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It's been almost a year since I've given up politics. Not only has it been good for my blood pressure and my relationships, it has also clarified a few things. I can see clearly now that my chief end is not preserving the Republic and enjoying it forever. (To my politically involved friends, I do not say that this is in your heart; I say that this was in my heart.)
I have begun to think more globally than ever before, a trend that has a couple data points over the past couple of years. The first data point my study of the book of Acts last summer. There, in the second chapter, God undoes what He did at Babel. At Babel, He scattered the peoples of the earth, separating them both geographically and linguistically. But at Pentecost, He gathered them back in. Lo and behold, the gospel, as it turns out, is for all nations, tribes, and tongues. And then, via persecution, this time He scattered His people. And this time, it was not to divide but to unite the Elect from the uttermost parts of the earth. Because where His people went, there went the gospel with them. This was the first and ultimate Church building project.
The second data point has been our school study of the 20th century this year. Do you know how many millions of people died at the hands of patriotic nationalists in the last century? "Our country for our people" thinking has yielded precisely zero benefits.
The third data point was a lunch meeting our pastors had with a couple guys from The Gospel Coalition's Theological Famine Relief Fund. These guys shared an interesting stat. Did you know that, from the countries of Cuba and Sweden, the most requested language for the Famine's gospel materials is Farsi? Farsi. Do you know who speaks Farsi? Iranians speak Farsi. So do Afghans. So do a number of other people in the Middle East.
What is your reaction when you hear that news? Be honest. Does it stress you out that speakers of Arabic are 'this close' to our shores? Or does your heart rejoice that God is once again scattering peoples and bringing the gospel to them? People who have only every known Islam and and Islamic theocracies?
I'm as white-bread middle class as they come. If there is a non-European gene in my ancestry, I am unaware of it. But God is not white-bread middle class, and neither is His good news. So it was with great dismay that I listened last week to my president (I've given up politics, not the news.) insinuate that Dreamers are simply gang members waiting to happen. That's the logical equivalent of saying I'm a Nazi because I'm German.
It's not disturbing--or news--that my president thinks this way. It is disturbing that we think this way. Is it possible that we have categorized these people the wrong way? Is it possible that we should see Dreamers and refugees, not as threats to our 'way of life' but as future brothers and sisters in Christ? How hopeful should we be? How hospitable should we be? How 'righteously compassionate'--to borrow a term from last Sunday's sermon--should we be?
Full disclosure: I do not come at this naturally or easily. There's not much in me that desires to be exposed to other cultures. But I cannot read the Word and be transformed by it without also becoming more hopeful, more hospitable, more compassionate. This is my challenge; I know that.
So go ahead and build your wall if that makes you feel better. But I appeal to you, as you stack those bricks with the zeal of a kid in a nerf gun war, to take an occasional break, place your hand over your heart, and ask yourself:
Does this wall strengthen the Kingdom?
Does this wall further the gospel?
Does this wall glorify God?
As for me, I'd rather build the Church than a wall any day.
After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!" Revelation 7:9-10
