Called to Be Shalom

I may have talked about this before, but I’m fascinated by the in-between. The time between when something is one way and when it will become something else.

The time the car is ABOUT to break down. When it’s ABOUT to break down, but it’s still running just fine. The time when the baby’s ABOUT to be born, but the labor pains haven’t yet started.

The time when the egg is ABOUT to hatch, but the chick hasn’t yet pecked it for the first time. The 17 seconds or so between when the fig is UNripe and when it needs to be picked.

There’s something mysterious about this in-between time. What sorts of unseen changes take place in the womb or in the egg or in the fig in this in-between time? What kinds of things are taking place in the engine in those moments right before things start to go wrong?

In my own life, I’ve had a few of these in-between periods. Perhaps the most significant of them was the period between feeling a call to ministry and finally understanding it as a call to PASTORAL ministry.

I first felt called to ministry while we were in Haiti on our first one-week mission trip. I was teaching a two-hour class for a pastor’s seminar in Montrouis.

We were there with Pastor Chris and Christina Surber, who’d felt called to lead missionary teams there, but were still trying to work out what that calling would look like in practice.

And as I taught that group of Haitian pastors — sweating through my shirt in the humidity of a hot summer morning — I felt the Holy Spirit moving within me in a way I’d never felt before. And I knew — then and there — that things would be changing for me.

Little did I understand at that time that it would be three years before God began to clarify this calling.

Three years of wondering what He was going to do. Three years of asking myself if I’d imagined the calling I’d felt. Three years of waiting for God to help me see what it was He had for me.

Three years, quite frankly, that felt pretty much like the three years that preceded my experience in Haiti.

I was still a newspaper editor. I still taught Sunday school. I wasn’t suddenly full of knowledge and understanding and a firm conviction of what would come next.

God was working during this time; I just couldn’t see it. He was helping us to get out of debt. He was helping me to train the person who’d eventually replace me at the newspaper. He was using situations at the church we attended to prepare us to move to Liberty Spring.

But from our perspective, everything was pretty much the same as it had been since Annette and I had been saved on the couch in our living room 11 years earlier.

We were still going on about our business, doing our jobs, trying to be faithful to God, learning to draw closer to Him, trying simply to do the next right thing.

And then, suddenly from our perspective, it seemed as if everything came together. Our debts were paid. I was able to apply for admission to seminary.

We came to a point where it was clear we were being called OUT of our former church; and then, a point where I was clearly being called OUT of the newspaper business.

And then, finally, after a couple of years, God made it clear this was a PASTORAL calling. And soon after that, that it was a calling to pastor THIS church.

From our perspective, these things seemed to take place suddenly. But God was working in the background the whole time.

The people of Israel’s southern kingdom of Judah had a similar experience during their time as exiles in Babylon.

We’re going to talk about that today as we continue our unexpected series on the Church. The experience they had in Babylon can teach us some important things about the CHURCH’S purpose in the already/not-yet Kingdom of God on earth.

Remember that Jesus said the Kingdom of God is at hand. HE established it here on earth when He, the rightful and eternal King of Israel, came to us as a man. The king had come to His kingdom.

But He’d also come to offer salvation and forgiveness of sins. With His sacrificial death at the cross and His supernatural resurrection on the third day, He offered forgiveness and eternal life through faith in Him.

He who is King of kings and Lord of lords established His kingdom here on earth when He came into it in the flesh of a man. In that sense, we already HAVE the Kingdom of God.

And yet, He was rejected — both as King and Savior — by the religious and political leaders of that time. And so, the fulfillment of His kingdom was put on hold for a time.

He has delayed the fullness of His kingdom to give both Jews AND Gentiles the opportunity to be brought into it through faith in the life and finished work of Jesus.

So, we also have a sense in which the Kingdom of God is a not-yet kingdom. We’re still waiting for its fullness.

The King has come. He’s established His kingdom. He’s opened it to all who would turn to Him in faith that He is who He says He is and that He’ll do what He says He’ll do.

But He’s gone back to heaven for a time. And we must wait for His second coming to earth for the kingdom to arrive in all its glory.

Now, we’re in that in-between time, like the fig before it’s ripe, the egg before it hatches, the baby not-quite born.

So what do we do? What do we who constitute the Church — we who’ve followed Jesus in faith — do in the waiting.

The prophet Jeremiah speaks to us from across the centuries with a commandment from God that applies to us, no less than it applied to the exiled Jews in Babylon of his time.

We’re going to look at a brief passage from Jeremiah, chapter 29, this morning to get a general idea of Christ’s plan for His Church in the in-between.

Then we’ll look at a passage from Romans for a little more in the way of specifics. Then, we’ll see how all this speaks to the Church in the 21st century.

Jeremiah 29:1–7 NASB95

1 Now these are the words of the letter which Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the rest of the elders of the exile, the priests, the prophets and all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. 2 (This was after King Jeconiah and the queen mother, the court officials, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen and the smiths had departed from Jerusalem.) 3 The letter was sent by the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan, and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, saying, 4 “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, 5 ‘Build houses and live in them; and plant gardens and eat their produce. 6 ‘Take wives and become the fathers of sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; and multiply there and do not decrease. 7 ‘Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf; for in its welfare you will have welfare.’

