Seeking the Welfare of the City

A Sermon preached on Sunday, October 14, 2007

by Pastor Terry Davis

First Presbyterian Church, Hartford, CT

Jeremiah 29:1, 4- 7  ¹These are the words of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the remaining elders among the exiles, and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people, whom had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. ⁴Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:  ⁵Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce.  ⁶Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease.  ⁷But 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. 

We read a brief but significant passage from a letter that Jeremiah wrote to the exiles that had been carried into Babylon.  Many of the ruling families of Israel had been taken into exile in Babylon so that the rulers whom Nebuchadnezzar installed could rule their country without opposition.  They were given a great deal of freedom in Babylon, but were not allowed to return home and they were held for a period about 70 years.

Have you ever thought about how much of the Bible is addressed to or about immigrants?  The word immigrant is never used in most English translations of the Bible; but we frequently read about sojourners, strangers and aliens, and there is much said about exiles who are also immigrants, involuntary immigrants.  For much of the history of the Hebrew people they identified themselves as immigrants.  Abraham and Sarah lived in the Promised Land as strangers and sojourners having left their homeland of Ur of the Chaldeans behind and never returning.  Abraham’s grandson Jacob took all of his family and immigrated to Egypt where they lived as sojourners and strangers for over 400 years, never integrating with the Egyptian society, and eventually ending up becoming servants and slaves of the Egyptians. 

The Exodus marks a great immigration from Egypt back to the Promised Land, and a whole generation lived and died in the desert as they wandered for 40 years on their immigration journey.  When they arrived at the Promised Land they of course found it occupied by other people and the conflict between Abraham’s descendants went on for many generations before they became established as the rulers of the land.  They never did eliminate or drive out the Canaanites and all the other people who dwelt in the land, and they always regarded the Israelites as aliens and intruders who had stolen their land.  It is much like the situation that modern day Jews find themselves in; they claim a right to the land as their inheritance from the God who first promised the land to Abraham and Sarah and their descendants.  The Palestinians and other Arabs consider them as aliens and intruders who have stolen their land.

After a period of successful rule over the Promised Land they were successfully conquered by the eastern people, the present day rulers of the land from where Abraham had immigrated, the Assyrians and the Babylonians.  There were two great exiles, the second following the conquest and destruction of Jerusalem.  It was to the first group of exiles that Jeremiah wrote his letter and in this letter he tells the exiles that they are going to be there for some time.  There were false prophets who were trying to raise the hopes of the people by telling them that God was going to save them and they would soon be traveling home.  Jeremiah told them the truth that God had revealed to him, that God would indeed come to them and bring them back, but not in their generation.  It was only after 70 years of domination and exile in Babylon that they would return, and of course this meant that many of those who read Jeremiah’s letter would not themselves return, but their children and grandchildren would be the returnees. 

Jeremiah’s advice to the exiles, to the immigrants, the strangers, the aliens and sojourners was to make a home where they were.  He called them to buy houses and land, to marry and have families, to settle down where they were.  It was not home; it was not the land of their birth; it was not the land to which they longed to return, but it was the land and the city where they were at the present time.  In essence he urged them and other exiles and pilgrims to make a home wherever they were.

I like the phrase he uses that is why it became my sermon title.  He told them to seek the welfare of the city, to seek the shalom of the city where they were, because in its welfare they would find their welfare, in its peace they would find their peace.  I think that is important.  Many immigrants, particularly those who expect to return to their homeland someday, must face the same temptation that the exiles faced, the temptation to center their attention on the place from which they came.  I know that Jamaicans in this country are keenly aware of the politics of their homeland, just as most Puerto Ricans are very much interested in what is going on in politics on the island and everyone has an opinion about independence or statehood.  I know that all of you from Guyana have close ties to family and friends there, just as most, perhaps all of you who are immigrants from Ghana.  Jeremiah would not in any way say to forget the country and family that you left behind, but he would say it is equally important to know about the politics of the country where you now are. 

He is saying where ever you are is home for now.  It may not be where you came from, and it may not be where you will be five years from now, but right now the place where you are is home and God is calling us to seek the welfare or the well being, the peace of the place where you are, because in seeking the welfare of the city where you are you will find your own well being and peace.   The word which Jeremiah spoke to the exiles in Babylon is a word for all of us.  In America in the 21^st century few of us will live one place for all of our lives.  We may not all be immigrants across national boarders, but almost all of us are internal immigrants; we are strangers and nomads living in various places in this nation and in the world during the course of our lifetimes.  The word of the Lord for all of us is to seek the welfare, the peace and well being of what ever place that is home for the present moment, because what you do for your city, for your neighborhood, for your community ultimately is of benefit to you as well as to others, and in the welfare of the city where you are you will find your own welfare and peace.

There are those who recognize that where ever we are, even if we have lived in one community all of our lives, where we are is ultimately not our home.  The book of Hebrews says that we are strangers and sojourners on this earth, always seeking a better city, a city whose builder and maker is God. 

A southern song writer sang, this world is not my home, I’m just a passing through, my treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue, the angels beckon me from heaven’s open door, and I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.  That was to a great extent the attitude of the exiles, they said this Babylon is not our home, why should we care about the welfare of this city, why should we contribute to its community life, we are just here until we have an opportunity to return? But to them and to us Jeremiah’s prophesy from the Lord cries out, “seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”