In just a month or so many will be heading off to the land of college for the first time. It's an exciting time, but also a frightening one as the idea of living away from home, without the familiar routines and settings becomes a reality. Who I am? What will I do? How will I know where to go? And it's not always the big questions that trip us up in such moves. One of the things that remind me I'm not in my familiar setting is light switches. It takes me a while in a new place before I stop brushing a blank wall with my hand where the light switch used to be.

Can you remember what it was like to move somewhere strange for the first time? No matter how anticipated the move is, there is almost always a sense of loss that accompanies it as you say good bye to friends, as you adjust to new routines and new work schedules. Much harder are forced moves, the exiles of our lives. They come in many forms – illness, divorce, loss of loved ones. We are thrust into places not of our choosing and wonder if there is any way we can go on, if there is any hope in our future days. Those are the kind of moves, changes that have us repeating the words of Psalm 137. "By the rivers of Babylon … of new homes, new jobs, divorce, illness … we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion … Zion, our home, when we were healthy, when our loved one still walked with us … How can we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land?"

It is just that kind of situation that our texts from Jeremiah address this morning. The first one sounds like the Jeremiah we learned about last Sunday. The Jeremiah that is full of denunciations and booming proclamations. The threatened exile has happened. The people of Israel did not listen to Jeremiah's ranting that they needed to repent, and Babylon has conquered them. Even being under foreign rule doesn't silence Jeremiah, and he turns his denunciations on to his captors – watch out, he says, even now in the defeat of Israel, it is still the God of Israel who created all that is, and God gives as God pleases.

But then, two chapters later we see a softer Jeremiah speaking to the people of Israel: "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." As the people of Israel find themselves under the thumbs of their captors, forced into a new lifestyle where even the practices of their religion are forbidden they wonder, how can we go on. Many speak up and say to the people of Israel, don't worry this isn't going to last long, just sit and wait … things will go back the way they were. Jeremiah denounces them as false prophets and he has something different to say – this is going to take a while, nothing will ever again be the same, and you are going to have to do something. Perhaps not exactly what the people of Israel wanted to hear.

I can imagine the Israelites wanting the quick fix: maybe a huge smack from the hand of God to scatter the Babylonians away … or a magical poof back to their homeland all restored as it was before? The quick fix – it's our preferred method isn't it? A magic pill, or an instant cure. The half hour long paid commercials on late night TV are full of such promises. As gentle as Jeremiah's words are, they aren't exactly welcome.

You know the saying: "Bloom where you are planted." It can be misused to offer false comfort, or to tell someone to stay in their place and not make trouble. Yet, there is something to this adage at its best. It says, don't forget who you are. Even in Babylon Jeremiah says you are still God's people. And as he reminded us in our first text – this is the same God who's creating hand stretched out and made all that is. Even in Babylon, don't forget to live, don't simply sit here and wait … don't lose your lives. Plant the gardens, marry, have children … .and yes, even seek the welfare of this place. Not too long ago we read the story of Namaan the leper. Remember the servant girl who spoke up? She was an exile, captured in one of the Syrian raids on Israel. She could have kept silent, feeling her captor was getting what he deserved. But instead she chose to speak up and tell Namaan how great her God was, and that through God's prophet Elisha there was a cure. She sought the welfare of the city of her exile and because of her, the greatness of God was known to a new people.

Yet another example from another perspective, this time from the present – whenever the leadership of an organization changes there is fear that the organization will lose its nature. As God's people, we have to remember that change in leadership doesn't change the nature of who we are as the church. It was recently announced that the mission program we will soon be working with, Appalachia Service Project, will be changing leadership. Susan Crow has been the CEO of ASP for the past eight years and will soon leave to take on another job closer to her family. ASP's announcement of the leadership change is a reminder that their work does not change: "New leadership, enduring mission – as Appalachia Service Project celebrates our 42nd life-changing summer of making homes warmer, safer, and drier for Appalachian families in need, we are committed to a mission that will never change.

Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile. Again, exile will take many shapes. It will look like the tiny dorm room you all the sudden realize will be your life the next four years or so, with its hard bed and lack of air conditioning and a room mate you can't get more than arm's length away from. It will look like that first time coming back into your home after the funeral is over. It will look like the outpatient office where you are hooked up to an IV pouring chemo into your veins. It will look like the disabled body of your beloved that you are now caring for. Jeremiah's teaching for us is this: Do not lose yourself … you are still God's. And so, unpack those boxes … hang up something familiar. Cook your favorite meal. Find friends. Make your exile a better place because you are there. Long for what is lost, what is left behind, but don't lose yourself in that – be who you are in the present.

We go in the assurance that the God Jeremiah reminds us of … the God who spoke all of creation into being … we go in the assurance that God goes with us and will never desert us or leave us alone. We who live in the name and example of Jesus Christ go forth with that assurance that God us with us even to the end of the age.

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