Jesus spent the first……..and the last years of his life homeless.

He spent the first years of his life as a refugee. He and his family fled his homeland and went to Egypt to escape an evil, dangerous government. And they stayed there……as refugees…….for years.

And this brings me to an uncomfortable subject…….for Christian conservatives………immigration reform…….and the wall. In a word…….how do we deal with sojourners. More to the point…….what does the Bible tell us to do with refugees.

There are thousands……..perhaps millions……..of people piling up on our southern border. They largely fall into two groups. The first group is the criminals………MS-13…….gang-bangers……..terrorists……..human traffickers……..fentanyl mules………drug dealers. The second group is regular people who are either fleeing from oppressive conditions at home or seeking a better life for their families in America. It is hard to tell how many fall into each category, as our government chooses to ignore the problem. Nonetheless, I suspect that the majority are regular people looking for a better life.

What to do?

First, let me be clear……….both the Democrats and the Republicans are wrong. The left wants to let everyone in…….because they believe that they will be left leaning voters. The right doesn’t want to let anyone in……..for the same reason……plus concerns about the costs involved.

I think we can agree that we don’t want the criminals. So, we need to sort between the criminals and the regular people…….to sort between the wolves and the sheep. To do this……..we need a wall……with a gate……..and with a means of sorting out who is coming through that gate.

Once we have sorted the sheep from the wolves, we need an efficient, extremely liberal naturalization process for the regular people…….the refugees…….or, as the Bible would call them…….the sojourners. This process should take days to weeks…….not years.

This is a reasonable approach. It is a charitable approach. It is a profoundly Christian approach. It will be costly…..in the short run. But we will be a stronger nation……in the long run.

I once asked myself, “if Jesus was standing on the southern border, would he be building a wall……..or handing out bottled water?”

The answer was convicting.

“When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

God, ESV

I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.

God, ESV

Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

Paul, ESV

‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

Jesus, a conversation with his disciples, ESV.

When we meet a friend whom we haven’t seen for a while, we often ask, “how have you been?”. It is a question that is filled with hope. We hope that they will tell us that their life has been successful…….satisfying. We hope that they will tell us that their situation is better now than it was when we last met them. What we hope to hear……..is good news………a promotion, the birth of a child, a marriage, a satisfying retirement. Sometimes, what we hear is not so good………an illness, a death in the family, a layoff.

In a way, we are wishing them joy………not pain. We are hoping that they are closer………to paradise. We are hoping that they are further…….. from hell…..than they were when we last met.

But what if we were to ask this question……….of our culture?

It’s good to see you……….mankind.

How have you been?

I am a student of history, but today I want to confine my question to my lifetime.

“Mankind……..how have you been………during the 70 years of my lifetime?”

I have to compare our culture today with our culture in the 1950’s. Most of you are younger than I am…….so bear with me as I share my experience.

Let me begin by saying that we made mistakes in the 50’s and we have had successes recently. But, on balance, I think that we have not done well. The world that I knew as a child was kinder, slower, and gentler.

We had a cold war……..now we have multiple hot wars.

We had unwanted pregnancies……..now we kill 3000 children every day.

We watched “Ozzie and Harriet”, “Leave it to Beaver”, and “Andy of Mayberry”……..now we watch serial killers and thinly veiled sex on prime time TV…….not to mention an army of talking heads selling anger.

Mass killings were unheard of……..now they are common.

We had a functional government………today we have the politics of personal destruction and impending default on a federal debt that is unsustainable.

We could disagree with each other but remain friends…….now I can make a list of relationships that have not survived a disagreement, usually over politics.

We built a statue inscribed: “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”………..today, we have an immigration policy that is an impediment to legitimate refugees and yet lets criminals and drugs in.

We were happy………and now we are angry.

Our churches were full……….now many are nearly empty.

I challenge you………to look back at the list of our failures as a culture and ask:

Where would we be today…………if we had followed God’s two central rules?

Love God

Love your fellow man.

Our culture is failing………in fact, it is dying.

And mankind’s failure parallels our turn away from our creator……..our God.

“When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation.”

Jesus, ESV

And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,
without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.

