Strangers in Our Midst

For the last 4 years, we lived in an amazing community of people. We loved Cactus. We loved the refugees of Cactus. We loved the immigrants of Cactus. We loved the Americans of Cactus. We worked in a pretty fabulous network of people serving refugees, immigrants, and struggling Americans.

When we met a person from a country we hadn’t encountered before, we rejoiced. We were thrilled to get to know them and to get to learn more about their culture and their story. And our network rejoiced with us.

We had a new student from Burundi. If you don’t know where that it (I had to look it up), it is a small African nation by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and Tanzania. We rejoiced when we realized we had a new nationality enrolled in our ESL classes.

We also mourned at times. Our eyes & ears seem to be hyper-tuned to pick out key words “refugee” “immigrant” “attack” “illegal” When those words are paired together, we read & listen to the news stories, often from as many news sources as we have time to read.

My stomach always sinks when I read those stories. But I do more than simply mourn for the people directly affected by the latest tragedy. I also mourn for the perpetrator as I wonder what they must have been feeling to commit such a deed. I also mourn for unconnected refugees & immigrants who now face a little more fear, a little more hatred, a little more discrimination, as life gets a little harder due to someone else’s actions.

How many of you, of us, have been outside of the United States? How long was each trip you took? A week? A month? A year?

Jesus charged His disciples (and we ARE His disciples, are we not?) to go into all the world and preach His gospel.  

Yet His Church regulated that task to “super-Christian” missionaries and most of us stay where we are comfortable.

So God brought the nations to us, in our hometowns. Refugee. Immigrant. Student. Tourist. They have come to our doorstep.

But we don’t welcome them with open arms. We don’t invite them into our hearts and homes to share the Good News with them.

You see, they eat differently than we do. They smell differently. They look differently than we do. They dress and act differently. So we ignore them and walk on past them.

God has brought the nations to us and we STILL do not tell them the Good News.

When Jesus gave His disciples commands, I don’t notice a lot of conditions and clauses attached.

"Love your neighbor as yourself." Period. He didn’t say, “Love your neighbor as yourself, UNLESS they practice a different religion than you practice. If they follow another god, ignore them and pass on the other side of the street.” Spoiler: He didn't say that second bit.

"Love your enemies and pray for your persecutors." Period. He didn’t say, “Love your enemies and pray for your persecutors, UNLESS they are trying to kill you. If they are trying to kill you, by all means, try to kill them first. After all, that is the example I and the Early Church left you.” Spoiler: He didn't say that second bit.

His commands are to us and our obedience to Him is not dependent on how others treat us. We are called to be obedient, regardless of how unloving and unlovable people are acting towards us. 

There are strangers in our midst. How will I, will you, will we respond?