I (and 5 high school students and 2 adult leaders) recently returned from a trip to Memphis, TN where we repaired roofs in the inner city. I have been thinking a lot about cities. My wife and I believe that God has called us to work in cities for their restoration. And two weeks ago I was priveleged to see Bluetree explain the story behind their song "God of this City." They wrote it while playing worship songs in a brothel in South Asia. Even in that place, God is still God.  Give the song a listen. Click here.

Cities are the places of greatest human cooperation and magnificence and at the same time  the centers of our foulest violence and greed. It is not surprising that the first city mentioned in the Bible was built by Cain, the son of Adam and Eve. Cain murdered his brother, Abel. He was punished for his crime, but also blessed with special protection - in his mercy, God gave him a mark that warned the world not to harm him. Cain named the city he built after his son, Enoch.

The city bears the burden of Cain, that ambiguous blessing, the ambivalent attitude. Cain built Enoch in his wandering under the curse and protection of God (I suppose we all wander under the same curse and protection). Cain's fear was to be cut off from the soil, but what about the civilization he brings? The heroic songs of Jubal, the smithing of mighty cities and the tools used to build them?  God dwelt in a city - Jerusalem - called it holy. John (Revelation) saw a city coming down from heaven to earth as a blessing for eternity. Perhaps the obsession with the urban urges us toward its transformation. We don't often look at a spring meadow or a mountain and see the need for redemption, though God knows the need is there. But we kick an empty McDonald's fry sleeve in the gutter and head-duck past burned out crack houses and whores on the street corners and we imagine, hope and pray for intervention. Will the violins at the symphony drown out the drug pushers? Will majestic streets shine brighter than the glint of guns? And will the fruit of our orchards fill all our babies stomachs? John's vision in Revelation declares that Rome is Dead! It is burning from the inside out. Yet he cannot but stare at the columns of the coliseum and wonder - what if God himself filled this space?