Love Your (Babylon) Neighbor
Three fun facts about me: 1) I grew up in Estes Park. 2) My dad was a pastor so I grew up a pastor’s kid. I spent a lot of time at church playing in the gym and I knew a lot of Bible trivia. For example, who’s the oldest person in the Bible? Anyone? Methuselah at 969 years old. The second oldest? Jared. 962 years old. 3) I was a pastor for nine years out in Massachusetts and I used to be Mackenna’s pastor. Mackenna has been a part of our family since she was about 14 when my wife started mentoring her and was her Sunday school teacher.
Today I’m wrapping up your three-part series on faith and politics. Maybe it felt a little weird or exhausting to discuss politics in youth group, but as I think back to when I was in youth group, this was when I started to really get political. I began to think about politics, talk about it with my friends, really care about the outcome of elections, and judge those I disagree with. I remember one girl at youth group who supported the other party’s candidate. I thought she was soooooo stupid. Little arrogant. Little prideful. My bad.
Did you know that people have studied politics and religion in teenagers. And guess what they found? They found that teenagers, you all, often form political opinions BEFORE religious beliefs. What you believe about politics tends to come before what you believe about God. And this means what you end up believing about politics may actually shape what you believe about God. In other words, your politics may determine what you believe about Jesus instead of Jesus determining what you believe about politics.
In the Bible, Jesus teaches us to “love your neighbor.” Your neighbor is anyone God has placed in your life for you to show his kindness to. That could be the person who lives next door, a classmate, a teacher, your youth leaders, your brother, your sister, your mom, your dad. So loving your neighbor is about way more than politics, but politics matter because they shape who you consider to even be a neighbor.
Today, we’re looking at a passage in the Bible where the Israelites are struggling with how to love their neighbors and it’s all because of politics. There’s a foreign nation, Babylon, that is taking God’s Old Testament people, Isreal, into exile. They’re taking them captive like how the Israelites were once slaves in Egypt. Do you guys know about Daniel in the lion’s den and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace? Maybe you’ve seen Rack, Shack & Benny of VeggieTales? The exile happened in that part of the Bible. And different political and religious leaders, people the Bible calls prophets, are telling God’s people how to treat their neighbors in exile. They can treat their neighbors (and we can too) one of four ways:
Response #1: Fight your neighbor
Two prophets are telling the people two different messages about how God will deliver them from exile. The first prophet, a man named Hananiah (kind of like the male version of Hannah), says this:
Jeremiah 28:2-3 (ESV) “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. 3 Within two years I will bring back to this place all the vessels of the Lord's house, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place and carried to Babylon.
Hananiah tells the people God has “broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.” In other words, God is going to destroy their enemies and bring back all their treasure. That’s amazing! And if we base our response on news like that, how do you think we will treat our neighbors? Our neighbors are not people to be loved but opponents to be defeated. How many of us take this posture in our politics? Politics is about winning, overcoming, and defeating our political enemies. That might feel good but it’s not of God.
After I graduated high school, I went to a community college where I was ready to “do battle” with my political opponents. One time one of my classmates was railing against something I supported. She would make aggressive comments during class and it so offended me one day I snapped at her. I swore at her, using a word my parents would have sent me to my room for saying. I viewed her with so much suspicion and hostility I got angry at her. I hope I apologized afterwards but I don’t remember.
If we’re trying to love our neighbors and fight them at the same time, kinda like trying to hug them and punch them at the same time, they’re not gonna feel our love. But maybe we should just do the opposite?
Response #2: Flee from your neighbor
Hananiah continues his prophecy that not only will God “break the yoke” of the King of Babylon, but all the people will go home quickly.
Jeremiah 28:4 (ESV) I will also bring back to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and all the exiles from Judah who went to Babylon, declares the Lord, for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.”
Hananiah is telling the people of Israel that they don’t need to invest in loving their neighbors because they’re going to flee to Jerusalem soon. The approach is different, not fighting but fleeing, but the outcome is the same, death to neighborliness. If we’re just trying to protect and preserve ourselves, there’s no space for a relationship to grow. There’s no way to love our neighbors if we stay far away from them.
When I was your age, I didn’t really know a lot of non-Christians. I took classes with Christians, all my friends were Christians, I went to Awana and Youth Group and church. I lived in a Christian bubble. Part of the reason for this was a view of non-Christians that they are dangerous, sinful, and people we need to safeguard ourselves against. But how can we love our neighbors if we don’t have a relationship with them?
These options tell us our neighbors are not people to be loved but opponents to be defeated or protected against. But turns out, Hananiah, who was telling the Israelites not to love their neighbors, is a false prophet. He tells God’s people what they want to hear, instead of what God wants them to hear. So God kills him. He’s dead. Both fighting and fleeing from our neighbors leads to death, death for friendships, for our neighbors coming to know Jesus, and death for how we could be a light to those who need Jesus.
We can’t love our neighbors by fighting or fleeing. So let’s just accept everything about our neighbors, right?
Response #3: Fuse into your neighbor
Hananiah was a false prophet, but God gave Israel a true prophet, Jeremiah, someone who would say what God wanted no matter how hard it was to hear. Here’s how Jeremiah’s true prophecy starts:
Jeremiah 29:4 (ESV) “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:
Now what if we stopped right there? What if that was the whole prophecy? Notice how God says, “I have sent [you, my people] into exile.” That means it is God’s will for them to go into captivity. If that’s all you know, “Well, God brought us to Babylon,” or “God brought me to my school” how might you act in Babylon or at your school? You might think, “I guess God wants me to be just like everyone else now. I guess God wants me to talk, and act, and think just like them.”
