An Alien and a Stranger

I remember when I first moved to Alabama deep, deep in the south. Now I’m from North Carolina and always presumed that I was a southerner. But I found out quickly that you're not really a southerner if you move to Alabama. Suddenly I was exposed to a new culture and my lack of college football team allegiance was under suspicion.  (North Carolina is a collegiate basketball state.) I thought I could talk “southern” with the best of them but I was asked about my accent a lot. I couldn't understand a child who innocently asked me, “Kin I bora korder?”  Now if I was really into the accent I would have gotten out my wallet.  Yes, I was an alien and a stranger. I remember how it felt.

Ephesians 2:12-21

Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that He might create in Himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And He came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through Him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in Whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In Him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

We need to remember how it felt to be an alien and stranger to God. Christ broke down the dividing wall that separated us from a relationship and fellowship with the Father God and the family of God. But now we are all in the family together with the purpose of growing into the loved ones of Christ together.

   

I think we need to remember this because it helps us to reach outside the family. It helps us to love the estranged and to reach out to people with the Gospel that will reconcile them to God and include them into this wonderful clan. We don't need to form cliques. We need to reach out (“Get out, “as My Pastor Wade says). We need welcome in the “newbies” to be joined together and built up together as a dwelling place. Sometimes we get so comfortable with our little group that we forget what it was like to be on the outside.

I feel like I've been an Alabamian long enough to hang with the best of them. I’m even following football teams now. And I know what a “korder” is. (It’s 25 cents.)

I feel like I've been in the family of God long enough to hang with the best of them too. The best of this family will automatically welcome one in.  But I don't ever want to forget what it was like to be an alien and stranger to God and His family.

No longer an alien and stranger,

Not forgetting what it was like,

Inviting others in.