July 21, 2024
Waiting in Exile 

Lighting the Christ Candle

Welcome and Announcements 

Call to Worship
“Babylon” a place where God’s people were sent  in exile, on purpose, on mission
Like Israel in exile, we hope for our homecoming in the city of God, where there will be no more tears.
Let us hope not in closed communion,  in isolated sanctuaries, set apart from the world.
We hope in the fullness of God’s love, in the life of the cities and towns, where we work and worship  and play. (…2)
Let us embrace the world we inhabit:  its people, its buildings, its streets, and fill them with the beauty  of God’s temple, as we sing his praises.
We hope with doors wide open, welcome the city in and pour ourselves out. 

 

Hymn:  651 Guide me O thou great Redeemer

 

Prayer of Adoration
We praise you O God, for those words of encouragement that come from prophet to people.  Through your servants you remind us to live a life that is full – build, plant, eat, love, multiply.  Those words remind us that even when we feel absent from you,  you are always present with us.  When our hearts do not feel like singing your praises, we come together and through prayer and song, we realize again that singing your prises heals our pain.   

We pray that we will always keep you in the centre of all that is.   

We enter into worship today with hope in our hearts knowing that  something happens here that reminds us that we can live as you desire because you demonstrate faithfulness to us and we can trust your promise.   

In that trust we turn to you with our confession: 

Prayer of Confession:
We find ourselves in exile caused by relationships, economics, and failing health.
God calls us to seek peace, and to pray; but we forget that our peace is found in the peace of the community.
When we have been wronged, we thirst for God's promised justice through swift vengeance and we forget that our peace is found in the peace of the community.
We pray for the day when passive peace will prevail, and we forget that God calls us to make peace, and that our peace is found in the peace of the community. 
May our actions embody our prayers for the healing of the community and therein may we  find our long awaited wholeness. 

Amen. 

Assurance of Pardon 

This is the good news: God intends for us to find life, to embrace hope, to receive forgiveness through Jesus Christ, our Servant.  We are always on a journey that brings us back to God.  The end of our journey is the fullness of grace and hope in our God. Thanks be to God, we are forgiven. Amen.
Passing the Peace
 

Hymn:  433 All creatures of our God and King

Scripture:

Psalm 137:  1-6 Responsively P.  973
Jeremiah 29: 1, 4-14   P 1221 

Sermon:  Waiting in Exile  

We often speak of our life on this earth as temporary, and we look forward to that day when we will leave this earth and join with God, the angels, and all those whom we love in God’s heavenly home.   

We do not call this earth our home, but we also acknowledge that we are called to live here for a while.  To ensure that we will thrive in this “exilic” existence, we must be sure to spend time with God, to praise him and worship him.  We must be sure to speak of his goodness and to be a part of the community in which we live.   

 

It is our calling to bring God’s grace to the community through our witness, our prayers, and through the ways we live God’s goodness and grace into our relationships and communities.  

But there are those times, when the exile experience is a burden filled with pain, regret, tears and even frustration.  In those days how do we sing the songs of our homeland? 

The people of Israel ask that very question, saying, “How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land?”  Ps. 137: 4 NIV 

Can we imagine what it must have been like, to be forced into another country, and having to figure out how to make a life there, because it is not possible to go home?  To have to make a home with your captors?  To sing a song of your homeland and your God for the people who have oppressed you?   

Can we understand the depth of that pain and grief that it was preferrable to hang their lyres in the trees rather than to sing? 

However, we have bumped into life altering events enough to know that to remain in pain and grief is very unhealthy.  If circumstances don’t change, how then can we wait out the difficulties and find our emotional and spiritual balance? 

The advice that comes to the people from Jeremiah is very important.  Jeremiah advises the people to find the way to live in the fullness of life that they have always known.   

He writes, “5 “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. 7 Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” Jer 29:  5-7 NIV 

I imagine that this letter was not well received.   

