America in Exile — Sermon

(I preached this sermon on July 6, 2025 at Christ Lutheran Church in Harrisburg, PA. The sermon is based on Jeremiah 29:1,4–14)

I want to begin today with truth.

There is a weariness in the room.

I see it. I feel it. I know it.

The kind of weariness that comes not from one hard week, but from months… years… of struggle.

The kind that settles into your bones when you’re doing everything you can to hold it together-and it’s still not enough.

Some in this room are afraid:

• Afraid of losing health care when you are already sick.
• Afraid of ICE raids, of deportation, of families being split apart.
• Afraid of being attacked because you are queer or trans or Black or brown.
• Afraid of being forgotten.

And some here are just tired.

• Tired of working two jobs and still falling behind.
• Tired of watching the super-rich get richer while we ration medicine to the poor because we are told that we don’t have enough money.
• Tired of a partisanship where winning is the only thing that is pursued, regardless of the cost to real people.
• Tired of praying, and wondering if anyone hears us.

If that’s where you are- you’re not alone.