Shoes Already Worn--August 17, 2016
"For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe, who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing. You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt." [Deuteronomy 10:17-19]
They say that a good way to gain some empathy is to walk a mile in their shoes (or, as I am rather partial to, there is the way Atticus Finch says it in To Kill A Mockingbird, "You never really understand a person until you climb into his skin and walk around in it."). And that is a fair enough point--after all, as cliché a saying as it is, it is cliché for a reason.
But God has a different twist on that strategy, one that pulls the rug right out from under us. God has a way of saying, "You already have been in those shoes--you have just forgotten it! You were in that skin--don't you remember what it was like?" That cuts right to the quick. That doesn't just ask someone to think in hypothetical terms about what it "might" be like to be in someone else's situation--it forces us to see in ourselves the same things we have a hard time getting accustomed to in others. And once we see that we really were in the same shoe and same skin as someone else, it becomes a lot harder to hate them. It becomes a lot harder to put a barrier between "us" and "them."
And once God compels us to see that we have already worn the shoes we now see on the feet of the stranger, well, that does something to the organ about four feet higher than your feet--it changes your heart.
Here is God's brilliant way of pulling the rug out from under the people of Israel--the very people of God--in the storytelling of Deuteronomy: God first off chooses to be described as one who "loves strangers," and then names the ways that even the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob shows special care to people who are not descendent from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God sets up a sort of rhetorical corner for the Israelites to paint themselves into. If they start insisting that they should only care for people who share "their values" and "their faith" in "their God," God can simply reply, "Oh, well, good--I'm glad you want to make sure you are promoting my values--because I value those who are outsiders, even when they don't come from the same culture as you." God has preemptively taken the side of outsiders, strangers, and foreigners.
And then, as the coup de grace (what a wonderful phrase, isn't that?), God says to the people of Israel, as they are getting already to settle down in their own land and get comfortable, "Don't forget that you all were foreigners, strangers, and refugees when you were slaves in Egypt and I set you free." In other words, God doesn't say, "Hey, Israelites, you should try and think about what it's like to be in the shoes of the foreigners who are wanting to live in your land as refugees and immigrants." But rather, God says, "You already were in that position--you know what it was like not to be treated well, not to be in your own homeland, and just to want to make a decent life for yourselves. You have been in the skin of foreigners coming to a new land trying to make a fresh start away from dictators and oppression. That's your story, Israel!"
And as I'll bet you know, God doesn't just say it in one obscure verse, but rather, you'll see it throughout the Hebrew Bible. It's in Exodus--on more than one occasion--and it's in Leviticus, too. These are at the core of what Christians call the Old Testament! And God's intention is to change the hearts of God's own people, so that they will not merely take in blessing, but become blessings for others. God's clever strategy for changing hearts is to help us see the ways we have already been dependent on grace... so that we will respond with grace for others who need it from us.
You know, of course, that God didn't stop using that strategy. This wasn't just a one-time reminder aimed at ancient Israelites--it is how God keeps operating and working on our hearts right now, among us. We sometimes fall into the very same trap that the ancient Israelites hearing Deuteronomy fell into: we forget where we have been and who we are, and that makes us less and less able to "walk around in the skin" of others.
Here's an example. Somewhere in the last year or two, I remember seeing a Facebook meme that was criticizing people who were fleeing their home countries and seeking refuge in the West, whether Europe or the United States, or wherever. Now, we can surely have a conversation from the standpoint of security about who and how many people can be sustainably relocated in another country, but that's different than the criticism I recall in this particular bit of internet rambling. The post said, "We here in America don't run away or seek refuge somewhere else--we just fix things where we are," or something like that. And the rhetorical point, it seems, was that it was somehow a moral weakness for people to leave their countries in search of a safe place for their children away from the rain of gunfire and bombs from their own governments, because, supposedly, we Americans don't do things like that--we stand our ground rather than seeking refuge somewhere else. At least that was what the Facebook meme was trying to say.
But that's just bad history. It's collective amnesia. It's willful forgetfulness like the ancient Israelites forgetting that they had once been refugees and strangers in Egypt and thinking they could crack down on letting "foreigners" live amongst them once they were settled in the land of Canaan/Palestine. And I say it is forgetful because the story everybody gets told about our founding is that the first English colonies were settled by "the Pilgrims," who were seeking to live a better life without oppression or persecution for their religion.... In other words, "the Pilgrims" were just as truly "the Refugees." Our history in this country, even from the very very beginning, is the story of people who left their homelands to try and find a safe place to live where they wouldn't be attacked or harassed for their faith. We sometimes forget that an imagine that "refugees" only started coming here last year or last century. But our founding DNA is the story, not simply of immigrants, but of refugees.
