Are We Ready?
Recently I was speaking to a French woman who had
volunteered at our Martin Luther King Day service event at work. We were
picking up trash up and down the (in
some places) very trash laden roads of the lower Third Ward community and while
doing so we struck up an interesting conversation. I asked her if she likes
Houston better than France. She said yes and began to passionately explain how
much she appreciates the people here, the “comfortable living”, and
opportunities that are possible here. But as we continued to talk, while
picking up what seemed to be endless amounts of glass bottles and plastic
containers, she began to speak about how bad the condition is in France
socially. She kept saying, “It is just
really bad there.” After asking how and why she began to explain the racial
tensions that are beginning to form there, not against Africans but against
North Africans due to the problems of France scrambling to deal with the influx
of immigrants flowing into the country. The bombardment and rapid social unrest
that has happened because of it has led some French citizens to become racially
hostile towards their new comers. She then in an attempt to avoid sounding
racist herself explained that the issue is not specifically Islam or North
Africans in particular but just the over all situation has been difficult for
France. She then said after a pause, “When I look at the future I see no hope.”
Here words hit me and basically rendered me speechless for a moment. I mean, no
hope for the future? That’s heavy. I then as a man of faith felt the urge to
say something of course. I had a surprisingly difficult time trying to find the
words but then I just simply said, “there’s always hope” as we continued to
pick up trash along streets. Her reply to this was blunt sounding yet accurate,
maybe due to her French accent. She said in response, “this is optimistic and,
yes, good.” I could not tell if she believed her own words or just said what
would sound as an appropriate response. We continued to talk as we walked along
with a crowd of teens that I minister and mentor too that I see every week and that live in the very
community we were making look better. The teens were picking up trash with us.
A beautiful visual of hope, I thought. The French lady and I continued to talk
about things that had a hopeful theme, things like the future, if I have kids,
her kids, our ministry at Agape where I work, etc. I believe that during our
conversation she began to have a sense of hope again in things getting better
in France, and in life in general. Or at least I want to believe our
conversation did give her that sense. I want to believe it did. I hope it did.
When the news that the nation had elected Donald Trump as
the future president hit the media streams of America I began to see a strong
hysteria and panic flood the streets of our local community and city. I
remember actually even getting a free cookie out of the hysteria at a local
coffee shop I love to work and socialize out of. When I went to purchase a
cookie the barista there simply said, “here, just take it. After last night’s
election we all need a little pick me up to get through today.” The barista was white by the way, the irony was amazing. But the fear of a Trump
presidency I think is typified by a cultural fear that he will turn America
into a walled up nation that is segregated from the rest of the world, perhaps
something like North Korea but with “freedom” and “liberty” as the flavor
instead of communism. But should this be our fear? Should we be worried about
becoming France instead? Can we become France since we are several times larger
and could perhaps take on a considerable amount of immigration? Moreover, what
does the Bible have to say about all of this and is what it says applicable
today?
There are two enduring themes that I see in the Bible about
welcoming the alien versus separating from other nations for the purpose of
developing national solidarity. In the
verses that focused on “welcoming the alien and stranger” that I could find the
context was always in the future (Leviticus 19:9, Leviticus 23:22, Duet 29:19)
or in a time and place where Israel would be ready or able to not just house
foreigners but actually minister to them and hopefully have them adopt their ways,
culture, and God into their world view. When these verses were spoken to Israel
they were spoken while they were on their way to becoming a nation, literally.
They were journeying toward the Promised Land to where they would eventually
settle Israel upon arriving in the Promised land did not focus on just becoming
a nation but also a stable one. Several hundreds of years of growth, trial,
war, governmental development and then reform (Book of Judges/1,2 Samuel) would
take place as they were forming a “more perfect union”….to use American
vernacular. It was not quick but long
and arduous. It involved a few exiles and then returning as well. Yet Israel is
one of the oldest nations in the world today as a result of all of this trial
and growth. Is America at that place yet? Some say yes. Some say no. Though we
are not at war with another physical nation at the moment there is a war going
on in our country, a civil war perhaps? About every time a black male is killed
by a white police officer we see the tensions flare between dividing sides in
our nation. America is at odds with itself on the issues of race, the economy,
and politics. We can not forget that there have been a number of rallies and
violent demonstrations that have spanned for several years now because of these
undergirded issues in America, and the issues are not going away. There are
parties such as White Nationalists forming, random house burnings in Baltimore,
church shootings, hate crimes being now deliberately filmed and casted on
social media. The list goes on. The recent reaction to the Trump election shows
this very civil divide as well. The
voting patterns show two Americas in this one nation, and that is troubling. America
is divided and the ridge is deepening, not narrowing.
So what would God do about this?
