Hope in Our Exile

Jordan Decker

A Thrill of Hope • Sermon • Submitted 3 years ago

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Announcements

Elf Hunt - LS come early at 5:30 (help with traffic)

Tissues and M&M’s - drop off

Praise Band caroling on Dec. 19 - starting at PV Nursing Home (encouraging posters), follow along (in own cars)

Opening Prayer

Isaiah 61:1-4:

Sermon

Visiting Lake Tahoe - little differences - till in the same country, but we sure knew we weren’t home!

Though we may enjoy traveling, it can be a relief to get back to familiarity… but imagine people who don’t get a choice...

We may be surprised to find out that Jesus and his parents can identify with refugees in our day, but that’s exactly what we find in Matthew 2:13-18:

Matt’s OT quote is directly linked to Bethlehem children, but also ties to holy family’s exile… Let’s look at Jeremiah 31:15, the prophecy Matthew pulls from:

Jeremiah = in the shadow of Assyrian invasion and captivity. Rachel and Ramah...

We are told that we, also, are in exile… not a physical one, but a spiritual one:

The Scriptures tell us what we know deep down: we are not where we really belong.

Have you ever felt this? Maybe it happens differently for each of us - happens more at certain times than others...

The author of Hebrews 13:14 reminds us:

BUT, Jeremiah was not done yet! Those old prophets rarely ended on such a note. Check out what follows in Jeremiah 31:16-17:

There would be a long road ahead… but their exile would not last forever. A day would come when Rachel’s children would come home!

That “big” promise and hope - return - came to the holy family in Egypt as well, but also other signs of God’s gracious activity in their situation:

Gifts of the wise men = provision for stay in Egypt.

Jesus “Immanuel” = presence during stay in Egypt.

The life we live in our world is actually a lot like someone who has wandered in an unfamiliar place for a long time:

But God gives a hope for our future and a promise of return!

While we have been wanderers in exile, we are also on our way back.

Today’s story helps us count on two other things as well.

First, we hope in God’s providence:

God provides what we need while we are on the journey.

Have you ever been in a situation when you don’t have what you need? How about when you did have it?

God doesn’t do us that way; he provides what we need to live in the waiting...

Next, we can hope in God’s presence:

God enters into our exile to be with us while we wait.

Incarnation of Jesus = greatest demonstration of this amazing truth!

Thinking of hope for the future may get you thinking of some familiar words in Jeremiah 29:11:

But let’s zoom back a bit to Jeremiah 29:4-7 and Jeremiah 29:10-14 and listen to what God was really saying through Jeremiah in that passage:

“Hope for the future” only comes because the present is less than ideal! Hope comes in the exile; it doesn’t erase it...

What, then, should we do? We listen to God’s call and we do more than simply make it through the captivity… we work and flourish where we are in the meantime.

One day we will get back where we belong, but until that day comes God asks us to work to bring some sense of belonging wherever we find ourselves.

The hope in our exile is the promise that one day we will find ourselves back where we belong, even if the road ahead is a long one. It is the promise that God will provide everything we need along the way, including his wondrous presence “with us” and changing us as we go. It is a hope that helps us eagerly and joyfully wait for the return and it helps us live and flourish, here and now, even as we wait.

Closing Prayer

1 Thessalonians 5:16-24:

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