Shane Hughes 11-30-25

As you're able, please stand or assume a posture of worship for the reading of the Word this morning. The reading is for Jeremiah, chapter 33.

The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will fulfill the good promise that I made to the people of Israel and of Judah in those days. And at that time I will make a righteous branch sprout from David's line. He will do what is just and right in the land in those days, Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety.

This is the name by which it will be called, the Lord, our righteous Savior. The word of the Lord. Please be seated.

Good morning, everyone. It's so good to be here with you. I heard today is the day of substitutes at your church. A lot of people are substituting because a lot of people are out of pocket and I'm the substitute and my name is Sarah Barton. I'm a chaplain at Baylor University and have known Highland Church of Christ for so long.

So many great relationships and deep relationships represented in this room. Cynthia, who read Scripture, is my sister in law. So I've been acquainted with her the longest of anybody. And it's just so lovely to be here with you today. As we move from the season we've been in, a season of thankfulness and a season of gratitude, and we turn ourselves to the season of Advent.

I can't imagine really a day I would rather be your substitute than on the first day of Advent. I love this season of the year, many followers of Jesus all over this world will be reading the same passage we have just heard read and that we'll be talking about today. They read it in Uganda about nine hours ago and they read it in Jerusalem about six hours ago. And God's people will read this passage in Hawaii in about four hours from now all over the world. And here we are in Abilene, Texas, gathered around these holy, holy, holy words.

If you like having your Bible open, today is a good day to have your Bible open. I like to read a lot of the Bible when I preach. And we're going to start in Jeremiah 32 and we're going to make our way to Jeremiah 33. So that's a good place to open your Bible and find your place or your app. What is it?

Whatever it is, however it is that you follow along. We'll also have words up on the screen and I will say that like, even with all the prayer and thought and intentionality I put into what we could say in this short time together, I can't possibly cover it all. And So I just encourage you this afternoon when you get home, or at some point this week, going back and read this entire section of Jeremiah. It's just one of the most wonderful parts of Scripture. I love it, love it, love it, and I'm grateful we get to talk about it today.

I will give credit before I begin. So I'm not giving foot notes all along the way that I really appreciated Christopher Wright's commentary on Jeremiah, and it helped me a lot to prepare for this sermon. So if you like commentaries, I suggest that's a good one on Jeremiah. So there was a time in my life I had this friend. And she was just in a time of her life when she was desperately praying for guidance and she needed hope, maybe like she had not needed hope before.

I won't go into details of her whole life situation, but it wasn't one of those seasons where she didn't know whether she should stay or she should go, she should keep trying what she was trying or just give up. She didn't know whether to hold on to the purpose that she just really knew God had called her to and had for her, or maybe God was calling her to a different purpose. And so for a variety of reasons, her situation felt desperate and she was just so tired. Maybe you've been there before, you've been through a season like that before, or maybe you are in a season like that right now. We have these seasons in life.

So every day when my friend woke up in her apartment in Detroit, she looked out her windows and up to the sky and she just prayed those fervent prayers for God's help. And it was winter. The leaves on the trees were gone. The skies are bleak. I lived in the Detroit area for 12 years.

Skies can become bleak in the winter. Michigan. And while she prayed, she noticed a stray plastic Walmart bag sticking to the high line wire outside her window. The wind blew, the snow fell. Days passed, weeks passed, months passed.

And that stubborn Walmart bag stayed and stayed and stayed. So while my friend was hanging on by a thread, she began to see that plastic bag as this strange message from God. She would come to work and tell me it's still there. So as long as that bag stayed on that wire, she held on and. And she continued to pray.

And she prayed for the strength to get through her troubles. And she prayed for the courage to know how to get. How to know what to hold onto and what to let go of. And by the time spring came and that bag eventually did disappear, she was in a place where she could hope again. Now I remember that story all these years later.

I texted my friend this week and said, am I telling this story right? And she said, yes, I remember the Walmart bag. So I remember this story all these years later because how she waited and wrestled and hoped faithfully. She was so faithful and such a good example to me in that time. I remember it because of how she could see something as a symbol.

In the Scarlet Letter. There's a rose bush in the Hunger Games. There's a Mockingjay pin in Shawshank Redemption. There's a poster of Rita Hayworth for Noah. There's a dove with an olive branch for Jesus there.

There's a fig tree sprouting leaves. When you're holding on through a storm, sometimes we human beings need something to hold onto. Something physical, something real. Something real that's a symbol. For Jeremiah, it was a field, a physical piece of property, a field.

To understand why that field was so important, let's just imagine this little time traveling drone with a camera that takes us through time and space. And we find ourselves flying over the small little kingdom of Judah six whole centuries before Jesus walked this earth. And we're flying over Judah and we see smoke rising over here and smoke rising over there. A vineyard on fire, olive groves burning farmland, crops all being invaded by soldiers, all being destroyed by invading soldiers. It's a war tactic.

And we fly even lower, we go lower still and we see Jerusalem. And Jerusalem is under siege, surrounded on all sides. The city walls are surrounded on all sides by the armies of Babylon. In Jerusalem, they're holding on by a thread. And so the drone takes us lower still and we see the palace.

The palace built by David's son Solomon in better years. And it still stands. And we go in and we zoom in a little closer still again. And we hover over the courtyard of the palace where the prophet Jeremiah under arrest by order of the king of Judah, Zedekiah. So here we are with Jeremiah, who at this point has spent years preaching a message of warning to Zedekiah the king.

This city is doomed. Wake up. This city is doomed. Wake up and you are doomed to. You better wake up.

See chapters 21, 27, 32, 34, 37, 38 and more. Jeremiah repeats himself so much, the king just locks him up to shut him up. Shut up. That guy. Enter Jeremiah's uncle's son Hahnemel with a strange request for his this would be his first cousin.

Chapter 2, 32, verse 8. By my field, since it's your right to redeem and possess it, buy it for yourself by this field. Now, the Israelites, familiar with their own land laws and the way things worked with land, would have known this is what, what is maybe not automatically obvious to us. This request was not an appropriate request. It was maybe self serving.

It was maybe manipulative. This was clear. Land was not a commercial commodity. Land was a family legacy and Hahnemel was messing with it. Maybe if you've ever inherited a family farm, you understand this.

You know, land is a family legacy. It's not just commercial property. There's something in the dirt, there's something in the soil, there's something the family in the land. So what Hahnemel was doing was disloyal to the family. And considering Babylon's takeover of the land, to be frank, it was stupid to spend money on land.

Nebuchadnezzar's army had probably already looted anything of value on that land. They had probably already burned anything of value on that land. And Jeremiah knew the truth. All the land would be confiscated and the people would be taken into exile. There are times to buy real estate and there are times to refrain from buying real estate.

Reminds me of George Strait. I've got ocean front property in Arizona and if you'll buy that, I'll throw the Golden Gate in free. Location, location, location. This simply was not a smart real estate deal. Nevertheless, Jeremiah agrees and he buys this land from his cousin.

Now if you've ever bought property, you probably remember this feeling how many times you have to sign your name on legal documents. Your hand almost gets a cramp in it. Well, Jeremiah does his culture's equivalent of what they had to do to buy land. The deeds are written, they are copied, they are signed, they are witnessed, and they are sealed. So while all this is happening, I just have to wonder if people around are muttering and say, this guy has lost his mind.

Why is he buying this land? Why is he buying this field? And it's only after the legalities are all signed, sealed, delivered, that Jeremiah explains Himself. Chapter 32, verse 14. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says, Take these documents, both the sealed and unsealed copies of the deed of purchase, and put them in a clay jar.

So they're going to last for a long time. For this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says, houses, fields and vineyards will again be bought in this land. And what follows is a beautiful consoling exchange between Jeremiah and the Lord. And I'm going to read through parts of it, skipping through a bit Jeremiah prays verse 17. Lord, sovereign God, it is you who made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched army.

Nothing is too hard for you, nothing is too hard for the Lord. Jeremiah's prayer starts with praise, which really we all ought to start our prayers with praise. And he keeps going in verse 21, you brought your people out of Egypt with signs and wonders, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and with great terror you gave them this land you had sworn to give their ancestors, a land flowing with milk and honey. Again, this is praise. More and more praise for who the Lord is, for what the Lord God has done.

