I Have Plans for You

 Sermon Jeremiah 29:1-14; 1 Peter 2:1-6 June 13, 2021

I Have Plans for You

 

The day has finally arrived! Our young people have reached another milestone in life. This year is perhaps a greater accomplishment worth recognition because of all the obstacles along the way.

Those delayed sports events, the virtual classes; the on again, off again in-person classes, it’s been the kind of year for our students that we can applaud them for just being here today! No graduation speech can be as they were before, “Reach the sky for there are no limits.” Those who were caught in the midst of covid restrictions or even those who had to endure the hardship of being ill with the virus experienced limits in ways our generation did not know. Now we can say to our graduating students, “You’ve climbed the hardest mountain and succeeded. Now you know you have been given the skills and confidence to face all the other mountains before you and succeed!”

 

The young woman Jane who won Simon’s golden buzzer on America’s Got Talent this week for her magnificent voice and for her original song-“It’s Ok” knows how hard life can be. In her song she sings, “It’s ok to be lost sometimes”. Her mantra she repeats to herself is, “You don’t have to wait for life to stop being hard before you learn to be happy.” I honestly believe this past year has been one of those hard years. And in the midst of the hard we have found messages of happiness. We have experienced the joy of planted gardens.

 

We, the rest of us,  are not marking an educational milestone, but are marking a milestone as we emerge from isolation. We too have had our challenges, our difficulties, our exiles. We’ve suffered from separation, loneliness, illness, emotional and physical challenges we have never faced before.

 

 Yet, here we are emerging from restrictions. We, like our graduates, are entering a new season of life. It’s a time of hope. It’s a time of new beginnings. It’s a time of renewal. It is also a big experiment.

Can we do this? Can we move towards the hopes for us? Are we willing? Are we able? Are we ready to risk?

 

Every beginning has an ending. Every ending has a beginning. The Israelites were told by Jeremiah that their time in exile would be for at least a generation. The life before had ended. They were in a new place. It was time to begin again. It was time to look around at what was before them. It was time to let go of what was behind them. It was a time for them to hear the word of God speak, “I have plans for you. Plans for your welfare and not for harm. To give you a future with hope.”

 

We learned more than we ever knew how hard life could be as a community and as individuals. We have made it through the longest time of uncertainty than most of us have ever experienced. Yet, we discovered how to put action to hope. We learned ways to adapt. We learned how to build a fire pit big enough to keep warm on cold nights so we could social distance and still see grandchildren. We adapted and held  music classes outside in fields and parks. We learned how to live our best lives with the moments we were dealt.

 

That’s what Jeremiah is speaking to the exiles about. Don’t face adversity with a defeated approach. Face adversity with strength, courage, imagination, and energy.

I am reminded of the saying, “The will of God will not take you where the grace of God will not keep you.” God has plans for us no matter our age, no matter our youth or our longevity. Have we lived in the promise of God knowing this verse will guide us in our adversity? Have we trusted God for our welfare and for our future? Have we been honest with God and shaken our fist and wondered where this future of hope is? Have we opened our heart to witness the blessings of mercy falling all around us? Or are our hearts still hardened because we are not living where we want? The prophet told the people plant gardens, live your life, have families-you may not be where you want, but make the best of what you’ve been given.

 

What we’ve been able to discover about ourselves during this challenging year can only propel us with greater hope and anticipation for the next adventure, the next challenge, the next season of life.

 

As our graduates move on to the next season I would like to emphasize-Do not be conformed by the world that is around you. Do not be swayed by the loudest and angriest voices. Search for the word of God to guide you. Hold on to the truths you were taught.

 As Peter tells us we are Living Stones. Once we were not a people but now we are God’s people. Before we get caught up in the way of the world hold on to the truth of whose we are.

 

There is a man (a professor) who took his life because he had been harassed beyond his own ability to hold on anymore. He had been attacked for his views of ethics, religion and politics. An author wrote a story about him. It is an important thing to remember when adversity overcomes us. He said this, ““For those of you who’ve never been in the middle of the battle between the worst of the ideological left and the worst of the ideological right, I can tell you it really gets inside your head. You get to see people on both sides go from loving you to hating you depending on who you defend, even if the moral principles of the case are identical.” I can fully agree with and understand this sentiment. It’s impossible to be human with a variety of ideals without being pegged into a position by someone else.’ It these kinds of times we live in. The people in exile were forced to keep their faith, their political opinions as captives, their ideology of marriage, ethics, all things hidden away. They were without a voice. They were not able to live as they truly believed or thought. That’s what exile and captivity is. The future hope is for our welfare and not harm. Let us imagine a world of differing opinions, ideologies, ethics, all having a place to speak.

 

The question then becomes how do we live our lives beyond the exile? How do we take what we learned in Babylon and carry it with us to our new homes?

 

Remember your points of value. 

Remember how you feel about God. 

Remember how you feel about life. 

Learn how to express them so no one takes your words out of context. 

Live a life worthy but remember that there are those who will twist your words, your thoughts. 

These are days when there are those who quickly seek to destroy rather than build up.

 
Find those who truly show love. 

Lose the false friends. 

If your only friends are on social media, 

leave your room and risk introducing yourself to someone new.
Write notes. 

Not on the computer but in a book. 

Not a chrome book but a real piece of paper and a pen. 

Feel what its like to touch pen to paper and let your thoughts flow. 

Listen to music.
Read poetry. 

Read proverbs and psalms.
Use your phone. 

Not the text part. 

The phone talking part where you have to hear a voice and say words out loud.
Go for a walk. 

Walk not to go somewhere 

but walk to see, hear and notice the world around you.
Draw a picture. 

Even if all you know how to do is stick figures draw anyway.
When you see someone

 look at them when you talk.
Smile more.
Wave more. 

Be willing to shake a hand again.
Sit on a bench. 

Talk to the person who sits down next to you.

Engage with the world. Perhaps if we do, we’ll learn that we are all children of God. Perhaps our goal in life will be less proving to the world how right we are and more about listening and learning from one another.

The greatest thing Jesus did for us was to come down from heaven and walk with us even unto his death so that we would be saved into a new life. If we can remember that truth perhaps we will be a people who loves and cares.

As our young people move through life let us teach them and hold them and offer them ways of expressing themselves. It is our responsibility to continue to nurture one another through all of our life until the end of our life.

As we hear the prophet calling out, “I have plans for you”, let us heed God’s voice and be ready to live in hope for our future.

There is so much wonder and joy and adventure as the new beginning is emerging. Dear graduates, who have accomplished so much, your future awaits you precious children of God. It is time to celebrate with joy! Amen.

 

Resources: NIB Jeremiah; AGT-solo tryouts Jane; Nightbirde blog-God on the Bathroom Floor; FIRE article-“Professor Mike Adams Suicide Will Always Haunt Me” ; by Greg Lukianoff December 15, 2020;