Singing in a Strange Land

by Mathew Block

About six centuries before the birth of Christ, Jerusalem was conquered by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. The subsequent destruction of the Kingdom of Judah saw the palace sacked, the temple plundered, and 10,000 people taken prisoner to Babylon, including the young king Jehoiachin. “None remained,” we read, “except the poorest people of the land” (see 2 Kings 24:8-17).

What followed is a period known as the Babylonian Captivity, six decades in which the Jewish people were prevented from returning home to Jerusalem. The promised land once given to their ancestors was lost. They were left strangers and exiles in a foreign land.

“By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion,” writes the Psalmist. And in the midst of their sorrow, their captors pressed them, cajoled them to “sing us one of the songs of Zion.” But how could they sing songs of joy in Babylon? “How shall we sing the LORD’s song in a strange land?” (Psalm 137:1,3-4 KJV).

How shall we sing the LORD’s song in a strange land? For many Christians today, Canada seems nothing if not a “strange land”— one becoming stranger all the time. As society rapidly secularizes, it increasingly feels like we are exiles within our own country. How then should the Church respond?

This issue of The Canadian Lutheran highlights some of the challenges we face in this changing country. Rev. Michael Schutz updates us on the current state of religion in Canada on page six. Dr. Leah Koetting Block, meanwhile, discusses current legislation on physician assisted suicide and euthanasia on page nine. And I, reflecting on a country of shrinking congregations, ask what help—and what hindrance—modern technology can be to the Church in times such as these (page twelve).

Our country has become indeed a strange land for Christians. But while the circumstances of our exile might be new, Christians being sidelined to the outskirts of society is not. No matter what nation we might find ourselves in, no matter what people we might find ourselves among, we will always be “sojourners and exiles” in the land (1 Peter 2:11). For Christians are not, in the end, of this world, just as Christ is not of this world (John 17:14). Instead, we have been given a new citizenship which is in heaven (Philippians 3:20).

St. Peter tells us: “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). No wonder we feel out of place in this world; God has made us citizens of another.

That change in citizenship is precisely what gives us hope to “sing in a strange land.” For we know that once we were exiled not merely from society, but from God Himself. We were slaves to sin, separated from the God who created us. But Christ broke into our darkness, light blazing, to rescue us. He illumined the way— for He is the Way—back home. Through Christ, God “has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13-14).

In this world, we still dwell in darkness—but we are citizens of the domain of darkness no longer. We belong to the Kingdom of the Son. This world is not our home, but we are promised a home in the world to come.

So let us raise our song again in this strange land. Let us sing forever of the God who opens the doors of His Kingdom to the lost. Let us sing of Christ, the crucified and risen One, and pray that His light would shine through our song into the lives of those still captive to the domain of darkness.

Embracing our heavenly citizenship will make us appear alien to the world around us. It may lead wider society to shun us and put us “outside the walls,” as it were. But the author of Hebrews encourages us to remember that our Lord “also suffered outside the gate.” “Therefore,” he says, “let us go to Him outside the camp and bear the reproach He endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. Through Him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge His name” (Hebrews 13:14-15).

Amen. May the people of God sing His song in every place and in every time as we await the revelation of the world to come—a restored world, a redeemed world, a world in which our long exile will at last be ended.

Thy Kingdom come, O Lord. Amen.

Mathew Block is editor of The Canadian Lutheran and the Communications Manager of the International Lutheran Council (ILC).