Prospering in Exile

I now want to read the last chapter of the book. It is, to some extent, like a summary. And through it, you will be able to see a little of what I lay out throughout the entire book.

Again, here I speak a great deal in passing about Congregation Lion of Judah; I speak a great deal about our church, its people, and families in our congregation. The history of Lion of Judah is here in one chapter: how God started us out over there in Cambridge and brought us here to Boston. I discuss many things about the Latino community here in New England; I speak about Hispanic American immigration to the United States and about how undocumented immigrants are being a blessing to this nation. I speak about how God is using Latino immigration—among other waves of immigration—to strengthen the foundations laid by the Pilgrims and the Puritans here in the seventeenth century when they founded this nation.

The title of the book refers to the fact that we Hispanics who come here to this nation, which was founded by the Pilgrims, have more in common with those seventeenth-century Pilgrims than their own descendants do today, for they have abandoned the Christian faith, gone after secularism and humanism, and turned away from the faith that these people came here to establish when they arrived from Europe.

In a sense, we are the ones continuing the spiritual vision they established. We are in this land of the Pilgrims, but we too are pilgrims, because this is a country of immigrants. We are trying to find our identity as a new nation here in this country that will bless this nation.

So I am going to read a little from the last chapter, where I speak about the treasure we represent for this nation.

I say here: “In Jeremiah chapter 29, one of the important texts of the Bible, the prophet Jeremiah addresses a letter of encouragement and hope to the people of Israel, who had been exiled in Babylon because of the sin of idolatry and disobedience.

For centuries, God had tolerated the Hebrews’ hardness of heart and had disciplined them through harassment and invasion by neighboring nations. At times He had withdrawn His covering and protection so they would realize that their national security and prosperity depended exclusively on Him and not on their feeble strength as a nation. He had sent them judges and prophets to deliver them from their crises when they repented and cried out to Jehovah. Like a betrayed husband who is nevertheless willing to forgive time and again, Jehovah constantly expresses throughout the Scriptures His wrath and His sense of offended dignity. On one occasion, God commands one of His prophets to marry an adulterous woman so that he might symbolically embody God’s own divine drama regarding His relationship with that idolatrous and unfaithful people, Israel.

And here I quote from Hosea: ‘Jehovah said to me: “Go, love a woman who is loved by her companion, though she is an adulteress, just as Jehovah loves the children of Israel, who look to other gods.”’ Finally, God fulfilled His centuries-old threat to banish the Hebrew people and carry them captive into another nation.

Now we find ourselves in Babylon, exiled and depressed, far from the land they loved so dearly. They are certain that God has abandoned them forever. Their inequities, they think, have irrevocably separated them from the love and mercy of Jehovah. Disheartened, they feel inclined to stop struggling, to resign themselves to their sad fate, and to adopt the self-image of slaves and the oppressed—to assume the role of a passive and invisible community.

In the midst of their painful situation, God sends them a letter of love and encouragement through the prophet Jeremiah, who has remained in Jerusalem with a weak remnant. He encourages them not to lose hope, not to give up, but quite the contrary: to undertake a normal and dynamic life, to conduct business and prosper, and to assume an active role in the community to which He has caused them to be carried.”

And here I quote Jeremiah 29: “Thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘To all the captives whom I caused to be carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses’—and that is God’s message for us—‘Build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit; marry and have sons and daughters. Give wives to your sons and give husbands to your daughters, so that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there and do not diminish. And seek the peace of the city to which I caused you to be carried away, and pray to Jehovah for it, because in its peace you will have peace.’” That is Jeremiah 29:4–7.

Now, the fact that God identified Himself as the God of Israel—He tells them, “the God of Israel, Jehovah”—it says this: “This must have instilled hope in those exiled Hebrews. Perhaps Jehovah had not completely forsaken them after all. Perhaps they could still count on His help and support in that inhospitable land to which they had been exiled.” Not only that, but God was inviting them to embrace a full and optimistic way of life, to invest in the new land where they found themselves, to put down roots and conduct business, to work and multiply. Perhaps most surprising of all was that God was asking them to be an active blessing to that enemy nation which had taken them captive and violently separated them from their beloved land. God calls them to seek the peace of the city to which He has caused them to be carried and to pray to Jehovah for it. These are strong and intense words that suggest an active and committed stance in favor of the nation to which God has brought them. God expects them to become enthusiastically involved in the affairs of that new nation and to pray that God will bless it and cause it to prosper, that He will send His “Shalom,” His full and all-encompassing well-being, upon that new land of residence.

