OUTRAGEOUS HOPE

Reading: : Jeremiah 32: 1-15

There is so much in our world crying out for hope. Everywhere we look these days we see the results of despair and helplessness. In the midst of all of this to call people to hope may seem outrageous. How do we do it? Hope needs to be given words and acted out, so that people have to take notice. How much more so with a hope that is outrageous! Perhaps the single action that for me earns Jeremiah the title of the prophet of outrageous hope par excellence occurs when Jerusalem is under siege from the Babylonian army and the city is about to fall into the hands of King Nebuchadnezzar. Jeremiah has continued to speak out fearlessly about the destruction of his nation and the capture of its King Zedekiah unless there is a total change of heart. In the face of such cataclysmic events Jeremiah, already imprisoned in the royal palace, but forewarned by God, has a visit from his cousin Hanamel who asks him to purchase a field belonging to him in Anathoth. In human terms, it’s plain foolishness. Jeremiah has no descendants. He’s in prison. It is not likely he’ll ever see his home village of Anathoth again – and yet he buys the field. He does it, not in secret but openly in front of witnesses. It’s a prophetic action. It’s declaring an outrageous hope that, no matter how things may appear in the natural, one day people will again own property in the land and will buy and sell vineyards and fields. In other words there will be restoration – for it is God who is speaking through Jeremiah’s action

It’s not the length of time we have left but what we do with that time, with this now that is important. We are challenged, in the words of Arun Gandhi, to be the change we want to see in our world. Where are those who are willing to point out the godly ways, not with a judgmental stance but with passion and compassion? Where are those who will weep for the wounds of our people, all of our people and will dare to ask the relevant questions as to why they have not been healed? Where are those who are willing to risk ridicule and worse because of their prophetic actions so that those individuals and institutions who have switched off to the impact of words may at least be challenged by God-directed, outrageous acts? Where are those who are willing to buy a field they themselves will never work in? Where are those who by their words and actions will give this new decade an unforgettable name – the decade of outrageous hope?

The wider community, this world in all its terrible and shining wonder, ravaged, weary, anguished, fearful, unjust – and yet always and ever beloved – is, beyond its own acknowledgement, crying out for hope and promise and fulfillment. It is already accomplished – because of Jesus. In himself he is the total personification of outrageous hope. This outrageous, foolish plan of God, in the form of a cross, is offensive to some and nonsense to others, but to those who see and to the courageous, if at times reluctant prophets who give it voice, it is far wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is far stronger than the greatest of human strength. In buying back the ‘field’ of this world with his own life, Jesus has forever defeated the enemies of hope. As Christians, Christ’s ones, people of the Way, can we dare to seize this outrageous affirmation and fling it against the darkness, joining our united voice with that of all the angels and saints, among whom is numbered our reluctant prophet Jeremiah, to proclaim that all manner of things is well.

Reflections in this series