I Pledge Allegiance: Seek the Welfare of the City - July 19, 2026

The question of loving America honestly begins with a love that has become more complicated. A childhood love for the country wanted an uncomplicated celebration, the kind that felt like missing the bicentennial was missing something huge. Christian faith, though, refuses both denial and despair. The call of Jesus asks how Christians live inside the society where God has placed them, without withdrawing from it and without trying to dominate it.

Jeremiah speaks into a people whose world had fallen apart. Jerusalem had fallen, the temple was destroyed, the king was gone, and the people were carried off into exile. The famous promise, “I know the plans I have for you,” lands first in that kind of devastation. The false prophets promised a quick fix, but Jeremiah told the truth: this was going to be hard, and this was going to last awhile.

Jeremiah’s word to the exiles is surprisingly ordinary. Build houses. Plant gardens. Get married. Raise children. Pray for the city. The first mercy in that word is permission to live again in the middle of disappointment. The second mercy is a calling not to assimilate into Babylon and not to burn Babylon down, but to seek the welfare of the city.

America’s story has its own buried exile. The Potawatomi and other Native peoples who called the land home were forced out, and that truth cannot be skipped over by any honest national memory. Recent political tremors have also left many people disoriented, feeling that the country imagined in childhood is not quite the country experienced today. God has not abandoned that in-between place, and Jeremiah still says, don’t give up, don’t withdraw, don’t try to control.

Jesus gives another image: yeast. Good yeast does not take over the kitchen, announce itself, or demand credit. It quietly works its way through the dough until one day there is bread. The yeast of the Pharisees is hidden too, but it works toward control, power, and self-protection while dressing itself up in the language of righteousness.

White Christian nationalism becomes that wrong kind of yeast. It confuses influence with faithfulness and power with discipleship. The better way is patient, hidden, ordinary faithfulness: mentoring a student, serving those without housing, welcoming a refugee, showing up for a neighbor who votes differently, advocating for someone with no voice. The question becomes simple and searching: how can someone’s welfare be increased?

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Key Takeaways

• 1. Exile is permission to live Jeremiah’s first word to displaced people is not a strategy for taking Babylon back. Jeremiah gives them permission to build, plant, marry, raise children, and breathe again inside a place they never chose. Faithfulness begins when disappointment is not allowed to cancel ordinary human life. [43:36]
• 2. Seek welfare, not control Jeremiah does not tell the exiles to disappear into Babylon or destroy it. The command to pray for the city holds together truth, grief, and responsibility without pretending Babylon is innocent. Christian presence becomes holy when the neighbor’s good matters more than the church’s control. [44:00]
• 3. Good yeast works without credit Jesus’ image of yeast is quiet, hidden, and patient. The kingdom does not need to dominate the whole kitchen in order to change the dough. Faithfulness can be real even when it is unseen, uncelebrated, and slow enough to feel almost invisible. [48:37]
• 4. Power can mimic righteousness The yeast of the Pharisees also works quietly, but its aim is different. Control can dress itself up in religious language so carefully that it looks faithful until the whole loaf has changed shape. White Christian nationalism exposes that danger by confusing domination with discipleship. [49:25]
• 5. Discipleship plants real gardens The call to plant gardens becomes concrete in local acts of mercy and courage. Mentoring a student, serving someone without housing, welcoming a refugee, or showing up for a difficult neighbor can become yeast in the dough of public life. The question of faithfulness becomes deeply practical: whose welfare can be increased?
  
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Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [35:10] - Plant Gardens and Increase
• [37:39] - Prayer for Stuck and Exiled Places
• [38:43] - A Complicated Love for America
• [39:59] - Loving Country Honestly
• [41:08] - Withdrawal, Domination, or Another Way
• [41:34] - Jeremiah’s Word to Exiles
• [43:36] - Build Houses and Pray for Babylon
• [45:23] - America’s Exiles and Disorientation
• [47:44] - Jesus’ Image of Yeast
• [49:25] - The Wrong Kind of Yeast
• [50:53] - From Fireworks to Faithfulness
• [52:16] - Methodists as Yeast in the World
• [53:01] - Increasing Someone’s Welfare
• [59:40] - Closing Prayer

1. In Jeremiah 29:4-7, what ordinary things are the exiles told to do while they are living in Babylon?
2. What does Jeremiah tell the exiles to do for the city where they have been sent, even though it is the place of their pain? [44:00]
3. What two unhealthy options are set beside Jeremiah’s instruction: pulling away from society or trying to control it? [41:08]
4. What images are used to describe faithful Christian presence in the world, and what practical examples are given for what that can look like? [52:45]

1. Jeremiah tells wounded and displaced people to build houses, plant gardens, and raise families. What does that suggest about how God meets people in long seasons of disappointment rather than quick fixes? [44:29]
2. Jeremiah does not call the exiles to become Babylonian, and he does not call them to destroy Babylon. What might it mean to seek the welfare of a place without pretending its wrongs do not matter? [45:01]
3. Jesus’ image of good yeast is quiet and hidden, while the yeast of the Pharisees works quietly toward control. How can a group of Christians tell the difference between faithful influence and the desire to dominate? [49:25]
4. If someone’s welfare becomes the test of faithfulness, how does that reshape the way Christians think about public life, patriotism, and neighbor love? [53:35]

1. Where does life currently feel disappointing, stuck, or disorienting? What might it look like to receive permission to live again there instead of waiting for everything to be fixed first? [44:40]
2. Is there a place in life where the strongest temptation is either to withdraw completely or to control the outcome? What would seeking the welfare of that place look like instead? [47:28]
3. The welfare of the city includes people who may think, vote, or live very differently. Who is one neighbor or group of people that is hard to pray for honestly, and what makes that difficult? [53:13]
4. Good yeast does not demand credit. Where might hidden, patient faithfulness be more needed than visible success right now in work, family, church, or community? [48:37]
5. Power can wear the language of righteousness. When does concern for what is right start to slide into self-protection, fear, or control in a person’s own heart? [49:37]
6. “How can someone’s welfare be increased?” Who comes to mind right away, and what is one concrete step that could be taken this week for that person? [53:35]
7. Planting gardens can look like mentoring a student, serving someone without housing, welcoming a refugee, advocating for someone with no voice, or showing up for a difficult neighbor. Which of those feels most natural, and which feels most stretching? [52:45]