Now, Jeremiah’s prophecies ended with the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C.

But many of Judah’s leading priests, prophets, noblemen and other leading citizens had already been taken away into Babylonian exile by that time.

Now, they were itching to get back to Israel, back into the Land of Promise. And they had false prophets among them saying God was going to break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar from the neck of Judah.

That He was going to destroy Nebuchadnezzar and return the people of Judah back to their land. In fact, the false prophet Hananiah, in chapter 28, said this would take place “within two years.”

He was telling the people what they wanted to hear. And so, Jeremiah, speaking under God’s authority, wrote this letter to the exiles in Babylon to tell them the truth.

And the truth was that they were going to be in Babylon for the long haul. We didn’t read it, but in verse 10 of this chapter, God says through Jeremiah that the exile will be for 70 years.

Which wasn’t a very welcome prophecy, not the least because God was going to allow Nebuchadnezzar to destroy Jerusalem in the meantime.

But it also meant the exiles in Babylon would be there for multiple generations. This, in essence, would be their home, no matter how much they thought of Jerusalem and Judah as their home.

So, what should they do while they waited? “Build houses and live in them,” God says in verse 5. No more couch-surfing in hopes that they’d be heading back to Israel soon. No more AirBnB rentals.

You’re still my Chosen People, God says, but you’re going to be my Chosen People in Babylon.

He certainly didn’t want them to become LIKE the Babylonians; that nation is the very epitome of evil in Scripture. They were idolatrous, violent, prideful — all the things God’s people should NOT be.

But these exiles were IN this place to stay for a while. In, but not of. Does that sound familiar? Kind of the way followers of Jesus Christ are called to be IN the world, but not OF the world.

And so, the Jewish exiles were to prepare for the long haul. Build houses and live in them. Marry their sons and daughters to other Jewish daughters and sons, so they could bear children.

So they could do what God has called people to do since the Garden of Eden: to be fruitful and multiply.

And, significantly, that’s what we’re called to do as followers of Jesus, too. Having children is part of that. But, for us, it goes deeper. It goes to the last commands Jesus gave His disciples before ascending back into heaven in His glorified body.

Remember what He said: Go and make disciples of all the nations. And then this: Be my witnesses. Bear witness about Him.

What happens when the Holy Spirit uses our witness about Jesus to draw others to faith in Him? They become disciples. They become new followers.

THEY become the fruit that we bear, and the numbers of citizens of the Kingdom of God are multiplied. And thus, we carry out the very blessing of God from the Garden of Eden.

So, just as Adam and Eve were called to be fruitful and multiply, so were the Jewish exiles in Babylon, and so are we.

And we might expect that to be the end of what we’re to do in Babylon — whether we’re talking about the Babylon of Old Testament times or the Babylon of America — this place that’s filled with idolatry, violence, arrogance, and all kinds of sin.

But look at what God says through Jeremiah in verse 7: “Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you; pray to the Lord on its behalf.”

I think we understand what it means to pray to God on behalf of our nation. And I hope you all do that. I hope you’re all praying for revival to break out across this land — for many to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

But what does it mean to seek the welfare of this land? What does it mean for us to PRAY for its welfare?

Well, the first clue is right there in the original Hebrew text. That word that’s translated as “welfare” is the Hebrew word, shalom.

Now, you probably know that shalom means “peace.” But the meaning is much deeper than simply the absence of war.

The word shalom also has the sense of completeness, fulfillment, health, contentment, tranquility, and safety.

Even among their enemies — Even among the people who’d dragged them from their homes and into a foreign land — Even among the people who were enemies of the one, true God — Even in this pagan culture of Babylon — Even in the midst of all this evil, the exiled Jews were called to pray for God to show His goodness, His grace, His mercy, and His peace to the Babylonians.

And so, we are called to do likewise in THIS Babylon.

But notice that God doesn’t just say we’re to PRAY for shalom. We’re also called to SEEK it.

Once again, it’s helpful to understand the Hebrew word that’s translated as “seek” here.

It certainly means what we’d expect it to in English. To go out and turn over whatever rocks we have to in order to find it.

But it also means to PRACTICE. In other words, part of the way we SEEK shalom is to DO shalom.

As agents of the Kingdom of God, the exiles in Babylon were called to DEMONSTRATE shalom. They were called to be AGENTS of shalom — of completeness, fulfillment, health, contentment, tranquility, and safety.

We’re called to do the same thing. Paul wrote about this in the 12th chapter of his letter to the Romans.

Romans 12:10–18 NASB95

10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; 11 not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; 12 rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, 13 contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality. 14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. 16 Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation. 17 Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.

This is what it looks like to PRACTICE shalom. Devoting yourself to serving others. Setting aside your own rights and privileges to benefit others. Blessing those who persecute you. Rejoicing with those who rejoice and weeping with those who weep. Being humble. Lifting up the marginalized in society.

This should be the default way of life for a follower of Jesus. This is what that favorite, old Christmas carol is about: Let there be peace and earth, and let it begin with ME.

