Cities

A Sermon by Nada Sellers

July 15, 2007

Jeremiah 29:1, 4-14

I am fairly certain that most everyone here this morning has recently heard one of us talking about the UCC Synod in the City, which was just held at the end of June in Hartford, CT.  Under the theme "Let it Shine!," you may have been struck as I am by the fact that the United Church of Christ chose to hold this celebration gathering smack dab in the midst of the city, actually, in the midst of one of the first Puritan cities of the New World.  It was Rev. Thomas Hooker who led about 100 Puritan followers to create a settlement called Hartford, on the banks of the Connecticut River in June of 1636.  Dutch traders were actually the first Europeans on the scene, following the lead of a Dutch explorer named Adriaen Block, who sailed up the Connecticut River in 1614.  The Dutch followed Block's journey by establishing a trading post at the confluence of the CT and Park Rivers.

Hartford's beginnings lay with Rev. Hooker, who, lecturing in his native England, preached about the need to reform or "purify" the state-supported Church of England.  This resulted in an order to appear before the High Commission, at which point Hooker jumped bond and fled to Holland.  From there, he and his parishioners made the dangerous voyage across the Atlantic to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, but disliking the undemocratic ways of the colony's government, they decided to investigate for themselves reports of fertile land in the CT River Valley.  On May 31, 1638, exactly two years after he had set out from Newtown (now called Cambridge), Hooker delivered a sermon containing his vision of how the recently named Hartford should govern itself.  "The foundation of authority is laid, firstly, in the free consent of the people," he said. He went on to argue that the "choice of public magistrates belongs unto the people by God's own allowance" and that "they who have the power to appoint officers and magistrates, it is in their power also to set the bounds and limitations of the power and the place unto which they call them."  The founders of Hartford, Wethersfield, and Windsor used this sermon and others from Hooker as a basis for their Fundamental Orders, considered by some to be the world's first written constitution, which is why Connecticut came to be known as the Constitution State.¹

You may not be aware of the fact that Hartford has many other historical firsts as well: the first municipal library in America, a bequest of the town of New Haven in 1656; the first medical diploma granted by Yale University in 1729; the first law school in America, Litchfield Law School founded in 1784; the first portable typewriter invented in 1843; the first hamburger, served at Louie's Lunch in New Haven in 1895 (they still serve them there!); the first municipal rose garden established in Elizabeth Park, in 1904; and the first FM radio station, WDRC-FM which began broadcasting in Hartford in 1939.  For you history buffs, I've included a list on the back of your bulletin sheet.

Hartford is also one of the most challenged cities in all of the US.  According to the city's official website, the estimated median income is $26,032 a year compared to the rest of CT which stands at $60,941, and only 60 % of its residents have completed high school.  The percentage of residents living in poverty in 2005 was 32%, that's 25.5% for blacks, 42.2% for Hispanic or Latino residents, and 43.5% for other race residents.  As of August 2001, the unemployment rate for the city was 6.4% while for the state of CT the rate stood at 3.4% overall.²  Racial and ethnic tensions, and recent histories of political corruption and mismanagement have also taken a toll.

Then again, maybe these are exactly the reasons why our denomination chose to hold it's 50th year synod in Hartford: it is a city with many firsts, as well as a city with many challenges.  Each of these also describes the United Church of Christ itself as a denomination of historical firsts and a denomination called to bear witness to Jesus by speaking out about the injustices in the world around us.  In fact, study materials provided by under the theme "Let It Shine" identify the five distinctive commitments of our tradition as: "united and uniting, multiracial and multicultural, accessible to all, open and affirming, and a peace with justice church."  (Study Guide, S. Fowler ed., p. 7)

Over the next couple of weeks, I'm to explore some of the inspirational topics and themes that were presented in Hartford last month.  It's good to be reminded of why we are who we are, and how our history of being a smaller but active and vocal progressive denomination, informs the present and future.  It's even more timely for us at North Church, because we are in the midst of a rebuilding process, and we want to continue to be a UCC congregation, letting our light SHINE here on the corner of Pine and Pleasant.  Last week, those of you who were here, heard Barbara share some of her impressions about attending the event, including some of the comments from Bill Moyer and others.  This morning, I invite you to think with me about cities… Yes, about the "city" and the relationship of God to the city.  After all, the recent gathering of the UCC in CT was a synod in the CITY.

