Day 29 : Place-Based Shalom

"Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings." – Isaiah 58:12

We are approaching Holy Week. Today we have a brief three segment progression, building towards an extraordinary piece of art. Take the time to notice the three building blocks.

As we come to the end of the passage which has been our Lenten focus and theme, we see the words we just read above. Read them again and let them sink in: "Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings."

God is not giving those titles to himself, as you may have thought if you first skimmed the passage. Amazingly, he is giving those titles to his people! They are the ones who will be called Repairers and Restorers.

Could he give those titles to us, too? Let's look at the passage as a whole once more.

Isaiah 58:1-12 essentially describes what it looks like for a community to move from withering into flourishing. But it doesn't happen simply because of something the Lord does. It happens because the people of that community begin to act as God wants them to act. They begin to live as the hands and feet of Jesus.

They:

loose the chains of injustice
untie the cords of the yoke
set the oppressed free
break every yoke
share their food with the hungry
provide the poor wanderer with shelter
clothe the naked
don't turn away from their own flesh and blood
do away with the yoke of oppression
do away with pointing fingers and malicious talk
spend themselves on behalf of the hungry
satisfy the needs of the oppressed

They do all the things we've been talking about these past five weeks of Lent. And in that ecosystem of mutual flourishing, living God's blueprint for the world, then the rains of even more shalom happen and we are all brought in to further thriving?

The Lord guides them
He satisfies their needs
He strengthen their frame
They become like a well-watered garden
They rebuild the ancient ruins
They raise up the age-old foundations
They are called Repairer of Broken Walls
They are called Restorer of Streets with Dwellings

What a beautiful picture of flourishing, wholeness, and health – shalom. We are called to be Repairers and Restorers. This is holy, God-imaging work.

"Biblical flourishing is missional, priestly, and outward focused, motivated on spreading God’s glory throughout the earth. We flourish when we help others flourish."

– Hugh Whelchel

We've talked about the importance of place – of home. We were meant for stability, for putting down roots and building a life together. But home can also be more than merely the structure in which we live; it's our street, our neighborhood, our city. What does it look like to pursue flourishing for others on that kind of scale?

The Lupton Center,* one of the leading Christian community development and neighborhood flourishing experts describe a simple progression based on a question:

Why are some struggling more than others?

Youth need mentors
Families need work
Workers need housing
Housing is one of the many structures in a place
Neighborhood is the unit of change

Why is income mobility spread out differently in different places? In a robust and far reaching research project neighborhoods all across North America were assessed. The focus was when it comes to breaking cycles of poverty how powerful is the neighborhood you grew up in as opposed to education, family culture, individual choices to name a few.

The answers that those questions revealed several observations:

Place does affect us, most profoundly as children.
Every year of exposure to a better childhood environment imporves their long-term income mobility.
Where you grow up matters.
The conclusion is that we must develop neighborhoods in place

Isn't it heartening when research and analysis points us right back to God, his ways, and scripture. The call has always been to love our neighbors and our place and to speak and be the gospel in tangible ways.

Fragile or marginal neighborhood communities need people who will be the Repairers of Broken Walls and the Restorers of Streets with Dwellings. How can we pursue flourishing on their behalf?

* The Lupton Center, The Opportunity Atlas

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. 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.

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."

– Jeremiah 29:4-7

"Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you...for in its welfare you will find your welfare." Or, as Hugh Whelchel said in the quote above, "We flourish when we help others flourish."

We live as exiles, in some ways, because we know that we ultimately belong to a kingdom that is not of this world. But wherever we are, the Lord has placed us there, and he asks us to seek its welfare.

He stands ready to guide us, satisfy our needs, and strengthen our frames. The invitation is "Step out."

This week we will be learning more about what it means to become the Repairers and Restorers God has called us to be.

Spend 2 minutes allowing your eyes and imagination to roam this piece of art by Jen Norton. First, delight in the shalom and flourishing that stirs the heart and enlivens the mind. She how each part of flourishing is relational. Take 20 seconds to pray for fragile neighborhoods in your city or town and ask God to help his people bring wholeness like this.

The Works of Mercy, by Jen Norton