Today is July 1, and that means that it is Canada Day. People are walking around Waterton sporting red and white shirts, bandannas, face paint, and hats. It is a time of celebrating the things that make Canadians unique, and celebrating the freedoms they are allowed to experience because of living here. This act of celebrating your country is not unique - in 3 days the United States is going to celebrate the 4th of July; a day in which they use the same basic principles to celebrate.
Today is also a good day to remember that we are in a foreign land. Paul reminds us in Philippians 3:20 that "our citizenship is in heaven". C.S. Lewis defends this when he realizes "if I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world". We live in a world which is controlled by sin and death; we know that we have been freed through the blood of Christ on the cross but he have to wait until this freedom is ultimately realized.
In Jeremiah 29 the Israelites also found themselves in a foreign land - while we are not aware of our slavery (think matrix), the Israelites were very aware of their exile. They had been dragged into Babylon after Jerusalem had fallen to the most powerful commander of the time, King Nebuchadnezzar. It was to these people that Jeremiah wrote the letter which we find in Jeremiah 29 - the people knew that God was going to bring them out of their exile, but they did not know when. Jeremiah was countering the prophets who were falsely proclaiming that it would be a short exile - instead Jeremiah told them it was going to take a while.
So while they were waiting he gave them some instructions: 1)build houses and live in them, 2) plant gardens, 3) marry and have children. These first instruction make sense as they take care of their basic needs of food, shelter and a future. His next instruction might have been more surprising - they were to seek the 'shalom' of the city they were living in. Shalom is translated as 'peace' but it means more than that, it is a wholeness or when things the way they are supposed to be. It is that feeling when you come home after a trip as you say "ah...I'm home." They were to seek this feeling for the people they were living with. The final instruction that Jeremiah gave was mind-blowing - he commanded them to pray for them as well. Now for those of us on this side of the cross this is normal (Jesus told us to pray for our enemies after all), but for a Jew this is revolutionary. In fact, this is the first (and only) time in the Old Testament that this command of praying for someone other than an Israelite is given!
We too can follow these instructions. While we look forward to the day when we will be in heaven with our Lord, we need to live in a way that does not neglect our earthly needs. We too need to live in a way that brings 'shalom' to the places that we live in - this can mean organizing large volunteer projects to help with your cities needs (floods in Calgary, tornadoes in Oklahoma, etc) but it also means the small things that might go unnoticed (raking your neighbors lawn, paying for someones meal at the drive-thru, doing the dishes without complaining). Living in this way is not always easy, but it is a way that values people as being made in the image of God. Finally we need to remember to pray for the city that we live in - not in a way that demeans the church but in a way that values it and acknowledges the difficulties that it goes through. This might seems strange at first - to pray for these people who you might not know, or for a city but it is something that needs to be done.
So as we celebrate the great countries that we live in, let us celebrate in a way that reflects the blessings that we have received by living where we do and live in a way which seeks the well-being of that city. Let us not forget, we are ambassadors from another kingdom and we need to live in a way the represents that kingdom.
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