Which plan are you now on? Plan B, C, D, L, Q, Z? It feels like whenever I’ve made a plan during the last week, it needs to be changed every couple of hours. Last weekend we gathered in this place for worship with some precautionary modifications, and at the end of the service I said, “We’ll continue to have worship services until we no longer are allowed to do so.” A couple of hours later came the “no assemblies over 50 people.” On Tuesday afternoon I sat down to write the letter to our members that we would be cancelling public worship services until further notice. I typed the words, “assemblies of 50 people” and by the time I got done writing the letter, I had to change it to, “assemblies of 10 people.” If you have school-aged children, how often have your plans changed over the last two weeks? Suddenly you find yourself searching for childcare which you thought you had all figured out. Some of you are now working from home, your hours at work have been reduced and maybe you’re wondering if you’ll have a job in the coming weeks. Vacations and doctor’s appointments have been rescheduled or cancelled. Maybe you find yourself separated from loved ones that you regularly saw or spent time with. You can’t help but begin to wonder, “What’s next?” and maybe even, “Where is the Lord is in all of this? Lord, what’s your plan?”
If you find yourself with those thoughts and feelings, you’re certainly not alone. These words were written to people who may have felt that way. In Jeremiah 29:11, “’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’” (Jeremiah 29:11). While those words might by familiar to you, do you actually know when and to whom they were written? This is part of a letter that the Lord had the prophet Jeremiah write around the year 600 BC to a small group of Jews who were now living in Babylon, about 400 miles to the east of Jerusalem. These Jews living in Babylon were not living there by choice. They were exiles. The Babylonians had come and ripped them away from their families and friends, forced them to leave their jobs and their homes, and to live in a culture and world that was completely new and foreign to them. This was certainly not anything that any one of those Jews living in Babylon had planned or wanted! You can imagine how often these exiles must have wondered, “What’s next? Has the Lord forgotten about us? Lord, do you even have a plan for us any longer?”
Well, if you thought that self-quarantining for a few weeks is a long time, in the previous verses the Lord told these exiles in Babylon to get comfortable in their new surroundings, because they were going to be there for the next 70 years. But the Lord also assured them that what they were going through was part of his plan for them, a plan not to hurt or harm them. A plan with a purpose. What was that purpose? Three words: the Lord planned to prosper them, to provide hope and a future.
Do you feel like those exiles? I certainly have over the last few weeks. The world that we live in today is vastly different than the world we lived in even two weeks ago. How many of our plans have been upended? How many people’s dreams have been derailed? How many people are feeling scared and lonely, suddenly separated from loved ones and family members? The Lord comes to you this day and says, “I want you to know that I have a plan for you…plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” The Lord has a purpose for what we are going through.
I’ve heard a lot of people saying, “Don’t worry, we’ll get through this.” I appreciate their optimism and when it comes from a Christian, I am grateful for their encouragement to trust God’s promise that he will be with us and bring us through. But one of the things that I think we need to be careful of, is JUST getting through it. I think the bigger question is to ask is, “What is the Lord trying to TEACH us through this? What does God want us to learn from this?” Remember, the purpose of God’s plan is to prosper us.
Remember those Jews living in Babylon? The reason that they were there was because of their spiritual apathy towards the Lord. Many of God’s chosen people had become no different than their unbelieving neighbors. They ran after the gods of their friends. They bowed to the gods of selfishness and greed, injustice and violence, sexual sins and drunkenness. For the most part they had decided to do what THEY wanted to do, instead of trusting the Lord and his goodness. And as their lives went along, they thought that they didn’t really need the Lord. The Lord sent prophet after prophet, calling people to repent of their sin, to return to the Lord and to receive the forgiveness of their sins that he offered through the promised Savior, but they refused. Finally, the Lord did something drastic, something painful that he hoped would get their attention and bring them back to him. He allowed them to be carried off into exile, hoping that this would lead them to recognize the weakness of the gods they relied upon, that they would repent of the sins they had committed, and return to him so that they would have the hope and the future he wanted them to have.
The Lord has the same prospering plans for us and our world today. A few weeks ago, as the pandemic began moving its way across Europe, I remember thinking to myself, “I can’t believe what I’m seeing. Are they really shutting down airports and museums and sporting events and playing in empty arenas and stadiums?” And I think that like a lot of people I thought, that would never happen here. Where did such confidence come from? A strong stock market and economy? The fact that I can’t remember something like this ever happening before? That I could still go to the grocery store and find food? That our 1st world medical technology would never allow something like that to happen? How humbling this situation has been! With a few rogue cells the world as we know it has been brought to a standstill.
Could it be that the Lord is calling us to take a look at what we are relying on for security and strength? As the Psalmist would ask and then answer, “I lift up my eyes to the mountains-- where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth” (Psalm 121:1-2). How often has the Lord’s powerful hand been pushed away because we thought we did not need his help or his holding up? It is when we see our weaknesses, when our plans for the future are derailed, that we quickly realize that any hope and any future that relies on us is at best unstable and always temporary.
While people are quick to ask at times like these, “Where is the Lord?” maybe the better question to ask, “Where have we been? What have we been doing?” And what do we see? Like those exiles in Babylon, we too often realize that we also have run after the gods of our neighbors, blending in with the world around us instead of being the light in this dark world. That we have been seduced by the gods of greed and selfishness, sex and entertainment – gods that have led us into sin. “Christian” becomes a label that we claim when convenient but don’t really know what the Bible says or allow it to affect our decisions or the lives that we choose to live. Yes, the Lord uses these times to call us to repentance, to identify our sin and turn to the Lord, and what does the Lord say to you today, “I know the plans I have for you… and I want you to be sure that my plan includes you.”
You see, the Lord’s plan has always included you, you spending eternity with him, not in this world of sickness and fear and sadness, but an eternity in perfection, peace and safety with him. God’s plan did not rely on you, but instead it relied solely on him sending his Son Jesus to come into this world to live the perfect life that life with God requires. God’s plan for you included Jesus going to the cross there to suffer and die for punishment that our sins deserved, so that we would never have to. God’s plan for you included Jesus rising from the dead to give us hope that we stand at peace with God through the forgiveness of our sins, and future that assures us that you are ready for heaven.
The Lord has a purpose for what he is allowing us to go through, a plan that is meant to prosper us, to teach us, to lead us back to the Lord that we might gain an even greater appreciation of the richness of our God’s grace and mercy, the power of his love and faithfulness. A plan that also helps to open up our eyes to the many blessings that we take for granted. I especially realize that this morning as I stand in an empty church. How often did we think on a Sunday morning, “I’ll go to church next week” just assuming that you’d be able to. This has certainly given me a greater appreciation of just being able to gather with my fellow Christians each week around our Savior’s gospel message of love and forgiveness. But it also has been a good reminder that church is much more than a building. Church is people – people who the Holy Spirit has brought just like me to trust in Jesus as their Savior from sin. While I can’t see you this morning, or shake your hand, I know that I am not alone. God has given us each other – fellow Christians. While our gatherings may be virtual, the blessings that God gives through his gospel message are still as real as ever, our hope and our future are solid and secure because they are built upon a God that no coronavirus can stop from doing what he has promised.
Yes, over the last seven days our plans have changed, but the Lord’s plan has not. His plans are still to prosper us, to give us hope and a future. May the Lord be with us and bless us as his plans are carried out in our lives, not just getting us through this, but helping people to learn from it, that we might come out of it more prosperous, more appreciative, stronger and more focused in our faith in the Lord whose plans are always good ones. Amen.
