Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7, 10-13 (New Century Version)
A Letter to the Captives in Babylon
This is the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the elders who were among the captives, the priests, and the prophets. He sent it to all the other people Nebuchadnezzar had taken as captives from Jerusalem to Babylon.....
This is what the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says to all those people I sent away from Jerusalem as captives to Babylon: “Build houses and settle in the land. Plant gardens and eat the food they grow. Get married and have sons and daughters. Find wives for your sons, and let your daughters be married so they also may have sons and daughters. Have many children in Babylon; don’t become fewer in number. Also do good things for the city where I sent you as captives. Pray to the Lord for the city where you are living, because if good things happen in the city, good things will happen to you also.”.....
This is what the Lord says: “I will come to you, and I will keep my promise to bring you back to Jerusalem. 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. Then you will call my name. You will come to me and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will search for me. And when you search for me with all your heart, you will find me!”
Today's sermon was a Congregational Discussion sermon. We are embarking on a process of re-visioning ourselves. We are a small but passionate congregation which has found itself, like many churches in recent years, spending more and more of our time, energy, and funds maintaining a building which is too large for our needs. We have come to believe that this is distracting us from the work God is calling us to do, which is to be, in some way, out in our wider community, serving the needs of God's people. We do not know what form that ministry will take but we are praying and listening and talking together. Today is only the first of several such conversations -- but one thing is clear already: Whatever we do, wherever we go we will do it together, with God's help.
These are the questions we used as conversation starters. I quite frankly stole them from the Hope/Mission Pathways webpage:
1. What is God up to in the world?
2. What does our congregation have that God can use?
3. Who is our neighbor?
4. If we are faithful to God, how will our community look different?
5. What are we called to initiate and what are we called to give up?
We will continue the conversation next week.
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