What is a Person?
WHERE TO BEGIN
As protestors fill the streets of America's cities, Chicago in particular, we're all but forced to navigate fresh emotions, political affiliations, and even our personal stories. Perhaps you feel angry. Maybe your anger is sparked by what you deem to be foolish opposition to "the rule of law." Or maybe you're angry because, from your perspective, the government is abusing its power to force its way into homes and workplaces, and breaking up families without due process. Perhaps you feel fear. Maybe you fear what could happen to family and friends. Perhaps you feel grief over the violence and seemingly insurmountable social divisions.
These thoughts and feelings are likely rooted in our heritage. The great majority of us immigrated to this country (or our recent ancestors did); therefore, we don't have to look very hard to find a personal connection to the immigrant journey. After all, America, unlike many nations, is "the embodiment of universal ideals." The founders of our nation cast it as the manifestation of a dream, not the result of boundaries or even a particular kind of person or people. The founding documents of our democratic republic enshrine this truism: all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights. From our inception, the United States of America has been a home for human beings, not just "Americans."
America is not a Christian nation (at least not in the strict sense of the term). However, the underlying belief, enacted imperfectly at many times, in the richness of human equality and the unshakable value of every person, is a virtue born out of a Christian vision of the world. So, perhaps, amidst this most recent increase of ICE activity and the growing number of demonstrations in the Loop, that's a good place for us as Christians to begin. Though we have emotions, affiliations, and stories of our own, when considering what to think or how to pray and act, we'd do well to begin with our shared humanity. In other words, we shouldn't ask, what is a country? But what is a person? As Dr. M. Daniel Carroll R. explains in his book, Christians at the Border, "The bottom line is that [immigration] concerns humans: their worth, destiny, rights, and responsibilities." Carroll encourages us not to argue immigration in abstraction. Immigrants of every stripe are people, not policies.
DEFINING HUMANITY
So, according to the Bible, what is a person?
Well, the Scriptures begin with the most foundational answer: a person is a divine image bearer. The Trinity speaks in concert, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" (Genesis 1:26). Human beings are the crown of creation. You and I, along with our friends and neighbors, from every tribe, tongue, and nation are made to reflect and represent God (see Genesis 1:26-27 and Revelation 7:9). Whether we believe in the God of the Bible or not, there's something about our nature and character that inherently reflect his. And for those who do follow God, we nurture this image by embodying the way of Jesus. By his grace, we're "being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another" (2 Corinthians 3:18).
The Bible also teaches us that a person is a whole being with multiple parts. The Ancient Hebrews were taught every day that, "The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might" (Deuteronomy 6:4-5). Notice, because of the oneness of God, our whole self is meant to be unified and committed to him––heart, soul, and body (Jesus would later include "mind" in Matthew 22:37). Because of sin, we experience many "splits" between these multiple parts of ourselves. But through the work of Christ, humans can and are being made whole again. Psychologist Dan Allender believes that the work of the gospel and, therefore, the work of every Christian is to "restore the shattered shards of the self" back into a coherent whole.
Interwoven within both the image-bearing and holistic nature of humanity, a person is made for love. “The heart, soul, mind, and strength are not separate capacities. They are one integrated whole, designed for love,” notes Andy Crouch. This is perhaps the most important yet most overlooked aspect of our humanity. To be a person means we have the capacity (no, the desire, the need!) to give and receive love. First, God loves people (see 1 John 4:19). Then, people are meant to respond to his anticipatory affection by loving God and loving each other in return (see 1 John 4:11). That's why, when humanity crossed the borders of God's loving fellowship in the Garden, he "shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). You see, we're not only immigrants to this country, but we're also spiritual sojourners whom Jesus welcomes home through love.
Carroll connects the dots for us, for moments just like this:
“What all Christians should appreciate is that the more they can grasp about migration and the experiences of immigrants, the more they will understand their faith—that is, the truths of such convictions as the reality of having another (heavenly) citizenship and the rejection that can come from being different, as well as the vulnerability that surfaces with needing to be dependent on God. Sadly, it is not uncommon for Christians to not feel like 'strangers in a strange land'; their place of residence has lost its strangeness, and now they join others in wanting to keep strangers out.”
WHAT THIS LOOKS LIKE
What does all of this mean for us as a church family in Chicago amidst a harrowing yet all-too-familiar cultural moment? Well, at the very least, I think it means we "give thought" and "train yourself for godliness" (Romans 12:17 and 1 Timothy 4:7-8). When we're thinking about liking or sharing a post, when considering joining the protest this weekend in Daley Plaza or preparing to decry those who do, when silently reflecting on what's happening or talking with our neighbors ... as Christians, these are the nonnegotiable truths that must shape us—heart, sould, mind, and body.
Until we have opened God's Word and allowed his love and wisdom to transform our whole being and thought about how he has designed and defined our shared humanity, we must neither speak nor act. Otherwise, we will fall prey to the emotionalism of modern politics, the superiority complex often associated with activism, and the inflammatory nature of social media (see James 1).
As we're learning in Proverbs, wisdom doesn't always look the same. The way you may think and respond in the coming days will look different than some of your brothers or sisters. And that's okay. But what unifies and shapes us as children of the Heavenly Father, though, is the same. It's his love. Much like our country, the kingdom of God isn't about religious boundaries or a particular kind of person. The kingdom of heaven is a community of human beings who, perhaps, only have one thing in common––we were lost and now we're found.