In verses 8 and 9, God implicitly warns them against the temptation to resist the plans He has for them. They must accept the banishment, the spiritual discipline He has assigned them for the next seventy years, and not yield to the temptation to seek an early way out through political and military machinations with other nations. They must obediently enter into into the specific plan God has for them and drink fully from the cup He has assigned them until He lifts His judgment at the end of the appointed time.

For as long as the exile lasts, they are supposed to be an evangelistic agent in the midst of that deeply pagan society; they are to bless it with their knowledge of the true God and actively ask Jehovah to bless it and cause it to prosper in every dimension of its national life.

As I analyze this text, I am struck by how applicable it is to the central thesis of this book. Like the Hebrews exiled in Babylon, God has brought the Hispanic people—He has caused them to be carried—to the United States with a profoundly spiritual purpose. Our presence in this country is not simply the product of blind geopolitical or economic forces. Ultimately, we are not here because of the actions of oppressive dictators, greedy landowners, or oppressive oligarchs. In the final analysis, it is not civil wars, consuming poverty, or terrorist violence that have exiled us to this foreign nation. We are actually here because God wants to bless us and because He wants to bless this nation, whose historic spiritual roots are planted so deeply in the soil of His Word. The covenants and prayers of those godly Puritans who laid the spiritual and intellectual foundations of this nation still remain in effect, and God is now sending reinforcements—us—to revive them in this time.

Babylon was simply the physical instrument God used to carry out His fatherly discipline upon Israel. Behind the imperialistic actions of that powerful nation was the gracious hand of God carrying out His will in order ultimately to bless His people. That is why, strangely, He refers to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, as “My servant” in Jeremiah 25:9. As this passage makes clear, God was using Babylon as His instrument of discipline, although He would later also execute His discipline upon Babylon because of its cruelty and lack of mercy toward the people of God.

As we were saying, God has a twofold benevolent purpose in bringing us to this country. He wants to bless us by allowing us to share in the opportunities and resources this prosperous nation offers, but He also wants to bless this nation by fertilizing and renewing it with the spiritual riches we embody.

The book of Daniel offers a fascinating example of how this mysterious process of mutual enrichment unfolds. Daniel is educated in Babylon and rises to a high level of political and social influence in his adopted nation. But in the same way, he blesses that nation by bearing witness to his faith in the true God and displaying exemplary integrity in the daily practice of his spirituality. King Nebuchadnezzar himself benefits through his contact with the spiritual depth offered by the exiled Hebrew. After his humiliating confrontation with the living God whom Daniel worships, the proud king confesses: “Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt, and glorify the King of Heaven, because all His works are true and His ways are just, and He is able to humble those who walk in pride.”

Surely Daniel’s life was not the only one God used to introduce His message into the heart of Babylon’s national life. That prophetic word from Jeremiah 29 must have been fulfilled in thousands of small and conspicuous ways throughout the Jewish people’s entire stay in Babylon.

Incidentally, in the book I speak a great deal about families from this church and how they are blessing New England. For example, I speak about the López family—the Lópezes—who have blessed our church in many ways through their Alpha leadership and other things.

I also speak about another family whose name I changed, but they are from our church as well, and about how God took them from being an extremely poor family when they arrived in Cambridge, and how God has now blessed the children of that family, all of whom are professionals and are doing incredible work here in the United States today. I speak about the contributions made by families and individuals from Congregation Lion of Judah.

Then I continue by saying: “God wants the Latino people to assume a visible and positive role in the physical and spiritual life of this nation. As in the case of the Hebrews in Babylon, God calls us to multiply and not diminish.” That is not a problem for us; He is multiplying us left and right. “To joyfully embrace the calling, to work, conduct business, and celebrate. The exiled Jews were to concentrate on putting down roots in their new land for as long as the exile lasted and not allow nostalgia for the homeland they had left behind to rob them of the energy they needed to live successfully in their new place of residence.”

