"But as it is, my kingdom is not from here."
The incarnational state is a refugee state. To overcome the
war torn reality of the dynamic between heaven and hell the King of Heaven
became a refugee on earth. An act of God fleeing the discord of the cosmic
reality to be in our midst as one of us... by such affecting transformation to
the very core realities of physics and metaphysics back towards mutual harmony.
This refugee status, this status of fleeing from alleged
home to alleged home, plagued Jesus from before he was born. First the
government forced Mary and Joseph to leave their home and travel eighty miles
to Joseph's town of origin for processing. Then, forewarned by the government's
plan to orchestrate a mass murder, they flee to Egypt. Only, eventually after
years away, able to return to Nazareth and strive to restart a life put so long
on hold.
Throughout his ministry he wandered. Rejected from his home
town, hounded by crowds that wanted his presence... but in almost every town
met by authorities who sought to trouble him, undermine him, and create a space
of unwelcome for him. Even in Capernaum, the closest thing he had to a safe
haven during his ministry, was a place where his housing security depended on
the kindness of his friend Peter's family.
And then we have today's reading from the last day of Jesus'
life. Where he names himself of a kingdom not of here... where he names himself
a refugee in his very nature. That all of what his incarnated life has been
that of a refugee. The ultimate goal of Christians is to live as refugees in this
world, we are individuals required to live here while our kingdom is not from
here. Just as christ incarnation here held the purpose of affecting
transformation of the very core reality of physics and metaphysics towards
mutual harmony, so are our lives in this foreign land meant to be the same.
Mary and Joseph took the risks of taking in this refugee and
the complications that involved. The homelessness, the lack of personal safety,
the public ridicule during Christ's ministry, and eventually Mary watched as
her son was killed by the governor that would not accept a refugee to live for
the risk his life posed to a stable social order.
There is risk taking in refugees. When one harbors an
individual others wish to see dead one risks sharing that fate... one risks
becoming a victim with the rest. To reject a refugee from another kingdom, to
ensure a bit more safety by such rejection, by allowing the refugee to suffer
and to die... we might indeed be able to maintain our status quo and not have
the worries and needs of others impressed upon us. This plan to reject a
refugee worked for a governor long ago to reach the goal of maintaining the
status quo and at least for a little while a concept of public safety
remained... this cannot be the plan of the follower of Christ.
As Christians we are refugees in this world and are called,
consistently, to take up risks to our lives and status quo for the sake of
those fleeing the machinations of hell, war, persecution, suffering, and death.
Our duty is to shelter the refugees of this world in order to know fully our
own status as cosmic refugees with Christ our King. Without this solidarity,
without taking up this mutual risk, we fail fully in our test for citizenship
in Christ's Kingdom. The only way to know ourselves as Christians is to know
ourselves as refugees and the only way to know of Christ Kingdom is to know
that Christ is the Refugee King.
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