The Welfare of the City
Rev. Mark Schaefer
Kay Spiritual Life Center
October 10, 2004
Jeremiah, 29:1, 4-7; Luke 17:11-19
Jeremiah 29 1 ¶ These 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 Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.
4 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Take 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. 7 But 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.
Luke 17 11 ¶ On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, 13 they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” 14 When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean. 15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. 16 He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. 17 Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? 18 Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”
I. INTRODUCTION
One of the little myths about Washington, D.C. is that everyone here is from somewhere else. That everyone is just passing through. Well, it’s not true—there are families on both sides of the river that have been in Washington for generations. They’re the ones who pronounce Washington with an ‘r’: Warshington.
But in spite of the longtime pedigree of a large number of Washingtonians, there remains a perception that this city is a city of transients. And in many ways it is: government workers who come in with a member of Congress on year and leave two years later. Appointees who come in with one administration and are booted out of town by the next. Students who come into town for four years, or maybe only a semester on an internship. There are a lot of people passing through the District from somewhere else on their way to somewhere else.
What kind of community can possibly result from that?
II. THE TEXT: JEREMIAH
One might have wondered the same thing about the communities in Exile in Babylon. There they were, uprooted from their homes in Judah and transported into the heart of the enemy country.
Jeremiah, had remained behind in Jerusalem before he was finally forced to flee or taken into Exile in to Egypt. He wrote a letter to those who were in Exile in Babylon, telling them what they were to do in their exiled state:
4 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Take 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. 7 But 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.
III. THE WELFARE OF OUR CITY
“But 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.”
How many of us think about the welfare of the city in which we find ourselves? I can remember the day I began to really think about the welfare of the city of Washington. I had been here 5 years. It was the day I truly understood that I had lost my voting rights by becoming a resident of the District of Columbia. It was election day 1996. I went into the polling place and took my ballot: I could vote for the president and some local offices. That was it. No place to vote for representatives or senators.
I had always considered myself a New Yorker living in Washington, and in many ways still do. I had always planned on returning there after a sojourn in Washington. And it was at this moment that I felt the full force of the disenfranchisement that belongs to every District resident. My voice didn’t matter.
It made me realize that my welfare and the welfare of the city I found myself in were not separate. They were intimately connected. There were, I realized, a lot of things I didn’t know about my city—about this place I thought I was just ‘passing through.’
For example, did you know that in Washington, every bill the city council passes has to be passed twice so that our unicameral legislature can appear to be bi-cameral? Did you know that Congress can veto any piece of legislation that the Council passes and the mayor signs? Did you know that unlike those of the states, the DC National Guard can be nationalized by order of the president? In the other cases, the president must consult the governor of the state. For this reason, more DC residents per capita die in foreign wars—wars, I might add, that because of their disenfranchisement, they had no voice in whether they should be declared.
Did you know that the local government is unable to assess property taxes on 50% of the property in the District? The land that belongs to the federal government or to exempt organizations like SallieMae cannot be taxed by the District.
There are a lot of things going on in this city, and when you’re passing through, it can be easy to miss.
IV. SOJOURNERS
I remember being at a ballgame somewhere and I noticed someone wearing a t-shirt that had one of those green aliens on it and it said “Just visiting.” On the back of the shirt it said, “I’m an alien” and was followed by a Bible verse that referred to the concept of being an alien in a foreign land.
A. Our Home
You sometimes hear a lot of Christians talk this way. They’ll make reference to the fact that ‘this is not our home.’ People will talk about someone “being called home”—though, to be fair, I don’t know if that’s a statement on belonging to the world or if it’s just another example of people’s unwillingness to talk about death in a frank and honest way.
A few years ago, a famous televangelist made an announcement to his flock: he had received a message from God and God had said that unless the televangelist was able to raise $8 million for the medical school at the televangelist’s self-named university, the Lord was “going to call him home.”
Now, aside from the ridiculous and self-serving account of this man taking the Lord’s name (in vain?) to raise money for his own university, (personally, I really wanted the people to call his bluff, but they raised $9 million for him—that’shis further claim that heaven was “home” was all the more troubling.
This is our home. We are creatures of the earth: we are from here. God says to Adam (whose own name means “of the earth”):
“By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” (Gen. 3:19).
B. Our Exile
Now, that said, it can certainly feel like this isn’t our home. We talked last week about the Experience of Exile and how even though we may not find ourselves in the same kind of physical exile that the Israelites found themselves in in Babylon, we can often find ourselves in a kind of cultural exile in our own country, or a spiritual exile within our own faith. We noted that with God’s help and the support of the community, we could still sing the Lord’s song, even in a foreign land.
As we talked about last week, there is a sense that we are in exile—that we are strangers here. And you know what, in the end, it doesn’t really matter whether we are from somewhere else and just visiting here or whether we’re from here and just feel like we’re aliens in the land. Because either way—God has given us our marching orders:
God says throught the prophet Jeremiah:
7 But 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.
C. What do we do?
“Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you.” Our being here is not an accident—it’s God’s will for us to be here and while here to seek the welfare of the place we’re in.
This is the United Methodist Book of Discipline. It in it is our church law, governing principles, and so in. Also included here are the Social Principles of The United Methodist Church. They are divided up into sections that could be considered a “civics lesson” for us as exiles in the cities we’ve been sent to:
1. The Natural World
We understand that Christians have a responsibility for the water, air, soil, minerals, and plants of the creation. We should show respect for animal life, for conservation of our natural resources (which are not ours but God’s).
2. The Nurturing Community
We are to take care of families–whatever their shape or makeup, support marriages, affirm singles in their singleness, affirm the goodness of sexuality as God’s good gift.
3. The Social Community
We affirm the rights of ethnic and religious minorities. Rights of children, young people, of the aging, of those with disabilities, and of women–of all those who have been traditionally disenfranchised.
4. The Economic Community
We support economic justice and the right of laborers to organize. Fair wages and workers’ rights.
5. The Political Community
We affirm the goodness of democracy as system that respects the equality of all people before God. We believe in the importance of getting involved in the political process. Now, unlike some other preachers in recent months, I am not going to tell you who to vote for. I am not going to tell you that God wants you to vote for one candidate or another. I think God’s getting tired of being dragged out as a political mascot, by both sides. But I will tell you to vote. We cannot adequately care for the welfare of the city to which we have been sent if we do not invest ourselves in its governance and in holding accountable those who make the decisions for the community.
6. The World Community
We affirm the community of nation and respect the diversity of cultures. We affirm the rights of indigenous populations, and we hold nations responsible in the exercise of their power and responsibility, especially in questions of war and peace.
Far from being a disinterested traveller, an alien only passing through the land, we are to involve ourselves with every aspect of our life here on this earth. Christians are meant to be engaged in the world, not isolated from it.
V. CONCLUSION
In tonight’s New Testament lesson we see Jesus using the example of the one Samaritan who responded with thanksgiving. Jesus lifts him up as a challenge to his disciples. If a stranger, an alien can respond to God’s grace with thanksgiving why can’t the rest of you?
It is a reminder, that foreigners, strangers can respond to God’s grace. Even we, who can feel like spiritual exiles, like aliens in the land, have been invited by Christ to seek the welfare of the city God has sent us to.
It is through our involvement, our engagement that we seek the welfare of the city we have been sent to, praying to the Lord for it. It is how we come to understand that its welfare is our welfare.
