Jeremiah 29: 4-7
What are the three most important things to consider when looking for and purchasing real estate? Location, location, location. And what is the point of this cliché? It matters where you are. It matters how you understand where you are. And these things matter because somehow our lives are less anxious and more meaningful when there is some congruence between our location and how we want to, choose to or most importantly, feel called to live out our lives. This morning as I thought about the text from Jeremiah in particular, but also the passages in Acts and Ephesians and I thought about the vision and motivation that made St. Clair O’Connor, an intergenerational community, possible, I realized
the importance of location,
how we understand our location
and what we are called to do or how we are called to be faithful in our location. Our location is something we can consider on at least a couple of different levels.
First, where are we located as Mennonites in the city? In other words, what are the geographical and the cultural contexts of our location? I won’t have time to answer this question in a thorough way – which certainly deserves to be done, but here is one brush stroke.
Almost 30 years ago when the vision for St. Clair O’Connor was beginning to become a concrete reality, ie, the concrete foundations were being poured, the cultural context of the two founding Mennonite churches were (and continue to be in some ways) quite different. This congregation, TUMC, had existed by then for about 30 years. The Russian Mennonites who began this church were just beginning to feel settled in this country after fleeing horrendous persecution and hardship in Europe. The first generation of their Canadian born children was growing up here in relative privilege and they were beginning to take the long view. “We’re here, we’re safe, we’re doing well and we are called by God to seek the welfare of the city,” drawing on Jeremiah’s prophetic insight. “We will build a community guided by our call as followers of Christ to make it possible in some small way to embody the reign of God here.” They were joined in this vision by the Danforth Mennonite church, which was made up primarily of Old Mennonites/Swiss Mennonites of other European descent. The Danforth Mennonite Church had originated 100 years ago in Toronto, as a rural church sponsored “mission” to the city. Together these churches shared a sense of call and vision to seek the welfare of the city. And as you’ve heard in the report, SCOC today houses many people of diverse background, seniors, families, students and those with physical and mental disabilities. Many Mennonites and many more persons of other denominations, a few of other faiths and some with no religious affiliation have found a home and at its best something of an oasis there.
As you know our cultural context as Mennonites in the city keeps changing and has changed dramatically in the last 30 years. Old Mennonites and Russian Mennonites and Colombian, Argentinean, Peruvian, Brazilian, Cuban and other Latin American Mennonites, and Anabaptists of other traditions and those who have discovered their inner Anabaptist, now make up who we are both here at TUMC, the Toronto Mennonite New Life Church and the Danforth Mennonite Church and we have been joined in the city by a strong and growing Chinese Mennonite church, and a Lao Evangelical Mennonite church as well as others and there are now at least two emerging Ethiopian Mennonite churches. All of this has happened here primarily in the last 30 years.
For a moment now, I want to shift from the particularity of Mennonites in Toronto to the broader Story of God and ask the location question again? Where are we in the larger story of God? Jeremiah will be my guide as I ask this question.
In chapter 29 of the book of Jeremiah we read about a letter that Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the exiles in Babylon.
“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.” I find it interesting to note in this verse that God claims responsibility for sending the Israelites into exile.
The letter continues: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Take wives and have sons and 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.”
Besides the obvious instructions to build houses, plant gardens, create families, multiply, and seek the welfare of the city; I’m struck by the notion that God claims responsibility for sending them into exile. For what purpose? I’ll come back to this in a moment.
Bear with me as I jump to our current context or location. There are some who would claim that Post-Christendom is a term that describes where we are now in the broader story of God and that Post-Christendom is a type of exile. Most people will agree that in West and Northwestern society we have entered a period of significant transition. We know that we have moved beyond modernity and Christendom and a strictly scientific worldview, but because we are still in transition and don’t know yet where we’re going, we use terms like post-modern and post-Christendom to describe our location. Post-Christendom is marked by a transition for Christians from the centre to the margins. Whereas in Christendom, when most people in our society were at least nominally Christians of Roman Catholic, Anglican or mainstream Protestant faith, now and in the near future, our society is and will be made up of many different faiths and/or persons of no particular religious affiliation. Arnold Neufeldt Fast, at the recent Pastors, Chaplains and lay leaders seminar, showed us some striking graphs of these
trends. In post-Christendom, Christians have moved from the majority to the minority, they have moved from the idea of themselves as settlers to sojourners, from and experience of control to witness and from an experience of privilege in society to an experience of plurality where one’s religious affiliation as Christian is simply one affiliation among many. There are other characteristics of this shift, but I hope you get the idea. The renewed interest by some in denominations with Anabaptist roots and what Anabaptists have to say is precisely because Anabaptists have been located traditionally and historically on the margins and therefore have a voice and a witness to what it means to be a follower of Jesus from the location where traditionally mainstream Christians now find themselves.
