On belonging (continued)

To draw out some kind of application from my previous post, these is much to see as good and bad from deciding we don’t belong. What is important, I’ve seen, is that the exiles described in Jeremiah 29 had a different view told to them. They had been removed from their land, and were being forced to live and abide by the culture of the city of Babylon. I have posted on the city before. There are excellent things about living in a city. If someone lives in a city, but lives like they are waiting for their escape, it’s not use to anyone, especially not themselves. On top of that, escape is not our goal. We will inherit the earth in all it’s fulness. This earth will be renewed, not destroyed. To abandon it would be a foolish thing to do, and I know I’d feel a bit stupid if I’d thought I was escaping somewhere I end up living in for the rest of my life.

In my study of Philippians, I wrote a simple statement: dual citizenship (see previous post) means an embracing of two cultures where one take precedent over the other. Jeremiah 29 is God speaking to the exiles in Babylon saying “seek the welfare of the city, because it’s welfare is your welfare.” This wouldn’t really have been popular, because they were a chosen nation and wanted to be different on their own terms. There were 2 alternatives in joining a city of ‘pagans’. The first would be tribalism. Tribalism is what was encouraged by a lot of the leaders in Israel. It was a structure of living to stay apart from the city and stay different. They would live their own way and not engage with culture. This is partly how some churches operate today.

The second reaction, which is what was preferred by the Babylonians particularly, was to go into the city, engage with it, and become like them. Adopt their ways, receive their education, and leave your old people behind. By that I don’t mean leave your grandparents at home, I mean leave your nation at the city gates and become a ‘new person’. This is another equally useless operation of some churches today.

The reaction God suggests is to go into the city and stay different. As a people go into the city and increase in number, be the best politicians, doctors, teachers, bankers, and tradesmen you can be. And be the best in line with being different and belong to God, not the city. Be a people of God in the city, as part of the city. The Babylonians at best wanted peoples to come into their city and decrease in number, so the descendants would be assimilated into their culture. God’s way is the polar opposite. It is an increasing in number and in consequence would transform the city.

This is the responsibility of dual citizenship: to seek the welfare of the city, for it’s welfare is your welfare. As citizens of somewhere else I we should be the best citizens here, because we live here. At the right time the work here will be part and parcel of the transformation of the place we live into a place that reflects the place we belong. Excellent!