Newsletter article: Bridesburg's Welfare, Emanuel's Welfare

“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.” Jeremiah 29:7

In October, we continue our Old Testament readings from the book of Jeremiah. Much of the book consists of Jeremiah’s prophesies of the impending destruction of Jerusalem and exile of Judah’s people to captivity in Babylon.

It is almost impossible to imagine the disorientation of those in exile, who were strangers in a strange land, separated from all they held dear. They went through what therapist Elizabeth Kubler-Ross has described as the five stages of grief, which can also be seen in a larger sense as stages of coming to terms with any kind of major life-changing event: denial (Jeremiah 23:16-17 speaks of false prophets who deny that harm will come to Judah), anger (from Psalm 137:9 - ‘O daughter Babylon, you devastator…happy shall they be who take your little ones and dash them against a rock!’), bargaining (in Jeremiah 28:3, false prophet Hananiah prophesied that within two years the exile would be over), depression, (from Psalm 137:1 - ‘By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion.’). In the verse above, Jeremiah tries to lead the exiles to that final, most healthy stage of dealing with major change – acceptance. Jeremiah urged the exiles not only to accept their circumstances, but to seek the welfare of the city to which they had been exiled, and to pray for it. The time would eventually come when the exiles (or, more likely, their children and grandchildren) would return to Judah – but until then, the exiles’ welfare was inseparable from that of the city in which they now lived.

Many longtime church members may feel a sense of exile – an exile not of location, but of time. We remember when the “blue laws” mandated that stores and places of entertainment were closed on Sundays, when our church bustled with activity, when our pews were full, when we may have had multiple choirs and men’s and women’s fellowship groups, when every month brought several baptisms and our confirmation photos showed large classes of smiling youth. Likewise, we may cherish memories of a Bridesburg very different from that of the present. What happened? How could our church, our neighborhood, indeed, our whole society have changed so drastically? Will things ever be like they were again?

Jeremiah found it crucial to communicate that, although the pain and misery of the Babylonian exile was very real, and wouldn’t be ending anytime soon, God had not abandoned the exiles. Jeremiah told the exiles that, even with their world turned upside-down, God could say, “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 29:11)

In the same way, I believe God has plans for our welfare here at Emanuel, plans to give Emanuel Church a future with hope. But our welfare is inseparably tied to that of the neighborhood of Bridesburg and the city of Philadelphia in which God has planted us. We can’t close our church doors and lock our gates against the needs that surround us. We are called to seek the welfare of the city – to seek the welfare of our neighbors, to pray for them and stand with them in their trials. For in their welfare we will find our welfare.