Summary
Jeremiah 29 is not a text that I chose. Nor is it what the lectionary prescribes for this morning. This scripture comes to us from Daniel and Brenda Grimes, who won the creation care raffle a couple of months back by getting their energy audit done. Thank you, Brenda and Daniel, for bringing this powerful text to our attention. (Their second choice, by the way, was Balaam’s donkey, which would have made for an interesting morning also, but we can’t do both.)
Jeremiah 29 is one of the great comfort texts of the Bible.
“For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.” People in many walks of life cling to these words. They speak to our failures, they speak in situations of despair; they speak to the sense of cluelessness many of us experience even when our options are good. My first encounter with this passage
took place when I was a teenager and my sister‐in‐law asked me to make a calligraphy wall hanging of the “Seek the peace of the city” verse for a friend who was undergoing a painful job transfer.
Bible References
- Jeremiah 29:1 - 11
SERMON TEXT (PDF)
