Faithful Foreigners

Rev. Dr. Michael Stotts

Gen. 45:1-15

Mt. 15: 21-28

              Have you ever had a time when you felt like an outsider--a foreigner? Several years ago, as you may know, Peggy and I had the opportunity to move to Western Pennsylvania.   I'd been offered the job of Director of Communications for the Western PA Annual Conference of our Church.   It was an exciting time for us   I'd be the editor of the Conference newspaper.  I'd be able to use my communications training to lead workshops for local churches, and  help improve the communication of the denomination in that area--so it was an exciting time--and a wonderful  new challenge.

              What we hadn't counted on was being seen as an outsider by people in the church.  I hadn't been a part of the church in that area, and yet here I was writing about the church and it's mission for churches in a whole new region .   My views were a little different than what they were used to in that  area of Pittsburgh, and since I was no longer pastor of a local church, Peggy and I had to do some "church shopping" and we found it surprisingly difficult to find a church where we felt at home--and didn't for almost 6 months.   Tragically there seemed far too many churches  we visited where  almost no one even spoke to us before or after the services,  except for a brief greeting from the pastor when we arrived.   We felt like foreigners in what was supposed to be our new home.   So eventually, though I enjoyed the writing and getting around to many churches in that conference doing stories about what was  happening in those churches--eventually,  after a valiant try of three years,  when those who'd hired me moved away and a new leadership had come,  Peg and I decided we wanted to return to New England, where we had felt at home in the ministry for  many years and had many friends.   I'd missed being in the local church, too, so here I had the opportunity to resume that ministry and still use my communica-tion skills occasionally.  And Peggy has been much more at home being able to support me in local church settings, too.  And we've been happy ever since.

              But that experience, for those few years of being seen as "a foreigner"  taught me a very good lesson, about how hard we need to work as churches to be welcoming, accepting churches.   And we should-- because if you listened carefully to our lessons today, you perhaps noticed that some who were  indeed foreigners' yet were among the most faithful people to God, in those stories.   There was the story of Joseph's sojourn in Egypt--Joseph, who you'll recall was sold into slavery by his brothers because they were jealous of the fact that his father favored Joseph over them. Yet Joseph, kept a strong faith in God, and used his faith in that foreign land where he'd been taken, and eventually --with God's help -- he  was able to save his family and all of his people from famine.  

              Then in our gospel reading, here, again it was the one who at first Jesus very much treated as a foreigner, the Canaanite woman who turned out to have a strong faith.

              Isn't it interesting that not just in these  instances, but in fact throughout the Bible, there are many examples of people  who were foreigners, turning out to be the ones lifted up by the scriptures as being the faithful ones--there was Ruth in the Old Testament, who exemplified faithfulness, though she was a foreigner in the place where she eventually lived out her faith.  There was Jonah, called to share a prophetic message to a land where he didn't really want to be-- a people he hated even.

              Indeed, even Jesus was a foreigner, in a sense--an immigrant-- he came to the land of his people remember from Egypt, where his parents had taken him when he was still an infant  to escape Herod--so he came back to Nazareth as an outsider.   And consistently he stood on the side of those who others  had excluded--those that others treated as if they were foreigners. 

              So it's clear, by so many scriptural accounts--our faith calls each of us, brothers and sisters in Christ, to be welcoming  to all persons, brothers and sisters; and  especially we're called to be welcoming to those who have felt estranged by our far too often exclusive human groups and communities.   If we were to truly heed that calling of our faith then, what would that mean for our own communities, perhaps especially the church.  In what ways does  our faith call us to widen the circle of community to include those  we far too often treat as outsiders as foreigners.   Well our scripture lessons today give us some clues.

              First of all it's clear, that as  Christians we each have a distinct calling to be about the business of welcoming and including in our communities, those our human cultures would otherwise tell us to exclude -- to treat as foreigners.   We in fact are clearly called by God to be a loving family for all people--for God is not just our God, but the one true God of every person on earth.    It's interesting that in fact in the story of Joseph we heard this morning, Joseph's brothers, as they came to Egypt, a foreign land, seeking relief from the famine, when they found themselves  before one they thought was a foreign ruler--the representative of Pharaoh, they discovered it was their own brother-- whom they had sold into slavery.  But Joseph, of course was faithful, and realized that God had used his captivity and eventual rise to power, to assist Joseph's own people,  to help them survive the severe famine.

              Do you see the message here for us?   It's pretty clear isn't it?   Be careful who you treat as a foreigner--for indeed they may well be, in fact,  your own family, under God.     To God there are no foreigners, just different people, each with different gifts to share with the other:  food for a famine, acceptance and forgiveness where wrongs had been made,  a welcome to those who find themselves in a strange land.

              Wouldn't it be wonderful if our policies as a nation reflected the faith we profess in that way-if we were a land that instead of seeming to try so hard to keep out many immigrants, was more open and welcoming.  Wouldn't it be wonderful if all our communities were that open--churches where no lines were drawn as to who were seen as strangers, and outsiders, as opposed to "family."     We must not be about the business of exclusion you see--for those we too often exclude are in fact meant by God to be family. 

