Text: Jeremiah 32: 1-15
Comments on the story
(before the scripture reading)
This story takes place in the tenth year of the reign of King Zedekiah of Judah. The king of Babylon is besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah is imprisoned in the palace of the Judean king. Jeremiah has been imprisoned for speaking harsh and difficult words to the king; he prophesied the demise of the community and of the king who will be driven into exile. Later in today’s story, Jeremiah receives word from Yahweh. Jeremiah is told that his cousin Hanamel will come to him in prison and offer to him the right to purchase a piece of property at Anathoth, the hometown of his youth. When his cousin appears and makes the offer, Jeremiah, certain that Yahweh has spoken, proceeds with the deal. Jeremiah agrees to offer seventeen shekels of silver for the land in Anathoth. He signs the deed before witnesses, seals it in the legal way, and weighs out the money on scales. "Then I took the sealed deed of purchase, containing terms and conditions, along with a copy, and handed the deed to Baruch (Jeremiah's faithful secretary and confidant) in the presence of Hanamel and the witnesses who had signed the deed, and in the presence of all the Judeans who were sitting in the court of the guard" (Jer. 32:11-12). After all his prophecies, Jeremiah bought a field in a war zone, in a time of disaster. Today’s story leads us to ask what this strange transaction in 580 BCE means for us now in 2019: to buy land in a time of despair, to hope for the future.
Sermon: Crazy, Symbolic, Prophetic
In today’s story, Jeremiah buys some land. But how is this act, this purchase of a piece of land, different from other property purchases? This happens all the time, doesn’t it? Land transactions are important to economic growth; they are seen as a sign of revitalization. Population increases, money is spent, markets get busier, there might even be a speculation boom in real estate. What makes Jeremiah’s land deal different?
Before we ask this question, I would like to remind you that the meaning and the importance of land to people is understood differently across cultures. Many indigenous people learned from childhood that the ground on which they walked was sacred ground. “A Navajo dictionary of medical terms begins with the terms for feet because the feet touch the earth.” “Traditionally, land was not thought of in terms of real estate to be bought, sold, or traded.” (Chapter 8, Land, We Sing the Land into Existence, A Native American Theology, p. 127.) The term “Earth” encompasses the land and sea and atmosphere, the wind, the rain, the thunder, the lightning, the receptor of the life-giving power of the Sun and the benefits of the moon (p. 128.) “Land” is the name given to designate the specific portion of Spirit Earth on which a particular “nation” resides. Indigenous world views explain how a particular people came to be in the particular place in which they live as a tribe or a nation.
In Anathoth, the ancestral land of Jeremiah, houses, fields, and vineyards were bought, sold or traded as a normal, usual activity, in people’s ongoing lives. However, on the day when Jeremiah bought his cousin’s field things were different. Buying land in Anathoth was foolish – no sensible person would think of it. With the country in ruins, under enemy occupation, God told Jeremiah to buy his cousin’s land. Go, buy a field in the war zone that is Jerusalem. Talk about crazy!
This is, perhaps, the worst land deal recorded in the Bible or even in history. It was the wrong time to buy a field. The wrong location. It was a mistake in timing for Jeremiah’s own life status as well. He was in prison. According to the records, the Babylonians had breached the city walls, then “burned down every important building” — the royal palace, government offices and the sacred temple that had served as the centre of Israel’s religious life since Solomon - 410 years. The Babylonians executed government officials. Soldiers plundered Jerusalem’s national treasures and everything of any value, both sacred and secular. Dead bodies littered the streets. The book of Lamentations describes children begging for bread. The intellectual elite, the skilled workers, and artisans were deported to Babylon. The poor “who owned nothing” were left to fend for themselves amidst disease and famine. Devastated himself, receiving God’s Word, Jeremiah counselled his people and Zedekiah, the king of Judah: Seek the welfare of your pagan conqueror! Pray for God’s blessing on Babylon! Embrace your exile, for there will be no miraculous exodus. Well, Zedekiah didn’t listen to such a defeatist and unpatriotic message. “Neither he or his attendants nor the people of the land paid any attention to the words the Lord has spoken through Jeremiah the prophet.” Instead, they arrested Jeremiah. This is where today’s story begins. In the war zone, that is Jerusalem, in the town of Anathoth, Jeremiah’s ancestral land, in the time of despair, when it is no wonder if any one abandons all hope. And look at Jeremiah - thrown in prison for angering his king and his country.
Today’s story-telling narrator, after explaining the context, slows down to recount the intricate details of the business agreement made between Jeremiah and his cousin. The way that the story is told is very interesting. It is as if the narrator really wanted to show the reader how it happened, how it was performed in front of a lot of people, in public, like a movie scene, engendering and stirring some raw, gut reactions from the people who read this story… Jeremiah gets witnesses, signs the deed, produces seventeen shekels of silver, weighs out the money on a pair of scales, and orders the deed be preserved in an earthenware jar.
