Sermon given at St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church, Durham, NCProper 23, Year C
by Leigh Edwards13 October 2013
“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 welfare. For thus says the LORD…: Do not let the prophets and the diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you….” (Jer 29:1-9).
Seek the welfare of the city, Jeremiah says. Is this not obvious? Why must the LORD exhort the Israelites to seek the welfare of the place they live? Do we not all want peace, justice and fairness in our home? Why would the prophet have to tell Israel, and why would the diviners and prophets saying anything contrary? To answer these questions, we have to answer a couple of fundamental ones about where Israel is. How do the Israelites find themselves in exile? Why has God sent them there? In what city is it that they find themselves? And then, finally, how does all of that bear on what that city’s welfare might look like?
Let’s rewind a moment. Israel has taken up the long Exodus out of Egypt. She has settled in the Promised Land, the land of milk and honey, the land shehas long awaited. The Ark of the Covenanthas been placed in the temple in Jerusalem.
Much happens between the settling of Israel and the prophecy of Jeremiah, but at least this is important: Israel has broken her covenant with Yahweh. Judah has listened to the lies of the nations. She hastaken to incorporating othergods, making false oaths, committing adultery, prostitution, and murder, neglecting the poor, the widow, the orphan, and the alien. Worse, she does not think that the LORD will punish her for these her misdoings.
But the LORD loves Israel, and wants her to repent, and so he sends herinto exileas the consequence of her fall. In exileshe will realize and loathe her sin and will return to the love of God and neighbor to which she is called. Already, Babylon’s king, Nebuchadnezzar, has exiled all the rulers, leaders andeven the smiths and artisans from Judah. In a few short years - as Jeremiah has prophesied - Nebuchadnezzar will utterly destroy Jerusalem, the seat of Judah and Israel’s identity.
Israel is the oppressed minority. She is the forcibly moved refugee, who has suffered unfathomable losses.And so, with all of this background, we begin to see the offensiveness of Jeremiah’s words whenhe tells the first round of exiles to Babylon – the same Babylon thatis slowly destroying everything precious to the Israelites – to seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you. The LORD has sent Israel into exile, and they are not to recoil fromor seek escape from their situation. The difficulty of this, as displaced refugees, is well documented – amongst other places – in Psalm 137:
By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept…For there our captorsrequired of us songs,and our tormentors, mirth, saying,“Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” How shall we sing the LORD’s song in a foreign land?...Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy! (Ps. 137:1-6)
Amidst this torment, Jeremiah tells the Israelites – against most of their other leaders - to make themselves at home in exile, for they will not get out of their there quickly, or on their own. Have children and plant gardens, he says. The LORD has sent you into exile, and there you will remain for 70 years until he will bring you out to live with Him.
It is hard to underestimate the hardship of the Israelites having to live in the city of Babylon. And here is where we will begin to address the question: what is the LORD telling us today in this Scripture? How is this prophecy for us? The relevancy of this passage from Jeremiah for Christians is easy, if only because John already takes its importance for us in the book of Revelation.
John in Revelation, telling the cosmic story of all of history, names Babylon as the captivity of Christians in a world that seems ruled by evil. The victory of Christ – of love over hate, of good over evil – is the defeat of “Babylon, the great, mother of whores and of earth’s abominations.” Babylon is the great, the mighty city where the luxuries of linen, silk, scented woods, olive oil, flour, wheat, cattle, sheep and horses are sold alongside of human souls. Babylon is the heart of all corruption, for the cry of triumph for the angel at the end of time is this: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great.”
And lest we think this imagery is only symbolic of all evil, and not indicative of the evil of the Babylon where the Israelites find themselves, we need only to return to Jeremiah. There, Babylon is full of diviners, warriors, and idols (50:36-38). She is a “horror among the nations” (50:23), she is “a golden cup in the LORD’s hand, making all the earth drunken; the nations drank of her wine, and so the nations went mad” (51:7).
We as Christians, like the Israelites, find ourselves in exile in Babylon, in a world where evil seems to reign supreme, and we are here because of our own sin. It is a world that seems to counter at every move our lives as Christians and seeks to engulf us into its ways. So we can rightly understand the call of the false prophets that Israel should not, should never, submit to the rule of the king of Babylon. We are called to life, not to death. Do not, they seem to say, submit yourselves to the rule of one who is evil and against you. Yet, the LORD tells us, seek the welfare of the city and pray for it. Again, the LORD says that only those who submit to the rule of Nebuchadnezzar will be saved.
But this seems harsh, counterintuitive, even. If we are in Babylon, too, are we to just submit to the ruling powers of evil? Does it not seem that Jeremiah is in cahoots with the powers and injustice that be? Wanting to take the easy route and condone Babylon’s actions? This may seem like just risking the fall back into the same sin that caused Israel to be exiled in the first place.
Here is where we must give an eye to other words about Babylon found in Jeremiah. Yes, Israel must settle into her place as exiles under King Nebuchadnezzar – but, only for the time being. For the LORD is clear that the Israelites’ welfare being bound to Babylon’s welfare is not a permanent marriage; it is far from a call that Israel is now to identify herself with Babylon. For there will come a time in which Israel’s forbearing with Babylon will turn into fleeing from her destruction. Forbearance in time of suffering – for anyone - is never an excuse for falling into sin. There is an end to Babylon, to evil, and Israel will have to know herself well enough to be able to distinguish herself from Babylon when the time comes. After 70 years of exile, the LORD will “stir up…against Babylon a company of great nations from the north…[Babylon] shall not be inhabited, but shall be an utter desolation; everyone who passes by Babylon shall be appalled and hiss because of all her wounds…” and the Israelites, knowing themselves to not be Babylon, will be delivered.
