Exile. It’s a word that feels foreign to many of us, especially those who have enjoyed lives of privilege and ease. Yet it’s a word that is increasingly relevant in describing the experience of being a Christian in the 21st century. In the last 25 years, 40 million people have left the church, and Gen-Z is the first ever majority unchurched generation in American history. As the river of our culture changes course, following Jesus can feel more and more like swimming against the current - it can feel like we are exiles, “outcasts in our own country,” as Paul Tabori puts it. How do we live as Christians in such politically and socially contentious times?

Thankfully, we’re not the first ones to ask that question. Throughout the scriptures and history, followers of God have consistently experienced exile; 1 Peter 2:11 even urges Christians to consider themselves “exiles” in their culture, learning to live in their respective times as people who at once love and care for the culture while also embodying the Kingdom and its values over the world’s. 

As we walk through this time together, our community will be led by the book of Esther. It’s the story of a young Jewish orphan girl living on the outskirts of her society, and her journey is remarkable: she navigates a completely male-dominated social and political environment, rises through shrewdness and wisdom to respect within that culture, and ultimately becomes a vehicle of powerful social justice and change for her people. It serves as an instructive lesson for us in our time, illustrating perfectly G.K. Chesterton’s famous maxim:

“It is the paradox of history that each generation is converted by the saint who contradicts it the most.” -GK Chesterton