Seek the Peace and Prosperity of the City

Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 29: 4 - 7 (NIV)
This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5“Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. 7Also, 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.”
Message: Seek the Peace and Prosperity of the City
Context of prosperity
Jeremiah 29 is a famous chapter in the Bible, mostly because it is quoted from verse 11: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
It is one of those feel-good verses - it is always nice to hear that God has great plans for you, isn’t it?
But we forget that these words were spoken in the context of exile - people of God taken from the promised land and forced to live in another country
A context of loss and grief, of uncertainty and doubt
But more over, this promise of prosperity comes right after the verses we read
Against all their religious instincts or their tribal feeling, God is telling them integrate in this foreign land
God is telling them not to feel sorry for themselves, but to change their focus from exile to seeking new possibilities and immerse themselves in their new communities
The way to prosperity is not through thinking inward, but outward
A Tough ask
What God is instructing these people of Him to do, is not easy at all
From their identity as God’s chosen people and their desire to remain pure before God, God is challenging them to change their thinking to a new focus
Imagine for a moment the impact of what God is asking them to do:
“Build houses and settle down” - think long term, you are not here for short while, you are going to be here for the long run
“Plant gardens and eat what they eat” - be willing to make lifestyle adjustments, don’t hold on to what how did things in the past
“Marry with them and let your children marry with them, have children with them” - open up your inner most circle, you family, to those who are different than you
“Seek the peace the peace and prosperity of the city where you live” - contribute to your community… you cannot just live for yourself
“If the city prosper, you will prosper” - you need to understand that your well-being is linked to the well-being of the community where you live
Don’t live in an exile-mindset
The exile of God’s people is one of the strongest themes of the Old Testament
It had a profound impact on their relationship with God - for the better
They learned to understand God’s presence in their lives in a whole new way
They discovered God in foreign places and learned to understand that God is not confined to the temple - their minds were opened to new possibilities
And even more, throughout the prophet Jeremiah, God nudged them to even grow out of an exile-mindset
God was helping them to engage and to fight their instinct to disengage and close their circles of living
The prosperity that God had in mind for them, was linked to them opening up their thinking towards the new community where God had placed them
Opening up our minds towards our community
So what would the message be for us today from Jeremiah 29?
We should understand that we are here for a reason - it is not by accident that you are part of this community - whether you were born here or have just moved here, you are here and you are part of what makes this community what it is
We cannot be complacent and expect the community serve me, we need to go out and serve… the community is not here for me, I am here for the community!
We cannot close our circle and just include those who are just as we are - as Christians we don’t have a good track record… we need to fight our instincts to distance ourselves from anything that is not how we want it to be
We need to engage in ways that would take us out of our comfort zones - we need to stop holding on to what we think belongs to us and make it available to the community
We need to understand that our well-being is linked to the well-being of our community - that means we cannot turn a blind eye to suffering and injustice around us
On this Canada Day weekend, the call is simple: Re-focus your efforts to Seek the Peace and Prosperity of the City
By doing that, you will prosper and receive the future God has planned for you!
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