We can buy the "whatever" we want today, and we do not need to have cash in our pocket. We can enjoy it now and pay for it later. We just put it on our credit card. But one of the realities of this credit-driven consumer economy is sooner or later the bills come due.

And this truth about commerce is also a profound truth reflected in the Bible. Consequences are a reality in life. This is the way life is. As my granddaddy used to say, "Sooner or later, somebody has to pay the fiddler." In giving Moses the Ten Commandments, God said: "I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting iniquity of the fathers upon the children of the third and fourth generations."^[2] The truth of this statement is known by anyone old enough to have observed how the sins of parents impact the lives of their children, their grandchildren, and even their great grandchildren. Consequences are a reality.

Jeremiah certainly knew this to be true. The passage we read today is from a letter Jeremiah wrote to the people who had been captured in Jerusalem and taken to Babylon to live in exile. Jeremiah understood that the defeat of Jerusalem and the exile of these people were part of the consequences of Jerusalem, and all of Judah for having ignored and gone against God's will. Rather than humbly obeying God and taking their modest role in history, they had tried to play the game of power politics, and the end result was they brought down on themselves the full might of the superpower of that day-Babylonia. And the result was the significant leaders who were not killed in the war were marched off to live out their days in Babylonian captivity.

Once in Babylon, these captives began to focus on the illusion that soon they would be rescued. They began to live in the fantasy world that they would not have to endure the consequences of their past.

This is our dream also; isn't it? We will win the lottery and pay off all the debt. Some unknown uncle will leave us a fortune. Some rescuer will appear on the scene, and we will not have to pay the debt or face the consequences of our yesterdays. Tomorrow we will begin to lose weight without it costing us the price of eating less and exercising more. This is something like the wishful thinking of the Judeans living in Babylonian captivity.

In the longer passage from which the few verses we read today were taken, Jeremiah told the people they were deceiving themselves if they thought they could escape the consequences of their past. And those who kept reinforcing the fantasy were going to have an even more terrible bill to pay. To deny the reality of consequences only leads to worse consequences.

So, how are we to live in this kind of world where consequences are a reality? This is the question for each generation because to some extent each generation is dealing the fallout of the sin of previous generations. A good example is sins of our ancestors expressed in the various forms of racism we have inherited as part of their legacy to us. If we do not deal with the consequences of our parents' and ancestors' sin in the right way, we add weight to the load of consequences we leave for our children and grandchildren.

Jeremiah was speaking to this reality when he wrote to the Jerusalem captives in Babylon, and in writing to them, he also speaks to us.

In part of the letter that we did not read aloud, Jeremiah told the captives to get on with living. They were going to be there at least a lifetime. They were to build houses, plant gardens, get married and have children. In the midst of the consequences of their past, they were to go on with life. Jeremiah knew that either living out of bitterness because of the past or nourishing false hope for the future prevents people from living in the present as God intends them to live. If my head and heart are so filled with bitterness about the consequences of my past sins or angry resentment because of the sins of others, then I am not going to be able to live and deal with those consequences as God intends. Nor will I be able to live as God intends if my head and my heart are filled with illusions and fantasies about somehow not having to deal with those consequences.

Jeremiah told the captives to face the reality of their situation and to get on with living, making the best of the consequences of their past.

But how can we do that? When we are caught in the consequences of what we have done, and most especially when we are enduring the consequences of what others have done, how can we deal with the temptation to become bitter and resentful about the past. When we are confronted with the consequences of our own choices and behavior, how can we deal with the temptation to live in some sort of denial, refusing to face reality and embracing fantasy and escapist illusions?

We are to focus on the message from God that Jeremiah shared with the captives in Babylon. "I have plans for you," says the Lord, "plans for your welfare. I am going to give you a future with hope."

Or as Paul told us: "God is for us and not against us."^[3] Even as we are paying the bills for the past, God is for us. The person who has committed crimes and is facing the consequences in prison is not abandoned by God. Even as that man or woman is enduring the consequences of his or her past, God is there, in the prison, offering that person what is needed to get on with life as God intends life to be lived-even while dealing with the consequences of his or her crime. In the prison and after the prison sentence is over, God is there. "I have a plan for you," says God, speaking to that prisoner, to those captives in Babylon and to each of us dealing with whatever consequences we are facing. "I have a plan for your welfare; I have a future with hope in it for you." This is the message from God that Jeremiah had for the captives and for us.

But how can we believe the message? How can we even be aware of God and open to this message? I cannot imagine any of us not wanting to receive and believe such a message from God. But how can we hear it as anything more than church talk from a remote Bible character or the ramblings of a Sunday morning preacher?

The answer is also in what Jeremiah wrote to those captives and to us. The translation we read today states it this way: "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." Or as it was stated in the King James translation and then put to marvelous music: "'If with all your heart you truly seek me, ye shall surely find me,' thus says the Lord."

This is the key to living as God intends: sincerely and earnestly seeking God. It is only when we really want to know God that we are in a position to get to know God. God may encounter us in special moments in some dramatic ways we cannot ignore, but there is a difference between being confronted by the reality of God, and being open to God, and striving to know God. I may bump into you in the hall so that I cannot help but notice you, but that is not the same thing as wanting to get to know you as a person.

To deal with the circumstances we are in, to live where we are-even in some Babylonian captivity-to live where we are as God intends, we must seek God.

And the promise of Jeremiah, and centuries later, the promise of Jesus, is that if we seek God, we will find God. Or perhaps what is really the case, if we will earnestly and sincerely seek God what we will discover is the God who has been seeking us a long time.

And this seeking of God, this living our lives, longing to be aware of God and aware of God's will for our lives, this life of seeking is one of the best ways to understand what prayer is really all about. For at the heart of praying that is true prayer and not religious game playing or thinly disguised attempts to manipulate God-at the heart of true prayer is our desire to know God and God's will. And this is the heart of living as God intends. This is the message of Jeremiah that comes singing across the centuries: "'If with all your heart you truly seek me, ye shall surely find me,' thus says the Lord."

God in the midst of whatever we are facing, enable us to live seeking you so that we can live as you intend us to live-especially as we cope with the consequences of the past. Amen.

Pastoral Prayer:
God, for some of the members of this congregation, this has not been an easy week. For all the resources You have given us to face what we must face in life and for all the many ways Your grace enables us to move on, we give You thanks. We are grateful for all the ways You give us strength and hope in difficult times.
And God, for others in our congregation this has been a good week, with moments of profound joy and significant accomplishment. We thank You for the wonderful gifts that come to us in life. We thank You for the marvelous delights-both great and small-that You enable us to enjoy.
Whether our week has been one of pain or delight, help us be sensitive to Your grace at work in our lives. Open our eyes to see the gifts You have given us. Motivate us to new levels of commitment. Enable us to be persons who are striving to serve You in all that we do as we move through the ordinary routines of our daily living.
This we pray in the name of the one who taught us about living when he taught us to pray: "Our Father …"

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