You may have seen the dueling billboards in Memphis last month.
It started with just one advertisement. That billboard showed a little girl with a smug look on her face. The rest of the billboard was her letter. It read:
“Dear Santa, All I want for Christmas is to skip church. I’m too old for fairy tales.”
The billboard was sponsored by an atheist organization called American Atheists. And, on Easter weekend, they will be hosting a convention in Memphis.
A Christian group sponsored a competing billboard. It read:
“Dear Santa, All I want is to keep Christmas sacred and celebrate without being bullied. With respect to all.”
The dueling billboards caught some local and national press. It may seem like just an oddity. But it’s actually a sign of something larger. After all, this isn’t California or New England, areas we consider to be liberal and unchurched. Memphis is as near to the belt-buckle of the Bible-believing church-going South as you can get. And a national atheist organization is hosting a major convention in Memphis on Easter weekend. And that same organization posted a billboard calling the Christian faith a fairy tale.
It’s a pretty good indication that our culture is becoming increasingly diverse when it comes to spiritual matters. Our culture is in a state of flux, spiritually speaking. There are increasing numbers of people who don’t believe in the Christian message or any religious message. More and more, we find ourselves living in the midst of people who have very different spiritual values than we do.
And this raises an important question: How do we respond when the spiritual core of our culture is in flux? What is our reaction to a culture which no longer seems to value what we value?
This is an important question because when in flux we may respond in ways that are unhealthy.
James Davison Hunter is an American sociologist and Distinguished Professor of Religion, Culture, and Social Theory at the University of Virginia. In his book To Change the World, he points out that, historically, Christians and Jews have tended to respond to a culture in flux in three unhealthy ways:
- First, we respond with hostility. We actively fight the culture. We seek power, usually political power, over the culture. Or we might even take up arms against the culture.
- Second, we respond with disengagement. We refuse to become involved in any meaningful way with the culture around us. We form our own closed community within the larger community.
- Third, we respond by immersing ourselves in the culture and adopting its values. We become just like those who live around us.
But Scripture points toward a better response. The book of Jeremiah is a nearly perfect book to turn to in order to address this issue. In chapter 29, we find Jeremiah writing a letter to people who are asking this question. The reigning world superpower, Babylon, has attacked the city of Jerusalem and the nation of Judah. Their military has captured and taken as prisoners of war thousands of Jews. They are exiled, or relocated, one thousand miles away in Babylon. They not only have forcibly relocated the Jewish people, but they worship pagan gods and behave in ways that are considered by the Jews to be immoral and unclean.
And the question now is this: How do the Jews respond when the spiritual core of the surrounding culture is in such a state of flux? What is their reaction to this Babylonian culture that definitely does not value what the Jews value?
Here is Jeremiah’s answer:
5 Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their 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. (Jer. 29:5-7 ESV)
The first series of commands addresses the first reaction of the Jewish people to this massive state of flux. Other prophets, besides Jeremiah, have been telling the people that this exile is very temporary. It won’t be long, and God will judge and punish these pagan people. God’s not going to stand by and let this evil take over. So, don’t unpack your suitcases. Don’t even sit down. This’ll be over in the blink of an eye.
To this belief, Jeremiah says the following: build houses, plant gardens, get married, have children and grandchildren, and get busy living life. Jeremiah’s laying out a three-generation plan: parents, children and grandchildren. Houses being constructed. Gardens being planted. Lives being lived over a long haul of parents, children and grandchildren.
In other words, Jeremiah’s telling them to engage. Don’t disengage. But engage in life in this new setting. In this time of flux, Jeremiah’s telling them to without a lease.
In flux, we are called to life without our lease.
Several years ago, after finishing graduate school here in Memphis, I took my first full-time ministry job. It was in Las Cruces New Mexico. Kendra and I packed a small U-Haul with our few belongings, hitched our Toyota Corolla to the back, and drove 1000 miles. The first place we landed in Las Cruces was a small two-bedroom apartment. It was a decent place but not a place we wanted to live in long-term. We eventually wanted a larger place, a home of our own. But we needed this temporary stepping-stone. So, we signed a lease and moved in for several months. Many of you have had a similar experience.
In general, leases are designed for short-term commitments. You lease a car when you know you will not be driving it for more than a year or two. We sign leases on apartments, knowing or hoping to someday have some kind of more permanent or stable home. It is often a short term accommodation.
In a similar way, the Jewish people in Babylon were symbolically signing leases. They were living for the short term. Month to month. They believed that this time in Babylon was going to be so short that they may as well just not engage in life at all.