The people who only wanted to go home, were confronted with the reality that home was not going to be possible.  They are being asked to make a long-term investment into life in exile.  A long-term investment into life waiting for God’s revelation. 

Build houses.   

Settle down.   

Plant gardens, harvest the crop.   

For one season?  More? 

Marry.   

Have children.   

Find marriage partners for your children.   

This is beginning to sound like this could be a long time through which to have to wait.   

 

How could they endure it?   

Was there no hope for them to return to Israel?   

 

As they were beginning to absorb the shock of this advice, they are reminded that their role is to be a part of the community.   Seek peace with their captors.  Work for the prosperity of the community—really?   

Yes, really.  That are reminded to pray for the community and for their captors, because if they prosper so do the people of Israel.   

This advice on how to wait out the exile, is about helping the people develop a community for themselves.  That community included themselves; but more importantly also included their captors.   

It seems that no matter where we find ourselves, it is still and always our responsibility to minister to the community in which we reside.  The clue to that is that the people’s question about singing the songs of home and the Lord, arise from a request from their captors to sing for them.  In the Psalm we read, “There on the poplars we hung our harps, 3 for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” Ps 137: 2-3  NIV 

Now of course it is possible that they were being taunted by the people of Babylon; but it is also possible that the people of Babylon wanted to learn about their God. It is always our calling to share the good news of life in Christ, regardless of who is asking, and regardless of why they are asking.   

 

However, of more importance is the call to sing the songs of home and God for the good of the people.  They have endured years of siege.  Their city has been destroyed.  They are in exile in foreign land.  They can be feeling as if God abandoned them.   

Despite that, when they talk about their faith and sing the songs of faith, they are reminding themselves that they are God’s people and that in all circumstances God is still their God.   

How often do we feel that we are alone and without even God?  Maybe we don’t want to own those feelings, but they are there, especially when we feel like a fish out of water in our hometown.   

As the places where we live grow increasingly secular and our congregations decline in number, we can feel as if God is abandoning us.  When our communities, provinces and countries make laws that seem to oppress those who believe, it is hard to see God.  Not only that, it is hard hold onto faith in the time of persecution. 

While that may never have been as extreme for us here, as in Quebec, where even wearing a cross in a government office is forbidden. That oppression is certainly not as extreme as it is in  countries like China where it is illegal to worship God.   

But we do know what it is like to feel like we can’t pray in Jesus’ name in public.  Even as Legion chaplain I have been instructed to not mention God or Jesus in the prayers at Remembrance Day ceremonies.  That feeling of exile is certainly present for all of us. 

What can we do?   

Build houses.  Settle down.  Plant gardens, harvest the crop.   

Marry.  Have children.  Find marriage partners for our children.   

Sing the songs of faith. 

Pray for the peace of the city. 

No matter what we do while we wait, we are first and foremost called to sing the songs of our faith.  We are called to pray for the community.  We continue in ministry and mission while we wait for God’s calling to come among us. 

How long do we wait? 

Well, Jeremiah gives us a clue… “This is what the Lord says, “when seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place.”  Jer 29: 10 NIV 

Seventy years?  SEVENTY YEARS!  How can that be? 

What it must have felt for the people to realize the implications of this news.  This is more than having a few kids and getting them married long.  This is getting to know your grandchildren and great-grandchildren long.  This is many of you will die in exile and never see Jerusalem again long. 

Sometimes the wait requires a great sacrifice.   

Even more importantly, the wait requires great trust!  If the wait is 70 years, then the trust is that if we die in exile, God still has great plans for us.  Jeremiah speaks of God’s plans for the people, even those who will not live to go back to Jerusalem.   

Plans to prosper them.
Plans to give them hope.
Plans to give them a future.
 

Plans to answer their prayers when they pray to him.
Plans to let them seek and find him.
Plans to gather them from the nations.
Plans to carry them back to the place where he found them. 

Yes, that even includes those who will die in exile.  Why?   

Because God finds each one of us in his heart.  We were created from his love, and we were created to be in a relationship with him.  If we die while waiting in exile, we will still be rewarded with everlasting life with God. 