We too, brothers and sisters, must look resolutely ahead; we must resist the temptation to live a divided life, with one eye here and the other on the homeland we left behind. Exiled in an emotional limbo that prevents us from fully embracing the challenge before us. We are moving within the active will of the Creator God; our times are in His hands, and He knows precisely how long the historical process we are experiencing must last and how it must unfold. Our part is to discern His will, accept it obediently, and enter fully into that spiritual adventure opening before us.

Jeremiah addresses his letter to the surviving elders among those who had been carried away, and to the priests and prophets, and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken captive from Jerusalem to Babylon; and certainly now this is for the leaders. An important part of God’s letter to the Latino people in the United States concerns the spiritual authorities who lead them: pastors, leaders, and ministers. As we have seen previously, that part concerns the responsibility to educate the Hispanic people about their spiritual calling to be a channel of God’s blessing to this nation. We must raise awareness that you and I—that we—are a prophetic presence in this nation. We are here to bless and enrich this nation, and we have a responsibility to live the best life possible so that we may be a seed of life for this nation. But it also concerns the challenge of conceiving a clear and defined vision to guide our community effectively during its pilgrimage in this country.

In the book I speak a great deal about how the Hispanic church, its pastors, and its leaders must learn to function at a much higher level. We must develop thriving churches, well-managed churches, churches involved in the community, and pastors who are well trained theologically and possess the anointing of God, but who also have the ability to preach, manage, educate, and make use of our young adults as this new second generation of leaders, in order to take the Hispanic church to another level that equips it to serve the Latino community here in the United States effectively.

Finally, it is related to the duty to help the pastors and ministry leaders and the Hispanic congregations of this country attain a higher level of performance in their evangelistic and pastoral work.

For our Hispanic people to become an agent of God’s Shalom in this nation, it will take a church capable of preserving their spiritual distinctives and equipping them to become that exemplary and influential community God wants us to be.

In Jeremiah 29:11 through 13, God emphasizes his purpose to bless his people with an unequivocal affirmation of his goodwill toward them. He says: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you,” says the LORD. “Thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you the end you hope for. Then you will call upon me...” says the Lord, “...and you will come and pray to me, and I will hear you; and you will seek me and find me, because you will seek me with all your heart, and I will be found by you...” says the LORD. That is God’s promise to us, brothers and sisters.

These words must have been like a spiritual balm to a people who felt guilty and rightly abandoned by the God whom they had so openly disobeyed and offended. God was promising them that his intentions toward them were not destruction and abandonment, as they deserved, but quite the opposite. He had the firm purpose of blessing them, hearing their prayers, and having fellowship with them. He would deal with them and bring them to a new spiritual level so that they would call upon him and seek him with all their heart. In the same way, the idea that, as a community in this country, we are moving within God’s good purpose, that we have the wind of the Spirit behind us in everything we undertake, should fill us with courage to live optimistic lives and dream great dreams. God’s will is for us to prosper and for our prosperity to overflow in blessing to others. A people rooted in the Word of God and in the values of the Kingdom has no limits to what it can achieve. The spiritual and cultural wealth contained within the Hispanic people is a beautiful gift that can contribute to the renewal and enrichment of this nation. All that is required is an anointed church, equipped to preserve, strengthen, and unleash that profound endowment lying within us.

Specifically, what does that wealth God has infused into our people to bless this nation consist of? We have already pointed out some of those attributes throughout this book, but it is fitting now to mention and summarize them in a more systematic and specific way. As we have seen, the profound spirituality of our Hispanic people, our deeply Christian sensibility, immediately presents itself as an enriching element. Even in the case of the nominally Christian Hispanic, one can discern a healthy fear of God, a recognition of his existence and rule over the universe that beats in the heart and guides life’s major decisions.

In the vast majority of cases, even those Hispanics who do not attend any church live within the general framework of a Christian worldview and react with respect and reverence when Christian symbols and themes are mentioned. In the case of the large and growing number of Hispanics in this country who have a passionate and personal faith, the importance of Christian principles for Christian living is even greater. In the case of Hispanic Catholics and evangelicals who consider themselves committed believers, as we noted earlier, their spirituality and worldview are very similar to those that characterized the Pilgrims who founded this nation. That classic and orthodox Christian sensibility of so many Christians in this country represents a spiritual element with great regenerative potential.

