Strangers in a Strange Land

A Strange Man

I want to begin our message today by telling you about a man of courage from the early church. Remember that Christianity wasn’t always as popular as it is now. And also remember, especially in its early years, Christianity still had not formulated what we today call the Creeds and Confessions of the church. In fact, in those days, controversy swirled around nearly every aspect of Christian teaching. And something else to know about the time of the man I am going to tell you about. This was a time when the church and the state were locked together. Earlier, an Emperor named Constantine had made Christianity legal. It had been persecuted for three hundred years prior. And not long after Christianity became legal, the Roman Emperors began to use the religion of Christianity as a way to unite an Empire of diverse people. And to do so the Emperors sought to control the teaching of Christianity so as to maintain unity in the church. Their thought process was that if there was unity in the Church and if Christianity was the religion of the Empire, then there would also be unity in the Empire and there would be less of a chance for civil war and internal struggle.

So, with this context in mind, let me introduce you to the man of the hour I want to tell you about. His name was Athanasius. He was a man from Alexandria in Egypt. He was a short man and he was of African descent. But although he was short in stature he was bold and assertive in trying to preserve true Christian teaching. Eventually, Athanasius became a bishop, a leader in the early church in Egypt.

Also, at the same time, there was another bishop named Arius. He too was a man of strong opinions. And Arius believed that the Bible clearly taught that Jesus was a created being. That there was a time when Jesus did not exist and that while Jesus was very important, he was not God in the same sense as the Father.

Now, to us this all seems quite strange. No Christian believes this. It says quite clearly in the Nicene Creed that Jesus and the Father and the Spirit are all-together one God and that they all existed from all eternity. Well, at least in part, we have people like Athanasius to thank for this understanding of God. At the time I’m telling you about all of this was up for debate and there were competing interpretations of Scripture on the matter.

But Arius and his understanding of Jesus was becoming ever more popular. It was so popular in fact that it caught the eyes and ears of the Roman Emperor Theodosius. He saw this understanding as a way to unite the Empire together and so he had this teaching enforced.

But Athanasius was not going to settle for it. He knew in his heart and soul that Jesus was not a created being like angels or human beings. He knew that the Bible clearly demonstrated that Jesus was pre-existent. That there was never a time when Jesus did not exist just like there has never been a time when God did not exist. And so Athanasius refused to teach what he could not himself believe.

Well, the Emperor Theodosius was not very happy with this. So the Emperor used his considerable power and influence over the church to have Athanasius exiled. Not once. Not twice. Not even three times. No, Athanasius was sent away from Egypt an astonishing five times in his life for not towing the party line and standing firm for his convictions.

But fortunately for Athanasius, there were others who shared his beliefs. One, a certain saint by the name of Nicholas—yes, that Saint Nicholas—went so far as to take matters in his own hands and assaulted not only the beliefs of Arius but literally got so angry at him that he slapped him across the mouth for uttering what he considered blasphemy. Arius was clearly on the naughty list that year!

In the end, Athanasius’ understanding of Jesus influenced our own contemporary understanding of Jesus. Athanasius endured his periods of exile and he stood by his convictions in the face of Empire, in the face of oppression, in the face of peer pressure, and more. And thanks to Saints like himself, St. Nicholas, and others, the church now has a robust and Scripturally-grounded understanding of God.

Strangers in a Strange Land

Exile, as we saw last week, was the punishment that God had promised to Israel if she disobeyed God and broke their end of the Covenant God had made with Israel at Mt. Sinai. God promised that if Israel defiled the land by going after other gods, by not taking care of the weak and the vulnerable, by basically forgetting that all they had was theirs by a gift, that the land itself would vomit them out.

And it wasn’t without warning that God brought about the events of the exile. No, God had sent prophet after prophet both to the Northern Kingdom of Israel and to the Southern Kingdom of Judah to repent. To turn away from idols and false worship. To seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.

But the prophets’ words fell on deaf ears. And those deaf ears were connected to stiff necks and hardened hearts. And so the Northern Kingdom fell in 722 BCE to the Assyrians. The Ten Tribes of the North were taken to parts unknown and then other people were brought in so that the land could never be resettled. Unfortunately, these people never really returned to their homeland. That is why they are called the “Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.”