When we are waiting, faith and trust are so much more important than patience.  If God does not answer right away, or if he answers differently than what we think we want, God will still hold us in his heart.  In God, everything will work out according to God’s will and God’s timing.   

The length of the wait is not a punishment, but rather a time to be comforted in God’s love.   

What do we do while we wait? 

Build.  Plant.  Grow.  Harvest.  Get on with a life that is full and provides for the peace and prosperity of the city.  Be a part of the mission and purpose of Christ Jesus.   

And if we die before the time of waiting is over, well; then we will still find our home where it has always been, in God’s heart.   

Waiting and being invested in God’s mission and purpose is always time well spent.  

Amen.  

 

 

Affirmation of Faith:
Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40: 31 NRSV 

Hymn:    #412 Come let us sing to the Lord our song

 

 

Offering and Doxology 830

Offertory Prayer

Generous God, we give you thanks for the abundance of your blessings to us day by day and year by year.   

We give you thanks for the simple pleasures of life: for garden harvests, coffee conversation, and familiar surroundings,
For health and strength to appreciate the wonder of life. 

Because we have known your blessings, and are graced with your love and prosperity, we return to you all that we have and are able to give and do.   

With creative pursuits which contribute our God-given talents,
With words which honor you as Creator, Redeemer, and Holy Spirit,
With time volunteered and dedicated to service in church and community,
With years committed to extending the love of Jesus Christ, 

With gifts of money which reach farther than we can manage ourselves,
With deeds done in service of neighbor and stranger,
With holy days set apart to celebrate your goodness and grace,
With family and friends distant and nearby. 

Accept all that we bring, and bless it that it may add to the peace and prosperity of our city and of the whole world.  Amen
 

 

 

Gathering Prayer Requests
Prayer of Thanksgiving and Intercession 

God of mercy, we thank you that you are full of grace.  We thank you that we have been gifted with grace and mercy and given a purpose for you.   

We thank you God our holy Friend, because you allow us share some of your love for the world. While we are here praying for the world’s healing, others are busy implementing that healing. Later, when we are out there trying to give of our best, others remember to pray for us. 

Thus we remember to pray for the peace and prosperity of the world and it’s people.   

Joys 

 

 

 

Concerns 

 

 

 

The continuing heat and drought
the growing number of wildfires 

Firefighters and all those who risk their lives for the protection of others 

Those who prepare and run for the election in BC.  Grant them all the wisdom that comes from you.  Bless the electorate with the discernment needed to elect the government that we need in this time.   

 

 

 

World 

The end of war in the Ukraine, and growing grace in the leadership in Russia 

The end of war in Palestine, and speak to Israel that they may embrace your mercy in regard to their neighbours. 

The election in the United States, that it may move forward with humility on the part of all, that wisdom fill the hearts of the electorate that they may choose the leaders that you are calling forth at this time. 

 

 

 

 

Almighty and tender Lord Jesus Christ, Just as we have asked you to love our friends, so we ask the same for our enemies.  You alone, Lord, are mighty.  You alone are merciful.  Whatever you make us desire for our enemies, give it to them and give the same back to us. 

You who are the true light, lighten their darkness.   

You who are the whole truth, correct their errors.   

You who are the incarnate word, give life to their souls. 

We pray for the peace and prosperity of our town, our province, our nation and all the nations of the world, with whom we share this planet.  

We thank you for speaking to us and ask that you help us to listen for your voice every day.  With thanksgiving, we pray together as Jesus has taught us, saying,  

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, for ever.  Amen 

 

 

 

 

Hymn:  650 He leadeth me

Benediction
Blessing Song:  500 Open my eyes v.1 & chorus

Open my eyes that I may see glimpses of truth thou hast for me place in my hands the wonderful key
that shall unclasp and set me free Silently now, I wait for thee ready my Lord, thy will to see open my eyes, illumine me Spirit Divine
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