The Park Road Pulpit
Sermons from Park Road Baptist Church
Russ and Amy Jacks Dean, Pastors
From his window he could see the dust and smoke. He could feel the fear in the air. He could hear cries of confusion and pain. The whole world was crashing down. And the enemy, unknown yet despised, was now all around him.
His story is not from the September 11th journal of disaster. The place is Jerusalem. The primary suspect is Nebuchadrezzar, King of Babylon. The weapon of choice is an imposing army and a crushing sword. But the doom the prophet Jeremiah felt was just as heavy. The evil of unprovoked attack was just as shattering. The fear was just as thick and choking. The loss and destruction – just as costly.
The Jews of ancient Israel were overcome by terrorists from Babylon, and before it was over, thousands of her children also cried in the night with no mother to soothe their fears; the Temple of Solomon, the spectacular architectural symbol of Israel’s foundation also lay in great piles of dust and ash; a nation, proud, and rich in culture and faith also feared for its very future.
Evil shatters God’s peace every day. It is a great shame that we only recognize the destructive nature of evil when it is our own loss. This time, evil has scarred our own land. Every segment of our diverse population has been violated, and every sector of our economy has felt the rumble of the one million tons of steel and glass and concrete that crumbled to earth, bringing with it the wild dreams and bright optimism of many American generations.
Jeremiah knew our pain. And even 2500 years after his prophecy,[i] he can be a “wounded healer” if we will listen to his hope, and risk his return.
Imprisoned by his own King, Jeremiah was guilty only of predicting the destruction of his country and the defeat of Israel’s leader. His imprisonment added insult to injury as the sights and sounds of his prophetic truth were now being realized all around him. And, it got worse, much worse, before it got better. The Babylonians destroyed much of the city, and Israel’s best and brightest – those who were not killed – were carted-off like slaves, to a pagan land.
As the city fell in ruins around him, a cousin, Hanamel, arrived with an offer. “How would you like to buy some property, Jeremiah? The old home-place. It’s been in the family for generations.” (Hanamel was the salesman who could sell ice to Eskimos. The Babylonians had taken the land, but he was still trying to make a buck. He thinks of his old cousin – the crazy prophet. He must have said to himself, “A sucker is born every minute!” His offer was not much different than trying to sell commercial office space on the 96th floor of Tower Two, today!) He stood there, deed in hand, and nudged, again, “What about it?”
Jeremiah looked out the window at the chaos of war… and he smiled slightly! “Property… in Israel? Yea. I’ll take it!”
The week of the terrorist attacks analyst predicted a sharp sell-off in the market, and they were right. Newsweek magazine reported a 1.23 trillion dollar loss in the economy in that first week.[ii] U.S. airline industry layoffs alone will exceed 100,000, and this does not include thousands of jobs in related industries. Many of your companies are already sizing down, cutting back – a direct result of the uncertainty of a national economy that was approaching recession before the disaster…
How do you feel about making an investment?
Around the country today, preachers and politicians alike are extolling the virtues of investment. “Get on the airplanes! Go back to the malls! Buy stock – in anything!” I could preach today: “Invest in America. Invest in the future. Invest your money.” And it would be an appropriate message. But someone recently encouraged you, you who are the Children of Light, to think twice. So, I have taken my own advice, and I have a “second thought”[iii] I’d like to share with you.
Recently I heard the country singer, Lee Greenwood belt-out his signature anthem:
“I’m proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free. And I won’t forget the men who died, who gave that right to me, and I’ll gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today, ‘cause there ain’t no doubt I love this land. God Bless the U.S.A.” [iv]
I, too, love this land, and I love Greenwood’s song, which is powerful and strong. America is a great land. Our experiment in government “for the people, of the people, and by the people” – never before exercised in human history – is an incredible success. Affording “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” to millions of God’s children from every land, America must continue to seek “liberty and justice for all.”
It is right that our country has come together in tragedy. It is right that we take pride in a great land. But we must honor America with honesty and humility, not just with waving flags. This honesty will require that we ask some very difficult questions. Is the Middle East simply jealous of American affluence? Are extremist Muslins just offended by our “godless lifestyle?” Or, is it possible that we are reaping a harvest of decades of foreign policy based too much on power and too little on people?
Each Sunday in worship we pause in confession -- an exercise in honesty. The same honesty is necessary for a nation. And I hear more people recognize that a campaign of bombs alone will fail, unless we put a more humanitarian face on our strategies.
It begins here, in the heart.
Today I am advising an investment in humanity. Starting in your home, your neighborhood, your office. Treat someone more kindly. Give someone a second chance. Forgive. Accept an apology. Confront those who generalize and judge. Muslims are not the enemy. Read one article to better educate yourself on Islamic faith or American involvement in the Middle East this century. Call your Representative and insist that we take a broad, wise course of action that will invite peace, not just breed a new generation of terrorists.