What were the reactions of those who had been watching all these things?
Jeremiah 32:11-12. “Then I took the sealed deed of purchase, containing terms and conditions, along with a copy, and handed the deed to Baruch (Jeremiah’s faithful secretary and confidant) in the presence of Hanamel and the witnesses who had signed the deed, and in the presence of all the Judeans who were sitting in the court of the guard.”
Did the people react with reverence? Praise?
A commentator says, “Surely all of these people have come to witness much more than a land purchase; they want to see this fool do the purchase while awaiting his own execution or the sack of the city, whichever may come first!”
Just as Paul says, in his first letter to the Corinthians, “For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.” An interesting mirroring.
This land purchase was just one of the crazy, symbolic actions for which the prophets are famous.
Like Isaiah running naked in the streets for three years as a sign and portent.
Like Ezekiel eating the scroll, or shaving his head with a sword, dividing the hair into thirds.
In fact, Jeremiah had already performed several prophetic acts. He stood in front of the temple and smashed pottery as the people entered to worship. He wore a cattle yoke around his neck. He buried a pair of “undergarments” under a rock for “a very long time.” And Jeremiah performed one more prophetic act.
Buying a field in the King’s courtyard, a temporary prison. Standing in front of all the Judeans available who had come to laugh at him, to see how he could, again, be so foolish. Jeremiah speaks, “Thus says God. Take these deeds, both this sealed deed of purchase and this open deed, and put them in an earthenware jar, in order that they may last for a long time. For thus says God: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.” He answers the assembled crowd’s unspoken question about the wisdom of investing in a land besieged and destroyed by a large foreign power by espousing a word of hope. Someday, there will be again be fields and houses and vineyards in the land. Imagine. In Jewish history, there are records of buried scrolls actually being discovered and unearthed 2000 years later. (Dead Sea Scrolls.) 2000 years later. Crazy. Symbolic. Jeremiah’s Prophetic act is called “hope” in those times, in history, and also in our lives.
What is called prophetic? What is a prophetic action? It doesn’t have to be a crazy, symbolic, clever or foolish turn-over. Yet, Jeremiah’s prophesy espouses hope, when the times are most unlikely to be hopeful, encouraging others to look at their behaviour and emulate the prophetic actions when they can, and when they should. I don’t think we can simplify and say that buying land in Anathoth means investing in the future (using an analogy borrowed from economics.) By making a land transaction, Jeremiah’s intention is not to encourage others to do the same: to buy a field in wartime, or do it when the war ends - IF it ends. Nothing is certain. The restoration of the city and people, the time when people will visit the location of burial (of the earthenware jar), may take hundreds of years - or a thousand. Certainly not within Jeremiah’s lifetime, or the life span of several generations. The hope he declares is not about the economic flourishing of the world, of the good world. Jeremiah is not interested in the financial return on his investment. His prophetic action is an act of leadership: enacting, right now in present time, the changed behaviour, the right action, that people would do in the restored future. Will you buy a house, field, vineyard and live in harmony with your neighbours, show compassion for the poor, live an ethical life for the commonwealth of people who share the land in the future? Is that your hope? Do it now. Act. Live out crazy, symbolic, prophetic lives and actions, now. Restoration will come. Once again, people will buy fields and homes in the land that will be returned to them. My people, be comforted, build more hope in other’s hearts and in yours, in a time and place of devastation.
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I see this image in the young people’s initiative of global Climate Striking to demand right climate actions, policies, systems. (Show the pictures). What do you want? Climate action. When do you want it? Now. Where are the crazy, symbolic prophetic actions of our time? Our examples lie with Greta Thunberg, Autumn Peltier and other young climate activists and indigenous rights protectors; they make the world wake up. This past Friday, the young people shouted, “The Oceans are rising. So are we!” Greta Thunberg sailed for 15 days across the Atlantic before landing in New York City to attend the UN Climate Action Summit. She used the boat to raise awareness of the greenhouse gases emitted by the use of commercial airplanes. (Images.) Sailing across the Atlantic, nowadays? Certainly not easy - crazy when you can fly from Sweden to New York in less than eight hours. Thunberg’s yacht had no kitchen, no heating, no fridge and no bathroom. The vessel generated electricity through solar panels and wind turbines. On day four, she said it was “like camping on a roller coaster.” Very difficult conditions for her and her crew while on the journey. I smiled when I read, “It’s unclear how she plans to eventually travel back home”. I think the boats are all gone back already. But will you laugh? Is it a show? No, we need more crazy, symbolic, prophetic actions in our lives and in the world. We still need to buy a field to tell the story of hope. We need more Jeremiahs, more Gretas, more Autumns, more youth activists, more of you to hope for, to prophesy integrity, the integrity of our soul, the integrity of the world’s conscience, the integrity of God’s future.
Ha Na Park
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