Strangers in the World

"Peter, and apostle of Jesus Christ, to God's elect, strangers in the world..."

I am starting a new series in my English adult Sunday school class called, "Prepared to Suffer:  Studies in First and Second Peter." I am also trying to do something that I have never done before - memorize the whole letter. I just started this week and by God's grace, I have half of the first chapter memorized. I find that it is forcing me to slow down and, as best as can be discerned, has allowed me to enter into Peter's thinking toward the believers scattered across Asian Minor. 

Scripture, per Paul's letter to Timothy, is profitable for teaching, rebuke, correcting, and training in righteousness. In other words, it is transgenerational. Even though Peter is writing to his generation, the word of God is so powerful and insightful that it is equally applicable to my generation and the generations to come. It simply takes on different emphasis. 

For example, twenty years ago I would have read this letter about suffering and would have had to find a copy of Voice of the Martyrs to really grasp the significance. I had never suffered for Christ nor did I anticipate suffering for Christ - at least not like these "other" Christians were doing. 

Fast forward twenty years and now I am having to be careful about my public opinion on gay marriage, on abortion, on cohabitation, on pornography, and even on the inerrancy of  the Bible - and this within the church itself. I am getting a real-time sense of what it must have been like for the early Christians. They were strangers in their own world. Their new belief system was going to be at odds with the existing culture.They were new believers heading into a thoroughly pagan world. 

I, on the other hand, was reared in a "Christian nation" that is now becoming increasingly secular (pagan). I, too, am finding that I am a stranger in this world. The "Christian" values that, in general, governed this nation are slowly transforming into an anti-god or at least into a neo-Christian environment. By "neo-Christian" I mean that the very essence of what it means to be a "Christian" - a follower of the biblical Jesus - is being reinterpreted to mean something new that is unrecognizable to historical, orthodox believers. For example, Jesus is no longer the way but a way to get to God. In evangelical circles we used to be concerned about ecumenicism but now we battle a greater evil - universalism. We have left the battle over inter-Church doctrinal separation and now are fighting the idea that all faiths and philosophies are of equal truth. 

I have taken great interest in the mass migration to Europe from Islamic countries and the refugee problems that have incurred because of such migration. The Bible is full of consideration for the foreigner and the alien and yet there were expectations for their assimilation. Part of the outcry of Americans is that those coming to this country do not assimilate - they do not learn English, they do not bridge to other cultures, they isolate into smaller national communities, and become, "little Italys," "China towns," "Hispanic burrows," or "Muslim sectors." Our "melting pot" is more like a segregated luncheon tray. It's all on the same plate but nothing is touching.

I wonder what this will mean for true followers of Christ in the future. Peter would go on to say, "...live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear." 

What does it mean to live as a "stranger" in my world? Perhaps it means that I am not to be familiar with its customs. Perhaps it means that I am to have a different way of thinking. It may mean that I am unfamiliar with its pleasures or its philosophies. It may mean that my language or manner of speech will always be different. It may mean that my view of the sacred and how I practice that sacredness will be different. How I dress may set me apart or how I voice my opinion or engage in confrontation. 

I was in the airport in L.A. waiting for a delayed flight back to Portland when I sat down next to an orthodox Jew and a bunch of girls he was chaperoning. It was easy for me to recognize the beard, the plain clothes, and the hat. Others took notice when at the time of prayer he removed his left arm from his jacket, rolled up his sleeve, wound the tefillin straps around his arm, and fastened the small phylactery box upon his forehead.  In a quiet voice he recited the afternoon prayers in Hebrew while motioning back and forth with his upper body. He was a stranger in the midst of strangers. 

The question that I must pose to myself is, "Am I a stranger in the world? or is Peter calling me to be a stranger because I look too much like the world?" I am not sure of all of the applications of this to my life yet but I do know this, I am feeling more and more like I do not belong here. 

In the world but not of it....