God is just full of surprises.

We tend to imagine that God is on our side in disputes, so I’m sure most of the people thought God would side with them against the Babylonians, and even imagined that hating Babylon was part of what it meant to love God. But they are about to be reintroduced to one of the overarching themes of the bible; God doesn’t play favourites.

Of course, he has special relationships. That’s an essential part of what relationships are. But if some seem to know his love more intimately than others it simply means that he is using them, or at least trying to use them, in some special way to extend his love to everyone. And extending love, as all who have done it know, is among the most wonderful and painful things a human being can ever do. Ask any mother, father, brother, sister. In fact, ask almost anyone who’s been around a while.

So, here are three of the things I think God is saying to his people in Babylon, and to us:

1. Don’t be angry at Babylon (the post-Christian world) for doing this to you. I did it. I put you in this place for my reasons. You are where I want you to be. So, stop complaining.

2. I expect you to live full and productive lives in Babylon.

3. I expect you to learn to know and love this place, to pray for its peace and prosperity, because now your life and wellbeing are intimately bound up in Babylon’s life and wellbeing. And that’s the way I want it.

It may seem strange that God would want us to even be in Babylon, let alone love the place. After all it’s Babel, the city that raised a mighty tower against him (Genesis 11:1-9). And it’s a cruel empire that terrorizes the most vulnerable people of the earth. But God wants us to see that Babylon is this, but also much more. It’s a beautiful city, full of beautiful people who suffer and dream and love and fear and worship. Babylon is the world that John is talking about when he says, in the famous John 3:16 passage, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life”. And then he goes on in verse 17 “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him”.

God didn’t come, or send us, to condemn Babylon (the world). He loves this “Babylon”, and so must we.

A letter from God?

I often hear people make comments about wishing they could get an interview with God. I’ve made them myself. It’s what Job wanted and got in the end (Job 38-42). But it didn’t work out quite the way he’d imagined. Job found that all the questions he had for God melted like snow in the blast of a furnace. God questioned him.

Well, I expect a letter from God to us would also be a bit different than we imagine. This is GOD after all. If he is the big cheese we are like crumbs of Parmesan before him. No, like the dust of the dust of a crumb of Parmesan (Isaiah 40:8). I can’t remember the last time he came to me for advice, or even my opinion. In fact, he seems to have a long list of things for me to work on. Go figure.

Anyway, the people back there in Babylon were feeling fearful, bitter and vengeful as we saw in Psalm 137, and Jeremiah gets wind of it back in Jerusalem. -- Perhaps someone sent a copy of the new psalm for his encouragement. -- So he writes them a letter which he says is from God. You may doubt that it really is. I’m sure many of them doubted it. But it sure sounds like God to me.

Jeremiah 29:4-7 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." (There’s more if you want to check it out.)

What is God saying in this letter to his people in their Babylon? What might he be saying to us in ours?

I hope the Babylonians will speak.

I was talking with a good friend last night, a woman I’ve known all my life, and she said she was surprised by the lack of response to my “Dumbledore Gay?” posting. I had been surprised too, and asked her where her comment was. She said that she was reluctant to join the conversation because it feels like a blog for Christians and she is a Babylonian. Well, she certainly is, and a happy one at that. She’s actually one of my favourite Babylonians, and I certainly don’t want her, or anyone else, to feel excluded.

Perhaps it’s a bit early to be expecting a lot of feedback from anyone. – Does patience take longer to develop than the other virtues, or does it just seem longer? – And I understand that if you identify as a Babylonian you might be reluctant to jump in till you have a sense of how you’ll be received. None of us needs to court rejection, which I suppose, is another way of saying we all want to be loved, so let’s be clear, I love Babylon and Babylonians. I think God put me here, not to punish me, but because it’s a great place for me to be. He did it because he loves me, and he loves the people he put me among. And he expects all of us to get to know and love one another.

So, I hope the Babylonians will feel free to take part in the discussion. The person I’ve mentioned has taught me a lot about Babylon, and she’s one of the reasons I love the place. As we go along, I trust that what we mean by Babylon will become clearer. And I trust that our love for Babylon will get clearer too.

Dumbledore Gay?

