Читать книгу Immigrants of the Kingdom of God - Annang Asumang - Страница 4

Immigration and the Kingdom of God:Yesterday and Today

The issue of immigration has assumed a very high profile in the mass media, academia and politics in recent years. Historically, it has always been an important social, political and economic matter, relevant to governments and their citizens alike. This decade has however seen an increasingly heated and sometimes overheated debate about the benefits and disadvantages of immigration. With the world seemingly shrinking through technological advancement, massive movement of people and goods across borders should be expected. Yet, the scale of the movement and its potential consequences appear to have taken most countries by surprise.

The factors fuelling increased immigration in the present decade are not difficult to identify. The vast differences in economic growth and the gap in the social and political progress between the developed and underdeveloped countries are the major factors. These, coupled with political instability and civil wars in some parts of the world have resulted in the substantial movement of economic migrants. The sad reality is that, for many young adults in less developed countries, immigration has become a necessity.

On the other hand, recipient countries have often, and understandably, felt destabilized and perhaps even frightened about the possible consequences of immigration. In many of these countries, the concern has been the possible negative effects on the economy, demography and culture. In the last few years for example, the large influx of immigrants from Mexico and Latin American countries into North America has prompted an acrimonious argument in the US. The passionate debate and subsequent failure of the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill in the US Congress during 2006/07 only serve to illustrate the strong emotions that such issues ignite. In the end, the President’s own Republican Party refused to back his plans to grant amnesty to twelve million resident illegal immigrants.

In Europe, the situation has also been brought to the fore by the expansion of the European Union to include former communist countries. Citizens from the poorer parts of Europe are now free to travel to the richer countries for work, education and leisure. These immigrants no doubt provide cheaper sources of labor for the host countries. Their presence has however resulted in the perceived displacement of indigenous people from their employment and led to resentment.

In France, Germany, United Kingdom and other major European countries, there is an ongoing soul-searching on what should be the appropriate policies towards immigrants. Similar debates are underway in Canada, Russia, Japan and Australia. Moderately rich countries such as South Africa, South Korea, Malaysia, Argentina and Brazil are also involved in equivalent national discussions. Immigration is clearly a worldwide socio-political hot potato.

What has not been adequately discussed during these debates is the influence of immigration on religion in the host countries. Though the increase in the number of Moslem immigrants in the West has been raised in some publications, there has not been any significant analysis of the impact of immigration on the Christian faith. This issue is important because there is evidence to suggest that in the last few years, a renewed movement of God among the Churches of the industrialized countries is occurring. Increased church attendances and reversal of the fortunes of some of the Christian Churches in the Western democracies are being reported in several ecclesiastical censuses. Does immigration have anything to do with this “spiritual renewal”?

The English Church Census, conducted by the independent Christian Research Organization in 2005, for example, showed that the decades of dwindling church membership and growth in the United Kingdom has been stemmed. Today, some of the churches in London are being filled to capacity with vibrant young people who are excited about their faith in the Lord Jesus. This was not the case ten years ago when the same churches were lethargic, half-empty and facing extinction. Similarly, in some of the major cities of the UK, a spiritual renewal appears to be under way. Several churches in the provinces have been enlivened with people worshipping Christ with confidence and pride.

One of the reasons for this apparent transformation is immigration. A recent survey has shown for example, that whereas people of African and Caribbean origins make up two percent of the UK’s population, they account for more than two-thirds of Sunday churchgoers in London. Similarly, the largest independent church in UK today, which sees twelve thousand people attending a church service each Sunday, was planted and is pastored by a Nigerian immigrant. The Hillsong Church, one other fast growing church in London that attracts a total of more than ten thousand attendances at its services, was started by Australian immigrants.

Since the recent immigration of many Polish, Latvian and Croatian citizens to other regions of the continent, the Roman Catholic Church in Europe is also experiencing revitalization. Several congregations of the London dioceses of the Roman Catholic Church now require a number of sessions of Sunday services to cater for the increasing numbers of immigrants from Europe and South America. The Church of England is equally experiencing a fresh awakening in some of its congregations. It is significant that despite its depressing state, two senior clergymen of that denomination who are making some impact and seeking to restore a truly prophetic voice to the Anglican Church are Archbishop John Sentamu of York and Bishop Nazir-Ali of Rochester. Both are immigrants.

