The Cycle of Divine Construction
A sermon by Brent J. Eelman
August 26, 2007
Abington Presbyterian Church

Jeremiah 1:4-10
⁴Now the word of the Lord came to me saying,
⁵‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
   and before you were born I consecrated you;
   I appointed you a prophet to the nations.’
⁶Then I said, ‘Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.’  
⁷But the Lord said to me,
   ‘Do not say, “I am only a boy”;
    for you shall go to all to whom I send you,
    and you shall speak whatever I command you.
 ⁸  Do not be afraid of them,
    for I am with you to deliver you,
                    says the Lord.’
⁹Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the Lord said to me,
    ‘Now I have put my words in your mouth.
¹⁰See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms,
    to pluck up and to pull down,
    to destroy and to overthrow,
    to build and to plant.’* 
 

If you have ever lived through a home remodeling project, you are aware that it is stressful. When we lived in New York, we embarked on a major remodeling of the first floor of our home. It included enlarging the kitchen and rebuilding the garage. We estimated that it could be done in about 4 weeks, but as often happens with construction, it took four months. For two and half months we lived with the back wall of our home removed and replaced with a large plastic tarp. We had no kitchen, but prepared our meals using a camping stove in the back yard. The result was wonderful, but the process of getting there was no fun. Part of our home had to be torn down and demolished so that the new part could be added. That is the reality of reconstruction… it is not merely building… first, it is tearing down the old.

But this is not a sermon about building and construction. It is a sermon that deals with human history and current events. At the heart of this sermon is the message that God, out of his love for creation and humanity, is currently rebuilding, but there is a cycle of construction that we need to understand. My text today is the call of Jeremiah. Jeremiah was a prophet in Judah, right before the destruction and captivity of Jerusalem. He is not always easy to read. His words can be as sharp as a dagger but I have always believed that his message speak a very important word to our age and often when I am befuddled by the events in the world, I go to Jeremiah to understand the work and Word of God and also my place as a Minister of that Word. Today I will 1. Look at the context for Jeremiah’s Call. 2. examine the reality of demolition. and, 3. the hope of new construction.

I

Jeremiah’s call: I want to make an assumption about history. We live in a very tenuous and stressful time. We are living through an age of major change. There have been other historic periods of change that can offer us wisdom for the living of these days… and the book of Jeremiah is one of them. When Jeremiah was called as a prophet, he was probably about 18 years old and the world as he experienced it was very unstable. During his lifetime Israel, (the northern kingdom) was conquered, leaving only Judah as the remnant of Hebrew lands. The Assyrian Empire was beginning to fall apart. In a few years a young boy, Josiah would assume the throne of Judah and would begin the largest period of religious and civil reform in Hebrew history. Later, Ninevah would fall, and soon Nebudadrezzar would rise to power and the Babylonians would become the new Super powers of the known world. Ultimately this period would conclude with the conquest of Jerusalem and the Babylonian captivity.

This was a time when empires were falling and rising. This was a time when treaties and deals were brokered to try and bring some stability to the world. This was a time when the word on the Jerusalem street was filled with both optimism and anxiety. There were those who were continually saying that things would be all right.. happy days were right around the corner. They were the ones who were denying what was actually happening, but their upbeat message had its appeal. But its appeal was to the sense of anxiety and dread that was omnipresent in Jeremiah’s world. “What was going on?”

Jeremiah’s message answered that question. The answer was right there in Jeremiah’s call:

Today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms,
to pluck up and to pull down,
to destroy and to overthrow,
to build and to plant.’

God was rebuilding. But look at the sentences. There are four verbs of destruction: pluck up, pull down, destroy, and overthrow. There are but two verbs of construction: build and plant. Why? Because when a one is living through the cycle of divine construction, the primary human experience is demolition. Things fall apart. Social structures that we believed were permanent begin to erode.

I spent my summers in Chautauqua, New York. It is a wonderful place to grow up and I was exposed to the best of world culture. In Opera Hall, above the stage, is a large message which reads: “All things pass, Art alone endures.” It is a wonderful platonic sentiment… but even art passes…. It does not endure for ever. It is God’s Word which endures.

II

The cycle of demolition: I grew up in the 1960’s with the music of the Beatles, Bob Dylan and others. The lyrics of our music was a bit ominous… almost prophetic. Dylan would sing:

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.

But Dylan and the others of that period had no idea what would be occurring. We were on the brink of awesome change. This change was not merely political, it was social, technological, and cultural. Music has changed. Language has changed. Many of us are reeling in the midst of that change. We are experiencing changes in the world’s balance of power. We are being confronted by religious world views that are absolutely alien to our enlightenment vision. Terrorism and suicide bombers, violence in our streets and cities, morality and decency being assaulted by everything from dog-fighting to music, to fashion. Our age has seen a loss of heroes and role models. The times “they are a changin’” I was in an antique store this summer going through some books and other things, when I came upon an world atlas. It was about 30-35 years old. As I paged through it, I could not get over how useless it was. Boundaries have changed. Names of countries have changed. Indeed, it brought home to me that we are in the midst of rapid change.

Think about it: 30 years ago, did we think that the Berlin wall would fall? That China would become a capitalist economic power? That computers would be in almost every home? That cable t.v. would give us more than channels 3,6, and 10? That the majority of people would be carrying around cell phones… Yet these changes have brought about destruction and even chaos. They have challenged values, social institutions and the way life was lived. The times they are a changing.

One of the little books that came out about 10 years ago was called Who Moved My Cheese. The message of the book’s fable was that change happens, and that human beings need to be able to anticipate and adapt to it. But the question, “Who moved my cheese?” was never answered by the book.. Jeremiah’s answer to that question is that behind the changes that we are experiencing, is God, the divine mover. God, who in the words of the prophet is plucking up, pulling down, destroying, and overthrowing.

III

Hope: The message does not end here, If it did, we would be given totally to despair. No! At the heart of this message is hope. This is but the beginning of God’s re-creation. God is rebuilding…. Jeremiah was not a prophet of doom and gloom.. Jeremiah was a prophet of genuine hope…. But hope for anything new also means the loss of the old. The message of the bible echoes this: The Hebrew people learned that there is no promised land without leaving Egypt and without wandering in the wilderness. The disciples of Christ discover that there is no resurrection without the crucifixion, that is at the heart of Christian faith.

The Chinese proverb: “May you live in interesting times” is often thought to be the curse of our age. These are interesting times. How are we going to understand them? I do not believe that the world is going to “hell in a hand basket!” We will see destruction and loss. Change will continue to occur. We will experience the shaking of the foundations…. But if we look carefully, we will see that it is God who is shaking the foundations of our lives.. We will live with hope, because we know that this is but the cycle of divine construction… the change and destruction that we experience now is a prelude to the planting and building up that will occur… this is the promise of the prophet Jeremiah…. It is the promise that we know in Jesus Christ… it is the promise we should hold on to as we live in these interesting times. It is the promise of God: “Behold, I make all things new.” This is the good news. Amen.

*The New Revised Standard Version Bible, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers) 1989.

Abington Presbyterian Church, Abington, Pennsylvania,  www.apcusa.org