As many of you will know, I am a huge Harry Potter fan, the books more than the movies, though I enjoy them too. And now they tell me Dumbledore, my favourite character, was (is?) gay. When I heard the rumour my first reaction was, “No, no, that’s SpongeBob”, but as it turns out it seems it is Dumbledore after all. Now, in the case of SpongeBob, since sea sponges reproduce asexually, the whole case fell apart for lack of evidence. But, I’m sure we can all agree, Dumbledore is a long way up the food chain. So what do you think? Is this just a lot of nonsense? Does it matter? Is there anything in this story that’s interesting at all?

Livin’ In Blogalong

Wow!!! This blogging thing is a bit like just waking up some morning in China. Not that that's a bad thing, about 1 in 4 human beings do it every day. It's just all so new to me that I don't know enough to even ask where I am.

For example, someone asked me, "Have you registered the blog with key words (religion, Christianity etc)?". I have no idea what that is, or how you do it. If anyone out there knows how this is done please let me know. In fact, if you can do it for me, right from where you are, feel free to click your mouse and make the magic happen. And, do you think this willingness to have people do things for me might be part of the reason I so often don't know what I'm doing?

They also suggested that I begin my postings with a "cartoon, video, relevant news clip". Another great idea that I will implement if I ever figure out how it's done. I just remembered, someone told me that in Chinese the symbol for “crisis” is the same as the symbol for “opportunity”. Maybe I know more Chinese than I thought. Then again, maybe that's just a lot of hooey, which a Chinese friend once told me is the Chinese word for hooey. Small world, eh? And, considering that particular friend’s sense of humour, this also could be a lot of hooey.

And that reminds me, from another friend: "focus on your great sense of self deprecating humour". Hmm, from time to time we get these little insights into how others see us. Okay, I suppose, just as long as I can still deprecate on other people once in a while. And you can get in a lot of trouble, or is that hooey, just trying to be funny. Why do some people take not being funny so seriously?

Someone also pointed out that the font is too small. I know how to fix that but I’m not sure it’s really my problem. Sort of reminds me of all the trouble my dear wife went to trying not to mumble before we discovered I’m losing the hearing in my right ear. This, incidentally, is the one on the passenger side when I’m driving. I wonder, do you think it might be worn out? Or perhaps it just went deaf from not listening.

Uh oh, I think I just proved my point about humour. O well, more time for blogging.

So, let’s unpack this Babylon metaphor a little.

In the year 587 BC Jerusalem, also known as Zion, fell to the Babylonians. The city was destroyed with all of the raping and pillaging that usually attends such events. And the Babylonians, according to their custom, deported the leaders and most promising youth to Babylon. As we can imagine, this was a bitter experience for the people of Zion. And, just in case we can’t imagine, we have Psalm 137 preserved for us, one of the most terrifying visions of the human heart in all of scripture.

By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion.

There on the poplars we hung our harps,

for there our captors asked us for songs,

our tormentors demanded songs of joy;

they said, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!"

This poem begins with a beautiful expression of grief at the terrible loss the people of Zion have suffered. They are homesick and heartbroken, but they are also humiliated by the dominant culture that considers them a source of amusement. And, in humiliation and pain, the psalmist adopts a strategy of retreating into reminiscing about their former situation.

How can we sing the songs of the LORD while in a foreign land?

If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget [its skill].

May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you,

if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy.

But this strategy of remembrance is problematic because it’s a retreat. The psalmist disengages from Babylon, makes a commitment to consider only the former glory of Jerusalem, and slips into a bitter prayer of vengeance.

Remember, O LORD, what the Edomites did on the day Jerusalem fell.

"Tear it down," they cried, "tear it down to its foundations!"

O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction,

happy is he who repays you for what you have done to us —

he who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.

It’s interesting to note that this bitterness is against, not just the Babylonians but the Edomites, who are Semitic cousins to the people of Zion. They sided with Babylon when Zion was destroyed and now the psalmist, in the most horrifying way, prays that they might experience the same fate.