But Jeremiah tells them, “You need to tear up those leases. This is going to last a while. You need to settle down. Find a way to approach this situation with the long term in mind. Build houses. Plant gardens. Have families. And live for the long-haul.”
This is critical advice for us today. Because too many times, into many ways, we Christians are signing leases when it comes to times of flux.
- We get stuck attending a public school where there are many people who do not share our Christian values, so we withdraw and do not form any genuine friendships with those around us. We do not invest in the lives of other students. We tell ourselves, “I’m only going to be here for a few years, so it doesn’t make sense to try to create relationships with these other students who are so different from me.” It is a way of signing a lease.
- We wind up in a city where laws or citizens don’t conform to our Christian perspective. So we refuse to engage in any meaningful way in that city’s life. We rarely attend any local concerts or art shows. We don’t visit local restaurants. We don’t read the local paper or watch the local news. We don’t vote in local elections. We don’t serve in any local clubs or organizations. It’s a way of signing a lease. It’s a way of saying, “I’m only here temporarily. It’s not going to last long. So I’m not going to invest anything in this place.”
But Jeremiah’s calling for a very different response. He’s saying, “Tear up those leases. Settle in. Engage in life and in the lives of those around you. Live without a lease.”
But I want to focus on the second part of Jeremiah’s response. Let’s visit his words once more:
“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.” (Jer. 29:7 ESV)
The word “welfare” is a critical word in the Old Testament. The word is actually “shalom.”
- It refers to the health of the city.
- The soundness of the city.
- The wholeness of the city.
- The completeness of the city.
- The prosperity of the city.
- The peace of the city.
The Jews may want to disengage. To not be a part of life in Babylon. Some of them may even want to respond with hostility. Still others may wish to just immerse themselves and lose their distinctiveness. But here’s what God calls them to do through Jeremiah: seek the welfare of the city.
- Make the city healthy.
- Help the city to be sound.
- Work for the wholeness of the city.
- Help the city become complete.
- Work for the prosperity of the city
- Bring peace to the city.
They are to seek the welfare of this city that does not share their values. Here the Jews are, living in a culture that, spiritually speaking, is vastly different from theirs. And God calls them to seek the welfare of that culture.
Here we are, living in a culture that, spiritually speaking, is becoming vastly different from ours. And God calls us to seek the welfare of that culture. Not to disengage. Not to fight back. Not to immerse ourselves. But to seek the welfare.
- What are we to do with the United States? Seek its welfare!
- What we to do with Tennessee? Seek its welfare!
- What are we to do with the MidSouth? Seek its welfare!
- What are we to do with Memphis? Seek its welfare!
- What are we to do with Southaven or Olive Branch? Seek its welfare!
- What are we to do with Raleigh or Frayser? Seek its welfare!
- What are we to do with Marion or West Memphis? Seek its welfare!
- What are we to do with Germantown or Collierville? Seek its welfare!
- What are we to do with Bartlett, Lakeland or Arlington? Seek its welfare!
- What are we to do with Piperton or Moscow? Seek its welfare!
Centuries later Jesus would summarize all of this with one word. That word was “love”:
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies…45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? (Matt. 5:43-46 ESV)
Jesus taught that the best response to a prickly person or to a prickly world is the response of love.
And Jeremiah has a specific form of love in mind. And so does Jesus. Listen once more to both of them:
But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf… (Jer. 29:7 ESV)
But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you… (Matt. 5:44 ESV)
Jeremiah and Jesus call us to love on our knees. In flux, we are called to love while on our knees. Jeremiah and Jesus agree that one of the greatest acts of love we can show a world that differs from us is to pray for that world. One of the best ways to seek the welfare of the city around us, the shalom of that city, is to pray for that city.
And, it’s important to see here that prayer is tied to love. Prayer is tied to welfare. I often receive emails, letters or see articles in magazines about a particular group calling Christians to pray for our country. But often, that phrase, “pray for this country” is used in pejorative way. There’s a kind of bitterness behind it. And it’s almost like they are saying, “Pray for God to judge this country; pray for God to drive out of office this particular person or party; pray for God to deliver this country from all those sinners outside these church walls.” But when Jeremiah and Jesus speak of praying for our city or praying for our enemy or praying for our culture, there’s nothing bitter or pejorative about it. It’s tied to love. It’s tied to welfare. We are to pray for our city out of deep love for our city. Our prayer for our cities is driven by a passion for our cities.