Similar trends seem to be occurring in other countries of the West. For example, in Kiev, the capital of erstwhile communist Ukraine, twenty five thousand vibrant worshippers of the Embassy of God Church, led by Pastor Sunday Adelaja, a Nigerian immigrant, fill a Sports Hall each Sunday to hear the gospel of Christ. This church’s influence has extended far into the very corridors of political power in that fledging democracy. In Amsterdam, Rev. Stanley Hofwijks, an immigrant from Suriname, pastors the eighteen hundred member Maranatha Ministries whose services are crammed with energetic worshippers hungry to meet the Spirit of God at work among His people.

In largely Catholic France and Germany, the trends are not as dramatic. The secularization of these dominant European powers remains entrenched. Yet, even here, there are perceptible signs of change. For instance, over the last three decades, there has been a fourfold increase in the number of Evangelical Churches in France. Fifty percent of this increase is due to immigrants. Recent reports of increased church attendances in the Catholic Churches of France have also been attributed in part to immigrants from Europe, Africa and South America. The same is also true of Germany. The simple fact is the future of Christianity in several European countries is increasingly becoming dependent on immigrants.

It must be admitted that the presence of immigrants alone does not explain the transformation of fortunes of western churches. Other factors such as the general sense of spiritual emptiness, popularization of charismatic forms of worship and renewed interest among the population in the message of the Bible has contributed to the trend. Nevertheless, it is noteworthy that a significant proportion of the people who appear to respond most to these awakenings are immigrants.

The situation in the US is also interesting. Over the last thirty years, it has been reported that church attendance in the US has remained static at thirty to forty percent of the population. On the surface, this “stagnation” may appear different from what is happening elsewhere in the world. However, when examined in detail, it emerges that there is a massive decline in attendance in some of the churches in the country that is being offset by an equally substantial increase in other congregations and denominations.

For example, within the traditional mainline denominations who had been suffering decline in membership, such as the Presbyterian and United Methodist Churches, the fastest growing congregations are among Korean immigrants. During the last twenty years, three thousand, five hundred new Korean immigrant Presbyterian and Methodist congregations have been established in the US.

Equally, total attendance at Roman Catholic Church services in America has remained steady and perhaps growing, due to the increased number of immigrants from the Latin American countries. The fastest growing churches in the US are the independent churches, many of which have significant proportion of new immigrants. Immigration is consistently playing a pivotal role in the trend of worldwide regeneration of Christian congregations. This effect of immigration on religion however, is not a new phenomenon.

Immigration in the Bible

Immigration has always had this transforming effect on societies since the dawn of history. Throughout biblical times, God has used immigration and immigrants in significant ways to spread His kingdom and transform societies. Many of these change agents were real immigrants who had been displaced from one region and culture to another. Others were immigrants in the figurative sense. For, it is evident that God’s Kingdom cannot be spread except by people who know in their inner beings what it means to be in the world but not be part of it. God requires all those who want to be light in this dark world and salt in a tasteless and decaying environment to learn how to live as immigrants, aliens and ambassadors for Christ.

The influence of immigration on the recent renewal of western churches is therefore not a new phenomenon. Indeed, the rapid growth of the early Church in the first and second centuries was largely due to the immigration of Jews throughout the Roman Empire. According to John Elliot, distinguished Professor Emeritus of Theology in University of San Francisco, “the attraction of educational opportunities (such as the university at Tarsus) and health spas (at the renowned Asclespian spring shrines) and athletic and dramatic festivals, religious pilgrimages, mass movements of deported groups, the banishment of individuals, and the peregrinations of assorted itinerant philosophers and missionaries” ensured a massive flow of migrant workers and families throughout the empire1. Jewish immigrant settlements in Egypt, Antioch, Italy, Ephesus, and the whole of Asia Minor became the hotbed of Christian activity from which the Word of God spread to the “uttermost parts of the world”.

