When political scientists look at the divisions in the country they cite that a large group of Americans feel overlooked, taken for granted, losing their place, economically exploited, culturally displaced. The tendency, given that environment, is to hunker down, to circle the wagons, to build a wall to protect what you are clinging to. Interestingly the Jewish exiles in Babylon had even more reason to be disaffected than contemporary Americans. They had lost everything — homes, land, culture, worship. Yet instead of hunkering down they opened up. The foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, loving the name of the LORD … and hold to my covenant, Them I will bring to my holy mountain. The Chosen People realized that they could best preserve their identity not by shutting in but by opening up. Welcoming “foreigners” to share their life and come to know God would only strengthen their own faith and reliance on the Lord. That strategy could be effective today as well.