I’m going to skip ahead a little because time is moving on.

In other words, the diversity of our racial makeup is another thing. Our spirituality and our racial and ethnic diversity present themselves as another element of great potential value to this deeply racially divided nation. The blood and cultures of many nations run through the veins of the Hispanic people.

Over the centuries, different races have clashed violently and blended together on the Latin American continent. Racism certainly still exists and manifests itself in our culture; we are still very far from a racial utopia in Latin America. But the mixture of races that has taken place in our countries, reflected, among other things, in our music, our spirituality, and our food, is something truly exceptional. Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East freely express themselves in our culture and language, and although the degree of communication and harmony among the different racial groups that make up our people is far from ideal, it is much greater than what is seen in this country.

Our Latino people, with their long historical experience in the intermingling of races and their profoundly multiethnic identity, can serve as a bridge and a facilitating element for racial reconciliation in this country. The beauty of the faces and the delicate racial nuances that can be seen among many of our Latino people are eloquent testimony to how much better the loving embrace of the races is than the social sterility resulting from racism, historical resentments, and discrimination. Let us hope that the intermingling of races and cultures embodied by our Latino people will prove contagious for this nation of separate communities, and that our example will unleash a new culture of mutual rapprochement across this country’s ethnic and cultural boundaries.

I also speak about the importance of the family, but I want to skip ahead a little because I do not want to go on for too long. But I speak about the importance of the family and the extended family to our culture, and how very important it is for the Church, at this time when there is so much experimentation with sexuality and the family, to keep our culture focused on the importance of the family. Then I add here: paradoxically, our poverty and our historical suffering represent a gift that we Hispanics can offer this nation. A long-suffering community like ours has much to teach this nation. Without romanticizing them too much, our sufferings as a people throughout history have undoubtedly contributed to our spiritual wealth as a community.

Whenever I travel to Latin America, I am moved by the spiritual beauty of the poor. Among many poor people in our countries, one sees very little of the deforming and dehumanizing effect that life in this country’s ghettos has. Without a doubt, the misery in our countries is sinister and must be eliminated at any cost, but it also produces human beings with very beautiful spiritual attributes. The sweetness and human warmth that abound in the neighborhoods of our Latin American countryside and cities are truly impressive. The capacity for sacrifice and the generosity of our long-suffering people are a burnt offering that must in some way please the heart of God.

Many of those people emigrate to the hostile cities of the United States and bring that tragic but noble vision of the world with them. In some mysterious way, their humble and undemanding approach to life, their deep appreciation and gratitude for the small pleasures that life in this country allows them, must bless the streets and neighborhoods of the cities where these poor of the earth live and work.

I am going to read a brief illustration I give, because in the book I offer many illustrations of people and individuals who exemplify these principles. I think that, so you may get an idea of many things you can find along these lines in the book, I want to stir your enthusiasm so that you will see that this is not merely something purely evangelical, but that many people can benefit from this book on a purely literary and cultural level. I say here: “Last Sunday morning, I was traveling with my wife to a church where I had been invited to preach. We were crossing a Boston neighborhood that has recently experienced a considerable increase in its Hispanic population.”

In fact, I was going to preach at the Tiempo de Dios church. “I had to stop at a traffic light, and for a few moments I was able to observe a humble-looking man, possibly Central American...” He could have been Dominican or whatever; it does not matter. “...who had just come out of a liquor store. In one hand he was carrying a plastic bag of groceries. His face reflected the mixed-race heritage of so many Latin Americans, gentle lines of pain and brokenness, perhaps too much familiarity with alcohol over the years. He did not seem particularly intelligent or educated. His face subtly revealed the ravages of poverty and suffering.