One typical illustration of the influence of immigrants in early Christianity is found in the commissioning of Paul and Barnabas for the Gentile mission at the Church of Antioch in Acts 13. Luke names several prophets and teachers in this congregation—Barnabas, Simeon (nicknamed Niger), Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen and Saul. It is not accidental that each one of these spiritual leaders was an immigrant from a different country. Barnabas was a Jew who was born in Cyprus where he owned a land (Acts 4:36–37). Simeon’s nickname, Niger, suggests that he was a black man, Lucius came from Cyrene in North Africa, and Manaen was an educated aristocrat from Rome. These immigrants in Antioch, together of course with Paul, a Jew who grew up as an immigrant in Tarsus, formed the core ministry of the thriving church in Antioch. And it was from here that a deliberate effort was made, led by the Spirit of God, to evangelize the world.

This pattern was repeated in other parts of the Roman Empire. Immigrants, especially Jewish immigrants, were at the center of the spread of the Christian religion from its inception. Having experienced the power of God on the day of Pentecost, the Jewish immigrants on pilgrimage to Jerusalem (Acts 2:9–11) dispersed to all the regions of the empire to spread the gospel. These people knew what exactly it meant to be living in the Roman Empire and yet to belong to another domain which is that of the Kingdom of Christ. God was therefore glad to use them for His programme of transforming His world.

According to Prof Elliot again, Jewish immigrants were sometimes “excluded from voting and landholding privileges as well as from the chief civic offices and honors, they enjoyed only limited legal protection while . . . they still shared full responsibilities with the citizenry for all financial burdens, such as tributes, taxes, and production quotas”2. For those of them who became Christians, such an experience prepared them to be Christ’s ambassadors. They knew on a daily basis that though they lived in the Roman Empire, they were treated and regarded as people who were different.

When the earliest Christians described discipleship to the Lord Jesus with terms that depicted them as aliens, foreigners, sojourners and strangers in the world, they had practically experienced life as foreigners already. It was not at all difficult for them to understand Paul’s statement that their “citizenship is in heaven” (Phil 3:20). In their daily lives, they experienced life as if they were citizens of another domain, as foreigners and immigrants. An interesting quote from an anonymous letter, which was written in the second or third century AD, summarizes how the earliest believers understood their identity:

“For Christians cannot be distinguished from the rest of the human race by country or language or customs. They do not live in cities of their own; they do not use a peculiar form of speech; they do not follow an eccentric manner of life . . . Yet, although they live in Greek and barbarian cities alike, as each man’s lot has been cast, and follow the customs of the country in clothing and food and other matters of daily living, at the same time they give proof of the remarkable and admittedly extraordinary constitution of their own commonwealth. They live in their own countries, but only as aliens. They have a share in everything as citizens, and endure everything as foreigners.3

The Christian condition is therefore an immigrant condition, both in real terms, and metaphorically. If only Christians lived by this mindset, they will make a remarkable difference to the communities in which God has placed them. If, on the other hand, they choose not to bind their hearts and minds to the government of God but rather live by earthly standards, their societies will be stumbling. Our investigation of the phenomenon of immigration in the Bible is therefore a very crucial project. For, through our study, we shall come to insightful answers on how believers must live in this world as Christ’s ambassadors.

In this book we wish to focus on immigration in the Bible. What does the Bible actually say about immigration? What role did immigrants play in the spread of God’s Kingdom? What conclusions can we draw from the Bible to help us answer the questions that nations, Churches and individuals are facing today with regard to immigration? How should an immigrant interpret his experiences?

There are several different ways that one may choose to investigate this subject. The method of approach we have chosen is to examine the lives of the giants of the Bible. On doing so, even in a cursory manner, we are immediately confronted with the undeniable reality that most, if not all the spiritual giants of the Bible, were immigrants, and aliens in their environment. Some, like Abraham, Ruth, Esther or Daniel were complete strangers where they were. Others like Moses, David or Paul had at some stage of their lives been strangers and immigrants, prepared and trained by God before being re–inserted into their societies. It is evident that they had to be different to be used by God. We shall discover that one important aspect of their “differentness” was their immigration status.

