Sojourner in your gates

For the past couple of days communion of the saints has grabbed me. Nothing with any ferocity but it's building slowly. Yet what struck me more today was sojourner in your gates. I simply like the line. There is a part of me that is geeky enough to admit that I would like to use that language in our day to day living. (I was going to write "modern world" but then had to debate if I should call it "post modern world" to be congruent with my education. Is it just me or do we get a little uptight with definitions? Instead of being a cynic we're now "postmodern deconstructionists". Any society that seeks to move from less syllables to more is bound to be in trouble. Pretty soon we might start defining "love" as "coexistent forward attraction syndrome")

"So what do you do Scott?"
"I sojourn"
"That's interesting , does that mean that that your the type of guy..."
"That likes to roam around? Yes"

I think part of the reason this struck me today is that I will have "sojourners" at my house this weekend. There will be a couple from Alabama who will simply take up residence with us. Do we know that much about them? No. And yet they are coming and we've been running around to clean up the house for them.

Strangers are always in our midst. The commandment context is about making sure to provide a place of rest not only for ones family but even for those strangers in our midst.

In the world I have grown up in there is not a whole lot of regard about making a place of rest for strangers. I'm sure it similar in the past. There is risk in letting in the stranger. They may harm us. They may rob us. They may impose on us. They may threaten our job and job security. They may not speak our language. They do different things. The risk of letting the sojourner among us is that we'll be changed. Our God calls us to recognize the other. As He makes room for us we are to make room for the other.

They come. We'll be changed. I just hope they don't make a mess of the bathroom.