Seeking the Welfare of the City—Lectionary Reflection for Pentecost 18C (Jeremiah 29)

Jeremiah 29:1-7 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

29 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. ² This was after King Jeconiah and the queen mother, the court officials, the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the artisans, and the smiths had departed from Jerusalem. ³ The letter was sent by the hand of Elasah son of Shaphan and Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom King Zedekiah of Judah sent to Babylon to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. It said: 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.

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                For generations, there has been an urban-rural divide. That is even more true today than ever before. It has become part of the political divide, with cities and some suburbs being largely Democratic and exurban and rural areas Republican. Voting maps will show great swaths of the country shaded in red, with smaller patches of blue. Somewhere around half or more of the nation’s population is found in those blue patches. Despite the divide, cities tend to be the economic and cultural engines of society. Perhaps that is one of the reasons for the divide. Nevertheless, it’s no wonder that people from rural areas often migrate to the cities, where they often feel as if they are exiles. But it’s the cities that offer the jobs, medical care, and cultural benefits. When I speak of cities, I have in mind metropolitan areas. I’ve lived in small towns and small cities, but I’ve also lived in large metropolitan areas, including greater Los Angeles and greater Detroit. While cities and suburbs have their challenges, I have acclimated well to them. When it comes to where we live, we face the question of whether we can bloom where we’ve been planted. Can we contribute to the welfare of the larger community, knowing that our own welfare is rooted in the community?

                The reading from Jeremiah 29 is one of my favorites, though I’ve discovered that it has become a key line among Christian nationalists who use it in search of political domination. I don’t use it that way. I think it reflects a humble word of guidance on the part of the prophet to a people living in exile. When you’re in exile, humbly make a home and a life, and from there seek the welfare of the city/place where you find yourself, because you will find your welfare in that context.

                Jeremiah 29 presents us with a letter Jeremiah writes (dictates) from what remains of Jerusalem to the elders, priests, prophets, and people living in exile after Nebuchadnezzar took them from Jerusalem to live in exile in Babylon. The Revised Common Lectionary creators omit verses 2 and 3, but they are helpful to understand the context of this letter. The narrator tells us that the letter was sent after King Jeconiah (also known as Jehoiachin), the grandson of Josiah, and the queen mother, along with other officials, had been taken into exile. Therefore, this letter was sent closer to 597 BCE, when Nebuchadnezzar took control of Jerusalem and placed Jeconiah’s uncle, Zedekiah, on the throne as a vassal king. Later, Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, would rebel, leading to the destruction of Jerusalem. However, at that point in time, Jerusalem still stands. Despite this fact, as we ponder Jeremiah’s letter, their exile would not end any time soon.

                When we reach verse four, we come to the heart of the message. We only get a snippet of the entire letter, but these four verses offer a powerful word that I think resonates even today. We may not live in exile as this group did, but sometimes it can feel that way, especially in this increasingly mobile society, as people move farther from family and friends. The question is, can we settle in and become part of the larger community?

                I live in a large metropolitan area with a large immigrant population. This has been true of Metro Detroit since at least the beginning of the twentieth century, a reality largely driven by the auto industry. All around where I live, I see signs of this reality, with numerous Eastern Orthodox churches, ethnic Catholic churches, ethnically oriented Protestant churches, synagogues, gurdwaras, temples, and mosques. I have been in conversations with people from all kinds of backgrounds, and I’ve witnessed the struggle people have to settle in and make a home in the land where they find themselves. They or their families may have come here for a variety of reasons, mostly economic. There is something about the “homeland” that continues to draw their attention. The same was true for the people of Jerusalem and Judah. They longed to return home, but sometimes we can’t return home.   

                Here in chapter 29, as noted above, the context is the decade before the destruction of Jerusalem. Nebuchadnezzar has taken control of Jerusalem and Judah, replacing the king with his uncle. Within a decade, things would change, such that Nebuchadnezzar stepped in and destroyed the city, taking a larger number of Jews into exile, while destroying the city. That exile would continue until Cyrus, the Persian King, defeated the Babylonians and set the Jewish exiles free. But at this point, we’re early in the story. Jerusalem still exists, but for that first batch of exiles, they had choices to make. They could remain as refugees, hoping to return quickly or recognize that things might not change for quite some time. Jeremiah offers them a word of guidance, suggesting that this exile would not be over quickly, so they had to make some decisions about how they would experience their exile. You can imagine how these exiles might have felt as they took up residence in a foreign land. Would God travel with them? Or did Yahweh dwell only in Judea and Israel? In the ancient world, the gods were often understood to be territorial in nature, so if you left the territory, there was always the question of whether you had entered the territory of another deity.  If so, were you under their jurisdiction? While at this point, according to verses 2 and 3, the Temple still stood, did the fact that the Babylonians controlled Jerusalem mean that Marduk had defeated Yahweh?

