As We Move Closer to the Kingdom of God, Borders Start Opening
Authors such as N.T. Wright have really focused on how much of Western Christianity has lost sight of the central theme of the Kingdom of God in the Gospels. This is not just some futuristic reality, but is a current one as well- one that is operating simultaneously among the kingdoms of the world. First Peter puts it in another way-the church being a holy nation. I know that there is rightful caution when people hear these words as they think about theocracy and the violent rebellions of religiously minded zealots whether in the Middle East or at the steps of our nation’s capital on January 6th. However, Wright points out that this Kingdom has a central focus on peace and sacrifice rather than one of gaining power and violence which sets it apart from other ideas of theocracy.
As a people, as we grow closer to the ideals of the Kingdom of God or the holy nation, our stance towards immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers naturally change and both figuratively and literally our borders start to open up. We are no longer so fearful of the other, because nationalism has lost its evil hold in the Kingdom of God. We lose the exclusive ties we have to those of our same ethnicity or tribe as the call of the Kingdom of God is Catholic or Universal. We begin to see in the eyes of the Christian Guatemalan asylum seeker as a person no longer defined by their ethnicity or immigration status but as part of the same holy nation in Christ. Likewise we see those even of other faiths, the Syrian refugee, the Hindu immigrant, as someone that in a certain way also represents Christ as one of the least of these.
There is no place for xenophobia and nationalism in the kingdom of God. Those categories and ideas cannot stand beside the idea of the holy nation, the universal church. Unfortunately in modern America, those who are religious, particularly those belonging to evangelical Christianity, are the ones that are the most xenophobic and anti-immigrant. I am deeply afraid that this trend will only continue to increase as the new Administration tries to implement immigration policies that are closer to the kingdom of God than the previous administration. Perhaps, it is because that much of Western Christianity has remained individualistic and has not actually stepped into the reality of the Kingdom of God. Once we do so, we do not become more insular, we become more compassionate and the borders naturally open up.