I was struck, however, by the faint expression of contentment on his face, as though he were anticipating the pleasure of shutting himself away in his apartment, sheltered from that cold and rainy morning. I imagined him spending that Sunday watching television or talking with some friends while having a few drinks. Keeping Monday at bay, which would arrive far too quickly. Obviously, it would have been better if he had been on his way to a church; nevertheless, I was touched by the image of that poor laborer, quite possibly undocumented, harmlessly enjoying on his day off the simple comforts that life in this country afforded him. In his homeland, he probably would not have had access to a day like that.” I cannot help thinking that this nation is blessed by giving shelter to people like that humble worker.

In some way we cannot understand, he repays this society for the favor he receives through his mere presence, through his extreme humility, through the entire history and human drama of an oppressed race that he carries with him. I am certain that we immigrants contribute many more things to the human and spiritual ecology of this society, some of which are difficult to justify in merely rational or economic terms; the elements that nourish a community and preserve it from decay and self-destruction are not always accessible to superficial and materialistic scrutiny. We could mention obvious ways in which we Hispanics have enriched this nation. Many of our foods and spices have already entered its culinary repertoire. Boston, for example, enjoys an impressive assortment of Caribbean, Brazilian, Colombian, Argentine, Peruvian, and Central American restaurants. Somerville, the city where I live, has become filled with Brazilian buffets. How many of you have ever eaten at a Brazilian buffet? With its rich charcoal-grilled meats, frequented by mixed couples and somber Anglo-Saxon laborers during their lunch hour.

The rhythms and chords of our music and our handicrafts increasingly enrich this nation’s artistic landscape. The bodegas that have opened on so many neighborhood corners where Latinos have arrived introduce Anglo-Saxons to the virtues of plantains, cilantro, and Goya malt. Humble but skilled masons and carpenters trained in our countries do excellent work in our neighborhoods for a reasonable price, etc., etc.

There are many things; I am going to have to skip ahead now. I am going to skip to the last two paragraphs.

I want to say here: the Hispanic evangelical people truly are a people of the Spirit. I am speaking specifically about Hispanic evangelicals, people like you, like me. The Hispanic evangelical people truly are a people of the Spirit. The overwhelming majority recognize that it is not by might nor by power, but by the Spirit. The LORD of hosts has said: “Our evangelical people rejoice in giving freedom to the movement of the Spirit in their gatherings.” They recognize that their future in this country, the benefit they derive from their stay here, and the contribution they are to make to the well-being of this nation that has welcomed them depend on the grace of God and on the anointing of the Spirit that they can accumulate through praise, holiness, service, spiritual warfare, and prayer.

And this is the conclusion of the entire book. The challenge confronting Anglo-Saxon Christians as they seek to bring this nation back to the ways of the Lord seems insurmountable at this point. American society has sunk too deeply into the depths of reason, technology, and the pursuit of alternative spiritualities. If God still has dealings with the United States, if the spiritual wells dug by the Pilgrims—now stopped up by the pride and spiritual rebellions of this generation—are to be opened again, this will be accomplished only by a mighty gale of the Spirit.

Neither the megachurches with their impressive prosperity and resources, nor the dazzling concepts currently being applied in the areas of leadership, administration, and growth, nor the efforts of so many urban churches to present a friendlier, more tolerant, and more sophisticated face of evangelicals in this country will be able to turn the heart of this ultra-sophisticated people toward the humility and simplicity required to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

The powerful North American evangelical church will need the spiritual reinforcements that humble people who know the raw power of God can provide. That powerful North American church itself will have to humble itself, abandon its appetite for control, order, and elegance, and embrace simpler and less attractive weapons that are nevertheless much more powerful for the destruction of spiritual strongholds. In the darkest time in the spiritual history of this nation, God is preparing the conditions for the most powerful revival ever seen. It is very possible that God, in His customary irony, has raised up the pilgrims of old—this time with darker skin—us—and with the blood of the original inhabitants of this land running through their veins, to come to this country, help reconquer the land, and restore it to the spiritual vision that originally gave birth to it.

This is the Word of the Lord. Brothers and sisters, God has given me this; this is the vision God has given me for us, for our people. I hope that this Word, which I believe is a prophetic Word from God for the Latino community in the United States, will reach many people. My desire is not for my book to sell or for my name to become well known, but for the Word God has for making our people fruitful, for giving them a different vision of work, effort, and expectation concerning God’s vision, and of a church that evangelizes our people on a large scale, to be spread far and wide. I ask you to pray because I believe there is something there that can be a blessing to our Latino community; but we need that book to reach the hands of many people and to be the first of many other things God has placed in my heart to share.

