The Shalom of the city

For my sins in lived in England from 1971-81. I spent many hours driving up and down the M6, the M1, and the M62. At that time it was customary to see hitch-hikers standing at the start of the motorways with cards in front of their faces and above their heads-much like you see at the airport when people are waiting for passengers they don’t know. The story is told of one man who used to be seen standing at the start of one of the major motorways very regularly with a sign which was different to all the rest which had words like Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham Leeds etc but his simply read-“ANYWHERE BUT HERE!”.

There are times when we think like that-times when we would prefer to be anywhere but where we are. That was the feeling of the people of God in the days of the exile when they found themselves in the wrong city-in Babylon instead of Jerusalem –they did not want to be in the city of the oppressor but God said-“Stay here...make this your home - build houses and raise families and increase don’t decrease in number-work intentionally and joyfully for the welfare of the city-work for the SHALOM of the city for as it prospers so you will prosper.
Walter Bruggemann wrote an essay in “Theology Today” [when John Dunlop was moving house he gave me a whole batch of TT and this was one of them- He said “there is no one single or normative model of church life” He goes on to suggest that there were three distinct models in the OT and by far the most appropriate or us is the EXILIC MODEL. Rabbi Daniel Gordis [Director of the Mandel Foundations Jerusalem Fellows] describes the exile as a meantime- the time between, the great acts of God in the past and in the future-yes it was meantime in the sense of the difficulties but it was also a brief period that would not last for ever-
Bruggemann says that this was a time very like our own-

1. It was a time when Israel had to learn that she was no longer influential in public life
2. It was a time when they were under severe pressure to conform and become like those around them
3. It was a time when they had to work very hard at keeping their identity –
JI Packer concurs in “Knowing God” when he says it was a time when the people of God thought the name of God would never prosper again.

The question, in the face of the sign “ANYWHERE BUT HERE” was - were they in exile or where they sent? We need to develop the ability to see opportunity as well as problem-a group of pessimistic children were placed in a roomful of toys-their conclusion was “It’s no good. As soon as we get used they take them away. Another group of optimistic children locked in a room which was full of horse manure-their reaction was-“there must be a horse here, if there is all that manure!”
The truth is that they were there because of their rebellion and sin-they were sent into exile –that was their circumstances but it was also true that God wanted them there-he wanted them to be the light in the darkness that they were always meant to be but had failed to be-yes they were in exile but they were also sent by God-stay there, build your houses, raise your families-the reality for most of our institutional churches is that we try to do ministry from a distance-a kind of distance learning-and, surprisingly it fails-we say-Oh you could not expect the minister to live in that community-he needs to be at a certain distance-that may be true in the business world , but it is not true for the urban community, it is not true for the incarnational model of ministry that Jesus Christ followed.
If we turn to the NT we find the same situation-in 1Peter we have the same incarnational model- they too were in exile-Peter says –“this world is not your home” yet he goes on to tell them to live exlemporary lives “so that your actions will refute their prejudices’” and this will win them over. David Winter, Warden of Tyndale House says that the Christians of the diaspora also lived insecure lives- it was a time of social insecurity and discrimination against them with “sporadic outbursts of local suspicion, resentment and hostility” when believers were brought before the courts yet they too are called to seek the welfare of the city. They had a three-fold call to:
- Declare the word
- To follow and
- To bless the people
So how are we to live out our calling?

One thing is fundamental-If you do not love this city you cannot minister to it-if you do not love this place then you had better go somewhere else. That is not an uncritical love but it must be genuine-you and I need to understand that while we are living in the exile of the city that is less than perfect God has called us to be here because he has a work for us. If we do not love this city then all our efforts will come across as self-righteous and condemnatory.
The call I hear all the time is that the churches are commuter churches were the members come in their cars, go to church, lock the gates behind them and then go home until next week.
Mark Gornik in “To Live in Peace” says