Cities combine much of the best and the worst of life and culture and human experience, and yet, cities are often blamed for all sorts of calamity and tragedy in our midst.  Harvie Conn, a well-known seminary professor of missions, writes about his encounter with a missions executive of a prominent evangelical missions association in 1983.  This Christian leader commented that, "God made the country and [humans] made the suburbs.  But the devil made the city," laughing as he said it.³   And there are certainly many other commentators who have trashed cities with a similar vengeance.  Jacques Ellul writing in his book, The Meaning of the City, portrays the city as the place of idolatry, oppression and the opposition of human power to the power of God.  For Ellul, the very fact of living in the city drives humanity down an inhuman road.  Similarly, for one writer, the city has no final value in itself; it is "as a symbol of [humanity's] attempts to provide for its own material security," that the city is to be condemned.   And for yet another author, his conclusion is this: "there is considerable evidence that there is something about cities that encourages criminal acts."⁴ It appears that in cities many find a credible scapegoat for most of what is wrong in our world. 

There is also some clear biblical precedent for the growth of negative attitudes toward the city.  Many of the prophets became anti-urbanists.  To the writer of Amos, the cities become places where the poor are oppressed, where commerce undermines community; the old life of the desert people gives way to sedentary laziness, and the its temptations yield to urban idolatry. How shocking it is then, to find Jeremiah writing to the exiled Jews back in Babylon, the following message:  READ TEXT.

Here are a people being asked to "seek the welfare of the city" where they had been dragged into exile!  What on earth was Jeremiah saying?  How on earth could he even think such a thing?!?

Our passage is in fact, a letter from Jeremiah, sent from Jerusalem to the Jews living as exiles in Babylon, shortly after the initial overthrow of Judah in 597 BCE.  Perhaps transcribed by Jeremiah's friend and scribe, Baruch, it focuses on the falsehood of the prophets back in Jerusalem, who have been delivering messages that are not from God, as well as on how God is still actively involved in the people's plight.  All of this is to be found in our passage in chapter 29, and is summarized in the directive from God through the prophet at verse 7: 'Seek the welfare of the city where you are exiled, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.'  Rather than following the misguided prophets who spoke of speedy release and little obligation to God while in exile, Jeremiah has a very different message.  This isn't about looking for ways to tap into the Babylonian welfare state.  This is about investment and involvement in the city of exile where the Jews found themselves.  It's about putting down roots, living faithfully and caring for those around them in this strange land they had been forced to come to live in.  What we have here is a subversive message of commitment to the city and the other city-dwellers, contrary to much of what the city meant and still means for those stuck in Babylon.  Consider what the prophet says God wants from these exiled city-dwellers.  Maybe there's something in it for us post-modern city-dwellers.

The first portion of the letter is a command to plant, and to build and to grow.  Essentially, God is asking for sustained communal life right in the middle of Babylon!  Even without the Temple and the ritual sacrifices and rhythms of Jewish life, God's people are to carry on and live life fully in the city.  This is the covenantal living stressed way back in Genesis, the blessing of God in the increase and growth of families and lands and growing things.  The implication is not only that God wants to bless you in this strange land but that you are to accept this strange land and allow God to bless you there because you are going to be there for some time; generations in fact.⁵  Rather than the moaning of Psalm 137, where the poet captures the despair of Babylonian captives who can't even stand to sing the songs of Zion, here the prophet calls for lively living in the pagan city of Babylon.  Somehow, faithful living is to be done in the city; God seeks to bless with increase.  Maybe God is even to be found in the midst of this unwelcome city life.

