"Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who have been chosen and destined by God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit to be obedient to Jesus Christ and to be sprinkled with his blood: May grace and peace be yours in abundance." [1 Peter 1:1-2]
There has been a lot of talk lately, especially in the news and on social media, about "those people." You know, "those people" who are aliens living away from their native countries... "those people" who are seeking asylum and waiting to have their cases adjudicated regarding entry into our country... "those people" whose children have been separated from them while they wait in detention centers.
There is a lot of talk about "those people," these days, and I have noticed how much of it ends with the sentiment that "those people... should go back to their own countries." And sadly--although this does not surprise me any longer so much as it just betrays a lack of biblical literacy--I hear this and see this sentiment coming from the mouths and hearts of people who name the name of Jesus.
Except... here's the thing. From the very, very beginning, like from the New Testament era itself, Christians understood themselves to be the aliens, the refugees, the expatriates and exiles, residing in lands that were not their true home. From its beginnings, the church confessed that WE are "those people." Truth be told, the whole story of the Bible is the story of resident aliens, exiles, and refugees, from Abraham and Sarah entering a land that was not their own without any official permission other than a voice from the sky, to Jacob's family seeking refuge in Egypt during a famine, to the Babylonian exile, to the Christian community scattered across the empire.
The opening verses of the book we call "First Peter" make that explicitly clear. Here we have a letter, going back to the very first century (so there is no way of calling this a later invention of the church or a recent idea of contemporary theologians), which addresses Christians living scattered around the territory of the Roman Empire, specifically the region we now call Turkey, and the author refers to Christians, both Jews and Gentiles, as "exiles of the dispersion." The Greek word used here in the text, "parepidemos," has the clear sense of people who are living away from their native land as resident aliens. You could be a resident alien by your own choice--say, if you left your native land to seek better opportunities in another country--or you could be a resident alien because your people had been conquered and redistributed through the empire, or because some disaster or war had compelled you to flee for safety. By this point in history, the people of Israel had all gone through the experience of being "resident aliens," too--both the northern and southern kingdoms of Israel and Judah had gone through the experience of foreign conquest and life scattered in other lands as exiles. And, just as a reminder, all of the Hebrew Scriptures (what Christians call the Old Testament) included the memory that "You were aliens in Egypt... therefore you are to treat aliens with justice and compassion yourselves, when you are the settled citizens and others come to reside among you."
All of that is to say that, from the Bible's perspective, both in the Jewish and Christian traditions, there is no split between "us, the people of God" and "those people who come to seek asylum in another land." These are not two separate categories for the people of God--we are 'those people'.
That kind of thing needs to be clear from the get-go to rightly frame any conversation we have, whether back in the first century or today in the twenty-first century, about how we treat those who seek a life in a land not their own. We can--and should--have the conversation about how to maintain the integrity of national borders, and we can--and should--be able to prevent drugs or human traffickers from access to the land in which we live. But when we talk about the human faces who are a part of all of this subject, we do not have the option of speaking about "those people" as if they were sub-human, or "infesting" our land, or as if we are qualitatively different. No, at least not if we name the name of Jesus ourselves. We are exiles, too. We are the resident aliens and refugees. We are the ones seeking asylum in lands that are not our ultimate home.
This is vital to say because otherwise, we slide into the wicked habit of dehumanizing "the other," or of justifying indifference toward others because we see ourselves as morally better than "those people." We say things like, "Well, we aren't breaking the law... those people are," or "If they have problems in their own countries, they should go back and fix them there instead of coming here..." or "Who will pay for all the expenses of having so many extra mouths to feed--because we citizens here shouldn't have to!" We say things like that, assuming that there are two separate groups of people here--"us" who rightfully get to keep all that we have, and "those people" who are coming... you know, "to take it all away from us us!", we fear.
But of course, that's not how the story of the people of Jesus, or the whole story of Israel and the Church, goes. The Bible itself assumes--takes it as a given--that the people of God are, or have been, resident aliens who depended on the welcome of others, and who are called to arrange their priorities in light of that experience by showing compassion to others who are resident aliens as well. It's not an "us" and "them" thing. It's not even a "we Christians will take pity on you refugees who come to our doors" thing. It's a "we who are aliens will also have compassion for others who are aliens among us" thing. If we are faithful to our own Scriptures, there is no line between "the people of Jesus" and "those people." We ARE "those people." The voice in First Peter made it clear in the first century: the Roman Empire is not our homeland or place of true belonging. Neither is America ours--we are aliens still, too. We always have been.
I do not pretend that this provides simple, easy, or cheap answers to how we who live in this land called America address the very real and complicated issues of asylum, immigration, and refuge. Nobody denies that there are costs to be accounted for, security issues that have to be attended to, or limits to the resources at our command in this country. I do not even pretend that a simple few sentences from First Peter will get us all on the same page in terms of the right course forward in the national conversation.
But I do think that these words from First Peter--and, the whole of the Bible which resonates with these few verses--are essential for getting us clear on the right way to frame any conversation about how we treat the stranger who comes seeking a life in the same land where we reside. This is not a question of "us" versus' them," but rather a question of how "we" take care of "one another," fellow aliens the whole lot of us. Because this land is not my homeland, either. I am an alien. I am decidedly not an American first in my identity--I am someone swept up in the all-encompassing Reign of God which makes me an alien everywhere else... just like First Peter said two thousand years ago.
It makes a huge difference whether I see this conversation as a matter of asking, "How are WE going to solve the problem of THOSE PEOPLE?" or as a matter of, "How are all of us going to care for one another, while we live this live as aliens and exiles in a land that is not our own possession?" It makes a difference, not only for how we treat others who seek to reside alongside of us, but also because it reminds us not to pin our hopes on piling up stuff in this land and this lifetime. This ain't our homeland. This place does not command our ultimate allegiance, and it does not offer us our ultimate hope. We are called chosen, destined, precious, and beloved by the living God--and it is to the all-encompassing Reign of this God that we have all been swept up.
Lord Jesus, you who were a refugee seeking asylum in Egypt as a child, and you who have called us to be your resident aliens scattered in the world, give us the grace and clarity to see one another rightly, and to recall that all we have is your gift in the first place.
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