“a church with an inner-city address and a myriad of programs but minimal community involvement and proportionately little local membership may be more of a mixed blessing to the community than anecdotal accounts and program surveys of congregations suggest”
The first thing that we need to do to be kingdom orientated is to be

1. PRESENT
If you, if we want to be anywhere but here then it is probably better to be anywhere but here. There are many people who have developed models of ministry which are based on intentional presence-that is “loitering with intent”. It means praying for, inviting, encouraging believers to come and live among us.
Like them we have to understand that we may be here because of circumstances-they were in exile but they were also there because God sent them-Jeremiah would say that you are here today for one reason and one reason alone-to take part in the mission of God and that is your privilege and responsibility
John Perkins the civil rights leader who was left for dead and who spoke at one of our special assemblies and was here just two years ago has developed a community project which is based upon the thee “Rs” of
- Repent
- Return and
- reconciliation-
Here he encouraged Christians to return to the city and some to come for the first time-in the 60s the late David Watson did the same in York and that dying church became alive and the late David Shepherd also lived in an intentional community in London.
At the Coleraine Conference of 190 the address given by Harvey Conn he spoke of the survivalist model and the Guerilla church but set out the case for the incarnational approach of the “church as a model home community” what we call the show house.
As we seek of the metanarrative of the bible we see the one plot line all the way through which has the characteristic of incarnation, especially with the coming Of Jesus into the world.

The task of the church today is to tell the story in our own way-to help the community to see the church really is the gift of god to the world. So many of our stories act like “rut” stories-these are the stories that keep us stuck in our traditional ways-so when we speak of shared space and shared housing we think back to the stories of division and conflict, stories that while true do little to take us forward- what we need are new stories that are more like “river” stories-they are stories that show the changing situation in life and tell of how the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, is still our God today-not as the God of the Hebrews but the God of all who will trust Him.
There is really only one way to catch the swine flu and that is from another person-if you have the real thing you have to stay at home-you can’t catch it in isolation. Neither can we influence people in isolation

2. We are called to PRAY for the city

Mark Gornik says that The “urban future belongs to the intercessors”. In the BMI manual for the developing of Presbytery Mission plans it says that the process is to be “bathed in prayer and birthed in conversation” Walter Wink sys that “history belongs to the intercessors”-this is not the last resort of the desperate but the beginning of the process. Wink goes on to say “even a small number of people, firmly committed to the new inevitability on which they have fixed their imaginations can decisively affect the shape the future takes. These shapers of the future are the intercessors, who call out the future, the longed-for new present”
I do believe that the most significant and important thing we have done in the last few years has been the decision to take prayer into the community-to Dunns’ Car park and to the school and to the PSNI. As Abraham interceded for Sodom so we are to intercede for Belfast. Jesus tells the story of the friend at midnight to re-enforce that God wants to answer us more than we want to pray and also the need to persist not to force God’s hand but to show our resolution.
Public Activity

This is all about putting flesh on the bones of our presence- we are to get involved in ways that will be to the welfare of the city. In the NT it was the Christians who did the dirty work that no one else would do-they were doing the work that Mother Teresa has made her own in India.

What has happened in our cities is that the Christians have left the scene so that those who are involved in public life are the atheists and the agnostics and the nominal Christians. We need to serve the community and so we will regain the influence we once had-from the bottom up.-we need to create those river stories that will be the 29th chapter of the acts of the believers.

By so doing we will help people to become familiar again with the plot line that is the Christ-story-his-story. Don Carson reminds us of the need to re-tell the story to a generation that has little knowledge of the bible
“the fact remains that the bible, as a whole document tells a story, and , properly used, that story can serve as a metanarrative that shapes our grasp of the entire Christian faith. In my view it is increasingly important to spell this out to Christians and non-Christians alike....”
Action?
- we need to see the city as a place of redemption-a holy place because God is at work here
- we should be praying for the city and becoming strategic in that praying
- we should be calling for people to live in the city, including ministers
- we should be encouraging our members to get involved even if that means giving them time off from Congregational duties to do so