I believe that many today are angry and bitter at being dispossessed by “Babylon”. We look around and find ourselves in a strange land. We don’t understand how to be who we are in this new world. And we feel humiliated by those around us who view us with hostility, mistrust and, worst of all, amusement. And this is not just a problem for Christians but for all who were once at the centre of establishment power and privilege and now find themselves marginalized by the forces of change.

How do we deal with this? Well, the psalmist is about to get a letter from God. It’s a literal letter, and we’ll read it together next time. In the meantime, however, WHAT ARE YOU EXPERIENCING? Are you estranged from Babylon, dispossessed, fearful, bitter, angry? Please share a comment and help us track together.

ON MY WAY

Well, I’m off and running, and I’m already learning a few things. And the first one is that, to begin with, you have a tendency to blog about blogging. It’s just the main thing that’s on my mind right now.

Second, you need to be careful. I sent out an email to almost everyone in my address book to let them know about the blog. Unfortunately I didn’t click “blind copy” and ended up publishing everyone’s email address to all my friends. I have very nice friends but, just the same, if you are one of those people who tries to keep their email address confidential please forgive me. I remember when I had to really work to offend dozens of people at a time; now I can do it with one wrong click. Ah, the new millennium.

Third, people are very kind, at least when you’re at the baby stage. Thanks so much for all the responses, email and on the site. I will continue my reflections on Livin’ in Babylon as it seems to be a topic to which people can relate, and in the process I will share more about my own personal pilgrimage.

Fourth, it’s surprisingly intimidating, even for a preacher, to share in this public way. That’s a good thing in that it makes me really think about what I think, and I expect it’s the same for those who respond. A blog’s like a big classroom. Of course, one of the nice things about cyberspace is that you can fool around in the back of the class without getting caught. But everyone still gets to hear you when you do speak up, so watch your language. This is community, and isn’t it fun to think how we can shape one another just by sharing who we are and what we think?

And this, I suppose, is one of the real purposes of blogging, and perhaps of living in general. It’s a point Ray Bradbury makes in his delightful novel Something Wicked This Way Comes. Speaking of the special friendship shared by two young boys, the protagonists in the novel, he writes, "So there they go, Jim running slower to stay with Will, Will running faster to stay with Jim. Jim breaking two windows in a haunted house because Will's along. Will breaking one window instead of none, because Jim's watching. God, how we get our fingers into each other's clay. That's friendship, each playing the potter to see what shapes we can make of the other."

It will be interesting to see how we shape up.

Livin’ in Babylon

On October 7, 1999, Adrianne Clarkson, a well known Canadian journalist, became Governor General of Canada. This is a largely symbolic position and, beyond legal and ceremonial duties as Head of State, the Governor General functions as a kind of model Canadian. So, it was interesting to note that, in the time period between being asked to consider the appointment, and the public announcement of the appointment, she married her partner of 15 years. When asked about her new marital status she mused that her marriage was “short enough to still be interesting and long enough to be respectable”.

An event like this is probably a pretty good indication of the Canadian public’s attitude toward marriage at the end of the last millennium; living together unmarried was not so bad as to disqualify you from consideration for the job of Head of State, but if you wanted to actually get the job you needed to tie the knot. Marriage still mattered, but living together unmarried didn’t matter very much.

Now, I mean no criticism of Madame Clarkson. She was merely a representative Canadian. But this is a reminder that we live, and have always lived, in an evolving society. No ethnic group, church, political party, class or community has a corner on “Canadian values”. Canadian values concerning marriage, family, and everything else, are what they are at any given moment, and every group and individual shares these values to a greater or lesser extent. It’s a bit like being average. Each of us is above average in some things and below average in others, and no one really is, and few really want to be, average.

So, if a given community, a church for example, has a particular view of marriage, it should expect to differ in that way from the surrounding community. It should not be surprised or dismayed to find resistance to its view in the surrounding community, and will certainly not expect its children to gather their marital values, or any other values, from the surrounding culture.

And here we have a biblical principle. When God’s people were living in Babylon they needed to focus on producing godly communities of faith. They were commanded to love Babylon, of course, because God loves Babylon. They were commanded to bless Babylon. But the best way to love and bless Babylon was to become the people God wanted them to be, and to produce communities that could bear a faithful and biblical witness ― not to become Babylonians.