And then, just over a century and half later, the Southern Kingdom too fell to the hands of foreign invaders. But by this time a new Superpower had risen, the people of Babylon. In 586 BCE, King Nebuchadnezzar came and dealt the death blow to Judah. Not only did he take away her people but even worse, he destroyed the capital city of Jerusalem by fire. And he defiled the Temple and stole all of its precious vessels of gold and silver and then defiled these even further by placing them as spoils of war in the temples of his own gods in Babylon.

One might think that God had finally washed God’s hands of Israel, right? How many times had God called them back? How many times had he disciplined them through the prophets, through natural disasters, through foreign governments and military forces? The people just wouldn’t listen. They just didn’t care to worship God alone. The temptation of power and supernatural favor of the foreign gods of Canaan and other nearby places was too much. After all, why worship one God if there were many? Why not consult a specialist in fertility if you couldn’t have children? Yahweh was just a generalist right? And so the logic went. People didn’t understand that all the other so-called gods were just images of wood and stone and precious metals and only really existed in the minds of their creators.

But even to this stiff-necked people God has made some unbreakable promises. Abraham’s promise of land and seed and blessing was totally one-sided. Abraham did not have to do anything on his end for that promise to still be in force even in the exile. And the same goes for David’s promise of a ruler that would come from his line and reign eternally on the throne. That was not bogged down with stipulations like the Sinai Covenant.

So, what would God do? Would the people finally get it? Would the people finally turn around for good?

The short answer is that it is too soon to tell. But the Bible at this point in the narrative gives some glimmers of hope—even in the midst of judgment.

And why do I say that—hope even in the midst of judgment? Well, let’s review our Ezekiel Scripture for the morning.

This passage from chapter 34 of Ezekiel is a stunning judgment on the shepherds of Israel. Now let me set you some context. Ezekiel is a prophet who receives his call to be a prophet while living in Babylon. Therefore he is a prophet during the exile. He writes to the people in Babylonia who were also taken. He gives them both judgment and hope. And he also continues to heap judgment upon those that caused the exile in the first place.

And in chapter 34 he lays his blame squarely against both the political and the religious leadership of Israel and Judah. It was the job of the Kings and the Priests to make sure that the people understood the covenant. It was up to them to enforce that covenant as much as it is for our modern executive branches of government to make and enforce the laws of our state and nation.

But instead of enforcing the Law of Moses, these Kings and Priests more often than not were involved in disobeying it themselves. These shepherds, in other words, led their sheep astray. They led them TO the wolves instead of keeping the wolves way. They colluded in inviting other gods into the Temple. They endorsed things like burning incense to Baal, constructing Asherah poles, and some even practiced child sacrifice to Molech and other gods—truly appalling stuff.

And for that, God is going to judge the shepherds. They stand condemned of Treason before God and they will bear the punishment of leading the people astray. Nonetheless, God will not abandon God’s people but rather God godself will be the True Shepherd of Israel. God will take care of them in exile.

Daniel and Esther

And the Bible has several stories about how God takes care of God’s people in exile. We’ll hear more about the people at large next week when we study Ezra, Nehemiah, and the post-exilic prophets. But this week I want to show you two stories of how God was faithful through a small group of people during the exile in the stories of Daniel and Esther.

In Daniel, we see the effects of the Babylonian Exile. Daniel and his friends, like many people of elite status in Judah, was taken prisoner and turned into something of a well-educated slave of the Babylonians. Daniel and his friends were taught the language, literature, and philosophy of the Babylonians so that they could serve as something like government bureaucrats. And as Daniel shows, some of them rose to quite high positions of government, sort of like Joseph, rising up through the ranks to positions of extreme power.

