Globalization & the Economy  |  Interfaith & Ecumenical Relations

The Shalom of the City
 By Bill Wylie-Kellermann
Friday, October 10, 2003
 

[Ed. Note: The following sermon was originally delivered at the Methodist School of Theology of Ohio on September 30, 2003.]

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Take spouses and have sons and daughters, take wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there and do not decrease. But 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 find your welfare. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let the prophets and diviners who are among you deceive you; and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them says the Lord. For thus says the Lord: Only when Babylon's seventy years are complete will I visit you, and I will fulfil to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. (Jeremiah 29: 4-12, NRSV)

Here we have a pastoral letter written by a prophet. We should at once beware of such epistles and pray to receive them. This one is written for a people already exiled in Babylon. For my own self-serving purposes the text is convenient. Here, as I am, to engage a variety of discipleship evangelism, the text is entirely convenient. I am on campus to invite people into a certain dislocation, however temporary, wherein they my find themselves (and perhaps their vocation) in a strange place, where the urban vulnerabilities attendant make one vulnerable even to the Word of God.

I've chosen the text because it includes the notorious phrase "Seek the welfare of the city." This is a talisman, a theological emblem of the urban vocation. There is even a temptation to reduce it to bumper-sticker, a banner, or a letterhead logion.

We need to say immediately, however, that "welfare" is a tepid translation, never mind the way it is freighted in our own context, as in "welfare reform." This is in the Hebrew one of those words that ought never be translated, lest its meaning slip away between our fingers. The word is Shalom. Years ago Walter Brueggeman opened up this term for a generation of ministers. By his lights, shalom is a vision which embraces all of creation. And the embrace is both God's and our own. He defined it as a community in right relation with God, with neighbor, and with the whole created order -- spiritual, economic and political.

Even a translation [of "shalom"] as "Peace" is bifurcated at best. Today we say, if you want peace, work for justice. But if you want shalom, work for shalom. Peace and justice are inseparably one within it.
Even a translation as "Peace" is bifurcated at best. Today we say, if you want peace, work for justice. But if you want shalom, work for shalom. Peace and justice are inseparably one within it; they are inseparable in the vision. Take the image of Micah 4. There shalom is not only beating swords into ploughshares, but also everyone living beneath their vine and fig tree, having immediate access to resources sufficient, and living thus unafraid.

Shalom is rendered liturgically programmatic in the Sabbath, Sabbatical, Jubilee rhythm, which I trust you know in detail. It includes Rest - the time for prayer, but also for the renewal of earth and the setting of a limit to labor. It is Restoration -- which is at once spiritual homecoming, but also a method for stopping and reversing the consolidation of property. It means Forgiveness -- which simultaneously breaks the logic of sin and the deadly grip of debt slavery, and even the economic bondage of nations. It is finally and fully Grace -- the free gift which is the basis of both a spiritual and political economy.

Shalom.

This is the vision which Jesus walks into the city in his Palm Sunday demonstration. Unfortunately his use of the word "shalom" gets translated first into Greek ("erene") and then into English ("peace") in which process we miss his bitter irony: that Jeru "salem", the "foundation of shalom," has forgotten the things that make for shalom. With this preface, let me make four quick points. There are several scandals implied in the letter. Among them:

1) The shalom of the community is to be found in the shalom of the city. This is counterintuitive at best. We think vice versa, no? We think that the peace of the city will be found in the peace of the faith community. The letter clearly implies an opposite spiritual strategy: that in the transformation of the neighborhood will be found the transformation of the congregation. I believe it's fair to call this a programmatic conviction at SCUPE.

2) Let it be remembered that this is the imperial city, hostile, expansive, even predatory. Jeremiah writes to Babyon where we hung up our lyres, the strange land where the Lord's song sticks in our throat. Which is to say the charge of this letter is inseparable from radical non-violence, from the love of enemies.

We think that the peace of the city will be found in the peace of the faith community. The letter clearly implies an opposite spiritual strategy: that in the transformation of the neighborhood will be found the transformation of the congregation.
This is not to suggest that the plowshares and fig tree vision sits well with the imperial vision. Shalom is hardly foundational for empire, Babylonian or American. These readers are to be in the empire, but not of it. In an imperial context, the transformation which shalom seeds will be necessarily subversive. This, of course, is pertinent to our own moment wherein Empire is spoken of in glowing terms openly and in policy documents. It is possible that the false prophets have confused Marduk and Yahweh.

3) In other words, there are other words spoken, even in the name of tradition; there are other contested and contesting theologies. There are false hopes preferred, erstatz gospels of cheap grace. "Sit tight. This will be over quick in no time. No need to root or transform this place." Oddly a version of that among certain urban congregations sounds different, but is really the same: "Sit tight; hold on to the building with a death grip until our type of people move back into the neighborhood. It'll be over in no time."

Actually, in Jeremiah's view the seed of transformation is a charism of newly come outsiders, the immigrants and illegals, the foreigners and sojourners.

To build, live, plant, eat . . . to marry, birth, grow, and thrive is really to be full of life. To put down roots for the long exilic haul. It means to live not merely as resident aliens, but as to live as resident aliens. When this term is translated into the New Testament corpus (where it may name either a geographic or an eschatological alien) the term is paroikoi. Interestingly enough this is the word behind parish ministry -- that turf-based, local, rooted ministry of place which we are trying to learn anew.

4) Pray for the city. With Jeremiah, I do in fact invite that this morning. By that I mean, yes, pray for its people, their lives and needs, for the flourishing of their gifts. But even more, pray for the city itself -- as a creature with a life and integrity of its own. Pray for the city which has a voice, an identity, a character, even a vocation. Pray for it like Jesus in tears over Jerusalem, convinced that it could recognize the kairos of its visitation and choose shalom. Pray for it as a creature which stands before the judgement and mercy of God. As do we all.

Intercede for the city, dear friends. For your city, be it Delaware or Columbus. For mine, being both Detroit and Chicago. Seek your city's shalom, that there, in God's name, you may find your own.


The Rev. Bill Wylie-Kellermann is program director for the Seminary Consortium for Urban Pastoral Education (SCUPE) in Chicago, Ill. He is also on the steering committee of Word and World: A People's School. Bill lives in Detroit, Mich., and may be reached by email at bill@scupe.com.