This language, of course, mirrors the fate of this world - inasmuch as it is Babylon the whore – in the book of Revelation. God promises to redeem his people, and to rid the world, finally, of all evil, greed and malice. Thus the LORD will enjoin the Israelites: “Flee from the midst of Babylon, save your lives, each of you! Do not perish because of her guilt, for this is the time of the LORD’s vengeance.” We are made for much more than this.
So this is a far, far cry from the LORD telling Israel to take up her lot with evil, to condone and rest in it. What, then, of seeking the welfare? How are we, with the Israelites, to seek the welfare of a world in which we are ultimately exiles, and from which we know we will be released in only a generation? What do we make of Jeremiah’s command to us?
The first thing, of course, is to say precisely what Jeremiah says – that seeking the welfare of Babylon consists, in any real sense, in praying for Babylon. The only escape from destruction for Babylon is conversion. We must always hope, like Rahab the prostitute, or Ninevah, or Saul the Pharisee, the Lord will win over his own from sin. Seek the welfare? You must pray for the city to the LORD your God. We must pray for this world, for our state, for our country and for our city, that they may come to know and follow Christ. In this conversion is the only true hope and welfare for Babylon.
Yet, like the Israelites, in the meantime, we find ourselves irrevocably situated in a place that is not our home. Like the Israelites, we all know far too well that we live in a world that seems plagued by pain, materialism, ambition, war, gluttony, drunkenness, lies, murder, adultery and greed – take your pick of sufferings. Yet, God does not fear the seeming threat of Babylon, and neither should we. Like the Israelites, we are here for a reason. We know of the coming reign of peace in Christ, yet we know that we have a job here, in this world. Like the Israelites, we are here both because of our own sin and out of God’s great mercy. We are here so that we may repent of our ways and follow the way of Life. We are here solely to prepare for new lives, in the New Jerusalem, as servants of the LORD.
And so, finally, Jeremiah’s exhortation to the Israelites begins to makes sense. If this is a time of repentance, a time of accepting forgiveness, it is a time of humility. Humility is to acknowledge and bewail our sins – as we confess them each Sunday – and to bemoan that these sins cause suffering both to others around us and to ourselves. Humility means confessing that we deserve far worse than the world God gives us, yet God in his mercy spares us, and thus means a willingness to endure in godliness and peacefulness the pain of this world, knowing that our deliverance will come from God. Humility means accepting our lives as exiles – and accepting this as the plan of our beloved Lord – in the lively hope of a New Jerusalem.
So, despite the seemingly good intentions, then, the false prophets are calling Israel back to her pride! Back to her assumption that she can redeem herself, and that she should not have to endure any oppression as the beloved of God! This is the pride of Israel – that she is untouchable, that she saves herself, that she should throw off the wooden yoke of Babylon in faithfulness to Yahweh. Yet, in God’s faithfully unexpected way, setting up homes – albeit temporary ones – in Babylon, living peaceful and godly lives, is the preparation for heaven; their acceptance of the suffering of exile is the sign of their hope, not in themselves, but in the LORD.
Seek the welfare of the city, and pray for it. Build your houses, make this your worldly home. Do not seek the destruction of the city, but leave godly, quiet and peaceful lives, suffering the sins of Babylon, for you will only be here for a short while – about 70 years, in fact. We do not rebel against our exile. We do not wish to tear it down. For this reason, as Christians, we are not anarchists; we are not lawless ones. We, like the Israelites, are called to submit, for now, to our kings, leaders and rulers, the authorities that the LORD has put over us in our exile. We cannot, and should never, expect our lives in this world to not be under the rule of Babylon. That will come on the LORD’s own time. We cannot be shocked or surprised whenever we realize that Babylon has her own purposes, and that we cannot change her. In fact, it is not our job to change Babylon, for that is another way to try to save ourselves from this exile. She will always ask you to give up your allegiance to the LORD, and you will always tell her that her welfare is only temporary – unless it is the LORD to whom she turns. As Christ suffered the sins of the world, we too suffer, in the hope of resurrection. For Babylon is the ruler of this world, for a time, but our lot is not with her.
Seek the welfare of the city, but do not acquiesce to her sin. Know your life is with hers for a time, and take up her day-to-day life as your own. But do not confuse the welfare of the city with an escape from oppression, and for it is precisely under Babylon that we expect to be exiled, and remember that living in her temporal welfare is only for the sake of your full submission the Christ - good in as much as it leads you, not to find your welfare in Babylon, but to put your treasure in the LORD. For, like Israel, after 70 years of exile, God will ask us all if we belong to Babylon or to Israel. One day, soon, the LORD will overthrow all evil, and thus he says to his people: Flee from this! Flee from the sins of Babylon! For Christ alone has promised us a return home, to the New Jerusalem. We may live here in an exile, in a desolation, in a valley of dry bones, but we know this is not the last word! Seek the welfare, accept your exile here, for in that acceptance is preparation for what is promised, which is more beautiful that anything we can imagine:
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.