Flourishing in Babylon (Part 1)
Do you like to travel?
I love travelling. I love experiencing new cultures, new foods, new sights and histories, new wonders and geography. However, as much as I love travel, I am always aware that where I am is not my home. I love being in a different space. I love the experiences. But it’s not "home."
Because of that, I am perhaps a little more aware of my surroundings, a little more aware of how I’m interacting with people, and a little more conscientious I do my best to honour the culture I’m in while at the same not losing sight of who I am.
What if we took it one step further? Perhaps you have had the experience of moving to a new country and culture. Once you move, where’s home? Is it where you came from? Where you are? How do we integrate ourselves into our new community? If I want to flourish, do I forget everything about my old culture? Do my best to merge the two? Refuse to integrate?
I ask these questions because one of the key themes woven into the story of Scripture is the idea of God's people being "resident aliens," both physically and spiritually. The author of Hebrews is very clear about this:
“For this world is not our permanent home; we are looking forward to a home yet to come.”
~ Hebrews 13:14
This is meant to be understood as a spiritual truth, not necessarily a physical one. In other words, the physical earth upon which we live will be renewed, and, according to Revelation, heaven will be revealed on this earth. We will live here on this physical earth in the tangible presence of God. This is one reason creation care and stewarding the earth is an important issue.
Flourishing in the Physical City of Babylon
There was a time in Israel’s history when God’s people were resident aliens living in a foreign land. They had been exiled from the Promised Land and were living in middle of the Babylonian Empire. However, the prophet Jeremiah gave some surprising advice to the Israelites in exile who were wondering how they were to flourish in this foreign land:
"This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says to all the captives he has exiled to Babylon from Jerusalem: “Build homes, and plan to stay. Plant gardens, and eat the food they produce. Marry and have children. Then find spouses for them so that you may have many grandchildren. Multiply! Do not dwindle away! And work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare.”
~ Jeremiah 29:4-7
In other words, bloom and flourish where you’re planted.
If this is true for the exiled nation of Israel physically living in a place that was not their permanent home, what about followers of Jesus today who are also living in a world that is not their permanent home?
Flourishing in the Spiritual City of Babylon
In the Bible, Babylon represents far more than just the empire that took Israel into captivity. In his book Discipleship on the Edge, Darrell Johnson writes about how one major themes that runs through the NT is the concept that the life of a follower of Jesus is a life that is in this crunch between two great cities: the kingdom of the world, which is often presented in Scripture as the city of Babylon, and the kingdom of God, which is represented in the book of Revelation as the new Jerusalem (not the old Jerusalem, but the new one, the heavenly one, the bride of Christ).
The crunch comes as the kingdom of God advances, and the kingdoms of the world resist, creating this tension and pressure. Followers of Jesus are called to follow Jesus and live in the crunch. We live in Babylon. We live in the middle of Empire. But we are resident aliens – for our citizenship belongs to another city.
So on the one hand we live in the crunch. On the other hand, we are called to bloom and flourish even while we live in Babylon. How do we do that? How do we bloom where we are planted? We are inundated by Babylon’s values of greed and power and pride and licentiousness. How are we to live as resident aliens in the midst of Empire?
Over the next couple of emails, we will explore how to flourish in our impermanent home of Babylon.
PAUSE AND REFLECT
Where do you most notice Babylon's presence pressing in on you? At work? In the media? In your shopping habits?
More importantly, which city has captured your imagination?
Take a moment to reflect, maybe even journal, on the following three questions:
Where do I encounter Babylon the most?
What Babylonian value influences me the most?
Even though this world (i.e. Babylon) is not my permanent home, how is God calling me to flourish in it today?
We are called to pray for the peace and prosperity of where we live, but that does not mean losing sight of who we are. Babylon wants to influence the values by which we live and work, yet every time it does, although it promises a better life, it actually leads us away from flourishing.
You are called to bloom and flourish - even in Babylon. But that does not happen by becoming like Babylon, for that world is passing away. What is required is something much more countercultural. More on that next week.