Aliens in America: Day 17

Empathic Aliens 

‘As aliens, live in reverent fear’ (1 Pet. 1:17) 

God allows us to experience alienation so we can love aliens of all kinds. ‘Do not oppress an alien; you know how it feels to be aliens, because you were aliens in Egypt’ (Ex. 23:9).  

Remember. Feel the pinch again. Recall the one or two who stood with you. Activate that truth by advocating for those oppressed by the majority.   

I hope you’ve experienced that kind of alienation just for being a real Christian, resisted by people walking the other way. I hope you’ve lost place and face because Jesus-in-you wouldn’t bow to the gods and goddesses of this world. And the world didn’t like you for that.  

When I was just coming into the light of Christ as a young ‘gay’-identified man, I met a missionary from a country deprived of religious freedom. ‘The biggest temptation in America is all your freedoms. You’ve too much of everything—easy living, little resistance to the Gospel. That chokes out faith more than anything. You would all benefit from persecution.’ 

True that. We Americans pride ourselves on a thin tolerance: giving each the freedom to be and do whatever. Such ‘kindness’ is superficial at best, as it’s not based on what is objectively best for that person. As soon as we uphold that reality, woo—prepare to be alienated. 

My faith became real when fellow teachers at a special needs school rejected me; this not uncool smart-ass implored them to know Jesus too and to lay aside dumb stuff like homosexual practice. Didn’t go to the head of the class. They shamed me and gossiped; in the end, I lost my work friends. But I gained an introverted Southern Baptist who ate quietly with me in the teacher’s lounge. Roulez le bon temps…  

Alienation for being Christian in a non-Christian world—draw from that in advocating for others exiled by oppressive forces. We who have been alienated from God (Col. 1:21) through our enslavement to the world— ‘lust of flesh and eyes, arrogant’ (1 Jn. 2:16)—can rejoice in our growing awareness of new citizenship, only to find new hostility from the world around us!  

Blessed are those who are alienated from worldly favor, for the Kingdom. Peter’s readers were just that: plucked from the Roman world around them, they experienced the loss of worldly props. Peter urged them to prop each other up in the unseen power of their new King. 

We must do the same and then extend that advocacy to all persons who experience alienation through the cruelty of the world’s power plays.  

Empathy—divinely inspired and deeply human—drove me to start Desert Stream/Living Waters. I ached for others who had known the alienation of sexual confusion and the extra alienation of leaving behind worldly solutions to their conflict. I drew upon my own exile to advocate for them. How could I not? I knew their exile and their Advocate!  

Praise God for the Israelites in Egypt. They learned empathy as a minority people oppressed by an often cruel majority culture. God commanded them to show that empathy to other aliens. We must do the same.  

‘Our God…shows no partiality…He defends the fatherless and widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing. And you are to love those who are aliens, for you yourselves were aliens in Egypt. Fear the Lord your God and serve Him’ (Deut. 10:17-20). 

‘Help us to remember our exile, our alienation from the world as we’ve sought to become authentically Christian. Thank you for the gift of our “Egypts.” Restore and renew empathy for those targeted by the majority for their “difference.” In advocating for them, we reverence You.’    

‘Jesus, You are the King, and we are first citizens of Your Kingdom. Would you free us for You in this election season, not to hide but to shine? You’ve always asked nothing less from Your elect whom You have made ‘strangers in a strange land’ (Ex. 2:22). Here we are, a people who don’t know what to do but who look and listen to our King.  

“Father of all holiness, 

guide our hearts to You. 

Keep in the light of Your Truth 

all those You have freed from the darkness of unbelief. 

We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son.”’ 

Amen