Now we read how God's people responded to how God, all that the Lord God had done for them. Going down to verse 23, they came in and took possession of the land, but they did not obey you or follow your law. They did not do what you commanded them to do, so you brought all this disaster on them. See how the siege ramps are built up to take the city. Because of the sword and famine and plague, the city will be given over into the hands of the Babylonians who are attacking it.

And this is where Jeremiah really gets to the point in verse 25. And though the city will be given into the hands of the Babylonians, you, sovereign Lord, say to me, buy the field. Buy the field with silver and have the transaction witnessed. And later on in the chapter, the promise of the field is made ever more clear. Verse 37.

I will bring them back to this place and let them live in safety, and they will be my people, and I will be their God. Verse 43. Fields will again be bought in this land. I hope the point is clear. This field represents a promise.

It's a symbol. It's a symbol of hope that the land, this land that meant so much, their land is this land that's being burned and being conquered and being lost will be found. This land will be restored. And so we turn the page to chapter 33, verse 12. We heard Cynthia read some of this earlier.

This consoling passage that is selected for advent, that people all over the world are turning their attention to today, a consoling passage where the Lord makes more promises about the future. This is what the Lord Almighty says. In this place, desolate and without people or animals, in all its towns there will again be pastures for shepherds to rest their flocks. The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the good promise I made to the people of Israel and Judah in those days. And at that time I will make a righteous branch sprout from David's line.

He will do what is just. He will do what is right in the land. So the field is a symbol of hope. A righteousness branch sprouting up is another symbol of hope. So my husband John, and I are baby Texans.

For all of you Texans out there, we have been living in Waco for two months. So I'm calling myself a baby Texan. But previously, before we moved to Waco, we lived in Southern California for over a decade. And in that time, we lived through, as I'm sure you've seen on the news or some of you have experienced, we lived through two wildfires that destroyed everything for acres and acres around our condo complex. So this is a picture that was in the New York Times one year ago in December, one year ago.

And you see these firefighters. And in the background is our condo complex. And there are actually a couple of young men here with me today. Maddox and Henry. Henry's a student at acu.

Maddox is a student at Lubbock Christian University. And it was Henry who. When? That night, we were in bed. It was late at night, and Henry was staying up later than his parents told him to stay up.

If we want to tell the truth. Sorry, Henry. Henry was the one who was up. And he noticed and looked out the windows and got his parents up and said, this looks like a big one, a big fire. And he came and he pounded on the door of our condo and said, come out here and look.

And we all got outside, and then we started getting all the warnings. There was a significant fire a year ago. So this is a picture of that. Thankfully, our homes were spared. Not everybody could say that there was a lot of devastation.

And I just would say, in a room this size, this is a difficult subject. So, you know, forgive me for talking about fire, natural disasters. These things can be hard for us in some ways. I get it. And Henry and Maddox and I get it.

After those fires, everything was black. Trees, grass. There are a lot of prickly pears in Southern California. Like, you all have a lot of prickly pears in Texas. And even the prickly pears would just melt and were just brown.

It looked like a moonscape. Those were dark and difficult days. Loss of property for many people. Wildlife was affected. The deer, the rabbits.

And the air smelled like a dirty ashtray. For weeks, our house smelled like an ashtray. We wore masks. I had to get an inhaler for the first time in my life because my lungs were affected. And hope was just hard on those days.

It's hard in these areas where you just live through these things again and again. And then about a month after the fire, I was out hiking and I took this picture.

This is one of my favorite pictures I've ever taken with my little iPhone. Grass sprouting again. Hope a righteous branch sprouting up from the house of David. Hope a Walmart bag blowing in the wind and making it through the winter. Hope a dove returning with an olive branch.

Hope the deed for a field tucked away in a clay jar. Hope whatever is going on in your life, and I know that there are difficult personal challenges. There are difficult challenges for so many of us. Some of you are sitting here today with a lot of hard things going on in your life, in our lives together, communally. We all know the difficulties going on in our world are very real right now.