And remember that God was calling the Jewish exiles to treat PAGANS this way, to spread shalom to those who’d rejected and denied Him.

Which is exactly what Jesus did at the cross. There, the sinless Son of God took upon Himself the sins of the very ones who were mocking Him, who pierced His hands and feet with nails.

At the cross, He took upon Himself the penalty for your sins and mine, the sins that made us enemies of God, so that all who turn to Him in faith can be saved, forgiven, and given eternal life.

At the cross, He PRACTICED shalom. And so, we are called to do likewise, even in a culture that celebrates sin. Even in a culture that rejects Him. Even in a culture that hates Him.

We’re called to demonstrate shalom. We’re called to LIVE shalom. We’re called to BE shalom.

We’re called to be peace and completeness and fulfillment and health and contentment and tranquility and safety — in this culture of violence, deficiency, disenchantment, sickness, discontent, disorder, and insecurity.

Let me give you something to think about this week: Is this what you see people who claim the name of Jesus doing in OUR Babylon these days? Is this what you see the CHURCH doing? Are we seeking shalom by BEING shalom?

But that word, “seek,” also has another sense that’s operative here: It can also mean to DEMAND something.

To whatever degree possible and, so far as it depends on us, we’re to DEMAND shalom.

Now, that doesn’t mean we’re to rebel against our government. In that same letter to the Romans, Paul says this:

Romans 13:1–2 NASB95

1 Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.

God didn’t call the Jewish exiles in Babylon to rise up against the government there. Even evil King Nebuchadnezzar received his authority by God, for GOD’S purposes.

But Nebuchadnezzar was responsible for his own decisions — for his sins against God and against the people God loved. And he’d later pay the price for his actions against the Jews and against the other peoples he conquered.

Even Jesus didn’t stir up rebellion against Rome, though He certainly had every right to do so. Instead, He spoke truth to the Roman authorities and to the Jewish leaders who were working with them.

And He offered comfort and compassion and shalom to those who were being marginalized and oppressed by those authorities, both Roman and Jewish. Even to those who were sinners.

He made himself a friend to the tax collectors, the prostitutes, the aliens, the poor. He was a voice for those who were without one.

Something else to think about: Is THIS what the Church is doing in OUR Babylon these days?

Is the Church making itself a friend of aliens and the poor, a voice for those whose voices are being silenced, a safe refuge for those who live in fear?

Brothers and sisters, you need to understand that one of the reasons God exiled the people of Israel and then Judah was because of the arrogant and compassionless way they’d treated the marginalized people of their society. Widows and orphans and aliens. The poor and the voiceless.

God cares about people, and He cares about how WE treat people, especially those on the margins of society.

In the Old Testament, He reminds His Chosen People, Israel, that THEY were once outcasts — aliens and slaves — in Egypt. And He calls them to remember how He showed compassion and mercy and grace to them.

Similarly, we rebels against God who’ve been saved by grace through faith in Jesus have been blessed by His compassion and love. And so we’re called to be like Him.

Listen to what He says in the Book of Deuteronomy:

Deuteronomy 10:17–19 NASB95

17 “For the Lord your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who does not show partiality nor take a bribe. 18 “He executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and shows His love for the alien by giving him food and clothing. 19 “So show your love for the alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.

God has, indeed, given authority to our governing leaders. But He also expects them to rule justly and compassionately. And history is littered with the near-forgotten names of nations whose rulers failed to do this.

And friends, I’m heartbroken that so many who call themselves by the name of our Christ have allied themselves with injustice and violence and inhumanity in our own nation.

God will not be mocked. And His judgment is righteous and true. And I fear that our nation will be judged for the way it’s treating those on the margins — the aliens, the poor, those without a voice.

So, in this time between the times, this time of the already/not-yet Kingdom of God, what IS our calling as citizens of His kingdom?

To pray for shalom. To DEMAND shalom. And to BE shalom.

This might go against our nationalistic pride, just as it did for the people of Israel and Judah. But we are citizens of a greater kingdom. We are subjects of a greater King, the King of kings and Lord of lords.

How will we stand before Him one day in the knowledge that we didn’t stand FOR those who couldn’t stand for themselves, the very ones He compares us to in that passage in Deuteronomy?

During this time between the times, let us be true citizens of the Kingdom of God, displaying the goodness of His kingdom while we wait. Let us LIVE His compassion, His grace, His mercy, and His shalom.

Father, while we wait for Jesus to return and make all things new — to bring about perfect justice and righteousness, may the Church — may THIS church — be agents of Your grace, agents of Your mercy, agents of Your compassion, agents of Your love.

Help us to be conduits of shalom into a world that seems to celebrate division and strife and anger and hatred.

Help us to reflect Your goodness and your compassion for the lost and for those on the margins of our society. Help us, O Lord, to humbly seek peace, shalom, in all of its senses.

Help us to LIVE shalom. And help us to know how and when to DEMAND shalom, while still submitting to the authorities you’ve given power over us.

And we pray, Lord, that you would convict those who’d persecute the helpless, that you’d make them see their great sin, and that you’d draw them into a saving knowledge of Christ Jesus, the one in whom we find perfect justice, perfect righteousness, and perfect love.