             While the people may have felt like they were outside Yahweh’s field of vision, Jeremiah didn’t agree. Therefore, he spoke to the exiles on behalf of Yahweh, who had instructions for them as they experienced their time in exile. In fact, according to Jeremiah, Nebuchadnezzar didn’t send them into exile; Yahweh did. So, with that in mind, Yahweh had instructions to share with them about how to live faithfully in exile.

             The first thing Jeremiah tells the exiles living in Babylon, that big city in Mesopotamia, is to build homes. Homes have permanency, so get ready to stay put for a while. Not only should they build homes and live in them, but Jeremiah told them to plant gardens and eat the produce of the gardens. This was another sign that they should put down roots. But Jeremiah wasn’t finished. He told the men to take wives and have children, sons and daughters. If they had daughters, they should give them in marriage so they could bear children. That way, their numbers would expand, so they might flourish and extend their reach beyond the current generation of exiles.  For, as Walter Brueggemann notes, “Even in displacement, Judah continues to be the people over which God’s promise for the future presides with power” [Brueggemann, Walter. A Commentary on Jeremiah: Exile and Homecoming (Kindle p. 257). Eerdmans]. What is important to point out is that Jeremiah wants the people to plant themselves and make homes in this foreign land, but they are to do so without succumbing to the enticements of their current home. There will be enticements to embrace power and influence, while leaving behind their commitment to the ways of Yahweh. But that is not the way of the Lord. In other words, they need to remember the covenant relationship even if they live in a foreign land. Song Mi Suzie Park writes that “in the face of this religious upheaval, Jeremiah encourages the community to continue to have faith in God’s larger plan—a plan that seems utterly impossible, but which Jeremiah hints is possible for God. They are to hope and know that God can and will bring God’s promises to pass” [Connections, p. 377].

          While verses four to six speak of settling in and putting down roots, in verse 7, Jeremiah gives the people further instructions about how they engage with their communities while living in exile. This is a word we might want to take hold of, but we must do this with all humility. I’ve learned of late that this is a favorite passage among Christian Nationalists, but they’re engagement with it lacks humility. This is not a passage that encourages the covenant people to take control (not that they could), but to recognize that their welfare is caught up in the welfare of their neighbors, who might not be members of the Jewish community. Therefore, Jeremiah tells his audience to “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” (Jeremiah 29:7). In making this statement Jeremiah reminds his audience that they were part of a larger community and that if they were to flourish as a people, they needed to recognize that their welfare was wrapped up in the welfare of the larger community.

                While there is a political realism present here, in which Jeremiah reminds them that Judah’s future is connected to the future of this group of exiles. However, there is, as Brueggemann suggests, more than realism here. This is where things get interesting for us in our time. He writes of verse 7:

The imperative bestows upon this vulnerable, small community a large missional responsibility. In this way, the community is invited into the larger public process of the empire. Such a horizon prevents the exilic community from withdrawing into its own safe, sectarian existence, and gives it work to do and responsibility for the larger community. [Brueggemann, A Commentary on Jeremiah, Kindle pp. 257-258].

While we may be tempted to withdraw from the world, Jeremiah tells the people that this is not possible. They have missional responsibilities. There is a purpose in their exile, so watch what God does in the days and years to come through them as they settle in and seek the welfare of the city where they live, because it is in the city’s welfare that they will experience their own welfare. In seeking the city’s welfare, they don’t have to give up being Jewish. As Miguel De La Torre reminds us, remembering that this is an age where anti-immigrant sentiments are running high:

Jeremiah does not call the exiles to stop being Jewish or worshipping their God. Rather, as foreigners, we are to work for the common good of all who also inhabit the land where we find ourselves. Foreigners should be willing to learn from the land’s inhabitants, in the same way that the natives of the land can learn from the stranger in their midst. [Preaching God’s Transforming Justice, pp. 427-428].

Living as we do in this period of anti-immigrant sentiment, might we ask ourselves what Jeremiah would say to us about hospitality and welcome, as well as engaging with the society we live in without embracing all its values?