Today I read also after visiting on Friday with Mike Patterson who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer this week. My brother Eric Lee at www.ericisrad.com profoundly blogged on his visit with Mike earlier this week. It is apparent that we are going to learn to die as Christians with Mike, that in suffering with him, we will suffer with Christ, and thus await for resurrection with Him. I have ordered Cardinal Bernardin's book "The Gift of Peace", his meditations as he died of terminal pancreatic cancer, as well as read some interesting reflections on suffering in modernity by Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular. I hope to share these as I work through them, and in the gift that is Mike as he faces his mortality, and thus, his immortality in Christ. When I told Mike that we will be with him in his sufferings, and though we will miss him, accept him in his mortality as a gift. His response was "I know. I feel guilty. I am going home, and you all will be left here grieving."

What does all this have to do with the Fathers? First, St. Ignatius wrote on his way to his martyrdom in Rome -- and his deep embracement on his body, his suffering, Christ's suffering, that transposes this suffering into hope of the resurrection and refusal to conform to political allegiance (faith) in the emperor as Lord, and thus refusal to submit to the authority of the Roman empire. This was a stance that he urged upon all those around him. Living in unity with the bishop that he exhorts is a means to not be assimliated into the morality, the practices of Rome.

But what struck me most was the simple addressees of the letters throughout the Fathers. The English translations don't really get at the matter. But it became almost stereotypical in the Fathers to write to the congregations as "aliens" (paroikousa) within their local political setting. Thus, Polycarp wrote to "the church (ekklesia) of God, the aliens of the Philippians."

The parallel between the phrases to describe the congregations is fascinating. Ekklesia is a term for the voting members of a city, the members of the juridical assembly; paroikousa, however, were disenfranchised, "foreigners", persons of the city without rights, vulnerable to the decisions and power of those whose commitments were to the well-ordered continuation and improvement of the political status quo. The church is the real assembly of God, a different polity/assembly from the society around them, with different allegiances from those of the society around them. From God's perspective they are the ekklesia; this makes them aliens within the society where they stay. Augustine's two cities is nothing more than continuing this description after the emperor becomes "Christian".

Such a description of congregations reminds us that "this world is not our home". We are pilgrims, sojourners here, on our trek from God to God. A "church building" is a pilgrimage way station, a monastery, whether a congregation knows it or not. Like Mike reminds us, we live in Christ to die well in hope of the resurrection, the judgement of Christ, and the renewal of creation. This is not to deny suffering, or disembody ourselves to a "spiritual realm" separate from creation. What it does is to free us from the evaluations, practices, and allegiances to the order of the society around us to live as the ekklesia, true citizens of God within God's creation. In a society which lives in fear and denial of death that would isolate and thus, dehumanize someone like Mike, we can accept Mike in his sufferings as a gift, to unite us with the sufferings of Christ.

As aliens, our task is to witness to God's kingdom here, to show that the world is the world by showing the true nature of creation as witnessing to the glory of God. We are not here for the continuation of the society around us, but to engage in the works of mercy that witness to God's kingdom in Jesus. As "aliens", we do not seek power, to take control of the local "ekklesias" in order to bring in God's kingdom by policy. Indeed, like "aliens" we have to devise tactics to survive, to not be assimilated into the allegiances of the powerful around us, even for the what seems to be the good.

We can't overlap the witness of congregations to the liberal political and capitalistic order around us, nor do we let its rejection define us. We have to make our way as witnesses to God's kingdom, faithful to Christ. We must learn to improvise along the way, much like a jazz musician does in continuing the beauty of the musical themes, in living our devotion to Christ through the works of mercy as we form a way-station amidst our journey.

We are "the church of God, aliens of San Diego". As I walked from our worship today, I was reminded of this. Our friend, David Harrison, who has spent much of his life recently, living without consistent shelter, spoke to me how he used his excess food-stamps, $50 worth, to buy the food to feed the hungry for Bread of Life. Dave could have used these funds for luxury food items (or more beer!). Instead he shared his goods as part of the congregation to engage in the work of mercy of feeding the hungry. And he was very thankful that he had the opportunity to so share as part of us.

Aliens indeed.