Gardens in Babylon

Welcome to the United States, 2016.  A place where your job and your political party equal your identity.  A place where what we do, where we go, and what we spend is monitored, analyzed, studied and recorded for future use.  A place where our excellence is preached but not felt or seen.  A place where our virtual statuses and hashtags mean more than the integrity of our actions.  A place where what the left hand does, the right hand cares not.

Do you like where we live?

I’m going to go out on a limb and say I’m not very satisfied… I don’t look around and say, “Wow!  This is the place I’ve always dreamed about!” or “This is a place where I feel so encouraged as an image-bearer of our Lord!” or “This is what heaven must be like!”  Instead, I look around and I see such big and deep rooted problems with no obvious solutions and I am overwhelmed.  I feel stuck, my feet sinking in drying cement… what should I do about it?

Where do I see ourselves in the coming 4 years?  Nowhere easy or safe, that’s for sure.  I’m no prophet and I haven’t recently had a visit from an angel or anything, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say I think we are living in our own days of Babylon.  Remember them?  The mighty empire that dominated the Middle East in its day?  The glorious kingdom that fought many battles and enslaved those they conquered?   They were the ones that the Israelites, God’s chosen ones, suffered under in their many years of exile from Jerusalem.  Babylon didn’t care one iota about their “all-powerful god” or their role as “children of the light”.  Israel was nothing more than a bunch of bodies whose sole purpose was contribute to Babylonian society and make sure that their economy and culture were resilient and productive.  Doesn’t sound like the kind of place a God-follower dreamed of being. 

But you know what God told his people through his prophet Jeremiah?  He told them to live there.  Not hide under the blankets sulking.  Not run away and live where the grass looked greener.  Not amass an army and revolt against the bad guys.  Not stand on the corner and yell at people to change things.  Not any of that.  Rather he told his chosen ones stuck in captivity: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce… seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile.  Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper” (Jeremiah 29: 5, 7).  Build, settle, plant, eat, pray.  Actions, all of them.  Not words of condemnation or disgust at such a situation, but rather God gave them words of encouragement and hope.  It seems that God had every intention of bringing redemption to the pagan empire of Babylon, but not in the obvious and instantaneous way that the Israelites might have preferred.  Instead, he asked his children to think big and act small.  Pray for redemption of every soul, and then plant an inner city garden.  Pray for hearts of stone to be softened, and then settle in a neighborhood that needs soft hearts.  Pray for his Kingdom to come, and then build a community center.  Pray for all sinners to repent and believe, and then invite them over to eat with you and your family.  

Pray and then act.

I think I can do that.  Can you?

Stay tuned!