Jeremiah 29:11 won't save us

Jeremiah 29:1, 4-14

            Do you know what is the most popular biblical verse among millennials? John 3:16? Nope. The 23^rd Psalm? Nuh uh. Genesis 1:1, John 1:1, Philippians 4:13, Romans 8:28, Psalm 46:1, Hebrews 11:1? Not. A. One. Of. Them.

            The most popular verse among millennials is Jeremiah 29:11 and it isn’t that close. “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.” It sounds so pleasant, so promising. It’s exactly what we want to hear. It’s also badly misused.

            Let’s keep reading starting with Jeremiah 29:12: “Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart, I will let you find me, says the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.”

            If you assume that everything is about you, then it’s easy enough to start thinking that you have been sent into exile proverbially; that you are being gathered in by God so you’re your fortunes will be restored—whatever that means. The problem is that God is not speaking metaphorically here because God is not speaking to us—at least that’s not the clearest understanding of this passage. He is speaking to Israel. I’m guessing you might hear this differently when you know it’s addressed to Israel and not to you: “I know the plans I have for you… plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.” The most legitimate gripe leveled against millennials is that we make everything about us. I think that can be unfair, but in this case we are guilty; this scripture is not about us. Period.

            Of course this does not mean that God doesn’t have plans for you, and it does not mean that God is uninterested in your welfare or with giving you a future with hope. I’m not saying that, but I am saying that God’s promise in Jeremiah is a promise for a nation, and we need to be careful not to get in the habit of twisting the Bible to make it about us in order to make us feel better. This becomes a problem when our faith lies in verses like Jeremiah 29:11. Now, I’d rather you have faith because of this passage than because of watching the news. All scripture can be useful. However, I have found it a little disconcerting that we sometimes seem to put our trust in verses like these more than we trust in Jesus, more than we trust in the redeeming power of the cross. If you are looking for assurance that your life will mean something don’t look to sayings of prophets, look to Jesus. The prophets are in the Bible to point us to Jesus; not the other way around. If you’re desperate for a promise that it will all be OK look to Jesus. On this Christ the King Sunday don’t make it about Jeremiah; make it about Jesus.

            Jeremiah 29:11 is a great verse, but it has been so badly misused that it’s hard to know what to do with it. Some of this is the church’s fault. We tell confirmation students to pick a Confirmation verse. Pick a single verse. Make the Bible into a piecemeal collection of feel-good sound bites. When we do this we imply that the way to be Christian is to come up with a few good passages to post on our Facebook walls, on our Instagram posts with soaring mountains in the background, or to stick on the bumpers of our cars, or on posters in our bedrooms. Because of this we incentivize verses that neatly encapsulate the faith. None of this is a problem, except it can be very superficial. The Christian faith is not about simply quoting an assortment of Bible verses, and then re-hashing them for anybody who will listen. There are worse things to do than memorize Bible verses, but it's to being Christian like a menu is to eating; it just gives you an impression of a thing but it doesn't give you an experience of it.

            Instead, to be a follower of Jesus is to take the whole picture, which, in this case, involves struggling with God who moves with Israel into exile. It’s wrestling with this God who no longer serves a chosen people in a specific place. It’s imagining what Jeremiah’s hard words for Israel might mean for us. It’s coming to an understanding of why Jesus needed to come, of why the people always chose poorly, of the endgame for sin in the world. None of that is going to fit on a bumper sticker; it’s much harder work than that.

            Still, if you need comfort and Jeremiah 29:11 does that for you then you’re not doing it wrong. There is no formula here; God speaks to all of us in different ways; and all of us need different things. I suspect many of us need to be challenged; we need to be pushed to deepen our faith and to give more of ourselves to things that matter and we need to make our faith mean something more in our day-to-day lives. But others really just need that comfort; we need that promise that everything is going to be OK. This is what scripture does: It both convicts and comforts; it is law and gospel.

            It is whatever you need when you actually need it. Mostly, it shows us Jesus. One way or another on this, Christ the King Sunday, I hope you see Jesus, whether in Jeremiah or wherever you find him, because ultimately it doesn’t matter what scripture does or says except that it makes Jesus Christ known to you. That is the ultimately where Jeremiah is pointing.