene and Dory Dorman who lived here for many years before moving back closer to home. You may also remember how we all walked the trail of tears with them when their daughter became sick, struggled for a long time, and finally died leaving two young children behind. There is no greater loss than that, losing a child – no matter what age. Some of you have walked that trail of tears.

One day I stopped by to visit Gene and Dory. I found Gene out in a flower bed – weeding. I think I said something stupid like, “I’ve come to save you from weeding.” Gene smiled and said something very wise, like, “No, weeding saves ME.” And then he told me how he had discovered that pulling weeds in his gardens was how he dealt with his grief. Being out in nature, putting his hands in the dirt, seeing good flowers and bad weeds – and separating them out – gave Gene a sense of peace.

You now sometimes the Bible says things that cry out for interpretation. “Planting a garden” may seem like some sort of code for preaching the Gospel or some other theological enterprise. But I don’t think that’s what God wants here. I think God is saying, “Seriously, go plant a garden!” Become like the kids in Sunday School who plant bean seeds in Styrofoam cups and then wait for them to germinate and grow. Be like the Tellico Village Garden Club that delights in growing flowers and shrubs and figuring out ways to landscape beauty into our village. You know, when you are facing hard times, you can easily close your eyes to everything except your problem. It’s all you can think about, all you can feel, all you can focus your life upon. And the darkness drags you down.

But beauty lifts you up. Plant a garden. Paint a landscape. Take a hike through the Smokies. Find a place where you can get your hands and your heart into the beauty of creation and you – like Gene – will discover peace for the moment. Plant a garden that brings beauty into your life.

And then make whoopee! And have babies. And grandbabies!

I think this is God’s way of saying that when you are in exile, take care of your family. Sometimes – when we are experiencing pain and loss - we forget to do that. One of the most beautiful things I’ve ever experienced was the way a friend of mine took care of her children as she was dying. Patty had a bone marrow transplant back in the day when the patient had to be kept in isolation for a long period of time. A big plate glass window stood between Patty and her two kids. Unable to touch, they placed their hands and fingers on the glass and drew pictures with their mom, and practiced the alphabet, and spelled out sentences like, “I love you.”

Then came the day Patty was told the treatment hadn’t worked. Now without an immune system all sorts of bad things began invading her body. Patty was dying. The last time I saw her she was lying in her hospital bed. Her daughter Erica and son Nicholas were lying there with her, cradled in each arm. And she was singing to them.

She loved them to the end.

No matter how difficult the road we are walking, our families need us. They need our love, our support, and they even need our example of how a Christian lives when they are walking the trail of tears. And I can tell you that for Patty, the love of her children was the greatest gift of all.

Take care of your family.

And be a good citizen. This simply means that wherever you happen to be living at the moment, it’s your community. And giving yourself to the greater good is a therapeutic way of dealing with your own hurt. Oftentimes when people are struggling with loss and depression counselors will encourage them to go and volunteer someplace where they can give to others. In the simple act of giving, healing often begins.

So there they are – four strategies for finding life in the midst of exile. But holding them all together is this fifth thing.

“This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile…”

I think most of us are familiar with the poem “Footprints” where a person looks back over their life journey and sees two sets of footprints in the sand, revealing that the Lord walked along beside them all the way. But then in the rough places of life, when the terrain was difficult and troubles came, only one set of footprints walked on. And dismayed that the Lord would abandon the journey when life got really hard, the person questions why God would do that. And God answers that when the times of exile came and the trail of tears was the only way, that’s when the Lord picked him up and carried him.

You may remember walking out of the doctor’s office the day you got the diagnosis. You can’t even remember today how you got to your car or made it all the way home. You may remember when the bottom fell out, the tragic loss came, the problem reared up its ugly head and today you wonder how you even got through that moment.

Well, you were carried.

And listen to God whispering these words to you: “I know the plans I have for you…plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

And here is what YOU can do in response to this promise: “…call upon me and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you…and I will bring you back from captivity.”

Go home and underline those words from Jeremiah 29.

Hold onto that promise!

And then build a house, plant a garden, be a good citizen, and go and make whoopee!