A famous story in the Gospel involving Jesus and a non Jew
(an alien) is one that we can all ponder on for an answer to the current racial
issue today and the question of immigration reform that relates to it. In Matt
15: 21-28 we see a story in which Jesus reveals a priority in his ministry
focus. When a woman who desired healing wailed out to him for help he simply
(and seemingly coldly) ignores her. Later after being nudged to respond by his
disciples he responds, “I was sent only to help the lost sheep, the People of
Israel.” And then, “It isn’t right to take food from the children and throw it
to the dogs.” Now, Jesus thankfully later healed her and used it as a teaching
point about how the outside nations desire what Israel already has in God and
that therefore Israel should all the more desire to follow the Lord. But it is
also clear here that Jesus is saying that God has a priority and “modus
operandi” for how He desired to save the World.
Jesus clearly stated how he was there for Israel, first. Not the
outsider. Jesus illustrates how God came to his own people before extending
himself to the world.
The theme of focusing on one’s core, own, or family first is
carried into Paul’s letter to Timothy about the requirements of a pastor as
well. In 1 Timothy 3:5 it says, “For if a man can not manage his own household,
how can he take care of God’s church?” Or for that matter the needs of others,
other nations?
When my wife and I first moved to the third ward we did not
immediately upon moving in furniture begin inviting neighbors into our house
that very day. We did not do it the next day. We did not do it for months. It
happened when we felt as though we were ready to minister to the outside
community. The time of being ready was a time when our marriage and home was
stable, unified, nurtured, and armored (yes armored) enough to minister to the
needs of the outsider. Why is this? Remember the story of the French woman that
I shared at the beginning? God knows, Jesus knows that when you invite in the
alien you must be ready or your home may cave in and you will ultimately have
nothing to offer them.
Jesus had the long game in mind in ministering to the
nations by making sure that his home was in order firstly. In Matt 27:46 he quotes
a famous line “My God, My God why have You forsaken Me.” Though some
theologians conclude that this is a time where God separated himself from His
Son the words of Jesus are also a prophecy of him revealing His will for the
nations from Psalm 22. In this Psalm God states how he wants Israel to be a
gift to the Nations and how all of the world is free to have God. Yet, this is
not were God started. He started with a single nation and Jesus picks this up
as well. Later after Jesus' death we see the first church also follow this pattern. When Paul and Barnabas began preaching about the Gospel and the resurrection of Jesus they started with the Jews, the home, the core, and then because of their unbelief they moved on to the Gentiles (alien). On this Paul said, "...It was necessary that we first preach the word of God to you Jews. But since you have rejected it and judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life, we will offer it to the Gentiles." (Acts 13:46)
I think the feeling to rush to the need of the world is an
admirable one but one that could be blind in not seeing if the house is ready
for visitors to arrive. I wonder if the individual that wants for America to
open the boarders unrestrained to anyone one has an understanding of the issues
that already face the country as it already is in or city streets and country
towns nation wide regarding race relations? There have been so many times when
I wanted to rush out the door to save our nation from one issue or another to
then realize I was not ready, no one was going to help, and that I had no
plan…no plan at all. Through growth and maturity I have learned that big things
take time, preparation, and a lot of resources. America right now is fighting a
war over what our identity is as a country on a racial and political level. Can
the house take in the stranger? Sure. But if we do it what will we have to
offer them? Is America able to show them the nature, identity, and will of God
at this time and place as a nation? It is not up to me to say yes or no here. I
do not know if we are ready but I do know that God made sure, or at least He
aimed to make sure, that Israel was ready to receive the alien when reading the
Bible. We may be in a time where receiving the alien in mass waves is the very
thing that is needed to heal the deep, systemic wounds that we are still
fighting within our own country, within our own houses. It is not up to me to
say what we are. If we are going to become Paris or something great in
immigration reforms and welcoming the stranger, I do not know. But I do know
that God would want us to seek His will as to if we are ready or not. I know so
many stories of how the young ambitious good intentioned hero wanted to rush in
and save the world to then have an old sage hold him back until the right time,
until the best time. This is pretty much what I suspect the story of the new
Spider Man movie will be about. It is always fun to rush into a new thing,
never fun if it is the wrong time. I look forward to an America that has
equality streaming down every street and ally towards all races. I look forward
to an America that can reflect the very nature of freedom and not just the
ideal of it. I look forward to an America that can display the very essence of
Christ in all aspects of life and that can show how God intended for us to be
free and the most free possible by submitting to His will foremost and in all
things. Freedom from sin. Freedom to choose life and love. This is an America
that is still trying to emerge, I hope. This is an America that if it emerges
will be a blessing to the alien in countless ways.
With all this said it
would be the church in America that will have to embrace the immigrant in the
way God intends. Is She up to the task? The Church is also fighting a war on
what is and is not Christian on mainly gender and same sex marriage rights, the
inerrancy of Scripture, and other areas. Perhaps the call to the alien from
afar is a call for the Church to ready Herself. To turn back to God and prepare
Herself for the new frontier that lies ahead. One that we are already seeing
happening in Paris, Germany, and Western Europe do to refugee influx. I am also seeing it here in Houston, a city that is the most diverse in the country and
becoming even more so. But again, to all of these possibilities of evangelism, diversity and growth I turn again to the issues already raging within our
boarders involving race and equality and I again therefore in view of those
issues ask, “are we ready?”
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