City of Refuge

The Bible speaks of places that were to be Cities of Refuge in the nation of Israel.  In these cities, the most deplorable people were welcome.  These people were offered assylum in these cities that would welcome them in, allowing them to take part in life just as they were - baggage and all. Cities of Refuge were not seen as places of protection, but instead places where atonement could be fostered. Rabbis believed that people who murdered were not just murders but instead people with stories.  They had stories that led them down the path of death and thus these cities would offer grace and mercy. They would offer opportunity for acceptance, healing and restoration for all.

What if the people of God built cities of refuge, instead of walls of exclusion? What if the people of God embraced every single person, no matter what they have done?

During my time in Portland this past week, I fell in love with her. I could not help but see Portland as a modern-day city of refuge of sorts. People from all over the world, from outcasts for their "weirdness" to those who are young urban creatives, have assembled within her jagged walls seeking assylum, seeking refuge. Maya Angleou said, "The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned." There's something deep within us all longing to be loved. There's a force within our souls passionately pursuing belonging-ness.  An Eternal Master Creative created humanity for community. We were created for one anotherness. Portland is a city that, at least on the surface, embraces the weird, the broken, the sinner, the creative, the open. The question is does it offer a place of atonement, a place of grace.  I can't say. She's not my home.  But that leads me to questions about myself and about my church.   

The biblical cities of refuge were to be operated and ran by the priestly class. The priests of the nation were called to care for all who would enter.  These priestly folks would extend grace and mercy to all who were unwanted and even to those who the world sought to kill.  As followers of Christ, we are a priesthood of believers. We are all to be ministers of the Gospel, caring for the poor, caring for all we meet. Am I creating a city of refuge? Am I offering assylum within my heart and life to those who are most in need of it? Is the Church a city of refuge for the broken, for those who do not look like us, or smell like us? Are we creating safe spaces for all no matter the labels we could assign to them?  Is the Church fostering an environment of protection and connection? Or are we creating cities with ten-mile high walls of exclusion, asking people to jump higher? Sadly, I do not have an answer that I am comfortable with.  

The Church has created spaces in which people are not free to be themselves in awe of an Eternal Master Creative. And so the world creates spaces like Portland where people have a freedom in being themselves, weird, strange, young urban creative,..anything. In Portland, you dress how you want to dress, you speak how you want to speak, you sing in the key that you want to sing and all who wander are not lost. Gospel transfiguration starts with embracing our humanity. The Gospel is about becoming uniquely human by a reconnecting to our Eternal Master Creative and lively freely and boldly in his creativity.

Church, we have missed something. We stand at a crossroads with our world and we must make a choice. Will we be a city on a hill? A city of refuge? A city of grace and mercy? A city of love and connection? Or will we remain behind our walls of exclusion, holding tightly to our own salvation?