An investment in humanity purchased through small, individual initiatives, will bring return in America, first, and will ripple out to the world. I believe this.
In the second place, I could recommend that we invest in the future. Jeremiah’s purchase of property, after-all, was a testimony of extremist faith that the God who had acted in history would act, again. But, on second thought, let me advise an investment, not in the future, but in the present.
Americans are probably the most future-oriented culture the world has known. While much of the world prays, literally, “give us… our daily bread,” we seldom think of daily subsistence. We have other concerns. Do you know that if I want one of my sons to go to a private university, like Duke, I need to be putting away $600 every single month for the next 15 years! The Trade Towers were filled with astute executives whose lives were mapped-out and secure to retirement and beyond. But those who began collecting their death certificates this week would gladly trade one more living day, for twenty years of plans.
No one says at retirement, “I wish I had spent more time in the office!” But nearly everyone I know longs to have had more time with their children. With friends and neighbors. Dedicated to a spouse. What are you really getting, today, for the kind of life you are living? If September 11 did not convince us of the fragile nature of life, that we must do today that which has eternal value, we will not learn that lesson until it is too late.
I recommend an investment in the present. If you have a choice this week between working overtime or coming home to the kids – choose the kids. Buy your wife fresh flowers. Kiss your husband a little longer. Stay in the yard talking with the neighbor. Visit in the hospital. Write a note to a new member. An investment in today is an investment in eternity. Don’t miss the return on this one.
In the third place, I could recommend an investment of your money. And, on second thought… I think I will do just that! Jeremiah’s purchase is the most detailed exchange of money in the entire Bible. The point? This is no literary creation for symbolic emphasis, this is an actual exchange of hard-earned cash for land on which Jeremiah never stepped foot. Was it a poor investment? Some would say it was a waste of money. But what other purchase made in 587 BC do you know that has given more return? – 2500 years of hope! I pray that we would all take that kind of return on our money.
“Earthly mammon,” as Jesus calls it, is not only the measure of our material priorities; it is also the best marker of our spiritual maturity. Americans believe in our own progress – our investments in the stock market makes that clear. But, do we believe in God? Do we face the future with fear or with Jeremiah’s hope in the God in whom “all things work for good?” Don’t just tell me that you have hope for the future – go out and buy some hope today -- not by purchasing a few blue chip shares, but by finding a risk, by purchasing hope for someone else with your own money.
I can think of no better investment for the present or the future than Park Road Baptist Church. Can you? And a little extra investment in your own church might allow us to take a few people to New York or DC in the coming months to put our hands into the relief effort.
When the Children of Light measure our investments, we should count the financial cost – but not necessarily the financial return. This is the real meaning of giving.
Today I could recommend to you investments in America and the future. Instead, I recommend that you invest in humanity and in the present by the use of your own, hard-earned money.
The market is down. And there has never been a better time to invest in hope.
May it be so. Amen!
PASTORAL PRAYER
God of hope
whose providence is bigger
than any single disaster,
whose grace can bring
light out of dark,
meaning out of chaos,
hope out of despair,
Grant us courage today
to live in the present
as if we trusted in the future --
not the future whose outcome
you orchestrate,
but the future
in whose every action,
you participate.
Be with us in every present
that we might
see you in the past
and believe that the future,
will be ours, together.
This day we pray
for the leaders of our world,
that they might hear
Jeremiah’s word of hope
and risk a costly investment
in peace.
This day we pray for thousands
who still hope for miracles,
to see loved ones
raised from ashes --
give your consolation.
This day we pray for millions
unsure of tomorrow,
and what news might come --
give your peace.
This day we pray for individuals
whose lives
can be touched,
one by one.
Give to them a friend,
a neighbor,
even an “enemy,”
who is a Child of Light,
and fill us with
compassion and
conviction and
courage
to love them for you.
Hear our prayer,
O God of Hope
whose investment
in earthly living
has made you one with us
in triumph and tragedy.
[i] The events recorded in Jeremiah’s prophecy are from the period prior to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians, in 587 B.C.E.
[ii] Newsweek Magazine.
[iii] In last week’s sermon “Dealing With Our Own Kind,” I quoted Walter Cronkite who suggested that our first response, retaliation, should also be informed by a “second thought” which might press us on toward better relationships with our enemies. The parable of the “Dishonest Steward” is a challenge for the “Children of Light” to use the best of “worldly mammon,” which, by extension of the metaphor, includes the word’s wisdom as well as its money, in the pursuit of “eternal reward.” An effort of war alone will fall short of exercising the “shrewd” wisdom that Christ encouraged.
[iv] Greenwood sang at the Prayer Service in Yankee Stadium. Hosted by James Earl Jones and Oprah Winfrey the “prayer service” was actually more pep rally than worship. Prayers were routinely interrupted by applause, and a dangerous mix of piety and politics further blurred the line in American religion between the worship of God and the worship of the state.