Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15
Proper 21 (26) - Year C
questions as a way of life
Here is a comic strip that plays well with the Luke and Jeremiah passages this week:
Enjoy.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2013/09/questions-as-way-of-life.html
We ignore verses 3b-5 at our peril. This is where important energy for the passage resides. Without this clear announcement of harm and exile, the action of investing anyway loses its punch.
We are so inured of what little we have that we would never think of anything as foolish as burying our deed to present property going to seed against the great uncertainty of either finding it again or having it carry the day any better than indigenous people's treaties have fared in a colonialist economy.
Without a vision of exile this whole deed scenario loses its way. With it we can see how foolish are hopes of resurrection and to note how much stronger and wider our hope needs to be cast.
In the face of exile, a return: in the face of death, new life (resurrection, reincarnation, re-cycled nutrients, ...).
In light of mini-deaths beyond orgasms, we might yet learn from all the revolutions or stage-transitions we have gone through and willingly invest in a next one. Knowing resources will be available to us on the other side eases our resistance to finally go into our next good night both rejoicing and railing.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2013/09/pentecost-19-year-c-jeremiah-321-3a-6.html
Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15 or Amos 6:1a, 4-7
An Ownership Society can be a political illusion setting people against their own best self-interest. How we deal with economic imagery is important as it goes to the heart of most people's everyday experience.
Jeremiah uses guerilla theater to dramatize the steadfastness of G*D. In a time of great upheaval when it appears that real estate is not going to be a growth industry or a viable investment because all titles are about to go down the drain, Jeremiah sets out to draw attention away from property of the moment to promises to be fulfilled.
Amos takes another tack by urging us to run as far and as fast as possible from the usual temptations of getting stuck in the process of getting more. Who doesn't have dreams of more? What won't we do to get more? In that more we get lost and lose the sense of promise in the morass of property.
So how would you deal with taxes these days -- voluntarily pay extra as a sign of hope or cut them that we might now have more?
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/september2004.html
Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15 or Amos 6:1a, 4-7
Jeremiah, who prophesized [recognized - paid attention to - the natural consequence of present behavior] exile, was, himself, put into personal exile before the people found a foreign exile. And yet he claimed a part of their community of the future and even invested in it.
It is important to note here that spoken approbation of some aspect of our current reality is not the only thing that is needed. We also need to act out, in as dramatic a form as we can, our participation in what we see as a preferred future. In this case Jeremiah's words and actions run parallel and perpendicular to one another - and at the same time.
It is this friction that brings light. Words alone or actions alone don't have the ability to get a purchase on our imagination that is strong enough to bring change.
- - -
those who become at ease
face a danger of succumbing
to that very ease
the only antidote of which
is a whole different kind
of ease
an ease
no longer needing ease
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_09_01_archive.html
What timing G*D has! Surrounded by Babylonians. Confined in the Palace. Comes a vision larger than fear, larger than enemies (external and internal), larger than impotency, larger than silence.
Surrounded by external enemies, confined by internal enemies, Jeremiah buys land about to be worthless. This purchase is to be hidden and sealed until a time when it might be returned to the light of day and the equivalent of a Jubilee happens - land is returned to previous owners.
This is a wonderful stewardship story. This is a story for the Palestinians of our day. Jeremiah would recognize their loss of land, hidden and sealed, for a later time. May that later time be a sooner time - blessings and peace upon the latest negotiations.
How far ahead are you seeing? Can you see beyond the downfall of current empire? Your usual investments are going to be worthless. What investment will see you through worthless times to a time of renewal and restoration, restoration and renewal, Jubilee? You did know that Jeremiah is the prophet we need to be listening to today? What, you didn't? It's not too late to get thrown in prison for telling the truth or traveling to Washington D.C., on October 30 for the Rally to Restore Sanity. No, those are not equivalents, but they are related.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2010/09/jeremiah-321-3a-6-15.html