So I encourage you in the name of the Lord, before you leave, to come by here and take a bag or two bags of that book. If you cannot sell them, bring them back; the only thing I ask is that it be a sacred commitment. Amen. If you are going to take them, follow through, and if you cannot sell some of them, return them, because they can be distributed in another way. But above all, I want God to allow this Word I have declared to be fulfilled. I want León de Judá to be a model, for the glory of God, of a community that is being blessed and being a blessing in this area of New England, in this land of the pilgrims. Right here. My desire is for North Americans to say, “Wow! What do these people have? Look how God is blessing them! We want what they have,” and for us to be leaven that brings blessing to this entire community.

Let us stand and ask the Lord; Fanny, I believe you had something... come up here very quickly... and there is a challenge we want to give you, and then we will conclude with that. So stay just a little longer.

Fanny: Brothers and sisters, I just wanted to clarify that inside each book there is an envelope like this one where you can later place the money from the books you sell or the books you buy. So I ask you, please, not to put that money in the Tithes envelopes or in the Building Fund envelopes, but to use these envelopes designated for the books, because this is the donation the Pastor is making to the Church for the Sanctuary.

So, if you are going to an institution and are going to try to speak with people about the new Sanctuary project, you can take one of these. If you are planning to do so, you can later ask us, and we can give you one of these brochures with information about the Church so that you can present it to people who may wish to make a donation, receive the book, and give an amount toward the construction of the Sanctuary. That is all: do not forget, and you may place the money in these envelopes. Each book has one of these envelopes, and in the coming weeks we will have envelopes available.

Thank you, Fanny. The idea is that you will think of people you know—relatives, friends, coworkers—people whom you believe may view this project positively. You can tell them, “Look, my Pastor has just published this book. It can be a great blessing to your life, and it will also help our Church build its new Sanctuary. We are asking for donations of $20, or anything additional you can give to bless our Church.” You may give more, but I believe it should be at least $20 because that is what the book itself is worth; it is three hundred pages long, and its content is worth much more than that.

So you tell people, “Help our Church, and I want to bless you with this,” and then you take that money, which belongs to the person, put it in an envelope, and bring it here each Sunday. And if in the end you cannot sell the books, please return them, and there will be no problem. Again, we are doing it this way because we believe in honesty and in spiritual commitment.

For me, brothers and sisters, this is a sacred process of spreading this message, and my vision is that in this way our Church will make great progress in its project to build this Temple.

I want to pray over this and bless it, brothers and sisters, and please: “Father, in the name of Jesus, we now receive this commitment; we accept it as something You are giving us, Lord.

I ask, Father, that our brothers and sisters receive a special anointing to spread this message and that it be distributed throughout the entire community, Father; and above all, Lord, we ask for great proceeds for our financial project.

Thank You for what You have already done, Lord. Now we ask, Father, that we may raise these funds. Place a generous heart in the people out there, and place a special anointing upon our people to present this project in an appealing and convincing way, Father. Remove all fear and all shyness, and we believe, Lord, that the proceeds will be great, that this will be an opportunity to bear witness, and that through these gestures they will make, opportunities will also arise for them to testify about God’s call to prosper all those who receive Christ as their banner. So, Father, bless this vision and allow it to be a prophetic Word, fertilizing and making fruitful the heart of this community, Father.

May what we have declared here be fulfilled: that You have great intentions to bless our children, to bless our work, and to bless our families, Lord. You have brought us to this nation just as You took the Hebrews to Babylon. While they were there to bless and proclaim the Shalom of God, so we believe that You have called this people—with all its colors, Lord, and the beauty it represents—to be a seed of life in this nation and to be prospered and blessed themselves. I now declare Your prosperity, Lord, over this people, and I give You thanks. Help this Church to be a source of blessing, and may the Latino people be evangelized in New England by this Church and other churches, Lord. May they accept Your calling. Thank You, Father. In the name of Jesus, amen and amen.”

Sermon by Dr. Roberto Miranda recorded May 3, 2009, at Congregación León de Judá

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