Jeremiah Project

*In preparation for our coming together, and heading to New Orleans, each participant was asked to reflect on a passage from Jeremiah. As we prepare our hearts and minds for the trip, we will be featuring an excerpt from these reflection each day until we depart. These excerpts are posted with the author’s permission.

An Excerpt from the Reflection on Jeremiah 29:5-7 by K. Conibear:

For me this passage is about how working by as a community you can recreate a community. No one can to everything but everyone can do something, cheesy I know but true none the less. Where one persons knowledge lets off someone else’s will cover the gap, this is how a community works to help rebuild after a disaster, be it exile or natural disaster.

I find there to be a great degree of hope in this reading, a hope for the future. Especially in the final sentence “But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare”. It is a simple message care and pray for your city and it will give you what you need. What adds to the power though is that “the city” doesn’t have to just be the land and buildings but the people that live there. If you care and pray for your people they will return the favour. I find there to be little that is more powerful, more moving, than people banning together in a time of need and crisis to help each other.

Jeremiah 29:5-7 is about the power of a people in need. As great as their need maybe when everyone works together they can over come it. What we need to learn for the passage to be truly effective is that our community extends beyond our neighbourhood, campus, parish and extends around the world to where ever there are people in need. You may not know anyone when you start helping but by the end you’ll understand how anyone can feel like family and everyone is a part of our community