Bible Study Handout: Pastor Dean Nadasdy - Woodbury Lutheran ...

CHRISTIANS AND
THEIR CULTURE
Session 3: Exiles
1. THE BABYLONIAN EXILE
The Babylonian exile was a period in Israel’s history when Jews were taken captive by King
Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon.
• The books of 2 Chronicles and 2 Kings deal with the time leading up to the fall Judah, the
destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, and the beginning of the Babylonian exile.
• Jeremiah prophesied before the fall of Jerusalem and during the exile. Ezekiel and Daniel
were written from Babylon while the Jews were in exile. Much of Isaiah’s prophecy
looks ahead to the time of the exile.
• Several psalms were written in this period (cf., Psalm 137).
• Ezra records the return of the Jews after 70 years of exile, as prophesied by Jeremiah.
• The book of Nehemiah also covers the return and rebuilding of Jerusalem after the exile
was over.
612 Babylonians and Medes conquer Assyria
605 Babylonians defeat the Egyptians at the Battle of Carchemish
Nebuchadnezzar becomes king of Babylon
The Babylonians invade Judah
First wave of deportation of Jews to Babylon, including Daniel, Hananiah (Shadrach),
Mishael (Meshach) and Azariah (Abednego)
601 Babylonians battle Egypt, both sides suffer losses
Judah decides to realign itself with Egypt, Jeremiah warns
597 Jehoachin becomes king of Judah
Babylonians capture Jerusalem
Second wave of deportation to Babylon from Judah
Ezekiel is taken captive to Babylon
Zedekiah becomes king of Judah
593 Ezekiel begins to prophesy
586 The Babylonians destroy Jerusalem and the Temple
Jerusalem’s walls and gates are burned with fire
Third wave of Jews deported to Babylon
Babylonian Exile begins
End of Biblical First Temple Period
End of the monarchy in Judah
539 Fall of Babylon
Beginning of the Persian Period to 332
Decree of Cyrus II allowing Jews to return
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516 The Jews rebuild their Temple (70 years from 586)
2. LIFE AS EXILES THEN AND NOW
Several observers of North American Christianity, liken our place in our culture to that of the
Ancient Jews during the Babylonian Exile. We have the experiences in common with them:
• Loss. The experience of yearning, abusing, and losing. For exilic Jews they had yearned
for land, abused it when they got it, and lost it. For us, it is the yearning for, abusing, and
losing of political power, respect, and mainstream popularity.
• Worship Not the Same. Exilic Jews lost their temple and their sacrifices. We have lost
worship as we once knew it. Fewer and fewer American Christians worship regularly.
American Christians seem confused as to how God wants us to worship.
• Surrounded by Pagans. Called to be separate, Jews found themselves forced to make
homes in a strange land. They were instructed even by God to settle in and work with
pagans who worshiped idols. Lurking for them was the danger of syncretism (blending
their faith with the pagan religions around them). We face a similar pagan culture today
with same inherent dangers.
Around 593 BC the prophet Jeremiah, still in Judah, sent this letter to the exiles in
Babylon:
4 This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from
Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they
produce. 6 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. 7 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.” 8 Yes, this is what the LORD Almighty,
the God of Israel, says: “Do not let the prophets and diviners among
you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to
have. 9 They are prophesying lies to you in my name. I have not sent
them,” declares the LORD.
10 This is what the LORD says: “When seventy years are completed for
Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring
you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares
the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give
you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and
pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me
when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,” declares the LORD, “and will
bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have
banished you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you
into exile.” JEREMIAH 29:4-14
• Marginalized. Exilic Jews left a home where their faith was at the center of their culture
(more or less at given times). Now clearly they were a marginalized minority. For us, we
have seen America move from “a Christian nation” to a culture where Christianity is
ignored, ridiculed, and openly attacked.
• Sadness and Despair. Like Jeremiah in Lamentations, we can spend time lamenting the
sad state of the church today, debating the justice of God, and even questioning the
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power of God. We can take on a survival mode rather than finding hope in God and in
His kingdom. It’s the same Jeremiah who writes, “Why do you always forget us Why do
you forsake us so long” (Lamentations 5:20)” and “Great is your faithfulness”
(Lamentations 3:23).
The sadness of exilic Jews is preserved in this song from Psalm 137, which Christians can
sing today as we face a pagan culture:
1 By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept
when we remembered Zion.
