No Reservations Required: A Tale of Two Cities (Matt. 8/ Is. 24-25) April 28, 2013 – Sunday Morning Message

When I was eighteen I moved from the country to the city.  I left my mountain hometown of Cloudcroft, NM.  About 600 people lived there.  And I began college in the desert city of Las Cruces, NM.  About 60,000 people lived there.  I left a village with 3 restaurants, one high school, and a 90% white population.  I entered a city with 300 restaurants, multiple high schools, and a diverse population.   To put this into perspective, my hometown would basically fit on the main campus of my college (shaded area).

 

This move to the city is one which many other people are making.   300 years ago, about 3% of people in the world lived in cities.  Today 80% of the world lives in cities.[1] In 1950, New York and Tokyo were the only two megacities—cities with populations larger than 10 million.[2] By 2010 the number of megacities had increased from 2 to 23. By 2025, it is estimated that there will be 29 megacities.  More and more people are moving to the city.

 

And those who aren’t moving are still influenced by cities.  Even though I grew up in a village, my life was affected by cities.  For example, the nearby small city of Alamogordo published the newspaper we read in Cloudcroft, provided the grocery stores where we shopped, and gave us movies.  More and more people are moving to cities.  And those who aren’t are still influenced by cities.

 

This was also true in the times recorded in the Bible.  Many people lived in cities.  And most people were influenced by cities.  Timothy Keller writes of three reasons why cities in the ancient world were important:[3]    

1. First, because early cities had walls, a city meant greater safety and therefore stability. Cities’ primary importance lay in their resistance to hostile forces, whether opposing armies, marauders, blood feud avengers, or wild animals.
2. Second, [cities led to] greater diversity, which is a natural result of density and safety…Because minorities find them to be safe places to live, cities tend to become racially and culturally diverse.
3. Third…cities were places of greater productivity and creativity. The more often people of the same profession come together, the more they stimulate new ideas and the faster these new ideas spread. 

Cities were important in the time of the Bible because they provided safety and stability, diversity, and productivity and creativity.  Today’s cities often provide the same things.

 

And yet, not everything about cities was good in the time of the Bible.  Not everything about cities is good today.  NBC News recently drew attention to the dark side of cities when they highlighted Camden, NJ.[4]  Camden, NJ has the unfortunate distinction of being both the most violent city in the U. S. and the poorest city in the U. S.  Over 40% of Camden’s residents live below the poverty line.  Sometimes cities create a concentration of the poor.

 

According to UNICEF, one in three people living in cities today live in slums.  In Africa, 6 out of 10 people living in cities dwell in slums.[5]

 

Cities have many positive traits.  And they have some negative traits.

 

Because of this, a church leader named Augustine used the positive and negative images of city to summarize the message of the Bible.  [PP image]  He would write in his book The City of God , “The humble City is the society of holy men and good angels; the proud city is the society of wicked men and evil angels. The one City began with the love of God; the other had its beginnings in the love of self.”  Augustine believed that the images of a humble and God-loving city and proud and self-loving city captured the heart of the biblical message.[6]

 

In the last book of the Bible, Revelation, John summarizes the Bible’s message in a similar way.  He draws a contrast between “the great city” (Babylon) and the city of God (Jerusalem). For John, everything he needed to say about humanity and God could be said with the image of two cities.[7]

 

The city is also a favorite image of the Old Testament prophets.  This was especially true of the Isaiah.  Bible scholar J. Alec Motyer writes that the book of Isaiah “could be accurately described as ‘the book of the city.’”[8]  Isaiah uses the image of city to describe everything that’s wrong with the world and everything that’s right with the world.

 

We find this image in Isaiah 24-27.  These four chapters are a single sermon preached by Isaiah.  The word “city” shows up eight times in this sermon.  If Isaiah is a book of the city, Is. 24-27 is a sermon of the city.

 

And there is a stark contrast between Is. 24 and Is. 25.  In Is. 24, Isaiah preaches this message: God is breaking down the city for the prosperous.⁵ The earth lies defiled under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant.  ⁶ Therefore a curse devours the earth, and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt; therefore the inhabitants of the earth are scorched, and few men are left.  ⁷ The wine mourns, the vine languishes, all the merry-hearted sigh. ⁸ The mirth of the tambourines is stilled, the noise of the jubilant has ceased, the mirth of the lyre is stilled. ⁹ No more do they drink wine with singing; strong drink is bitter to those who drink it. ¹⁰ The wasted city is broken down; every house is shut up so that none can enter. ¹¹ There is an outcry in the streets for lack of wine; all joy has grown dark; the gladness of the earth is banished. ¹² Desolation is left in the city; the gates are battered into ruins. (Is. 24:5-12 ESV).

