A couple weeks ago, Pastor Tom who leads our Wilmington campus preached an excellent message called “Strangers and Aliens.” You can listen to it here.
He opened with asking the question, “What’s it like to be a Christian in New England?” and soon revealed this was a topic of discussion we had during one of our staff devotions led by our Pastor of Outreach, Richard, who was born and raised in the South. It was an interesting conversation as I find myself thinking about the Christian faith in the Northeast quite a bit. I not only think of this geographically but if you know me, you know that I talk a lot about our intergenerational understandings of the faith as well. In fact, if you really know me, you might know that I borderline obsess about how the Xers and Millennials perceive religion, organized and otherwise, spirituality, God, etc. but I digress.
So needless to say, the opening question was like good fair trade coffee in my mug. Tom was preaching out of I Peter and unpacking how at times, Christ followers felt like “strangers and aliens” of this world. This sentiment is likely true for all people at some point in their lives. I have heard my non-believing friends share similar thoughts on how they feel like they don’t really belong here either – something that the Church should always remember. As we all know, the “world” can be a lonely place.
In Peter’s day as he was writing to a group of churches in modern day Turkey, they were experiencing this reality. With the constant threat of Roman persecution and the growing pains of a young church, it was an intense time. Even more importantly, Peter was encouraging them to live counter-cultural to the pagan society which included various forms of debauchery, violence and idol worship.
Today we would ask what qualifies as “debauchery.” Today we ask about violence regularly, what justifies it, how can stop/limit it. And today we would also try to parse out “idol worship.” One person’s idol is another person’s (G)god, right? I would like to point out too that in the early church, many Romans accused the Christian church of “idol worship.” We always see “the other” as a pagan when they don’t believe and worship as we do. Thus, the many that experience the sentiment of feeling like “aliens and strangers.” This should always motivate us to converse with another.
Tom made two observations that I’ve been thinking about. There is a tendency for some in the church to live in two different extremes. One is “Uncritical Acceptance” and the other is “Uncaring Abandonment.” If it wouldn’t have been perceived as divisive and arrogant, I would have yelled, “Amen!”
Tom explained that the in “uncritical acceptance, there was a danger of embracing without discerning the vision and values of the society we live in. He went on to unpack “uncaring abandonment” as the washing of hands of the problems around us, to disengage from the world and retreat into a sub-culture.
I’m thankful that both these extremes (and many nuances in between) have been critiqued by passionate people in the Church today. I think of The Next Christians by Gabe Lyons and Culture Making by Andy Crouch to be great examples of that. (And if you have read those and want to explore counter-culture on a deeper level, I encourage Colossians Remixed by Brian Walsh and Sylvia Keesmaat . Also check out Resident Aliens by Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon.
It should dawn on us at some point that we as Christians can navigate both extremes quite easily if we imitate Jesus’ unconditional love to those that were inside and outside of his circle. True followers of Jesus cannot be mindless slaves to the world nor can they pretentious snobs to it either. The love of God is what compels us to not disengage from the challenges of the world and it’s the love of God that lead us to be wise and discerning toe that we can live in ways that are honoring, virtuous and worshipful to God.
It was a very solid and very applicable message, may I and those in our GC community keep it on the forefront.
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