“Resident Aliens”
Rev. Dr. Bradley L. DeHaven
St. Andrew’s United
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7
Recently I was doing a little web-surfing for the presidential candidates, and I came across a questionnaire that was designed to help you figure out which candidate of all those running – regardless of the party persuasion – would be the candidate that would most closely match your opinions on the major issues of today. I was rather surprised at the response that it gave me regarding my own opinions, but I won’t share that with you. However, I was more surprised by the questions that were asked that would frame the issues facing each candidate. One of the most pressing issues facing our nation these days has to do with our borders, and the security of our country. What are we to do with our borders? Now, regardless of which side you come down on that issue, to say that it is a hot potato is an understatement.
One of the most difficult things a pastor can attempt is to convince a fellow Christian that the world in which we were born is not the native land of our faith. I know that it seems easy to say that, but the difficulty doesn’t come from our saying it as pastors, but from our persuading others to hear it and understand it.
At this juncture in the history of the Christian faith in the world, we stand at a crossroads. It is a difficult place to be. I would daresay that it is not difficult because we are in the midst of persecution and great peril – we are not, as Paul would say, like lambs before the slaughter. No, in our situation, we are quite the opposite. We seem to be quite comfortable with the way that life is going. We find ourselves working harder to achieve and to believe that we are succeeding in life. And truth be told, we are succeeding. We are achieving those dreams and visions that we have been told are worth pursuing. Life is good. The Markets are up. Interest rates are stabilizing somewhat, and most folks are finding life a little bit more bearable.
And that is what makes this passage of scripture all the more difficult to hear this morning. Jeremiah’s prophecy is a difficult lesson for most folks, especially today, because it appears on the outset to be advising people that everything is all right. Everything is going to be fine, just keep pursuing the dreams you are pursuing, and pray for the markets to get better. Unfortunately, to hear this message in Jeremiah’s words is to miss his point entirely.
At the height of the exile, the Babylonians had jeered the Hebrew people into believing that their faith was unimportant. They began to even believe that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of Miriam and Moses, the God of David was impotent. God was no match for the Babylonian gods, and especially for their chosen son, King Nebuchadnezzer. What was worse, whenever the Israelites in exile would rise up to revolt against this king, they would be swiftly, and unmercifully executed.
Still, the prevailing belief among the exiles was to revolt, and to stand up for what God had called them to believe. The problem was that there was one person who advised the exact opposite of this – Jeremiah. His counsel was to not fight against the exile, because the origins of this situation were from God – and to fight against the exile would be to fight against God’s purposes for the Hebrew People.
Instead, Jeremiah proclaimed that the people needed to build homes, plant vineyards, get married and have children. In other words, make the best of this temporary situation. And then Jeremiah offered the hardest word of all: seek the welfare of your captors, for in their welfare is your welfare.
Think about that for a moment. To find a home among your enemies sounds so contradictory to everything we have come to understand as a people. To seek the welfare of our enemies, so that we might find our welfare blessed – it sounds so weak and passive. It does not sound anything like the vibrant, strong, resistant armies of King David. It doesn’t add up.
But that is just it. This isn’t about fighting back. This is about learning to discern God’s will. And there are times when we aren’t called to fight, but are called to discern. Seeking discernment and wisdom when everything we ever wanted is shouting at us to rage against the forces that would hold us back seems so – vassal.
There were many who wanted to kill Jeremiah, you know. They thought he was a traitor. They had tried to kill him several times. Even the Babylonians thought of him as an ally, but Jeremiah wasn’t their friend. He was just trying to be obedient to God’s calling to share this word of hope.
And the hardest thing to do in a situation like that is to hear that simple word of hope, and to trust that the words we say are in fact reality – that God is truly in charge. God knows what is going on. And all we are called to do is to be faithful to God’s plans – God’s will. It means patience. And patience isn’t something that we have an awful lot of these days.
Now, I know that many of you are thinking, “I should have stayed home today. The preacher isn’t making sense.” Or maybe, “The preacher has lost touch with reality. What does any of this have to do with me and my problems?”
And that is a good question. But I believe that God is absolutely in touch with the reality of God’s people in every time and place, and that this word from Jeremiah has a great deal to say to us today in our given situations.
About
eighteen years ago, then Dean of the Chapel at Duke University William Willimon
co-authored a book with Religion Professor Stanley Hauerwas that opened the
door to talking about the very issues that we face as a church today. The book was entitled, “Resident Aliens.” It is a story about how the aliens in our
world today are not necessarily those who do not have proper documentation to
live in this country, but rather are those whose beliefs seem to run contrary
to those of the popular culture around them.
In other words, we as Christians are the true resident aliens, living in
a worldly culture that stands absolutely opposed to everything that Christ
tried to preach and teach about two thousand years ago. When Jesus was introducing the
The difference is that we aren’t called to rage against society – to revolt and rebel, but to transform. Listen to Hauerwas’ & Willimon’s words:
From a Christian point of view, the world needs the church, not to help the world run more smoothly or to make the world a better and safer place for Christians to live. Rather, the world needs the church because, without the church, the world does not know who it is. The only way for the world to know that it is being redeemed is for the church to point to the Redeemer by being a redeemed people. The way for the world to know that it needs redeeming, that it is broken and fallen, is for the church to enable the world to strike hard against something which is an alternative to what the world offers.[i]
You see, the problem is that the church needs to be the church for the world – not because we need to be the church for the church. In the words of Dr. Jason Fry, the pastor of First United Methodist Church of Victoria, “It is SO NOT about us!”
Jeremiah’s words are welcome to our ears today because the wisdom he offers is the wisdom that we need to hear. It is a word that holds us to account for who we are called to be in Christ Jesus.
The hardest thing for most Christians to do today is to be Christian in the midst of the pressures and promptings of the world. So many families are caught right smack dab in the middle of life. We’ve got the stresses of jobs and families and mortgages and bills. We’ve got rising healthcare costs, increasing gas bills, and the never-ending need to stretch a dollar. We are stressed into believing that we need the newest, the latest, the bestest, the fastest whatchamadohickey that we seem to be forever trying to pay for it. We are struggling to put our kids through college, or we are trying to take care of our elderly parents. If we are beyond both of those, we are struggling to find enough with which to retire comfortably, or to at least see us through to a gracious end. We are stretched thin, and we feel every pluck of the world’s fingers as we are tuned tighter and tighter. To be a Christian, and to see the ultimate meaning in life from God’s point of view seems so distant, so remote, so…
And yet, we hear this word from Jeremiah. We are called to be faithful to God’s will. And we are called to be Christian in the midst of a world that so desperately needs to be redeemed. And according to Jeremiah, and William Willimon, the only way that this redemption will take place is through the Church being faithful at being the Church.
We are called to live in the world. We are called to be the example for everyone to follow – and that means we need to follow the example ourselves. It means we need to build our houses and plant our vineyards – literally to live among the world. We are not called to rage against it, or to ignore it, or even isolate ourselves from it. We are called to pray for its welfare, because in the midst of its welfare we will find our welfare. We cannot hide from our responsibilities as Christians, even though the world goes on around us. We are to dwell in the world as God’s living example of what God needs the world to see – the living, breathing body of Christ.
We are indeed Resident Aliens. We are called to live like the people in exile – not against the culture, but silently, faithfully working to transform it for the grace and glory of God.
That cannot happen solely within these walls. It must happen out there – in the world. And God has called us to live there – and to work there – and to see that God’s word is spoken and lived out out there.
This is indeed the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.