Harbor Church - Mid City

Building a Great City—Through Relocation

Neh. 11 Mid-City 12/5/10

Recap Pre Scripture Reading:

For the last 2 weeks we looked at the covenant obligations that the people took on themselves, and now this week we’re going to look at the actual repopulation of the city. It was one thing to quit your job or leave the farm for 52 days to rebuild the city, but quite another to uproot your family & move in. Permanently. Relocation. That is a huge commitment. It isn’t temporary, it is your life. And that is exactly what they do.

Now, this morning we’re going to think about this story from 3 different perspectives: (1) call to relocation, (2) challenge of relocation, & (3) power for relocation:

(1) Call to relocation

V1 “Now the leaders of the people settled in Jerusalem, and the rest of the people cast lots to bring one out of every ten to live in Jerusalem, the holy city, while the remaining nine were to stay in their own towns. V2 The people commended all the men who volunteered to live in Jerusalem.”

Now I want you to notice something here. The call to relocate comes in very different ways. V2 tells us that some people just volunteered to relocate. God put it on their heart, they loved urban communities, and they moved it voluntarily. On the other hand, 10%, according to v1, were chosen by casting lots. Many of them probably didn’t want to relocate into Jerusalem, but God chose them through this system of lots.

Now, let’s think about this b/c this is going to strike you a bit different depending on whether you are a Christian or not. First, to followers of Jesus. Casting lots isn’t the best way of actually knowing God’s will. I know that you see it here, and actually in quite a few places in the Old Testament, even in the New Testament as the disciples replace Judas. In fact, Proverbs 16:33 says, “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.” So, clearly, the Bible says God can work in our lives through seemingly random things like casting lots.

But, here is why I say that this isn’t how you and I should discern God’s will. Because we have Holy Spirit. Every time you see lots used in the Bible, it is pre-Pentecost, that is before the giving of the Holy Spirit. So now, as a follower of Jesus, you learn to hear his voice, to respond to His leading. To cast a lot would be to go back in redemptive history and act like you no longer have a Wonderful Counselor, a Good Shepherd to lead you.

But now let me talk to those of you who are skeptical that Jesus even exists. See this text about God calling a group to relocate through a system of lots means that even the most seemingly random acts in your life aren’t random. Instead, God is using these seemingly random things to reveal his love to you. You meet a Christian randomly at work and for the first time they begin to challenge a lot of what you thought Christians were like because they aren’t judgmental, they drink a beer and you thought all Christians were teetotalers; they actually are pretty thoughtful and sharp and you thought all Christians were brainless people of faith; they have friends that are gay and you thought all Christians were bigots. See, the God of the Bible works through seemingly random friendships, job promotions, job firings, flip of coin—you name it, and he does it because He wants to be in relationship with you and to love you. So, first pt: calling. And in this particular case, a loving God is calling his people to relocate and love the city.

(2) Challenge of Relocation

But the call to relocate and love a city well is really challenging. Think with me about what God, through Nehemiah, is asking them to do by relocating to Jerusalem. To put it in modern terms, Nehemiah is asking them to move into an area of urban blight that has just experienced 52 days worth of regentrification. This isn’t exactly the picture of stability here. He isn’t asking them to move into La Jolla—an afluent, beautiful community by the ocean where things have pretty much always been nice and you can pretty much bet that they will continue to be.

No, let me try to give you the closest analogy I can to help you get what Nehemiah is asking of the people. He is asking them to move into City Heights 15 years ago. Lots of you don’t get this analogy because you don’t know the story of this community. Well, let me let quickly summarize the history of City Heights by letting you watch a short clip from a documentary called The Price of Renewal. Renewal. 53 seconds to 4:11

So the winds of renewal began to blow in City Heights in the 90s and we, as a church, are doing everything we can to see that renewal continue today. But I want you to think with me. City Heights in the 90s—15 years ago--was like Jerusalem pre-Nehemiah—a dangerous urban community that lacked the infra-structure for safety and overall health. Now, imagine that you were one of the families that fled City Heights and you now live in North County. And all of a sudden you hear that Sol Price dumps a boatload of money into the community you used to live in and government leaders got involved (all of which happened) and Imagine that God super-charged the efforts and the Urban Village was built in 52 days. And now, you’re one of the families living in North County that fled City Heights and you’re being asked by the mayor on San Diego in the 90s to move back in. And you say, “Yeah, I know things have changed, but it has only been 52 days.” That isn’t exactly a proven track record of stability. Mr. Mayor, I am sorry, but have a wife and kids to think about.

Well, this is exactly what the mayor of Jerusalem—Nehemiah--asks of the people in Israel, and they did it. See Nehemiah was radical before David Platt wrote the book called Radical. Nehemiah was calling the people to relocation 2,500 years before John Perkins and the Christian Community Development Association even existed. For those of you that don’t know, our church is committed to the work of community development, and one of the 8 core principles of CCDA is relocation. Friends, see, John Perkins and the CCDA movement have really just been championing what Nehemiah championed long ago. That the way we bring about change is by relocation—moving into the neighborhood and doing exactly what Jeremiah called the people to do in Babylon in Jer. 29: 4-6, which was to “to seek the peace and prosperity of the city.”

