Day 195: Jeremiah 29-32

I've been a worship leader for 26 years. (That's hard for me to believe, to be honest.) In those 26 years I have dreaded the coming of every patriotic holiday. Whenever the 4th of July, or Memorial Day, or Labor day, or Veteran's Day, or Flag Day, or now September 11 rolls around someone invariably asks, "Are we going to be singing any patriotic songs this Sunday?" It happened this week in regard to the upcoming 9-11 Sunday. It's not really a question. What it really means is, "We'd better be singing some patriotic songs this Sunday!" The thing I've learned is that you simply cannot win no matter how you approach it. There are always people who get upset if we don't honor and celebrate our nation as part of our worship service and there have always been some (usually only a few) who think patriotism is completely out of place in a place of worship.

For 26 years I've struggled to explain my discomfort with patriotism in a worship service. It's not that I'm unpatriotic. I'm not. I think what I'm uncomfortable with is the feeling I get from so many who seem to think of America as God's chosen nation. They use language that scripture uses when referring to the Israelites in the OT. However, if you read the NT (particularly Romans) you find that if God has a "chosen nation" it's not any of the earthly nations...it's the Church. The Church is now God's chosen nation.

So...if America isn't God's chosen nation then what is it?

I think America is Babylon.

God's chosen people (the Church - everyone who is a Christ-follower) is being held captive for a time in Babylon. Well, at least the church in America.

I thought about all this as I read Jeremiah 29 this morning. In this chapter Jeremiah is writing a letter to the Israelites who have been taken into captivity in Babylon. He's writing a letter explaining to them how they should live while they are in captivity. What should be their attitude toward the earthly nation in which they are now living? I think this letter explains well the way we, as temporary captives in this place, are to live and think about the earthly nation in which we find ourselves...

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.” (29:4-7)

I am thankful for the freedoms we enjoy as Americans. I want to do what I can to "seek the peace and prosperity" of this nation. However, I never want to forget that my real citizenship is somewhere else.

That's what our worship services are for.