Paul, ESV

The graph tells a sad story. It is from an article that I found on the web. Young people are turning away from God. You can dress it up……..sugar coat it…….try to find the silver lining. But the hard cold fact is that God is just not popular with young people. Even worse, young adults are teaching their children that God is phony, making this a multigenerational problem. I once went on a tour of Italy. We saw dozens of magnificent churches. As we were leaving one of them, our guide quipped. “another beautiful, nearly empty, building…….and a few old people.” The author of the article goes into some detail to try to identify the reasons for this shift from God to secular humanism. The trouble is that the reason or reasons really don’t matter.

What matters……..is the truth.

Either God is real………or he is not.

This truth is absolutely binary……..and it has consequences.

The question “is God real?” is arguably the most important question you will deal with in your life.

And the problem is that there isn’t rock solid proof for either side. One side offers the Bible, events that defy science, and a small but growing collection of archeological evidence. The other side offers a collection of ever shifting theories as to how the universe and life came into being……..and where it is all going.

The really big questions: how the universe began, how life began, and how it will all end remain hidden behind a veil. No matter how confident the person offering the explanation is……..if you are honest……you have to conclude that we cannot be absolutely sure. Both sides require us to accept as fact…..ideas that are unprovable.

So…….let’s look at the two possibilities.

God is not real.

There was nothing, then something that we cannot explain occurred and instantly the universe existed. There was no life, then over a long period of time, by a mechanism that we cannot recreate, atoms randomly assembled themselves, reproduced, and evolved into our ecosystem. You and I are complex biochemical factories…….no more. When the chemical processes stop, we die and there is nothing. In a word, it all began as nothing……….and it all will end as nothing. Right and wrong are largely defined by utility. It’s right if it works. And, generally, utility is defined as what works for me. Burning down the rain forrest is wrong…….because I need more oxygen and less greenhouse gas. But, burning down the rain forrest does work for the Brazilian cattle rancher. Putin and Zelenski have different visions of utility. Since there is no higher authority, my definition of utility and hence my definition of right and wrong are no more valid than the rancher’s or Putin’s.

God is real.

God created everything just as it is……. out of nothing.
God has an agenda……..a plan.
God has expectations……of you and of me.
We don’t get to make the rules. We don’t get to decide what is right and what is wrong. The rules are the same for everyone……..even God.
God loves us and expects us to love each other……and to love him……..just as he loves us.
We are much more than a biochemical factory. There is a part of us that is eternal…….immortal…….and when our body dies, that part of us lives on and will either return to God and his love……..or not.

Which, ironically, brings us back to the question of utility. Which of these two worlds, if faithfully executed, do you think will work…….for you?

And I worry……..that future generations of Americans…….may miss out……..not on immortality……..but on the joy of spending their eternity with their creator.

without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

Paul, ESV

Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator

Paul, ESV

As a Christian, it is comforting……..to know where I am going.

I don’t know when. I don’t know how. And I don’t know who will be involved. I’m sure that all of those questions will be answered when I get there. But those questions will not be the first ones I ask……..when I arrive.

My first question……..when I meet my creator…….will be “why?” In point of fact, “why?” will be at the core of my first hundred or so questions.

All of the other questions deal with fairly minor housekeeping issues. “Why?” is an entirely different kettle of fish.

I believe that God…..Abba……my creator………..my father………..is involved in every aspect of my life. I don’t believe that he created this universe…….and me………and then lost interest and wandered off. Every event in my life is known to him. He either caused them to happen………or at the very least allowed them to happen. That is the reason that “why?” is such a critical question. “Why?” goes to motivation………God’s motivation.

When I ask God “Why?”………I’m basically asking, “what were you thinking?”……….or even worse……”how could you?”

“Why?” leads us up to the brink……..of blame…….of anger…….at God.

When good things happen, “why?” is a warm, fuzzy, happy idea………”because God loves us”, or some variation of that. I am confident in God’s love for me. I have come to expect good things from him. So I won’t be asking God why the good things happened……….because I already know.

What tortures me……..and likely you too…… is the “why?” behind the bad things that have happened to us. Lets face it, bad things happen………every day. And God knows. And he either allows them or initiates them. They are things that we would never have allowed or initiated…….if we were in charge of the universe. Quite simply, they are things that we don’t like.

And there is the rub.

We drag around a list of bad things that have happened……things that we don’t like………things that we wouldn’t allow…………and each one has a “why?”.

Why did my wife, Cindy, get cancer?
Why did my father die?
Why did my sons die?
Why was my son crippled?