And it's felt that way for quite a while. If you don't really have big problems in your own life, all you have to do is listen to your neighbors, love your neighbor. A lot of people are experiencing hopelessness. There's even an emerging concept in mental health studies called hope fatigue. Hope fatigue.

And I learned about it because I am a chaplain for young people for college students. And hope fatigue is the highest among 18 to 29 year olds. So it's helpful to hear what Jeremiah said, even if it's hard to hear what Jeremiah said. It's helpful. Nothing is too hard for the Lord.

Can you hear Jeremiah repeating that refrain for us all these centuries and all this distance later? Nothing is too tired is too hard for our Lord. Nothing is too hard for our Lord. Nothing is too hard for our Lord. Maybe we need to say it over and over so we'll actually believe it.

During Advent, many Christians bring out a wreath like you did today, and we light the candle. Just look over there at that candle that we lit today. The candle of hope will light others. Hope, joy, peace, love. The Jesus Candle this week, we hope.

Now, let me be clear. This is no toxic positivity candle we're lighting. It's not just spreading Christmas cheer for all to hear, as if cheer is the only story. This section of Jeremiah is hopeful, but it's kind of like a Walmart bag blowing in the wind. On the whole landscape of Jeremiah and Lamentations, this is stubborn hope.

This is gritty hope. This is apocalyptic hope. This is hope that knows sometimes we are exhausted by hope.

The book of Jeremiah is the second longest book in the Bible. Only Psalms is longer. And 95% of the whole Book of Jeremiah is a heavy barrage of doom and gloom. And Jeremiah uses every genre we study in literature class to get his message of doom and gloom across. And judgment.

Poetry about judgment, prose about judgment, sermons about judgment, oracles of judgment, historical accounts about judgment, prophecy about judgment, prayers about judgment. Jeremiah mourns and weeps and grieves and lashing out. That's why he got the nickname the Weeping Prophet. He's given that nickname for a reason. And on the landscape of all those tears and gloom and doom and judgment, that's where we find our passage, our advent passage for today in a little section of Jeremiah called the book of Consolation.

Hope. The book of Consolation. A Walmart bag blowing in the wind. The deed of for a field buried in a clay jar. A dead branch sprouting to life again.

And here we are, all of us. Let that little time traveling drone with its camera find us at this point in God's history. Lord, let your light shine on us. Here we are, gathered and reading all of this as followers of Jesus in 2025, Abilene, Texas, first day of Advent. And I have a practical challenge for you over the next four weeks as we make our way to Christmas.

Find your Walmart bag. I'll bet nobody's ever told you that before. Find your Walmart bag. Look out your window. Look up to the sky.

Look up from your phone. Look for something that catches your eye. Look into the fields. Find an olive branch, a star in the sky, a leaf falling from a tree, a blade of grass. And whatever your Walmart bag is, let it remind you that nothing is too hard for our Lord.

The point is not to fixate on the thing, the symbol, the Walmart bag. The point is to let that thing point you to the faithful work of our God in this world. Nothing is too hard for the Lord. He still fulfills promises. Our God is trustworthy.

Our hope is in a God who came in the form of a baby in a manger. Who would have thought that a baby could save this whole world? Nothing is too hard for our God. That is the season we enter today. So I'm going to ask you if you're ready to enter this season with me, with the church, with those reading this text all over the world.

If you're ready to find your Walmart bag, please stand with me as we pray.

Lord our God, we start with praise as Jeremiah did.

You have done so much for us.

Mighty acts. Open our eyes to remember them, open our eyes to see them. Lord, we declare, nothing is too hard for you. So Though we are often exhausted by hope, we look to you as our source of hope. Thank you for your help, Faithfulness, and help us renew our trust in you this Advent season.

Thank you.

Thank you, Sarah. Powerful word today. It's what. It's what we needed to hear. Amen.

It is good for us to be together. Sarah has been one of the coaches of a preaching court that I've been a part of. And it's been a real joy to learn from her about the task and the skill and the craft of preaching. I'm grateful that she is a friend of mine and a friend to this church. You are already standing.

Please receive this benediction. Hope will not fail, so hold closely to God. May you go in love and go in peace.