As I’ve said there are some who describe this location as a place of exile. If Jeremiah and the Word of God to Jeremiah is our guide then there might be a good reason to be here. Has God called us, has God sent us to this place for just such a time as this? The prophet Jeremiah wanted the people to know that “instead of hankering to go back to Jerusalem, despairing of the future or becoming apathetic, Jeremiah urged them to accept their new situation as the will of God, to seek God’s blessing on those they perceived as their enemies, and to act creatively in ways that would sustain their own community, [and benefit those around them]” The experience of exile turned out to be significantly transformative. The children of God in exile realized that God was much larger than they’d previously known. God was God in Babylon as well as Jerusalem. During their stay in Babylon, they had opportunity to recompile their scriptures and in the process rethink and reapply the insights from their scriptures to this new situation. Prophetic insights helped them to see that God had grace-filled intentions for all of humanity and longed to create new heavens and a new earth. These insights became woven into some of their ancient texts as they were recompiled and reapplied. And new forms of worship and study in a synagogue setting apart from the temple in Jerusalem gave them new structures that would ultimately sustain them for millenia.
The question remains will our location, as challenging as it might be, provide some of the same opportunities? Sara Wenger Shenk, the new president of AMBS describes our current location and its opportunities through an encounter she had with a student in the following way:
“The church, called to embody God’s good news in the world, also knows its varying seasons. From what I hear, we’re in the midst of change that is massive on so many fronts that it will require unusual imagination, nimbleness, and courage to negotiate the turbulence. Epic change, some call it. And depending on your perspective it looks either like the onset of winter or like a spring thaw.
A young adult seminary student sat in my office recently [Sara goes on to say] and spoke of his delight with these so-called postmodern times. With a gleam in his eye he even called it an ideal time because of how the Christian imagination has been freed from the straight-jacket of propositional rationalism that characterized theological inquiry a generation ago. [I won’t try to explain exactly what that means – suffice to say it’s in the past]
He went on to enumerate reasons to give thanks, including more comfort with mystery and ambiguity, a freedom to use our biblical narratives to communicate the wonder of belief, a new renaissance of artists tuned in to the Spirit, increased synergy between scientific and spiritual ways of seeing, a surge of resolve to care for the earth, a widespread new intrigue with Jesus, accompanied by a desire to live in communities in which disciples are committed to embodying his radical, nonviolent love.”
Hearing this young man talk, Sara couldn’t imagine a place she’d rather be than the one in which she found herself.
Swinging back now to the particularity of our city and our location within it, I see signs of many different kinds of responses to this place in which we find ourselves. As already mentioned as a broader church we are becoming more and more ethnically diverse and within MCEC and beyond there are new and emerging models of being church: the Gathering place in Kitchener/Waterloo for example and Quest community in St. Catherines and the Village International Mennonite Church in Ottawa. The Village in Ottawa for example is a church plant newly established by pastor Stefan Cherry. The Village is self-described as a “new, multi-cultural, multi-lingual group of Jesus-followers seeking to join what God is doing in the healing and transformation of the Vanier neighbourhood of Ottawa.” Here in our community, Jon Osmond, who has been worshiping with us for a number of weeks, is seeking to plant a similar church called Renew City Church in the west Annex. Beyond new visions for church plants and ways to be church, some among us are responding to our current “location” by exploring and living out the tenants of a movement called the “new monasticism.” Recognizing the plurality of faiths represented by people who are our neighbours and seeking to live Christ’s mandate of love of neighbour there are many among us who are actively involved in Interfaith bridge-building efforts. At the Board level here at TUMC and in consultation with the rest of you we continue to explore faithful ways to be church.
Ultimately what does Jeremiah tell us about what God seeks for us in this location or in any location? What are the prophetic insights we find there that apply equally well to us? I’ve mentioned a few of them above. This is not time for despair. Jeremiah would invite us to see this location as part of a broader work of God and God’s movement in the world. God is much bigger than we thought. God has grace-filled intentions for all of humanity and our current location is an opportunity to rethink and reapply insights from our ancient scriptures and possibly come up with new structures for how we live out our calling. Foundationally, we are called to live out these insights in community precisely where we find ourselves. In summary, the saving words and deeds of God call forth a community of faithful followers to live together faithfully wherever they find themselves. We are primarily saved as a community to live faithful lives together in community, and as such are called to build houses and plant gardens and in multifarious ways to seek the welfare of the city, just as so many of the elders among us sought the welfare of the city when they gathered their resources and built St. Clair O’Connor and just as so many of you are seeking models for faithful living today. And in the midst of all this if we continue unfailingly to seek God with all our heart (in Hebrew since heart is much more than the seat of feeling
s, seeking God with all your heart means seeking God with your deepest thoughts and deepest feelings and deepest intentions,) In other words if we seek God with the core of our Being, God will hear and answer.
s, seeking God with all your heart means seeking God with your deepest thoughts and deepest feelings and deepest intentions,) In other words if we seek God with the core of our Being, God will hear and answer.
“For surely I know the plans that I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart, I will let you find me, says the Lord. (Jeremiah 29:11:14a)
And when we find God we will know where we are, why we are there and how to be faithful.
Endnote:
i Stuart Murray, The Naked Anabaptist, (Herald Press: Waterloo, 2010) p. 80.