Investing in Hope – Today is “Reign of Christ Sunday” when we acknowledge and celebrate the centrality of God and Jesus as the overarching focus of our faith. Also today we are ending our series of readings and sermons based on the Book of Jeremiah. Today’s passage from Jeremiah is quite odd and surprising. Jerusalem is about to be conquered by the Babylonians, and they know that’s coming because of the Babylonian troops that are amassed close to the city. Jeremiah is in custody, placed there by King Josiah because of Jeremiah’s frequent and urgent criticisms of the king and the people. But in this passage, Jeremiah is instructed by God to buy a plot of farmland in Anathoth, just outside Jerusalem, and he does so in a very public manner. That action goes against all reason because it is clear that inevitably and soon Jerusalem will be conquered and burned. Yet through this purchase Jeremiah and God make a statement that one day God will restore the people and the kingdom, and thus hope is not lost at all. We, too, are encouraged to have hope in God and in the Reign of Christ no matter our circumstance. And we are encouraged to share that hope with others.