To my delighted surprise, the Lord keeps making ways for lengthy and heart-level dialogue with our Muslim neighbors. Words are important, but people remember kindness more: the concrete care that gives meaning and context and allows them to come alive.

Hours of working side by side allows us to get beyond the superficial; but, while the door keeps opening for me to share my own geopolitical or theological vision, the Spirit reminds me to steer away from silver bullet solutions and return to the weightier matters of human brokenness. 

This posture of humility and questioning never seems to be viewed by them as escapism or failure to respond. Why? Because this way of the Kingdom that Jesus has described is a courageous and audacious means of dignifying people of any particular extreme. 

We participate with Jesus—pioneer and perfecter of our faith—as we recognize the joy awaiting us, disregard the shame, and endure our cross daily (Hebrews 12:2). In the context of pain and suffering and conflict, the joy of becoming a living sacrifice stands as a visible refusal to give ground to the Evil One, the one who wants us to sacrifice others by casting blame on them. 

The Kingdom of God is better than that. 

Here in Montbéliard, Jesus has blessed us with a church family actively responding to the needs of migrants and the marginalized. We don’t go and do mission; we live it daily—in a neighborhood where we, ourselves, are the minority and the outsiders. We don’t begrudge injustice or conflict, but see it as an opportunity to confront and display the grace and goodness of the Kingdom Way ... by waging peace.