Aliens and Strangers

1 Peter 2:11. Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.

1 Peter 3:15-16. But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, [16] keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.

Imagine yourself in Paris, sitting in the arrival gate observing the arrival of an international flight to France. First off is a woman in a conservative business suit, looking a bit haggard after a long flight. No one is here to meet her. She removes a small booklet from her pocket, obviously a travel guide, and steps aside to study it. Looking around she makes her way to a counter, where in a broken dialect she attempts to ask for directions to a hotel. The man behind the counter smiles broadly, holds up a finger and answers in practiced English, welcoming her to Paris. Next off is a garrish man in a leisure suit, lime green, with a videocam hanging off one shoulder and a 35 millimeter off the other. He spends the first few minutes in the terminal snapping pictures of various people, without permission. He singles out some kids off to the side, dressed in black leather and wearing their multicolored hair contrary to gravity. “Can you believe how these people dress?” he says, a bit too loudly. After a few minutes of gawking he walks over to the same counter and declares he needs to get to the Hotel Americana. The man stares at him with a politely confused look. “Whazza matter, don’t you speak English?” says the man. “Parle vous Frances?” the clerk replies. “Of course I don’t speak French; I’m just here for a vacation. Now where can I find out how to get to the Vatican?”

We are called by Christ to be strangers in this world, not to be strange. To be aliens, not to alienate. To be within our culture while yet not controlled by it. It takes a critical appraisal of our behavior to make this distinction. We fall into habits and patterns that may be the norm in our religious culture but that are perceived as strange by those we are called to reach, and alienates them for culture, and not because of Christ.

We are strangers in this world, or at least we should be, says Peter. Aliens, passport in hand, just off the boat, not quite ‘at home.’ We should feel the discomfort of not quite fitting in, like the first day of a new job, or the first weeks in a new school. Yet while we are to be strangers, we are certainly not to be strange. Though aliens, we are not to alienate. Paul says the same things when he declares that he strives “to be all things to all men.”