2 There on the poplars
we hung our harps,
3 for there our captors asked us for songs,
our tormentors demanded songs of joy;
they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
4 How can we sing the songs of the LORD
while in a foreign land
5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
may my right hand forget its skill.
6 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. PSALM 137:1-6
3. HOW CHRISTIAN EXILES RESPOND TO THEIR CULTURE
• The experience of exilic Jews not only helps us understand our plight as exilic Christians
in the 21 st Century; it also points the way for a response to our culture. Walter
Bruggemann, in his book, Cadences of Home: Preaching Among Exiles, identified what
he called…
…disciplines of readiness, acts to be undertaken with intentionality and
discipline, to leave us ready if God should make new moves among us. This
new readiness should permit a rethinking of what exiles must do that
usually is not done by preexilic people. This new beginning is a new
circumstance, not easily acknowledged by old-line and mainline faith, a
circumstance that permits and requires fresh disciplines. 1
• More recently Michael Frost, an Australian, has taken four of Bruggemann’s disciplines
of readiness and applied them to contemporary Christians in exile. 2 For Bruggemann
and Frost the disciplines are dangerous in that they threaten both the church caught up
in keeping whatever little ground we have in a pagan culture as well as the culture itself,
which might just be transformed. Labeling these practices ”dangerous” implies that
Christians can be dangerous when turned loose in a culture. What follows is a summary
of Frost’s description of these four dangerous disciplines of exiles.
1 Walter Bruggemann, Cadences of Home: Preaching Among Exiles (Westminster John Knox Press, 1997),118.
2 Michael Frost, Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Pub., 2006).
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1) Dangerous Memories of Jesus and His Agenda. Exilic Jews were encouraged by
the stories of their faith that has been passed on orally for generations and
written down as inspired Scripture – stories on the power and grace of God like
the story of Abraham and Sarah. See Isaiah 51:1-2
Like an experimental farm, the church is to demonstrate living in the Kingdom of
God with generosity and selflessness in contrast to the greed and consumerism
rampant in society. The secret to this is rediscovering
remembering the stories of Jesus. Frost calls the reader
to a fresh understanding of Jesus through first century
Jewish eyes. For example, Jesus' eating patterns
amazinglybroke down social barriers and demonstrated
inclusiveness unheard of in Jewish religion of his day.
Frost insists if we are to imitate Jesus, we will value
hanging out with people in `third places' like clubs and
hotels where people gather regularly and not get overly caught up in meetings
and Sunday stuff (the usual barometer of Christian commitment).
2) Dangerous Promises of God That Point to the Kingdom. Jews in the exile
needed to cling to the promises of God. Those promises defined them as people
who would not merely survive but thrive among the nations as a transforming
source. See Isaiah 54:1-3.
Today the promises of God can create a community bound by its authenticity,
theology, mission, mercy, hospitality, generosity, and righteous work. Frost
favors a life-affirming and not-too-difficult approach to hospitality: “Serve up
something delicious, and then just watch the conversation flow and trust God to
stick His nose in somewhere” (p.168). Dismissing a dualistic approach to secular
work, Frost encourages integrating work and mission.
3) Dangerous Criticism of the Culture. God’s prophets before and after the exile
were not afraid to call out the idolatry of pagan Babylon. See Isaiah 46:6-7.
Christians today must be active in criticizing the waste, greed, injustice, and
idolatry of our culture. We must take the lead in speaking up for the rights of
the disenfranchised, including the unborn, the poor, and the persecuted. This
can happen politically, but it can also happen sacrificially as we respond with
compassion and personal investment to disasters and the needs of the
impoverished.
4) Dangerous Songs That Transform. In the exile, new songs were sung with the
same old message. See Isaiah 42:10-12. Frost, especially here, stretches the
church to consider its music. Do our worship and music carry the sense that we
are dangerous transformers on a mission to change our culture
A few songs and a long sermon won't do. A communal, ambient space,
centered around a convivial meal table, reflecting local culture, using
ancient and modern rituals, and infused with spiritual singing will be a
wonderful expression of the overflow of love lived daily to please our
happy, joyful, all-powerful God (p. 300).
Exiles have given up on singing sentimental, us-centred (`Jesus my
boyfriend') love songs, and want to cry songs that call into reality a
new world brought on by the kingdom of God. And they want to see
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their actions as well as their songs as an expression of worship.
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