Think with me about the implications of this. For those of you that are followers of Jesus this means that our decision about where we live isn’t simply about living close to work, but it is about living close to God’s call to advance His Kingdom. It means that our decision about where we will live isn’t driven primarily by our desires to be close to a good school for our kids, but it is about living close to the call of God to advance His Kingdom. It means that your decision about where you live isn’t driven primarily by our desire to live close to our family, but it is about living close to the call of God to advance His Kingdom.

See I really think that is what Jesus meant when he said in Mt. 6:33, “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Seek the kingdom first—that means kingdom advancement determines where you live, not a good school, not work, and not even family.

Let me try to apply this call to relocation by telling you my family’s story. When Bradford married me, she thought she was marrying a lawyer. Classic bait and switch maneuver, wasn’t it. Her grandmom wasn’t at all happy about the bait and switch either—thought she was getting a stable lawyer who would be making the big bucks. She got an inner-city pastor.

Now, at the time I got married I thought one likely outcome for my career would be as a human rights lawyer working with the International Justice Mission, a group involved in freeing sex slaves. I thought we’d be on a church planting team overseas doing this. But it became clear that I wasn’t going to just be a lawyer on a church planting team, but a pastor on a church planting team. So we went to seminary after law school. And as we looked for a place to plant churches, my wife said Alabama, I said Africa, and Jesus said California and called us here.

So for us, seeking first the kingdom meant relocating to San Diego. Now there are lots of reasons that explain how we heard the voice of Jesus calling us here. That is another sermon. But, to be sure, it meant leaving our fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters in Bama, and relocating across the country.

Then, once God put the passion on our heart to plant this bridge church in the Mid-City area, we began listening to his voice about where we should live in this community. See we didn’t just want this to be about finding the perfect home for our family. Instead, we wanted to live on the street and in the neighborhood that would best serve to advance His kingdom.

Well, as you know if you have been coming to this church for any period of time, God put a passion in our hurt to plant a bridge church. A bridge takes 2 things that are disconnected and brings them together. So we wanted to see this church function as a bridge on a number of levels: to bridge suburban communities with the urban community of City Heights; to bridge the working poor and the professional community; to bridge the neighborhoods north and south of El Cajon Blvd. We drove through this community and asked, “Why is it that these neighborhoods are so close together geographically but yet so far apart relationally?”

So, where should we live? Well, as we looked at the launch team and our connections, we had a number of people firmly committed to the City Heights community, but we didn’t have anyone living in mission north of El Cajon. So we felt like it would be most strategic for us to live and love in Talmadge and, hopefully, begin to see those north of El Cajon love those south of El Cajon and vice-versa.

Now, thankfully, we’re not the only ones who have relocated since this church was planted. We have dozens of families who have responded to the call of Jesus and relocated into the Mid-City area. I am so proud of you.

But what about those of you that haven’t relocated to the Mid-City area? Well, remember, only 10% of the people relocated according to verse 2, with a few additional volunteers. But the rest of them still wanted to make the city of Jerusalem prosper, so they relocated, not geographically in where they lived, but in their hearts. You saw this particularly in chapter 10 that Bill highlighted where we saw them giving to the work financially and bringing firstfruits and offerings. Now, Many of you aren’t called to relocate into the Mid-City area, but you do sense God’s call to make the Mid-City community, and, the city of San Diego better.

And the way you express this relocation of your heart is by virtue of your time and talent and treasures through Balsamea, City Heights Prep, Generate Hope, and also in your service to our church community. Some of you are like secret agents embedded in North County, growing and developing the heart of your suburban neighbors for the inner-city. Your helping those in the burbs of North County begin to reallocate and relocate their time and talents and treasures to think about the renewal of San Diego.

(3) Power for Relocation

But, if all of us are called to relocation in one way or another, then where do we get the power to do it? Well, it comes from the one who performed the ultimate act of relocation, and I don’t mean Nehemiah. No. I am talking about Jesus Christ. See Jesus relocated from heaven to earth, at Christmas. It is what the Advent Season is all about. That God took on flesh, and, as Eugene Peterson says about John 1, moved into the hood.

Friends, have you reflected on his relocation at Advent? Think about the 2 communities he could have lived in. Heaven, where He had perfect community, fellowship, respect, love, joy, lived in a mansion—or the other other was Nazareth, where he would be constantly disrespected, spit on, beaten, deserted by his closest friends, and wouldn’t even have a place to lay his head. Hmmm. If he had done a pros/cons, he never would have relocated.

Yet, Jesus chose to relocate. John 12:44 says he was called—he was called to come and relocate an entire people who had lost their way. Who were trapped in their sin. Who were cut off from God. But to do that, he had to go through the most extreme relocation ever experienced. He didn’t go from La Jolla to urban blight; he went all the way from heaven to hell.

Thankfully, the gates of hell could not contain Jesus Christ, and in His resurrection, He invites us to be relocated into the family that we have always wanted to be a member of—God’s family.

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