In his book Vanishing Grace Philip Yancey writes about prayer as a sign of radical love (38-39). He notes that once, while speaking to a church, he quoted the words of Jesus I just read and flashed on screen a photo of a dozen al-Qaeda terrorists. He asked, ”What would happen if every church in the United States adopted a member of al-Qaeda, learned to pronounce his name, and prayed for him?”
A short time later he heard from an Army reserve chaplain named Thomas Bruce who took that charge seriously. Just before mobilizing for a year of duty in Iraq he launched the web-based prayer movement called “Adopt a Terrorist for Prayer.” On it he posts photos of dangerous terrorists from the FBI’s and State Department’s most wanted lists. And he invites users to “adopt” one to pray for.
It may seem crazy. It may seem unreasonable. But that’s what we’ve been called to. We’ve been called to love on our knees. Not to immerse ourselves in our culture. Not to fight back. Not to disengage from it. But to love that culture, even with its unlovable people, on our knees.
Many of you know Beale Street. At night, it can be a place of immorality. Beale Street has a reputation for being a party place. It’s a kind of symbol for an area of depravity or decadence. There are times when that street clearly does not share out values.
And, in response, it’s not unknown for there to be a street preacher or two in the area, calling down the fire of heaven and condemning the behavior of those on Beale.
But a friend of mine believes there’s a better way to respond. There’s a way to seek the welfare of Beale Street. So one night a month, he sends teams downtown. They walk up and down Beale Street from nine to midnight. Each of them wears the same t-shirt. And the t-shirt says this: “How may I pray for you?” That’s what we’ve been called to do–to love on our knees.
“Jesus Loves Memphis” is a large effort involving many Memphis-area churches. On one day each fall, these churches host service projects throughout the city. It’s a simple and practical way to seek the welfare of our city. We have participated in it for a number of years. But I’ve had a deep and growing conviction since our last Jesus Loves Memphis service projects that God’s calling for more. Recently I sat down with the organizer of Jesus Loves Memphis. And I shared my conviction. I shared these words from Jeremiah and I said “I believe God wants us to love the city not just with our hands, but also on our knees. I believe God’s calling the churches of the MidSouth not only serve but to pray. To pray for the welfare of our cities.” And now we are planning a day in early May when area churches will dedicate time to praying for our city and when church leaders will gather together to pray for our city. Because we’ve been called to love on our knees.
But this is a challenging call, because it’s hard to measure the impact of that type of love. When it comes to seeking the welfare of our city or surrounding culture, we’re more likely to engage in other things we can measure. For example, according to research by Ram Cnaan, a University of Pennsylvania professor, one church, First Baptist Church in Philadelphia, contributed over $6,000,000 a year to the local economy [Briefing: What’s a Congregation Worth? Christianity Today (April, 2011)]. Based on Cnaan’s research, some of First Baptist’s financial contributions included:
- Volunteer hours worked: $94,770
- Reduced crime rate: $64,416
- Getting people off drugs and alcohol: $78,750
- Helping people gain employment: $725,000
- Suicide prevention: $58,800
It’s easy to put a dollar amount on things churches do with their hands: volunteer hours, reducing crime, helping people find jobs, etc. But it’s not as easy to put a dollar amount on things churches do on their knees. And that, I think, is one of the reasons why most of us and most churches in this country will dismiss this command in Jeremiah. If asked, we’d say we believe it. But the way we run our lives and our churches betrays a different answer.
To be clear, we are called to love with our hands. But one of Jeremiah’s and Jesus’ primary calls is also to love on our knees. To pray, with love, for our cities and those who are so unlike us we might ordinarily consider them to be our enemies.
And in this way, a very humble way, a very hidden way, we end up bringing blessing to those around us. And we too, end up being blessed. Because, as Jeremiah says, what goes around comes around. As we seek the welfare of the city, we are impacting our own welfare as well. As the city prospers, so do we.
So, here’s what I want you to do this week: Spend one hour this week praying for your city. Whether you live in Piperton, Arlington, Lakeland, Germantown, Horn Lake, Olive Branch, Collierville, Cordova, Memphis, West Memphis, Bartlett or somewhere else, spend a total of one hour this week praying for your city. Go to its city website and pray for all those elected and appointed officials who serve the city. Pull out a map and pray for every neighborhood in your city. As you drive around, pray for each area business in your city. Five minutes, ten minutes or fifteen minutes at a time, pray this week for your city.
Let’s be a church that doesn’t respond with hostility, with disengagement or with immersion. Let’s respond with love. Let’s become known in this city as a church that loves on its knees. A church deeply committed to praying for the welfare of all who call this place home.
