The mountain of the Lord and the house of God shall be visible on the tops of the mountains and exalted above the hills.  All the Gentiles shall come to it. Isaiah 2

All the Gentiles.  To the house of the God of the Jews.  Defiled heathens in the holy of holies.  The vision of the future is one of foreigners and enemies worshipping together.

Which makes me think about David the foreigner in the land of the Philistines.  How do you move into the land of your enemies – after killing their rock star and convincing the king you’re insane, mind you – and still manage to make the king trust and defend you?  Damn, Dave was smooth.

What is it to be a stranger, to walk into a place that may be unsafe?  To be in a space that is so different?  All of a sudden you’re aware of your trepid footsteps, wary looks around, and fidgety hands that need something, anything, to do.

How do you enter a foreign culture and survive?

And how do you take your wife(s) and 600 other families into enemy territory, to settle?

Are we that accommodating to our enemies?  Would we welcome a large crowd of people who live or think differently to just come along and plop down in the middle of us, and stay?  What about group dynamics, continuity, that small-group confidentiality?

Some churches aren’t even set up to welcome a single person into their small group cliques until the proper time opens up in the schedule.  God forbid 1200+ people were to descend.

How is welcoming built into the structure of who we are, what we do?  Is inclusivity part of our essence?

*****

Coming from the land of ‘we won the war so we don’t even think about it anymore’ to being surrounded by ‘it’s the War of Northern Aggression’ and ‘proud to be a descendant of a Confederate soldier’ bumper stickers, and of course that ubiquitous symbol, the cotton fields – well, it’s quite the culture shock.

If it is mildly disconcerting to live in a land of former enemies, (albeit some current bitterness and resentment), what is it like to live in the land of actual enemies?  Even perceived enemies?

All the Gentiles shall come to it.  What vulnerability and awkwardness that vision offers.  What would it be like to enter the temple, having no idea of the customs or rituals?

What vulnerability lies in a ___________ (gay man, non-christian, Catholic, white woman, evangelical, Yankee) entering a _____________ (church, evangelical Bible study, temple, black neighborhood, liturgical church, Southern grocery store)?

Entering a different way of life means we need to be willing to be a stranger, even willing to be a minority.  Being ‘the other’ means being unaware of the customs, the clothes, the language.  Things familiar are gone (apple cider, anyone?).

To be a stranger that wants to be a part of the new culture means there’ll be tension and opposition and you’ll probably have to confront your privileges and prejudices.  Becoming a good neighbor in a strange place means being aware of the culture and being willing to adapt to it.  To be a foreigner that belongs, we have to be willing to be vulnerable with each other.  The difference is already exposed.  But acknowledging it is important.  But, of course, this can only happen in a place where strangers are welcomed.

*****

For the sake of my brothers and my neighbors, I indeed spoke peace.  

Ask now for things regarding the peace. 

I sought good things for you. 

Let there now be peace in your power. Ps 122

“For strangers to come, they need to know we won’t kill them.  Literally, spiritually, and emotionally.” – yours truly.

There is no exalting the house of God when weapons are raised.

Peace is active work.  What is it to welcome strangers?  To put down our weapons for the sake of the foreigner?

Neither will they learn war anymore. Isaiah 2

Violence is the air we breathe and we must find clean oxygen masks.  We have to treat those who are different from us, you know, like we’d want them to treat us.  We have to stop learning war.

It’s easy to seek good things for the ones we like.  But what about the ones we don’t?  What about the people who drive us up the wall, or even completely dislike us?  How do we seek good things for those people?  What peace is in our power for people we don’t like?

Can we be interested in the stories of other people?  Can we welcome differing opinions in church?  Welcoming the stranger means being humble enough to recognize their gifts and talents.

For the sake of our brothers and neighbors, peace is laying down the weapons of our words and attitudes.  Not because they are automatically right.  But because they are worth listening to.  Sometimes, peace is even the simple things – inviting people over for dinner or sitting on the porch and saying hi.

How do we teach ourselves, our families, the way of peace?  The way of vulnerability?  The way of being open to danger and uncertainty?  The way of laying down our pride?  The way of embracing awkward, uncomfortable, stressful situations for the sake of others?

Somehow David’s whole contingency lived in the midst of their enemies for over a year, and made the king a fan.  Granted, he used violence to prove his loyalty.  But I wonder what that was like for the women, children, servants to live in the midst of enemy territory.

Were they welcomed?  Or were they like the migrant workers who you know live in your town, but you only see at the grocery store, and only when it’s raining?  They obviously weren’t worth the Philistine’s defense.  Would we protect the enemies in our midst?  I sought good things for you. 

From ancient times, people have always had to interact with those who are different from them.  The vision of different cultures being together and laying down their weapons in the future is one we need to inspire us to seek peace today.

 

 

This post inspired by meditations from my Advent e-art journal ($3.99 ) and the movie Save the Last Dance (such a good movie.)

 

And I wasn’t even kidding about including a southern grocery store in my little mad libs thing.  Check these fascinating items out: