Aliens Are Real

I have spent the last two weeks on vacation. During that time I watched the world spin. I saw the culture war explode. I saw people writing and thinking and whining. I saw a lot of hand wringing and worry from my tribe.

There is great concern that we, Christians, are losing our rights and standing in the world. We are becoming a religious minority in a rising secular culture. The secularists are coming for us and relegating us to the sidelines.

We are deeply afraid of losing this “war.” The fear is palpable. Many feel that we lost on abortion. Now we’ve lost on gay marriage.

If we have lost, it means that we were competing for something. It means that we were trying to win something.

Peter writes,

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. (1 Peter 2:9–12 ESV)”
Peter is helping the Christians he’s writing to, to understand their identity. They are living with purpose and mission. Christians are a people who are called to proclaim the excellencies of Jesus in this world. That’s not all, they are also “sojourners and exiles.”

It is this second bit that we need to try and put our arms around. We have enjoyed our status as a cultural majority for a couple of hundred years in our country. Even longer when you consider Western society.

We have become comfortable. We have enjoyed our position of cultural power and influence.

We have forgotten that we are sojourners and exiles.

Sojourners and exiles are aliens. They are strangers in a strange land. They are not at home. Aliens don’t have the same rights as citizens. They don’t really belong in the place where they live.

I continue to see fellow Christians worrying about our “rights”. Friends, we don’t have rights here. This isn’t home. We have become comfortable. But, comfort for the Christian does not come from political or cultural power and influence. The Christian’s comfort is to come from the Holy Spirit.

In Philippians 2 Paul encourages Christians to follow the example of Jesus’ humility. Jesus being God, sought equality with God nothing to be grasped.

If we are going to authentically follow Jesus then we must identify ourselves with him, to do so, means that we self-identify as strangers and aliens in this world.

We don’t have rights.

Aliens are real. We are them.

Originally posted at The Mission Journal

The post Aliens Are Real appeared first on The Journal by Daniel M. Rose. It was written by Daniel M. Rose.

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