So here’s what happened. On this long holiday weekend (BTW, happy 4th of July everyone!) the list was long. The list of tasks I was invited to help accomplish in my time at home, before heading back to Nashville for my new position with Discipleship Ministries. Some of which I do with La Donna and some of which I am left to do on my own. Some of which is here at the house as we continue to pack and get the house ready to sell and some of it is running errands out and about in the area. So, this was a trip to accomplish a variety of things, a four point circuit that would then bring me back home having accomplished all that was before me. The journey started at the license branch, to turn in the plate from the wrecked car that Rhys totaled when someone ran a red light right into him last March – yeah, OK should have been done long ago, I know. Anyway, as always the License Branch was a bottleneck on my high speed circuit. So, I was looking to fill the waiting time and happened to call up Facebook on my phone. For some reason, I punched the profile part of that oh so necessary app and discovered that it was all wrong. I was still listed as Lead Pastor of Southport and so I was attempting to change that. Got the job changed and then was trying to change the location. I was still resident in Indianapolis, owned a house here, but it wasn’t quite accurate, so I decided to say I was now in Nashville. Figured it would just sit there on my profile and when the move was accomplished I could announce that with a post.
Little did I know that Facebook was so excited about my transfer that they posted it for me! So now all of a sudden, I’m announcing to the world that I’ve moved to Nashville, which got all sorts of reactions from various and sundry friends and acquaintances. Some of whom were thinking that I misled them when I said we were going to wait for a while before selling the house and others thought I had already gone. So I had to insert a post saying, well, yeah, but no. I’m in Nashville, but not in Nashville. I’ve moved, but we haven’t moved. If you get what I’m saying. Looking at the posts still coming in from that, I can’t tell who has figured it out and who still thinks we’ve pulled up stakes and moved out. And I’ve given up trying to correct all the thinking. Because the truth lies somewhere in between.
The truth is that all of us are in between. In all sorts of way. We are in the process of becoming. Wesley called it sanctification, the move toward Christian perfection in love. But we are also sojourners. Traveling through this world heading to another destination. Call it heaven, call it the Kingdom of God, call it Eden and God’s original intent for the world in which we live, we can’t be too settled where we are. We’re neither here nor there, and yet we are called to be where we are.
Confused yet? I am. Always on the road, always here wishing I was there and there needing to be here. You know the feeling. You don’t have to travel between multiple states in order to have that sense of dislocation or displacement. I’ve heard it from folks who debate moving to where their kids and grandkids are, or waiting for the kids to move back toward them, because everyone seems to be on the road these days. Looking for home. Searching for safety and a place to settle. A place to be, to grow and to thrive.
We are in an era of unprecedented movement. Some move to improve their opportunities. Some flee violence and war, hatred and prejudice. Refugees show up on our shores, cross our borders and we struggle to know how to respond. “We’re full up” some will announce, no room for more. This land is our land, we declare. And of course it is. But then maybe not. If this isn’t really home, if we’re on our way somewhere else, then what do we lay claim to? If we’re not really settled, then where do we belong?
I know this is a delicate issue, one of law and nation. I’m not trying to say the matter is simple. But I am trying to remember that we all have multiple ways of looking at even the most complex of issues. The Bible, which is authoritative for me if not for everyone, is full of calls for hospitality. To remember that we are all foreigners in the land, we are all sojourners, and therefore we treat those who come to our shores with respect and with grace and with honor. Which may or may not mean making room for them to live among us, but surely does not mean we threaten their very existence by how we treat them when they arrive, however “illegally.” Scripture tells us again and again that we are not to be like other nations, that we are to have a higher standard.
Hebrews 13:1-3 Let mutual love continue. 2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. 3 Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured.
Sure, you can search the scriptures for evidence of a call to wipe out enemies and foreigners in the land and you’ll find it. But is that the standard by which we will choose to live? Is that the measure of our faithfulness to the God of Jesus our Christ? Besides, if you look closely, that call to wipe out whole peoples are not about invaders, but about wiping out the ones occupying the land that you want. And historically, we have been faithful to that command, perhaps to our shame.
Which also means we have to look at our own history to assess our motives in how we respond to the sojourners among us. That those in the highest offices of our land have used people who have been here illegally is not fake news, but a simple fact. But now that it is a political issue, our attitude is expressed differently. Now we are using them, but for different purposes and with different effect.
Well, as they say, that escalated quickly. It was not my intent to launch a polemic against current immigration practices and certainly not to claim that I have a solution to the problem. That is above my pay grade. I am, however, concerned about the conscience of our nation. Which is under my remit as pastor and preacher and teacher. And under yours as a follower of the Lord of all that is. And I think it begins when we look at who we are as God’s people, and acknowledge that we are all refugees from a world that isn’t what God intended it to be. That none of us are settled where we are, none of us are completely safe and secure where we are, because we long for something more. We long for peace, we long for justice, we long for home.
In the end that’s our driving motivation. To go home. Some of you know that La Donna and I will have moved 21 times when we finally do make the move to Nashville. There are lots of reasons behind some of those moves. And none of them were because we were fleeing for our safety. But all of them have been, and will continue to be because we have chose to follow a God who is on the move. A Lord who said, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no where to lay His head.” (Matthew 8:20, and Luke 9:58)
I don’t think He was calling us all to be homeless. As soon as we have an address in Nashville, we’ll let you know, and will open our doors to those who may be passing through. So, having a home is not a bad thing. But I do think He was reminding us that protecting our home and homeland, can often get in the way of being a follower of Christ.
And that the best place to live is in between.
Shalom,
Derek
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