              I'm reminded of a piece on 60 Minutes some of you may have seen recently--it was about some fledgling businesses that now, because of the advances in genetics, are helping people discover large groups of people to whom they are actually related, but didn't know they were.   One African American woman, for example, who used one such service, discovered a old  white rancher from out West, to whom she was distantly related--while before neither of them had any inkling of the other's existence.   The woman journeyed out west to meet him, and they were both delighted, seemingly, at the warm human being they discovered now as "family."

              Indeed I suppose if you went back far enough it would amazing to see . .  how many people  were actually your relatives, many of whom we might have seen otherwise as a "foreigner."

              Clearly God created us to be brothers and sisters for one another, not only in Christ, but welcoming brothers and sisters to our whole human family--for they are family, made by God to be that way,  whether we realize it or not.

              Which gives each of us as Christians, does it not a clear calling--a calling to be a people, as the followers of Christ, who seek to bring people together--rather than being divided from one another; and who seek to welcome all peoples, rather than arbitrarily welcoming those more like us, while excluding those who are different.    Yes, we're called to be a people with a specific mission--one  of welcoming those whom others exclude--especially "the least of these," as Jesus put it.

              In today's gospel reading,   Though reacting at first to the foreign Canaanite woman as his people would--telling her in strong words,  she didn't belong--yet when her faith shone through, Jesus praised and welcomed her and extended a healing love for her daughter.

              Think about the ways in which we, today, could seek to answer our calling to be a people who welcome the stranger and bring people together, rather than dividing ourselves up in so many exclusive groups, as we far too often do.

              Several years ago, I ran across some interesting sociological studies that gave my generation an interesting name--my generation being those born right at the end of World War II--just before the baby-boomers came along.   This particular study called our generation "bridgers"--namely because the pre-war and postwar generations were so different, that those of us born in between who therefore understand both groups,  have spent much of our lives helping those in one group, understand those in the other, pre- or post-war.   So we become interpreters, communicators and the like, many of us.

              But you know, I was thinking about that the other day and realized that not just those born when I was, but all of us as Christians really do have a calling by our faith to become bridgers.  To be a people who are about the business of being a bridge between peoples who are otherwise divided--between natives and foreigners, between the in-group and the out group, between those who have and those who don't.   Look at Jesus life and teachings and you will see that indeed as Christians our calling is precisely to be bridgers, and seek to retire the word foreigner from vocabularies all over the world,  until we slowly become, truly one loving  family for one another.

              So how can we be bridgers today?  All of us-- for clearly, if you read or watch the news today,  it's a time when people who bring others together are very much needed---seemingly more and more so every day!

              Clearly it's time we as a nation tore down that ridiculous fence we've been building between our country and Mexico, and found ways to welcome immigrant workers in legal ways --workers who we obviously  need for our economy to flourish.

              Clearly it's time for us to stop excluding others from our communities or groups  because of race, or gender or sexual preference or nationality or class, and simply sought to bring all people together.

              Clearly it's time as people of the church that we stop retreating behind church walls, and began to invite our neighbors and friends again to be a part of our loving church community.  

              And when people come to church, clearly it's time that we gently but warmly let them know how great it is to have them with our church family as we worship God.

              It's time, you see, for all of us to be bridgers--to build bridges of love that connect our all too often divided human family, instead of building more and more fences that just make us more and more foreign to one another.

              Finally, I think we must say one more thing about that calling to be bridg-ers, as Christians--and that is,  we especially need to build those bridges of love to those who have too long been kept on the outside of our loving human circles--namely the oppressed, the lonely, those who are hurting.

              A number of years ago, when I did a study of people with disabilities and our communication with them as a church,  what saddened me most was how many people with disabilities I interviewed  would say things like I know the church loves me, but they don't understand  what my life is like with this disability--and so they felt often excluded--on the outside looking in.   They would hear the message of God's love, as they read their Bibles and prayed, but felt isolated from the church and its people.

              One man I interviewed, who had a severe disability that kept him in a wheelchair for mobility, told about how unfortunately his church had a second story sanctuary and no elevator--so when he became disabled, the pastor came to see him and assured him that any time he wanted to come to church, he shouldn't worry, they would come get him, bring him to church, and the ushers would be happy to carry him up the stairs.   Well, that may sound welcoming.  The only trouble was of course, it was a long stairway, and imagine depending on a couple of men, no matter how strong, to carry you up a long stairway-- a frightening thing at best.  And so he most often just  stayed home.  The church had said it loved him, but the church's building, which they made no effort  to change, told him something else.

              In so many ways, you see,  often in ways we don't even realize, in our churches and other human communities we exclude, rather than bringing people together.  Yet our faith calls out to us over and over again saying--by your exclusion you're dividing yourself from folks who are just as faithful and deserving and human as you!  Be a bridger instead!   Be faithful with a bridging love, just as so many of those you call foreigner are faithful--and you will discover- behold-- your family is growing.  You may even then begin to discover the wonderful worldwide human family that God meant us be --without exclusion.   Foreigners?  There should be no such thing-- only brothers and sisters -- made to be one human family . .  together.  Amen.