Abraham was called by God to leave his country, his secure business and family, and to follow God’s leadership as an immigrant and ambassador of God’s blessings. Joseph on the other hand, through a series of “accidents”, found himself living as a migrant worker, a house slave in particular, in a foreign land. He must have said to himself on thousands of occasions; “it was not [them] who sent me here, but God” (Gen 45:8). In learning to interpret his experiences from God’s perspective, Joseph turned calamity for himself, his master, his host country and his own people into success and glory.

The most profound and detailed story of immigration in the Bible is that of the people of Israel. While they suffered under the cruel tyranny of the Egyptians, God heard their cry for deliverance and in His own time, delivered them. Their forty years of wilderness travel was however, a mixture of the positive and the negative. There, they experienced both the power and presence of God to prepare them as His people. During the same time they experienced periods of intense testing of their faith. All immigrants, real or metaphorical, share this experience of testing and preparation with the people of Israel in the wilderness.

The Old Testament also describes the exploits of migrant women such as Sarah, Rahab, Ruth and Esther, to name but a few. These migrant women brought tremendous blessings to generations after them through their persistence and faithfulness. Ruth was the typical Gentile, who rejected her roots in order to follow Jehovah and share the heritage of God’s people. Esther may have thought she was in an impossible situation in exile. That is, until God’s time came, when she realized that she had been placed where she was at that particular time for a specific purpose in keeping with Jehovah’s kingdom.

Not all immigrants in the Bible were successful in their mission. Some like Samson and Lot lost their focus, became self indulgent, and ceased to be light in the world of darkness. Samson in particular was a wasted opportunity. He lacked self–restraint and discipline. He was a gambler who enjoyed the thrills of near escapes. Samson is a good example of how to fail as an immigrant.

Few people appreciate that the Bible describes Jesus as a Foreigner and an Alien in this world. In Him, God became an immigrant in the world He had created, and through Him, reconciled humanity to Himself. As a baby, Jesus became a refugee and an asylum seeker in Egypt, fleeing from the swords of Herod’s soldiers. And in His ministry, he was homeless, living like a fox that has no hole to sleep in, a Son of man with nowhere to lay His head. Yet, the Lord Jesus knew His mission as God’s Agent, sent to draw people and reconcile them to His Father.

Not only Jesus, but also Paul, Stephen, Barnabas, Apollos, John, Peter—the major “movers and shakers” of the New Testament, were at one time or the other immigrants and foreigners. Stephen’s development as a Hellenistic Jew in the Diaspora, Philip’s Greek background, Barnabas’ development in Cyprus, Paul’s birth and training in Tarsus and Apollos’ schooling as a Jew in Egypt prepared them to become the mighty men of God. It was through the ministry of these immigrants that the whole world was turned upside down for Christ. This fact certainly has very crucial lessons to contribute to the debate on immigration and religion.

In the following chapters, we shall examine the lives of some of these immigrants of the Bible more closely. This will help us to form a view on how to respond to the various issues raised by the present international debate on immigration.

We shall also discover how God uses the life of the immigrant as a metaphor of Christian discipleship. The immigrant’s displacement, rootlessness, marginalization, double personality, and liminality resonate very well with the nature of discipleship to the Lord Jesus Christ. All believers are called to be aliens of the Kingdom of God and ambassadors of Christ the King. Like the immigrants of the Bible, believers are also called to follow Christ and be His ministers of grace so that through them His promised Kingdom will come.

Discussion Questions

1. The word “discipleship” means different things to different believers. Generally however, it describes how Christians understand and define themselves—it is the believer’s understanding of his or her identity. Can you list and explain some of the various ways that the New Testament depicts the identity of a Christian?

2. It could be argued that by defining immigration as a parable or metaphor of Christian discipleship, one is legitimizing the phenomenon of immigration. What do you think about this argument?

3. What do you think are some of the reasons why some immigrants in developed countries are very religious?

1. John H Elliot, A Home for the Homeless: A Sociological Exegesis of 1 Peter: Its Situation and Strategy Philadelphia, Fortress 1981:67.

2. John Elliot, 1 Peter: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, New York, Doubleday, 2000:94.

3. The Letter to Diognetus: Quoted from Cyril Richardson, ed., Early Christian Fathers, Philadelphia, Westminster Press 1953: 217–18.