A few weeks ago I was on a plane, and sitting a few seats over across the aisle from me was a Haredi Jew. I had seen Haredis before, but for whatever reason, I was intrigued by the man and spent a portion of the flight watching him. He read quite a bit from a book printed in Hebrew and at one point he was even working on a paper or some other document in Hebrew on his laptop. When they served the food they had a special kosher meal for him, which did not look all that appetizing (apparently his thought too, as he barely ate any of it).

As I watched him fiddle around with the food, I suddenly found myself a little frustrated, and I wanted to grab him by the shoulders, give him a good shake and say to him, "Why don't you get it? How can you immerse yourself in the Tanakh and not see that Jesus is the Messiah? How can you not understand?" After we landed and he went off to baggage claim I stood there for a moment watching him walk away as the thought continued to roll through my mind.

This past Sunday our adult Sunday School class was studying Romans 9, a passage in which Paul struggles with a similar frustration. His frustration is much greater than mine, however, since he laments the failure of his own people to put their faith in Christ as the promised Messiah. As we looked at the passage, I was struck by an element of Paul's struggle that was entirely lacking in mine. He says, in Romans 9:1-5,

I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit— I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.

When Paul thinks of the Jews, he has "great sorrow and unceasing anguish" in his heart. How great this anguish must be if he nearly wishes himself cursed and cut off from Christ for their sake!

It is to my shame that I did not feel sorrow and anguish for the Jewish man on the plane. Yet I shouldn't just feel sorrow for this particular Jewish man, or the Jewish people in general, but all those throughout the world who don't know the Lord. That sorrow comes more naturally, perhaps, if we are talking about those close to us who aren't believers, but when we start to think about those much more distant from us, both relationally and physically, it's much easier to let our thoughts pass over them.

Not so with Paul. He devoted his life to proclaiming the gospel to the world, and while he here confesses his anguish for the Jews, his life made it evident that he felt this sorrow for all those who did not profess faith in Christ. I am not saying, of course, that we all need to be career missionaries, but only that our hearts would be filled with the same love and compassion for the people in this world.

Lord, give us the heart of Paul that we too may earnestly desire to make the gospel of Jesus Christ known to the nations.

The more I think about it, the more excited I become over the fact that when people think about Christianity, they do not think about this anymore, but instead think of the these, the new faces Christianity as they become more prevalent around the world. The future of Christianity is not altogether predictable, and as these new faces emerge to lead it well into the 21st century there is the promise of great new things happening. I am eagerly anticipating the unfolding of these new things over the next few decades.

We had another couple over the other night who have moved to Florida only four months ago, coming from Puerto Rico. We talked some about Puerto Rico, and I noticed immediately that they consistently referred to it as "their country." This struck me as odd because, of course, Puerto Rico is not a country, but rather a semi-autonomous territory of the United States, and its citizens are Americans. There has for some time, however, been political movements within Puerto Rico pushing for something more than that, some even advocating total sovereignty.

Our friends also talked with us about their perspective on Cuba. Interestingly, while so many Westerners were pleased that Castro resigned from power, and his slightly more reform-minded brother took the helm, Puerto Ricans are worried about the possibilities of an open and free Cuba. It is not that they have anything against that in principle, but they are mainly concerned about the potential economic impact that would have on them. Tourism is the biggest industry in Puerto Rico, and an open Cuba would possibly mean the disintegration of the Puerto Rican tourist industry, which would obviously be devastating to the economy there.

This is one of the reasons I love interacting with people of different cultures. It is so interesting to hear different people look at issues from different perspectives. It allows me to see the world in new ways and reconsider various issues after having new light cast on them.

I am always looking for good blogs to read, and one of the better ones I’ve been reading lately is Mark Mardell’s Euroblog, hosted by the BBC. Mardell is a reporter, and he covers a lot of issues dealing with the European Union, a topic which continues to interest me since I first learned about it in detail in a high school history course.

With the recent expansion of the Schengen Zone further eastward, one of the big concerns has been border security. Mardell has been riding along with authorities on the Slovak and Polish borders to see how this is carried out, and to get the stories from those caught trying to come into the EU. The situation is comparable to the many people attempting to get across the border into the United States (there is a tendency here in the US to refer to these people as “illegal immigrants”. From a technical standpoint, this is accurate. But I thoroughly despise this sort of categorization and dehumanization of people groups. They are first and foremost people).

Human history has always been about people trying to achieve something better---better lives, better education, better political structures, you name it. The stories of the people Mardell has been talking to are no different. They know what’s on the other side of the borders, and the things they go through to get there are remarkable.

Sitting on the other side where these people want to be, it’s easy to be supportive of some initiatives (though not all) to keep people from entering other countries and regions illegally. They take away jobs, dip into health care resources, and hinder the opportunities of those seking to immigrate legally, for example. Yet in states like California, the economy (specifically the agriculture sector) is so dependent on people that have immigrated illegally, that if they were all forced to leave, the economy would fall to pieces. There is, therefore, no simple solution.

One of the ethical questions that churches and Christians have had to deal with recently is whether or not to offer aid to people who have immigrated illegally to other countries. Brooke Levistke of the Acton Institute wrote a commentary on the issue back in July illustrating the complexities of the situation. While Christians are called to uphold the rights of humanity (Gal. 5:14), they are also to submit to the governing authorities that God has placed over them (Rom. 13:1). You can liken this situation to some degree to the Jews in Europe during the Holocaust, but one of the differences here is that people who have illegally immigrated to countries such as the US or regions such as the EU are not necessarily facing a life or death situation. What the concern of Christians needs to be here is that these matters are handled justly, and to that end should work closely with policymakers to ensure that the rule of law and the rights of man are upheld simultaneously.

The idea of change is resisted by a lot people. Since I have not been to Europe, I cannot speak as much to it there, but I know that Americans have a tendency to resist it. I do not think this is entirely negative; it is important to hold to certain beliefs and ideas that are constant and that a society, culture, and nation can be built on. However, this resistance to change in America has caused them to perpetually turn inward, and thus create a great problem of unawareness of what is outside of their own borders. The consequent tendency then is to resist anything different from what they are used to. As an example, I find a tendency among a great deal of people here to be critical of the idea that the US might one day be bilingual. It certainly is a long way off, but I fail to see why this would be a negative thing. Being aware of and learning from different cultures and traditions is only beneficial. I believe the same for Europe, whose countries have historically been fiercely nationalistic and exclusivist.

I may have wandered a bit, but my point is this: expanding borders in places like the EU and the issue of illegal immigration here in the US brings the world to our doorstep and demands a greater global consciousness. I think we do ourselves a disservice if we ignore all of this and build a hedge around ourselves for protection. Politically, I honestly do not know what to do. But as a Christian, I know that we need to fairly and justly consider the plight of people who are looking to reap the benefits that God has so graciously bestowed upon us.

May this be our prayer for the next year.

What will you do this year to bring peace to the world?