Jeremiah is a strange bird. God’s word comes to him. He hears voices. He has visions. He makes bizarre choices. Jeremiah’s scribe, Baruch, keeps track of the strange experiences and visions that Jeremiah seems to have on the regular.

Baruch situates Jeremiah in the real world by including names of those in power. In this story, Jeremiah is imprisoned by King Zedekiah, the Jewish king. And why, you may ask, would a Jewish king put one of his own prophets in prison? Because Jeremiah has the nerve to tell Zedekiah that he is not going to make it when Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar’s armies storm the castle. This so offends and infuriates King Zedekiah that he orders Jeremiah be locked up — but close by, in the courtyard, in case Jeremiah receives any further word from God.

And Jeremiah does receive another word while in the king’s custody. The message, the vision, that Jeremiah receives is so strange that it is included in the text twice, as if to verify its veracity. Hanamel, son of your uncle Shallum, is going to come to you and say, “Buy my field that is at Anathoth, for the right of redemption by purchase is yours.”

And don’t you know, just like that, even though he is a prisoner in the courtyard of the king, Jeremiah gets a visit from cousin Hanamel, son of uncle Shallum, offering to sell his land to Jeremiah. Tradition has it that as a close relative, Jeremiah gets first option to buy the land. It seems strange to offer land to someone who is imprisoned. But maybe shrewd Hanamel also has a sense of the coming onslaught of Babylon; he is trying to get out while he can, before the land is nothing but scorched earth. Or maybe Hanamel has already tried to sell the land to other relatives and none was foolish enough to buy it. Is Jeremiah being taken for a ride? And how does Jeremiah have silver, in prison, to buy land?

We are left in the dark about the motivations and money. All we know is that Jeremiah heard God say “buy the land from your cousin Hanamel, son of uncle Shallum,” so when his cousin shows up, confirming that this was God’s voice that Jeremiah heard, Jeremiah is prepared to buy the land. Jeremiah is used to hearing from God, often in strange metaphors, but this time it is not a metaphor. It is a real action that Jeremiah carries out – and it is also a metaphor, or maybe a sign of hope for the future: this land will not always be occupied by the Babylonian enemy. The people will some day have their land back – with vineyards and fields and homes to live in.

It seems a strange vision to hold onto, when the invasion and takeover haven’t happened yet. Still, Jeremiah holds this word for himself and for the people. He buys the land and buries the deed in a jar for safekeeping, as if burying a silent hope that he and his people will not always live under occupation. There is a future for them when they will live in freedom, in their own homes and work their own fields and harvest their own vineyards.

A vision like this in the midst of the threat of conquering violence is an act of faith and hope. To speak the word aloud and risk being thought unstable, called a dreamer, takes some courage. It also takes some discernment. Likely, Jeremiah would not have shared this word from God if it hadn’t been confirmed by his cousin Hanamel showing up to sell the land. And Jeremiah wouldn’t have had Baruch record it, if there wasn’t some discernment that this was a vision the people needed to hear.

Like Jeremiah, we are living in a time when danger seems all too present, perhaps not yet for each of us but the danger and fear are real for many of our neighbors. I have recently heard several religious leaders talk about dreams or visions they have had. Perhaps visions come with political intensity and the extra shot of adrenaline we get when things feel erratic. Or do times of uncertainty make us more open to strange coincidences and experiences we might otherwise discount? Both of the leaders I heard recently prefaced sharing about the vision or dream with “I am usually a rational person, but I had this dream, I had this experience…”

Delonte Gholston, pastor of Peace Fellowship in NE DC, has been doing peace walks through his neighborhood for six years. But he recently had a vision of people lining the streets of Washington DC, along Eastern Ave, Southern Ave, and Western Avenue to pray for the peace of the city. He shared and tested this vision with some other faith leaders to see what they thought of the idea. When it was well received, he incorporated supportive suggestions into his vision and now he is working to make the vision a reality.

Pastor Delonte now calls this vision the Prayer Guard (in contrast to National Guard.) The idea is to pray for peace, for protection, for the prevention of state and community violence, for provision, and for the power of God over the city. The plan is to gather in prayer once a month for four months, along the borders of the District.

As the faith leaders discussed this idea, it seemed important that we not just stay in our own comfortable neighborhoods but that we cross the invisible boundaries that we know are there. Can the white folks from Ward 2 venture into Ward 8 and pray along Southern Ave? Can African American leaders be welcomed along Western Ave? I will post more info about the Prayer Guard. I hope some of us can sign up to participate on the first night, Oct 16 at 6pm along Eastern Ave.

This past week I heard another pastor talk about a dream she had – about Oak Flat. The dream was so vivid it compelled her to contact her friends at Apache Stronghold. Pastor Robin Tanner had spent time in Arizona at the sacred land of Oak Flat years before. Now with this dream – and the clock ticking on various lawsuits to save the land from destruction by Resolution Copper, Robin was invited to return to Oak Flat to reground herself. The visit helped her discern, with Dr Wendsler Nosie who is a visionary himself, that she would plan and Wendsler would make, another cross country tour, inviting even more people into the fight to save the sacred land of Oak Flat.