But lest we, along with those original exiles, become lax in noticing what this entails, this command in verses 5 & 6 is linked to mutual well-being with a conditional "but:" 'But, seek the welfare of your city, pray for it, because your welfare is related to its welfare' (my paraphrase).  The whole picture just got much bigger.  Here 'welfare' translates the Hebrew shalom, a word you might recognize as meaning 'peace,' or 'well-being.'  And while these are part of what it means, there is so much more that we need to grasp about God's requirement here.   Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, shalom covers well-being in the widest possible sense of the word, pointing to blessings of prosperity, health, contentedness, wholeness, peaceful relationships, salvation and unity.   'Shalom' always has a social dimension, being linked with political ins and outs, and public significance, far beyond merely the personal.  Such contented well-being and security is also closely associated with the presence of God.⁶  To seek the city's welfare is to seek after its' shalom, the fullness of social and personal contentment which is found in God's presence.  God is present in the city!
What a shock!  What a double shock this is.  The Jews are not just to live peacefully in the glow of God's blessing bestowed on their exile community, but to live by intentionally seeking the shalom of the Babylonian city.  To do so was to be confronted with the need to care for and work for the good of one's enemy in a foreign culture.  This is cross-cultural caregiving concern for the oppressor, to be done by the conquered Jews on behalf of those who have destroyed their homes, stolen their possessions, forced their relocation and who were now holding people hostage in exile.   It almost seems impossible, doesn't it?  This sort of loving and caring about others was later crystallized in Jesus' teachings as "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, " given in the Sermon on the Mount. (Matt. 5:44)   Today, it is through the saving work of Jesus in our lives that we embrace this call to love those whom we would rather hate.  It is the power of the Spirit, which guides us away from hate to love.  But what about back Jeremiah's time?  How was an exiled Jew to seek the enemy's shalom?

Pray to YHWH on the city's behalf, says the prophet.  To commit to praying for the Babylonians was a huge step, but it is one God called for especially in order to bring together these city-dwellers.  Beyond the self-interest, which we might suppose is linked to praying for "them" when your own welfare is related to "theirs," the significance of praying for the oppressor is that somehow God can bring change both to oppressor and oppressed.  Slowly prayer changes perspectives and attitudes; it involves finding common ground, seeing things which weren't so apparent before, and gaining insight into that which one prays about.  This was Jeremiah's directive for the city-dwellers of Babylon and it is a solid directive for us today, in this smaller city of Western Mass, with all its sweet and bittersweet realities.  The testimony of our text is that there is an interconnectedness in mutual well-being in the city.  Pray to YHWH for the city.

To prayer is added the encouragement to live with the hope of a bright future ahead.  The exiles were reassured that after a period of time, the captivity would end and there would be a homecoming matching the plans for restored shalom that God has for God's very own.  In the face of all the evil and misfortune which seems to surround the Jews, and the apparent absence of God, God identifies the hope of homecoming and close relationship in the face of their repentance: God is present in the blessings of the shalom they are to experience in the increase of life, and will be present in the shalom of the city and the future homecoming.  Rather than life without the vision of hope, the exiles are encouraged to look up and live in the light of the promise of God's present and future plans for their well-being. 

Perhaps now we can revisit some of those early assumptions, which were made about cities and their systems.  It appears that God was quite clearly concerned about the Babylonian city wherein the exiles sojourned, and that God's concern translated into a desire for the shalom of that city, just as the shalom of the Jews grew in prosperity.  This is mutual welfare, mutual shalom, showing how closely a city and the city-dwellers are interrelated, regardless of their ethnic, religious and cultural diversity.  God cares about cities, contrary to popular prejudice, and those who follow God, are called to be concerned about all aspects of the shalom of the city.  It's as simple as that.  See, I believe that a biblical call to repentance and saving faith in Christ does not call us away from the city; it calls us to live under the sovereignty of Jesus Christ in cities, showing others what we're made of.  As a church in the city of Amherst, seeking to bring our mission into stronger focus, these are the things we must do to learn where God wants us to go.  These are the things that brought the United Church of Christ into being in June of 1957, and brought the UCC to Hartford CT for its 50th Anniversary celebration, issuing forth the proclamation "Let it Shine!" And what was supposed to be shining so boldly?  Why, God's light of course - the light of God's shalom and God's grace, the light from the city that in Matthew, is to shine on the hill so that all can see its light.  We need to be praying for our cities, living faithfully in covenant with the way of Jesus in these cities, and finding ways to work with & for our neighbors.  And that means being intentional about being hope-bearers of God's shalom now as well as the shalom that is still to come.  I believe that God has plans for our welfare, just as God did for the exiles of Babylon.  God also cared deeply about that wicked city called Babylon…  I wonder what God thinks of Hartford, CT and of North Amherst, Massachusetts?  I wonder if we're letting our light shine boldly in this city?

Notes