But since today we’re focusing on God’s faithfulness in exile I want to show you how that plays out in Daniel. Daniel and his friends were entitled to eat and drink from the king’s table. But much of what the king provided would have been sacrificed and dedicated to the service of foreign gods. And Daniel and his friends wanted to remain faithful to Yahweh. So they ask to be fed only food that has not been sacrificed to the gods—apparently on vegetables and water. The handler in charge of them protests saying that if they don’t look good he will be punished. But God intervenes and miraculously, Daniel and his friends appear even better than those fed meat, wine, and dairy goods.

Esther is even more intriguing. In the book of Esther, God’s name is not mentioned even once. Nor is prayer. Nor is sacrifice or Jerusalem or the Temple. It’s almost like Esther is a secular story that happens to have a Jewish main character.

But that is only the surface appearance. God is everywhere in Esther for those who have the eyes to see. And this comes to light in chapter 4. Esther, a Jewish woman who late in the exile serves as a wife to a Persian Emperor (the Persians took over after beating the Babylonians). And before she married the Emperor she lived with her cousin Mordecai who still gives her advice and stands his ground against the bad guy of the story, a courtier named Haman.

Haman schemes to have the Jews eliminated from the Empire because Mordecai really angered Haman by not bowing down to him. But Esther is the key to reversing this plot. But she’s scared to act. She’s unsure if the king will listen. But Mordecai says the key phrase of the entire book right in this section we’re studying today. He says, in essence, “What if God has brought you to this place, to your high and lofty position, for such a time as this—so that you can intervene and save your people?”

Like Daniel, like Joseph, like Moses and the Prophets, God works through Esther to bring salvation and healing to God’s people and also to work judgment against God’s enemies and the enemies of God’s people.

Jeremiah

But this notion of working alongside those that brought Israel into exile isn’t an anomaly. It wasn’t just these few cases in which people basically cooperated with their captors and life got better.

It was actually the strategy that God had ordained for them. Through Jeremiah and the letter he sent to the exiles we get a flavor for how God wanted the people to live.

We might expect God to say to the people to resist their captors. To form closed little communities and circle the wagons and keep the outside world at bay. Many immigrant communities do something like this, they form little enclaves and try as best as possible to resist assimilating to culture too much.

But God basically says do the opposite. Be at work to be a blessing to the Babylonians. Pray for Babylon. Do good deeds for your persecutors. Jesus would summarize this attitude in the Sermon on the Mount by simply commanding Christians to “love your enemies.” But here in Jeremiah we see how this is to be lived out.

Instead of living like exiles, they were to set up shop. Plant gardens, build houses, and as far as possible assimilate. But note that caveat. As far as possible. There are boundaries on this assimilation to culture. These are outlined in the commandments and the law.

But through all of this God has a plan for Israel to do them good. God will once again bring them back to the land—but not yet. They have many years to wait as God continues to purify the people and prepare them to return. Jeremiah’s advice is to be patient and wait for God’s timing.

Peter’s Advice to Us

Remarkably, the New Testament picks up the same vibe that Jeremiah gives to the exiles for Christians as we live in the world.

We often ask ourselves how to live in the world but not be of the world (as Jesus commanded). How far do we go?

Well, listen to these words from Peter

1 Peter 2:11–17 NASB 2020

Beloved, I urge you as foreigners and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts, which wage war against the soul. Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God on the day of visitation. Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. For such is the will of God, that by doing right you silence the ignorance of foolish people. Act as free people, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bond-servants of God. Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king.

The summary of this? Live as the light of the world by doing good—loving God and neighbor—and as far as possible within the limits of our Christian morality, live as servants of God and submit to authority—even those that put pressure on you. But do so without compromise.

We are called to live as people in exile in the world. But we’re also called not to flee the world but to build houses, plant gardens, pray for the cities we find ourselves in.

We’re called to look for a city not built with hands but live in those that are. We’re called to wait for the New Jerusalem while living in our own towns. We’re told to work to benefit all we meet and as far as we can to cooperate with the powers that be and work for their good.

It’s not easy. But Scripture gives us examples of how it can work well. And the Spirit works within us to give us discernment and wisdom for how we can be faithful even in times of great upheaval and tension in the world. And we need it. Let’s pray for it, live into it, and remember that God will take care of us, even while we tarry in exile from the city that will come from above. Amen.