Loving the Tired Outsider: Developing a Theology of Culture

Cultures organically develop over time in the midst of societies in order to make the members of those societies feel more comfortable. Collective comfort is established through various cultural expressions, such as art, music, language, architecture and food. There are micro-cultures (e.g. companies, neighborhoods, and even families), and there are larger-scale cultures that emerge in geographical regions, countries, and continents.  By definition, cultures are insular--designed for the benefit of those on the inside. Leaving our parent cultures can be exciting and richly stimulating, but, over time, it becomes difficult and tiresome, because life is no longer comfortable.

Being a Christian expatriate

The longer I live as an expatriate (from the Latin for outside of the father land) in South Korea, the more prone I am to negativity and cultural fatigue and the more I need to develop a biblical theology of culture that is grounded in Jesus' commands to love my neighbor (Matthew 22:38-40). I need to be reminded that Korean culture does not exist for my comfort. Nor should it. It exists for the comfort of Koreans who are just trying to get through life. Jesus called me to Korea (and its culture) in order to love my neighbors, and it is my burden to absorb the shock of cultural conflict--not theirs. It is very frustrating that I can't do something as simple as pay my bills without help from a Korean speaker, but it is my burden to learn Korean, not theirs to learn English. Koreans have different attitudes about traffic laws, about holding doors open for strangers, about dealing with fussy children, and about inter-personal conflict. It is my responsibility to learn Korean ways of navigating through these issues. If I am unwilling to love Koreans enough to take on that burden, I should go home.

Embracing this burden sacrificially requires entering into other cultures eyes- and ears-first. We must put away our personal colonialism and become observers. Watch and listen without trying to bring our superiority to the situation. It is an incarnational approach that is found in the Gospel itself. Christianity is the only religion in which God became one of us for our salvation, rather than demanding that we become like him. (Philippians 2:5-8) Christian sojourners must be willing to take on the flesh of new cultures if they are going to show Gospel love to them.

Being a Christian host

The expatriate life has also sharpened my ideas about the treatment of immigrants to the United States, my father land--the land where I am a patriot. The concept of loving the foreigner who sojourns in the land (Hebrew, ger) is even codified in the Old Testament law (Exodus 12:47-49; Leviticus 18:26). The Hebrews were commanded to love and accommodate "foreigners" who sought to become citizens of God's land by treating them as equals. [1] I may or may not live in the United States again, but, if I do, I'm certain to encounter those brave and fatigued souls who have wandered into my culture. Perhaps they have even come to love and serve my culture. Or, perhaps, their circumstances are so dire that the resources of my culture were their only hope to survive. What do I know about them? They are tired. If they are there for more than a vacation, above all else, they are tired, and the tired need a Sabbath rest. There is no group or institution on this planet more suited to give rest to the weary than the Christian Church that is obedient to Christ. (Hebrews 4:9-11)

As an act of love, Christians ought to be looking for the cultural outsiders--the expatriates--and be a refuge for them. This principle has countless applications. It means befriending a migrant worker and helping him to get his English-language paperwork in order so he can go to work without fear. It means offering to pick up the Chinese college students to drive them to the Asian market so they can feel somewhat at home for a few minutes. (It's not really Chinese as they know it, but the longer you're away from home, the more "close enough" starts to feel really good.) [2] It means choosing to sit with the new 8th grader in the cafeteria at lunch, because she doesn't know the first thing about how people make friends in this new culture. It means moving into a poor neighborhood to befriend the desperate and broken-hearted. It means sending small tokens of their home culture to missionaries in the field who are secretly struggling to adjust. Quite simply, it means sacrificing yourself to help outsiders feel like insiders just as Christ brought us into the Holy Community of the Trinity.

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[1] The OT law differentiates between foreigners who settle among the Jews with permission (ger) and foreigners who are merely passing through or settling without permission (nekhar, zar). See this helpful article from James Hoffmeier for some explanation. Hoffmeier helpfully deals with the issue of illegal immigration, but that is not the subject of this post.
[2] In my experience, the "American" food that I ate upon arriving in Korea was really pretty bad. However, after about six months, it is now the best American food I've ever eaten. In reality, it is not about the food; it is the mental relief of stepping back into the familiar, if only for a few moments.