Did you know that the Bible doesn’t just call the Jewish people exiles in Babylon? The Bible calls Christians exiles today? Peter, one of Jesus’ 12 disciples, calls Christians “foreigners and exiles.” An exile is someone who lives within a nation but retains their national identity. You’re an exile in your Babylon today, Thornton, Colorado, USA. This is what Pastor Matt has been preaching about in big church and what Damen talked about last week. We’re exiles living in a foreign land. So God doesn’t want you to just be the same as everyone else, but to maintain your distinct identity as a Jesus follower.
Fusion is when there’s no difference between us and our neighbor. We talk, act, and behave just like them, but maybe a little extra God talk sprinkled on top. As a Christian, I’ve struggled with fusion. I want to blend, to not make it awkward. When your friends or family start talking in a way that you know doesn’t honor Jesus, and you go along with it, because you want to fit in and be cool, it’s hard, I know. But right now the world needs teenagers who act distinct from their neighbors. The world needs you to not hate your neighbor or fear those different than you, but to love your neighbors like Jesus loves you.
Response #4: Faithful to Jesus and present with my neighbor
To be faithful and present is to know Jesus, love Jesus, and practice the way of Jesus, not so as to overcome my neighbor, not to run away from my neighbor, and not to look the same as my neighbor. Rather, being faithful and present is being with and for our neighbors as we believe in Jesus and follow him. The prophet Jeremiah shows us what this looks like. Here’s how his prophecy to God’s people continues:
Jeremiah 29:5-7 (ESV) Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. 6 Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. 7 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.
God is calling us to seek the “peace and prosperity” of Thornton, Westminster, Northglenn, Colorado. “Peace and prosperity” is actually one Hebrew word, “shalom.” Shalom isn’t just the absence of war or poverty but flourishing and goodness. “Shalom, in other words, is the way things ought to be."
Jeremiah doesn’t tell God’s people to go and overcome their enemies, but to build a house, plant gardens, get married and make babies, and seek their neighbors’ wellbeing. In other words, go and love the place you live. Buy a house, paint the rooms, put up curtains, make yourself comfortable. Live in harmony. Plant a garden. Have any of you ever thought of planting a garden as a way to love your neighbor?
We have a garden at my house and it’s helped us get to know our neighbors. Earlier this year, my wife Monica gave one of our neighbor’s some tomato seedlings, little tomato plants. If you have a green thumb, plant a garden and see how God uses it to love those around you. Maybe it gives you something to talk about with your neighbor, or you can share the food you grow with those in need. And if you don’t have a green thumb, you can pick up litter. That’s a great way to love your neighbor. It’s a great way to do politics.
We are faithful to Jesus and present with our neighbors because Jesus is faithful to us and present with us.
Jesus is calling you to be faithful to him and present with your neighbor because he is faithful to you and present with you. We can love our neighbors because Jesus first loves us. But it’s hard. Jeremiah prophesies that God will bring his people home, not in two years, but in seventy, which is a long time to trust God.
Jeremiah 29:10-11 (ESV) “For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
The Israelites are going to go home in seventy years. How old are you going to be in 70 years? How old are your parents going to be? Most of the Israelites aren’t going to be around still, but their children will, but they have to trust God. And yet, God still wants them to love their neighbors even though they don’t get what they want. And that’s what God calls us to do. Love your neighbor, even if it’s not easy. Why do we love our neighbor? Why do we seek to be faithful to Jesus and present with our neighbors?
We are faithful to Jesus and present with our neighbors because Jesus is faithful to us and present with us. One day God will deliver us from exile, from this Babylon. Within seventy years, you’ll likely be with Jesus or ready to be with Jesus. And one day, Jesus will return and restore this world and set all things right.
You know why you have “a hope and a future” even in exile? Because God comes after us into exile. God sends his one and only Son, Jesus, into our captivity to sin and death to rescue us and lead us home. Jesus dies in our place so that we can experience eternal life. And if he stayed dead, we wouldn’t have “a hope and a future,” but we do because he rises again from the grave and ascends into heaven and is now seated on the throne ruling and reigning over everything and is present with us through his Holy Spirit. We are faithful to Jesus and present with our neighbors because Jesus is faithful to us and present with us.
Jonathan Romig preached this sermon to the youth group at Crossroads Church in Thornton, CO. You can access more Bible teachings at: youtube.com/c/JonathanMonicaRomig
Discussion Questions
1. Who do you think of as a neighbor?
2. How do you treat your neighbor?
a. Fight my neighbor
b. Flee from my neighbor
c. Fuse into my neighbor
d. Faithful to Jesus and present with my neighbor
3. What does “faithful presence” mean?
4. What could “faithful presence” look like in your life? How could you do it?
5. What does it mean to think of yourself as an exile?
6. How does Jesus give us hope for loving our neighbors in exile?
Sources
Michele F. Margolis, From Politics to the Pews: How Partisanship and the Political Environment Shape Religious Identity (Chicago Studies in American Politics) (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2018).
Matt. 22:39
1 Peter 2:11
To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World by James Davison Hunter. Affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3Z3Mb7t
Cornelius Plantinga Jr., Not the Way It's Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1995), 10.