What was God thinking?

And that is the point.

Because the problem……..is this.

God’s thoughts are different from mine. God’s motivations are different from mine. God’s plan is different from mine. It is bigger……..much bigger than I could ever imagine.

I don’t know why these things happened and I won’t know……..until I get the chance to ask.

So……..when bad things happen……..and God knows about them…………and God either allows them or instigates them, we have a few choices:

Get angry at God……for failing to satisfy our appetites.
Deny God…….because we have a better plan.
Become God……..take over the running of the earth…………make our own rules.

Or

Trust God……….trust his plan…….because his plan ends with you, me, and many friends and family together…….with God……….in paradise. God’s plan is for us to enjoy community, to experience joy, and to know satisfaction………forever. That is his “end game”. If your world doesn’t look like that today………then you haven’t reached the end.

In the end, we will know the answers……..in the end, we will know why. Meanwhile, we must trust in God. We must trust that God has plans that are beyond our understanding. When we go through our list of “whys?” and don’t find anything useful, we must understand that God has a far more extensive list of “whys?” than ours. Someday, he will share his “whys?” with us. The critical point is that we must not allow our frustration……. frustration that arises from our ignorance………to drive us to doing something destructive………like rejecting God……..or being angry at God……..or taking over God’s job.

We must trust in the love of our creator.

We must put our trust in his plan……..especially when it makes no sense to us.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

God, ESV

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

God, ESV

“What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.”

Jesus, ESV

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

Solomon, ESV

I believe that the most important thing in the universe……..the most valuable thing in the universe…….is love. Ask any man or woman who is near the end of their life what was the best thing that ever happened to them. It will be a transaction involving love. Ask them about the worst thing………it will be the loss of love…….or a loved one.

Love is the most important thing there is.

Love is the most important thing there is.

We function at our very best…….when we are giving or receiving love. We are happiest…….when we are giving or receiving love. We are the most satisfied………when we are giving or receiving love. This should not be a surprise…………because the act of loving is hard wired into our hearts……….because love was put there by our creator. Love was created to be the “currency” of this world. It should be central to every transaction in our lives. It is essential to the smooth functioning of our society.

I look around me and I see a culture that is failing…….literally falling apart. There are angry people everywhere. My TV has over 400 channels. About 50 are news or newslike. About 50 are angry talking heads trying to sell some political position. One of them…..Hallmark……is largely focused on love. The rest are predominately murder and mayhem……..with very little love. 400 channels……..only one of which is love focused.

It was not this way when I was young.

What has happened?

I believe that the failure of our culture is due to a failure in the economy of love. Love, it turns out, has a direction. It can go anywhere…..but it has a primary direction. Much like a river…….there are small eddies, places where the river flows sideways……or even backwards…….but, the primary flow is downstream……..it begins in the mountains and flows to the sea.

Love has a primary direction.

Love begins with God and flows downstream from God to man and woman. You can create a little bit of love, an eddy, but most of the love in your life comes to you from somewhere else and is then passed on. Love is at its best when you receive it, enjoy it, and then pass it on. This is how God designed the economy of love.

But, in our angry society, that is not how we are handling it. The current of love passing through our culture…….the current of love passing through you and me is decreasing……..drying up.

Why?

Love began with God. The love in our world comes primarily from God. And I believe that the source of love is being cut off. Much like a river that has been dammed……..we are being damned by the loss of love.

We are being damned……by the loss of love.

The reason for the decrease in the amount of love in our world is the shift from a society with its foundation on the Bible to a society that has its foundation on the “big bang” and Darwin……..a society that relies on science rather than faith. We have run God out of our government. We have run God out of our schools. We have run God out of our media. We have run God out of our commercial economy. Businesses, like Chick-Fil-A and Hobby Lobby that make faith in God a big part of their culture, are attacked. This has occurred during my lifetime. When I was a child, the Christmas music in the stores was mostly religious. Today, it is almost exclusively secular. When I was a child, Christmas was about believing in Christ. Today, Christmas is about believing in Santa.

The loss of love in our culture is because we have cut the love off at its source……God.

This is not an accident. The coastal elites who drive our culture have done this……..and continue to do this…..on purpose.

We can either continue to go along with them or try to open the tap of love back up. The very survival of our culture hangs in the balance.

We love because he first loved us.

John, ESV

Let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

John, ESV