 

Isaiah looks upon the earth and summarizes what he sees.  He sees humanity living in a city where there was once wine, merry-hearts, the sound of tambourines and lyres, strong drink, homes, gates and joy.  It’s a city where the prosperous have thrived.  The “haves” enjoy ease and comfort.  Their lives are happy and harmonious.  But there’s something wrong in this city.  The people have “transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant.”  The people have forgotten God and his ways.  And, as we’ll see in Is. 25, the result is that there are people in this city who are neglected.  While the prosperous live lives of delight, there are others who live lives of despair.  Thus, Isaiah promises, God is breaking down this city for the prosperous.  It will become a wasted city.

 

But in Is. 25, Isaiah speaks good news: God is building up the city for the poor.   25 O Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you; I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things, plans formed of old, faithful and sure. ² For you have made the city a heap, the fortified city a ruin; the foreigners’ palace is a city no more; it will never be rebuilt. ³ Therefore strong peoples will glorify you; cities of ruthless nations will fear you. ⁴ For you have been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat; for the breath of the ruthless is like a storm against a wall, ⁵ like heat in a dry place. You subdue the noise of the foreigners; as heat by the shade of a cloud, so the song of the ruthless is put down. ⁶ On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. ⁷ And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. ⁸ He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces (Is. 25:1-8 ESV).

 

God’s building up another city.  It’s a city in which he is the stronghold.  The image of is God acting as the protective wall around the city.  This new city has a wall made not of stone.  This new city has a protective wall made of God.  In this city the poor find safety.  In this city, no longer do only the privileged enjoy feasts.  In this city everyone, especially the poor, find “a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well-refined.”  In this city there is no suffering.   There is no disease.  There is no oppression.  God “will wipe away tears from all faces.”  In fact, in this new city there is not even death.  There are no children found dead in the shotgun house that burned.  There are no homeless people found dead on cold winter nights.  Instead, in this city God “will swallow up…the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever.”  Isaiah says God is building up a city for the poor.  A city where he is the protective wall.  A city where people of all colors and class are welcome.  A city where the poorest are invited to the feasting table.

 

This is the city Jesus envisions in Matt. 8–the core text for our Sunday morning series.  Jesus speaks of the time when God will invite people from the east and the west to come and feast with God.  His language in Matt. 8 comes straight from places like Is. 24 and Is. 25.

 

Jesus knew about this sermon of the city.  And he was working with God to turn that sermon into a reality.  That’s why he ate with the forgotten and marginal.  That’s why he reached out to the hopeless and helpless.   He knew that God was breaking down the city for the prosperous and building up the city for the poor.

 

Jesus’ followers had heard this sermon as well.  In his book The Rise of Christianity, sociologist Rodney Stark writes this:[9] To cities filled with the homeless and impoverished, Christianity offered charity as well as hope. To cities filled with newcomers and strangers, Christianity offered an immediate basis for attachments. To cities filled with orphans and widows, Christianity provided a new and expanded sense of family. To cities torn by violent ethnic strife, Christianity offered a new basis for social solidarity. Christians joined God’s work of breaking down the city for the prosperous.  God’s work of building up the city for the poor.

 

One of the ways in which Highland is joining this work in the city of Memphis is through our partnership with Agape Child and Family Services.  For dozens of years, Highland has joined Agape in helping make Memphis and the metro area a stronghold for the poor.  We’ve asked Highlander Brian Hoover, who serves as Agape’s Director of Development, to join us today.  Brian his going to share how God is using Agape to build a city for the poor.

 

Brian Hoover

 

Highland’s partnership with Agape is funded through today’s Outreach Contribution.   Our biannual Outreach Contribution funds more than twenty of Highland’s ministries to the needy, the nations and our neighbors. When you give $151,000 today, you make these ministries possible.  You join God in breaking down a city for the prosperous and building up a city for the poor.