Now, it is plenty tempting to forget that part of our history, or to remember it differently, just like it was always a temptation for Israel to forget its own past living as foreigners in Egypt and then as refugees on the run in the wilderness. Because if we forget that part of our story, we are free to draw bright lines between us and them. We can imagine that "we" got here and made our own lives and livelihoods by our own sheer willpower and work, and that "they" are just looking to be freeloaders that way. But the trouble is, it's just not honest. We have been wearing the shoes of refuge-seekers for four hundred years--but perhaps we have been wearing them so long that we have forgotten that's what they were.
If we are going to take the words of Scripture seriously (and I suggest we should), then we are going to have to hear Deuteronomy addressing us, and not only ancient Israel. If we are going to let God sneak into our hearts to remind us who we are--that we were foreigners and outsiders once upon a time--then we should be prepared for God to push us to hear the same conclusion God spoke to the Israelites: "You are to love the stranger... because you were strangers once, too... and because I, the living God, love strangers, too."
If we forget how God graciously provided a way for refugee seekers four hundred years ago on the Atlantic Coast, and if we forget how God liberated a nation of foreigners who had been enslaved in Egypt, then we will have forgotten who we really are. But as we let the Scriptures keep speaking to us, they will change our hearts, whether we realize it or intended to let it happen or not.
How does remembering our own history rightly change our attitudes in this day? How will be remember the truth of grace in our own story?
Lord God, keep telling us our story and your grace within it, so that we will see ourselves and the world around us rightly... even if it isn't easy.
You know, of course, that God didn't stop using that strategy. This wasn't just a one-time reminder aimed at ancient Israelites--it is how God keeps operating and working on our hearts right now, among us. We sometimes fall into the very same trap that the ancient Israelites hearing Deuteronomy fell into: we forget where we have been and who we are, and that makes us less and less able to "walk around in the skin" of others.
Here's an example. Somewhere in the last year or two, I remember seeing a Facebook meme that was criticizing people who were fleeing their home countries and seeking refuge in the West, whether Europe or the United States, or wherever. Now, we can surely have a conversation from the standpoint of security about who and how many people can be sustainably relocated in another country, but that's different than the criticism I recall in this particular bit of internet rambling. The post said, "We here in America don't run away or seek refuge somewhere else--we just fix things where we are," or something like that. And the rhetorical point, it seems, was that it was somehow a moral weakness for people to leave their countries in search of a safe place for their children away from the rain of gunfire and bombs from their own governments, because, supposedly, we Americans don't do things like that--we stand our ground rather than seeking refuge somewhere else. At least that was what the Facebook meme was trying to say.
But that's just bad history. It's collective amnesia. It's willful forgetfulness like the ancient Israelites forgetting that they had once been refugees and strangers in Egypt and thinking they could crack down on letting "foreigners" live amongst them once they were settled in the land of Canaan/Palestine. And I say it is forgetful because the story everybody gets told about our founding is that the first English colonies were settled by "the Pilgrims," who were seeking to live a better life without oppression or persecution for their religion.... In other words, "the Pilgrims" were just as truly "the Refugees." Our history in this country, even from the very very beginning, is the story of people who left their homelands to try and find a safe place to live where they wouldn't be attacked or harassed for their faith. We sometimes forget that an imagine that "refugees" only started coming here last year or last century. But our founding DNA is the story, not simply of immigrants, but of refugees.
Now, it is plenty tempting to forget that part of our history, or to remember it differently, just like it was always a temptation for Israel to forget its own past living as foreigners in Egypt and then as refugees on the run in the wilderness. Because if we forget that part of our story, we are free to draw bright lines between us and them. We can imagine that "we" got here and made our own lives and livelihoods by our own sheer willpower and work, and that "they" are just looking to be freeloaders that way. But the trouble is, it's just not honest. We have been wearing the shoes of refuge-seekers for four hundred years--but perhaps we have been wearing them so long that we have forgotten that's what they were.
If we are going to take the words of Scripture seriously (and I suggest we should), then we are going to have to hear Deuteronomy addressing us, and not only ancient Israel. If we are going to let God sneak into our hearts to remind us who we are--that we were foreigners and outsiders once upon a time--then we should be prepared for God to push us to hear the same conclusion God spoke to the Israelites: "You are to love the stranger... because you were strangers once, too... and because I, the living God, love strangers, too."
If we forget how God graciously provided a way for refugee seekers four hundred years ago on the Atlantic Coast, and if we forget how God liberated a nation of foreigners who had been enslaved in Egypt, then we will have forgotten who we really are. But as we let the Scriptures keep speaking to us, they will change our hearts, whether we realize it or intended to let it happen or not.
How does remembering our own history rightly change our attitudes in this day? How will be remember the truth of grace in our own story?
Lord God, keep telling us our story and your grace within it, so that we will see ourselves and the world around us rightly... even if it isn't easy.
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