Wendsler’s cross country tour ended this past Monday at Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church. Some HMCers and House Church folks were there (as the Mennonite Singers and Friends.) We sang “My Soul Cries Out with a joyful shout that the God of my heart is great” – a word and song that came to Mary, mother of Jesus, when she received the strange news that she was pregnant.

Wendsler spoke about the need to save Oak Flat from being destroyed by our insatiable need for copper, the capitalist drive to consume, at all costs. Wendsler said this fight in the courts is not only about religious freedom for the Apache Stronghold, this is about all of us, all religions. We are all connected and at risk when it comes to religious liberty in this country. We are inextricably tied together on this earth.

Delonte’s vision, Wendsler’s vision, Robin’s dream, were tested, discerned, and are signs of hope — especially for communities living in the valley of the shadow of death. Their visions seem in such contrast to the vision of the Rapture that was predicted for this past week. One wonders what kind of discernment there was before the pastor shared his experience of God’s voice with the whole world.

Nine years ago I preached on this text from Jeremiah. I shared with you an idea (was it a vision?) that was growing within me to relate to the Hyattsville police — along with other local clergy. I kind of hoped that you would help me discern that this was not a very Mennonite thing to do, work with police. But instead, you encouraged me, and so I pursued the idea. The role of community chaplain with the police has morphed and changed over the years. Meetings with the chief are sporadic instead of monthly. Calls to act as chaplain to someone in the community are less frequent. But the relationships remain and continue to grow amongst city employees. In some ways, I have never quite gotten comfortable in my role as a community chaplain with the police. At the same time, I am grateful for the challenge it has been to see the humanity in the police, of the police, and to help the police remember the humanity in our neighbors.

It’s been nine years but can I test another “vision” with you today? This is not really my idea; and the neighbor who shared the idea with me last Sunday afternoon does not claim it either. But I cannot get the image out of my head, especially after the events at Queens Chapel and Hamilton Streets this past Wednesday – when ICE officers mashed a man’s face in the street during morning rush hour as they attempted to abduct or arrest him. I was not there, I have only seen the video; that is hard enough to watch. As I watch, it is clear that the man ICE is abducting is struggling, is fearful but so are the ICE officers, struggling physically and emotionally in this very public arrest.

What my neighbor suggested to me was the simple idea of prayer, people gathering to pray when an ICE apprehension is happening. Instead of screaming and swearing at ICE, as ICE officers have come to expect, what would happen if people knelt and prayed the Lord’s Prayer (“deliver us from Evil.”) Praying for the neighbor in trouble, praying for the ICE officers, praying for the families and neighbors who must endure the ongoing trauma. Praying for the politicians who are making decisions. Praying for the earth that is being torn apart to build new dentition centers. There is no shortage of things to pray for.

I keep wondering, what would have happened last week if even two or three people would have started praying – instead of shouting and taunting. Would the ICE agents have been more gentle? Would the man have stopped struggling against the agents? Would the people praying have diverted ICE attention from the man accused of being a criminal? Would prayer have increased the chaos? Would those praying have been threatened with arrest?

Our commitments to peace, to non-violence, to justice, may mean taking some risks, doing things that look ridiculous. As we observe 500 years of Anabaptism, we remember the risks that our spiritual ancestors took as they received a word from God, as they caught a new vision of faith. Is praying in public one of those ridiculous steps of faith?

I am not suggesting that walking into the midst of an ICE abduction is appropriate for all of us here. We each have to discern what risks we are willing to take. People with little children, people caring for aging parents, people with mobility issues, people in precarious legal situations, people of color, people in the LGBTQ community might decide praying this way is not safe for them. And that is ok.

I guess what I am wondering – is this kind of non-violent action for me? Is this another step of faith for me? You are my people, so I am asking you: what do you think? Is this the kind of witness you are comfortable with your pastor making? Do we want Hyattsville Mennonite Church to be known this way in the community? Or is this just drawing unnecessary attention to myself, to our congregation? The ego question is one we have to ask. Who does this shine light on, who does this really benefit?

Even as I have been thinking about this, Phil Curran, pastor at University Park Church of the Brethren, wrote that he feels compelled to go pray at Queens Chapel and Hamilton, the site of the ICE event on Wednesday. We are invited to join him today at 1:30 to pray for the man who was arrested. Who is he? Where is he now? Who is his family? We can pray for those who feel that working for ICE is an honorable job and for those who see it as a well-paying job that will provide for their families. We can pray that we will know how to respond to our neighbors, to our families, to politicians. We can pray “God’s will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

2500 years after he heard God’s word, Jeremiah’s story from prison still invites all of us to be open to the weird experiences we have, the things that feel like coincidences, the dreams and visions that might be from of this mystery we call God. Or they might not be of God. We need each other, to help us know if it is some weird ego trip we are on or if it is a dream that can serve a larger purpose of love and hope in the world.

May each of us be open to the many ways of living out God’s vision of healing and hope in the world. And may we discern together.