Cross-cultural

And again He said, “To what shall I compare the kingdom of God?"  Luke 13:20

I have lived in another country. When I moved I had to learn the rules and the ways of life there. They did things differently than we did in my country. They drove on the other side of the road, shook hands with everyone when they entered the room, and negotiated the price of every purchase. Their 'rules' were not the same as the rules I had always known.

Before I moved to that other place, and after I first arrived in the new land, I was taught how things are done there. I had to be shown the way things worked there. And even after living there for several years I kept learning that there was much I didn't yet understand.

The new ways in my new home didn't come to me naturally, and sometimes seemed very strange. But I would remind myself that this is how they do things here. What I used to do in my old country won't work here. My old approaches are out of place, or just plain wrong.

It seems to me that much of Jesus' teaching, and nearly all of Paul's writings, are trying to help us see that when we came to believe in Christ, we left our old country and now we live in a new country -- or in Bible words, in a new Kingdom. Jesus tells his disciples and the crowds what this new Kingdom is like. He tells us that in this Kingdom not only are children welcome, only those child-like in faith are allowed. He describes that the poor inherit this Kingdom while the rich have a very, very difficult time getting in. He warns us that in this Kingdom the last is first and the least is great.

Paul reminds us that in this new Kingdom we should put away our old currency, it won't buy you anything here. He says that in our old country we used to dress a certain way. But that's not appropriate attire here.

And in all their teachings, Jesus and his followers try to help us learn the new language of this new Kingdom. It includes unfamiliar concepts like, grace, forbearance, atonement -- as well as new meanings for words we did have in our old language -- words like, love, peace, forever.

As we learn our way our new country we begin to feel like we belong. Not because we do things right or have mastered the language, but because we are home.