{"id":804,"date":"2020-05-14T14:53:57","date_gmt":"2020-05-14T13:53:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uniofglos.blog\/chaplaincy\/?p=804"},"modified":"2020-05-14T14:53:57","modified_gmt":"2020-05-14T13:53:57","slug":"hope-for-the-exiles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/chaplaincy\/2020\/05\/14\/hope-for-the-exiles\/","title":{"rendered":"Hope for the exiles"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Here is the reading and the reflection from today’s Communion. I mention in it a lovely video of someone telling the story of the exile for children and all ages, which you can see here<\/a>. There is also a very helpful reflection on ‘Practices of resistance’ which we can use in this time, which you can read here<\/a>. It ends with a mention of the hope Jeremiah was called to live out. Enjoy!<\/p>\n\n\n\n


These are some words from the letter the prophet Jeremiah sent to the Israelites who had been captured and taken into exile in Babylon…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This is what the Lord says: \u2018When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfil my good promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you,\u2019 declares the Lord, \u2018plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,\u2019 declares the Lord, \u2018and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,\u2019 declares the Lord, \u2018and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n


One of the things we\u2019ve been noticing is that in this strange time when some things are changing so slowly, how we feel can change a lot. Our moods may fluctuate between stoicism and misery, between appreciation of some of the unexpected gifts and dismay when we face the challenging reality once again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week I read something about this being a time of exile,\nand it struck a chord with me. We\u2019re not necessarily in physical exile – most\nof us are at home. But we may well be in exile from the lives we know. Most of\nus are still not going into work, or meeting up with friends or family. Our\nuniversity campuses are like ghost towns, and our chaplaincy spaces – the\nplaces where we love to welcome students and staff and create communities – are\nsilent and empty. Our churches are still closed – and we don\u2019t know when we\nwill be able to gather again and what it will be like. When will we be able to\nsing together again? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was reminded of a psalm, psalm 137. It was written at the\ntime when many of the Israelites had been captured and taken off into exile in\nBabylon, a long way from Jerusalem and all that they knew. Their captors asked\nthem to sing one of their songs to them, but they couldn\u2019t – \u2018How can we sing\nthe Lord\u2019s song in a strange land?\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Jewish exiles thought that they had lost everything – they\ncould no longer go to the temple, they could no longer meet together for their\ncelebrations and services, they were kept away from the land they loved. But out\nof that time of loss and despair came great creativity. It\u2019s thought that many\nof the Hebrew Scriptures were first written down during this time, because the\nJewish people wanted to remember their stories, and their way of life, and what\nwas at the heart of their faith –  what\nit meant to be God\u2019s people<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s something that we may have been doing to. What does it\nmean to be the church if we can\u2019t go to church. In the church Sarah and I belong\nto we\u2019ve been thinking about that for a little longer, since our church was\nclosed for reordering after Christmas – and maybe we are discovering a new\nsense of what it means to be the church together. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe that\u2019s true in some ways for us as a Chaplaincy too. We\nare finding new ways to pray for each other and support each other. As a team\nwe are doing more together – not separated by our different campuses, but part\nof one sequence of prayer and reflection throughout the week. We are learning\nto sing the Lord\u2019s song in a strange land. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe some of us as individuals have had time to think about\nwho we are and what is really important to us as well, in a way that may remain\nimportant to us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it isn\u2019t easy. We don\u2019t want to stay in this place of exile.\nWe long for a way back to what is familiar – and the very cautious announcements\nabout easing the lockdown make us impatient and unsettled. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part of the gift of the time in exile for the Israelites was\nhearing new voices of hope. The great promises of the prophet Isaiah that God\nwould lead his people back through the desert – and the letter which Jeremiah\nwrote to the exiles, which we read from today. Those words have often been\nshared as a sign of encouragement. When Sarah spent a difficult year in Italy\nafter university she was sent them by her dear friend Maggie. \u2018I know the plans\nI have for you\u2019 says the Lord,\u2019 plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans\nto give you hope and a future.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They may be words that you want to spend time with. I was\nreminded this week that whenever we start thinking anxiously about the future,\nit helps to remember that God is already there in that future. Whatever will\ncome, he will be there – and his desire is for our flourishing, for our\nblessing, for our growing into abundant life. These words invite us to find\nwithin ourselves a sense of that ultimate trustworthiness of God, supporting us\nin our uncertainty, and helping us to face the future with trust and hope. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And maybe we can learn something else from the exiles.\nJeremiah\u2019s letter advised them not just to think about the future, but to live in\nthe present. Even in exile they were to build houses and live in them, plant\ngardens and harvest their fruit, marry and have children, and pray for the\nwelfare of the city where they now lived. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even apart from so much that they loved, they could know the\ngoodness and blessing of God. That was a lesson that stayed with them. There\u2019s\na lovely YouTube video which I\u2019ll share with you, of someone telling the story\nof the exile for all ages, using sand, and little wooden figures. We see the people\ntaken away from their home. We see a chain thrown across the sand to symbolise\ntheir separation. And then, after 70 years, there is a new ruler and they are\nallowed to go back home. And most do – with great rejoicing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But some stay behind, in Babylon, because they have\ndiscovered that the God of their ancestors, the God of the promised land and\nthe temple and their home in Israel, can be God with them wherever they are.\nAnd now they have the scriptures with the stories and the record of their\npeople\u2019s laws and beliefs to take with them wherever they are. So Judaism\nbecame a religion with followers scattered around the whole ancient world, and\nnow all around the globe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m sure that there are things we have learnt and ways of\ndoing things that will go on being important when things have moved on. And underneath\nall of this, I think that maybe the invitation for us at the moment is to\ndiscover more deeply the God who is with us wherever we are, and whatever is\nhappening – even when we feel like we are in exile. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mother Julian reminds us that God is always our \u2018homeliest\nhome\u2019. And this is not just one way. She says about Jesus that in us is his\nhome of homes. We will always be in one sense travellers through this world –\nstrangers and exiles – because we sense another home calling deep within us.  But even here God calls us to make our home in\nhim, as he makes his home in us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we come to pray, you may like to be quiet for a moment,\nand know that you are at home in him, and he is at home in you…<\/p>\n\n\n\n