feeling better

just the first few lines of the Heidelberg Catechism are enough to realign my mind and heart with God.

That I am not my own
but belong body and soul
in life and death
to my faithful savior Jesus Christ.

after the "art therapy", I read this and it reminded me why i live in a city (career being last...)
read on:
Post from Tim Keller's Vision Blog
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Sept 28th

Redeemer’s purpose in the city is ‘To build a great city for all people through a gospel movement that brings personal conversion, community formation, social justice, and cultural renewal in New York City and, through it, the world.’

Sounds good—but where in the Bible do we see Christians called to such a purpose? This fall we are looking at Biblical texts every single week that explain different aspects of this mission. However, there is one single Scriptural passage that our entire purpose statement follows idea for idea. That is the letter God sent to the Jewish exiles in Babylon, in Jeremiah 29:

This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: "Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry 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. Also, 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." (verses 4 through 7)

The historical background to this message is important. The Jews had existed in their own nation-state, in which faith in the Biblical God was the official religion. When the Babylonian army sacked Jerusalem, they, as was their policy, carried off Israel’s professional classes and leaders to exile in Babylon. It was expected that within a generation or two, the exiles would assimilate culturally and lose their national and religious distinctives.

Their first response to the situation was to stay outside the city of Babylon and form a homogeneous enclave of believers. But to the horror and amazement of the listeners, God commands them in Jeremiah 29 to instead move into the heart of the pagan city, become involved in its cultural and economic life, and seek the common good of the Babylonian oppressors who had destroyed their homeland! God calls them to increase in number—they are not to lose their identity as a distinct and different people. Yet they are not allowed separatist withdrawal either. They are to minister to the whole city, to all the people, out of the resources of their spiritual and moral difference. Some have called this ‘nonviolent social resistance’ to the dominant culture. The Jews were to keep their distinctive beliefs and practices (surely offensive in many ways to the sensibilities of the Babylonians) but were to serve their neighbors and city anyway. This is the best possible way to undermine the themes and practices of the dominant culture. It is a corporate version of ‘if your enemies are hungry, feed them…overcome evil with good.’ (Romans 12:20-21.)

This could not be more directly relevant for Redeemer people. We too are mainly professionals. And, as Christians living between the first and second comings of Christ, we are ‘exiles.’ James 1:1 and 1 Peter 1:1 refer to Christians as ‘exiles’ and the book of Hebrews repeatedly calls Christians ‘resident aliens.’ In other words, Christians are dispersed among ‘the nations’ just as the Jews were during the Babylonian exile. Our relationship to culture is basically the same. Therefore we should apply the call of God to the Jewish exiles in Babylon to our life in New York City. Our purpose statement is lifted directly out of this challenge:

1. We are to build a great city just as God called the believers to seek the “prosperity of the city—and pray for it.” (v7) God did not tell the exiles to just use the city to build up their own community, but rather to use the resources of the community to build up the city.
2. We are to be a gospel movement. Just as God called the exiles to “increase, do not decrease,” so we want to plant hundreds of churches, so that the Christian community in New York’s center city increases 15-20-fold over the next generation.
3. We are to bring personal conversion, community formation, social justice, and cultural renewal. God does not only call the exiles to seek the prosperity of Babylon, but also its ‘peace’—its shalom. The Hebrew word shalom is an extremely rich concept—it means full human flourishing in every aspect. When the prophets (like Isaiah) describe shalom, they assume it means spiritual conversion and true worship but also social justice for the poor and cultural products that glorify God, not ‘man.’ So God is calling believers to seek the full range of human renewal in the city—individual, spiritual, communal, social, cultural.
4. We are to influence the world through New York City. Notice that God ends by saying, that ‘if [Babylon] prospers, you too will prosper.’ Cities have enormous cultural influence. Trends that capture the life of the city tend to flow out into the whole society. But God does not call the exiles to try a political or military takeover of Babylon. They are not to do to Babylon what Babylon did to them. Rather, they are to seek the prosperity and common good of the whole city. Yet, God says, ironically, this will give the community a great deal of cultural power and clout. Through their service to the city they will become attractive. Their ideas will matter. Their God will be honored. And whatever influences the city influences the whole culture. God here lays down an important principle: the way to power and influence is not to seek power and influence, but to seek to serve.
   
   This is urban ministry—changing the world through serving. And this means that the ultimate urban missionary was Jesus. He did not commute in from heaven but moved into our neighborhood. And instead of taking power he gave it up and sacrificially loved and died for us. And as a result he is now the most influential figure in the history of the world—and this power-through-service will only grow until the world is completely mended and made new.