Foreigner (not the band)

In the past 70 years or so, American culture has included family migration in its array of characteristics. In large sections of the country, particularly in the suburban and metropolitan areas, people move around. In fact, you might say that one of the main differences between city and country folk is how many times they have moved since their birth. As one of the city folk, I myself have moved at least 18 times since my birth.

This has produced, at least in me, a feeling of rootlessness -- of being an exile without a homeland to be from. I attended three different high schools, so when my 20 year high school reunion came around a couple of years ago, I was uncertain as to which group of people I felt more closely connected. In ministry to five different churches so far, I have never really shaken the feeling of being an outsider.


Genesis 41:46-57
"Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from Pharaoh's presence and traveled throughout Egypt. 47 During the seven years of abundance the land produced plentifully. 48 Joseph collected all the food produced in those seven years of abundance in Egypt and stored it in the cities. In each city he put the food grown in the fields surrounding it. 49 Joseph stored up huge quantities of grain, like the sand of the sea; it was so much that he stopped keeping records because it was beyond measure. 50 Before the years of famine came, two sons were born to Joseph by Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On. 51 Joseph named his firstborn Manasseh and said, "It is because God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father's household." 52 The second son he named Ephraim and said, "It is because God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering." 53 The seven years of abundance in Egypt came to an end, 54 and the seven years of famine began, just as Joseph had said. There was famine in all the other lands, but in the whole land of Egypt there was food. 55 When all Egypt began to feel the famine, the people cried to Pharaoh for food. Then Pharaoh told all the Egyptians, "Go to Joseph and do what he tells you." 56 When the famine had spread over the whole country, Joseph opened the storehouses and sold grain to the Egyptians, for the famine was severe throughout Egypt. 57 And all the countries came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph, because the famine was severe in all the world."

Joseph knew what it felt like to be an exile in a foreign land. In fact, all of the main characters in Genesis are exiles: Adam and Eve are exiled from the Garden, Cain is exiled after killing his brother, Noah and his family are exiled from the world as they knew it after the Flood, Abraham is exiled from Ur to go to Canaan, Jacob is exiled from his land and family after he betrays his brother. The story of Genesis is a story of strangers in a strange land.

Joseph never shook his feeling of foreigness. Even after rising to unbelievable power and influence over a vast civilization, marrying into a family of the highest social rank, and producing children, Joseph still felt like a stranger. His children's names indicate his feelings of suffering and alienation, and when he was about to die, he directed that his bones be carried back to Canaan to be buried there. 

I have to remind myself that my own feeling of being an outsider, of being a foreigner no matter where I go, is actually a reminder that I don't belong here at all. I am an ambassador of the Kingdom of Heaven. An ambassador is someone who lives in a foreign land, all the while representing the far country he or she is from.   My job is to represent the King and His Kingdom as best I can, forming  relations with this world and its inhabitants, but all the while not belonging here.

When I die, please ship my bones Home, won't you?